Terrorism

Security bureau keeping track of 8 Taiwanese suspected of links to IS

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/09
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Elaine Hou

Taipei, March 9 (CNA) Eight Taiwanese are being monitored on suspicion of affiliation to

NSB Director-General Peng Sheng-chu (彭勝竹, right)

the militant group Islamic State (IS), the National Security Bureau (NSB) said Thursday.

In a legislative hearing, Huang Yu-shun (黃裕順), a section chief in the bureau, said the eight people were mentally unstable and the bureau was keeping close track of them.

In a previous report to the legislative Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, the bureau had said eight Taiwanese had been identified as possible IS sympathizers.

During Thursday’s session, Huang was asked by Democratic Progressive Party lawmaker Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) for an update on the situation.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan deports suspected ISIS member to Indonesia

Suspect was 34-year-old woman working on the island

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/02/24
By: Matthew Strong,Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – An Indonesian woman working in Taiwan was arrested on

News report from Indonesia’s Liputan 6.

suspicion of having joined Islamic State and deported to her country, reports said Friday.

The island counts more than 100,000 Indonesian citizens working temporarily, most often women who serve as caregivers for elderly people.

Media in Indonesia said a woman named Tri Astiningsih, 34, had joined IS and been arrested on February 21 as the result of a joint investigation by Taiwan and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The following day, she was put on a China Airlines flight to the Indonesian capital Jakarta and arrested by local authorities upon her arrival. Taiwanese security staff accompanied her on the plane, while Indonesia sent members of its special antiterrorism unit to the airport to pick her up, reports said.  [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan a potential target for foreign terror groups: NSB

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/10/26
By: Lu Hsin-hui and Evelyn Kao

Taipei, Oct. 26 (CNA) Although Taiwan currently faces no risk from domestic terror

Taiwanese police in an anti-terrorism drill. (CNA file photo)

Taiwanese police in an anti-terrorism drill. (CNA file photo)

groups, the possibility of an attack by a foreign group cannot be ruled out, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report submitted to the Legislative Yuan on Wednesday.

The probability of Taiwan being targeted by foreign terror groups increased when a propaganda video released last year by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) featured the Republic of China (Taiwan) flag in a list of 60 countries the terror group says are part of a global coalition seeking to destroy it.

ISIS is also seeking to expand its reach in Southeast Asia and scores of people listed by international groups as terrorist suspects have been denied entry into Taiwan, according to the report.    [FULL  STORY]

Suspicious packages at Presidential Office contain tapes

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-09-02
By: Matthew Strong

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Presidential Office received two suspicious packages Friday morning 6773094which it turned over for investigation to a special unit of the Criminal Investigation Bureau, but they turned out to contain tape recordings.

Presidential spokesman Alex Huang said that at 10 a.m. Friday, presidential guards collected the mail and found two packages which they found suspicious. X-ray tests showed that the mail might contain batteries, wires and metal, indicating that an explosive device was possible, reports said.

According to regular procedure, the nearest police precinct station was alerted, and the CIB anti-explosives unit came to pick up the packages and dismantled at another location, Huang said.     [FULL  STORY]

Foreign workers joining IS will be fired and deported: minister of labor

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-03-24
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

In response to an Indonesian labor official’s statement that Indonesian 6743497migrant workers in democratic countries can easily become targets of Islamic State (IS) recruitment, Taiwan’s Minister of Labor Chen Hsiung-wen said on Thursday that anyone found joining the IS will be laid off and sent back.

Nusron Wahid, chairman of the National Board for Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers, was cited by media outlets as saying on March 20 that he knew of two Indonesian workers in South Korea who had joined IS and that some Indonesian workers in Taiwan and Hong Kong were wearing IS badges or other symbols of the terrorist organization.

In democratic countries like South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong, where there is intellectual freedom, Indonesia’s migrant workers could easily be recruited by IS, Wahid said.

Unlike Saudi Arabia, where Indonesian workers are banned from leaving their employers’ premises, these free Asian countries could become a hotbed of IS recruitment, Wahid said.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan’s Cabinet approves draft bill against terrorism financing

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-01-14
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwan’s Cabinet on Thursday approved a draft bill against the funding of

Cabinet passes anti terrorism financing draft bill.

