TRACWatch
Weekly Analyst Review
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT: Our seven-day reporting period for this newsletter began with the Active Shooter at Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority (VTA) Light Rail Train Storage & Control Center Facility in San Jose, California on 26 May. Although early reports characterized the incident as a workplace grievance, we immediately found it to be reminiscent of an attack on a FedEx Ground Transportation Facility in Indianapolis on 15 April. That incident was also perfectly timed to create maximum casualty count. The FedEx Ground Transportation Facility shooting appears to have also been a disgruntled former employee, and it demonstrates the willingness to go to extreme violence in a workplace in the United States. It should be noted that the extreme far right and the extreme far left have increasingly been calling for attacks on infrastructure, especially on railways. Just three days before today's incident, a popular Telegram channel offered instructional advice on how easy attacking rail targets is. With that being said, the extreme far left on Telegram regularly pass out instructional advice on attacking trains and train facilities. News of the shooting spread like wildfire around extreme far right channels, most hoping that the shooter would be a white person. The VTA suspect 57 year-old Sam Cassidy had been taken into secondary inspection by United States Customs and Border Protection when he returned from a trip to the Philippines in 2016. Officers found a black book filled with notes about his hatred towards the VTA and various other books about terrorism, fear, and manifestos.
Screenshots above: scenes from a video collected by TRAC
TRAC INCIDENT REPORT: New Black Panther Party (NBPP) Organizes "Second Amendment March for Reparations"; Speakers Heard Shouting "Kill Everything White in Sight", Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
On 29 May, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Black activists attended a rally before participating in an armed march through downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. This event, initially organized by the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (NBPP), was promoted as a "Second Amendment March for Reparations." At the rally prior to the march a speaker shouted, "Black people will kill everything white in sight," because of "all what you've done to us, all of what you're done in the 6,000 year span and killing 600 million of us and 408 years in particular." Another speaker stated, "We're pushing death to white supremacy, death to capitalism, death to imperialism, and death to fascism. We're pushing an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a head for a head, and a life for a life..." The event was organized by members from the Huey P Newton Gun Club (HPNGC), the Elmer Geronimo Pratt Gun Club (EGPGC), the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (NBPP), the Fred Hampton Gun Club (FHGC), the New Black Liberation Militia (NBLM), and the Panther Special Operations Command (PANSOC). Three weeks ago, a permit for the rally expected to be considered by 19 May was delayed due to a ransomware attack on the city of Tulsa. Nick Bezzel, a member of the Elmer Geronimo Pratt Gun Club, threatened that if the permit was not approved by 21 May the organization would be pursuing the issue in court. He added that the rally would occur, with or without a permit from the city. It is unclear at this time whether a permit was acquired before the march on 29 May.
TRAC Incident Report: Anonymous Leftists Claim Arson on Fiber Optic Network and Electric Substation that Caused Widespread Power Outages East of Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Anonymous anti-capitalist leftists claimed responsibility for an arson that knocked out 150 transformer stations, causing 20,000 citizens to lose power until the following day. Though vague about their method of setting the fire, the post asserts that the nearby defense company Rhode & Schwarz that manufactures telecommunications technology for both civilian and military clients was the intended target of the subsequent power outage. The post also cites the firm's involvement in the arms export industry as a justification for the act, though the company does not export arms but rather electronics and other technologies. 
Be that as it may, authorities are investigating the incident as 50 medium voltage cables that carry electricity to distribution boxes were found burnt in a digging pit near a city-run electric substation in east Munich. The claim of credit below mentions that Munich city managers responsible for clearing a tract of forest and running a coal plant also need to be resisted with further attacks on infrastructure; 'no solution within the capitalist system.' The anonymous suspects posted a statement of responsibility on the German subsection of Indymedia.org on 23 May, two days after the arson.
Images (Above): Fire and debris from the attack (Bottom) Claim of credit.
Images: (Above) Officers and paramedics at the scene. (Below) An al-Qaeda affiliated channel hailed the attack on Telegram
TRAC INCIDENT REPORT: Religiously Motivated Lone Knifeman Stabbed a Female Police Officer Inside a Police Station and Injured 2 Other Police Officers in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre Town, Nantes City, France
On 28 May at around 10:30 am local time, a knifeman stabbed a female police officer several times inside a police station in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre (Loire-Atlantique) town, 3kms away from Nantes City, France. The officer was seriously injured and is currently receiving treatment. After the assailant stabbed his victim, he grabbed the police woman's pistol, then fled the scene in a Volkswagen Golf. Around 240 officers and two helicopters were searching for the assailant who was hiding in a nearby forest. When found, he opened fire on officers, injuring 2 of them. The officers fired back and seriously injured the assailant who later died of his injuries after his arrest. The assailant was identified as Muslim convert, Ndiaga Dieye, who is in his 40s. In March 2013, he was arrested for armed robbery, he failed to escape his imprisonment in September of the same year but injured several officers in his failed attempt. In 2016, he converted to Islam and was radicalized while in prison, which caused the prison to isolate him from the other detainees. During the same year, Dieye was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia. On 22 March, he was released from prison, registered on a watchlist for potential terrorists, and placed in an apartment where he was being monitored. TRAC notes that on 14 April, al Qaeda Central Command (AQC) called on Muslims in the west to attack police officers in its Second Issue of "Manhattans Wolves Magazine". Shortly after, on 23 April, a female police officer was stabbed by a Tunisian national in Rambouillet, outside paris. Within days, the attack was hailed and claimed by al-Qaeda. Al Qaeda supporters immediately praised Ndiaga Dieye on the same day as the attack on both Rocket Chat and Telegram.
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