Cabinet passes anti terrorism financing draft bill.

terrorism, which will be submitted to the new Legislature when it convenes in February.

As terrorism has posed threat to human rights, many countries around the world are imposing penalty for financing terrorism, as a means to prevent spread of terrorism, according to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ).

Making a law against financing terrorism will enable Taiwan to catch up with the global trend of fighting terrorism, Cabinet spokesman Sun Lih-chyun told a press conference after a Cabinet meeting.

The draft bill stipulates that a committee is to be set up by the MOJ to decide who should be listed for sanctions. The list will include any individuals, legal figures or organizations that have been named by the U.N. Security Council, according to the draft bill, which allows for the freezing of capital and other assets owned by those listed.     [FULL  STORY]

IS threat revealed to be online prank

TELLTALE:The post featured a mirrored image of the IS flag that bears a declaration of the Islamic faith, which no actual member of the group would alter, an official said

Taipei Times
Date:  Dec 25, 2015
By: Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday dismissed a Facebook

A Facebook message, since removed, purportedly threatening an attack in Taiwan on Monday is pictured in an undated photograph. Photo: CNA

A Facebook message, since removed, purportedly threatening an attack in Taiwan on Monday is pictured in an undated photograph. Photo: CNA

message allegedly linked to the Islamic State (IS) group that threatened to launch an attack against Taiwan next week.

The ministry said they reached the conclusion that the threat was not genuine one day after a Facebook user, identified as “Elias Allah Fifa,” posted a picture on the Anonymous Asia Facebook page, with the message: “You wait for it, Allah will achieve 12/28 Taiwan/Taipei.”

The picture featured the flag of the IS — which the user also used as their profile picture — and a Republic of China (ROC) flag. The user’s Facebook account was already closed by the time Anonymous Asia alerted the authorities, the ministry said.     [FULL  STORY]

Counterterrorism exercises set to run from March to May

Taipei Times
Date:  Dec 14, 2015
By: Lo Tien-ping and Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The central and local governments are to conduct a joint counterterrorism exercise in March, an official said.

The central government has tentatively scheduled the Counterterrorism Security Management Live-Troop Exercise to run from March to May at sites that are to be used during the 2017 Summer Universiade in Taipei, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan on alert after its flag appears again in IS video

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/12/12
By: Tang Pei-chun and Elaine Hou

Taipei, Dec. 12 (CNA) Taiwan will strengthen communication with other 201512120014t0001countries to obtain the latest anti-terrorism information from around the world and will step up security at its overseas representative offices, a foreign affairs spokeswoman said Saturday, after the country’s flag showed up for the second time in a video purportedly released by an extremist group.

Eleanor Wang (王珮玲) said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was aware of a new propaganda video claimed by the Islamic State, which showed an image of the national flags of 60 countries, including Taiwan.

It was the second time in less than a month that the image appeared in a video said to be from the extremist militant group.     [FULL  STORY]

No terrorist group sees Taiwan as priority target: Cabinet

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/27
By: Tai Ya-chen and Christie Chen

Taipei, Nov. 27 (CNA) Intelligence reports show that there is currently no terrorist

Two officers from the Aviation Police Bureau yesterday stand guard at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after Taiwan’s national flag appeared in an Islamic State group video. Photo: CNA

Two officers from the Aviation Police Bureau yesterday stand guard at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport after Taiwan’s national flag appeared in an Islamic State group video. Photo: CNA

organization that sees Taiwan as its priority target for attacks, according to a report released Friday by the Executive Yuan’s Office of Homeland Security.

The report, about Taiwan’s anti-terror preparations, was released in a regular Cabinet meeting on public security. It came after Taiwan’s national flag showed up in a video released by the Islamic State (IS) on Tuesday, spurring concerns that Taiwan has become a target of the militant group.http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aipl/201511270033.aspx
The report asked that authorities at all levels and those in charge of the country’s key infrastructures step up their security measures.     [FULL  STORY]