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Title: December 7, 2025

GRAY ZONE BRIEF 7 DECEMBER 2025
DOMESTIC SITREP
 
U.S. DOMESTIC TERROR THREAT PICTURE
 
Federal courts and law enforcement delivered a rapid series of blows to domestic violent extremism in recent weeks. A Georgian leader of the Maniac Murder Cult pleaded guilty to soliciting hate crimes and sharing bomb-making manuals, an ISIS supporter in Oklahoma received 15 years for an Election Day mass-shooting plot, and five accused Antifa militants in Texas admitted to federal terrorism charges for a July 4 attack on an ICE facility.
 
Meanwhile, OpenAI quietly shut down five covert propaganda networks using its models for pro-Trump and geopolitical influence campaigns, and X’s brief account-location feature exposed dozens of major political accounts operated from abroad. Together, these developments highlight the global pipelines fueling American extremism and the growing role of AI and anonymous platforms in amplifying it.
 
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
 
ISGAP Releases Report on Muslim Brotherhood’s Strategic Plan for Undermining Western Society
 
• The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) just released a report on the Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy of “civilization struggle,” which the group’s internal documents describe as a “civilization-jihadist process,” in North America, with a special focus on the United States.
 
• The report describes a coherent strategic vision outlined by Brotherhood planners in North America for gradually transforming Western public discourse, community leadership structures, and policy environments from within.
 
• The Muslim Brotherhood’s operations in the United States are based on the doctrine of “Tamkeen” (empowerment/settlement), which has been reinterpreted by Brotherhood theorists as a staged political process for constructing Islamic governance in non-Muslim societies.
 
Texas Gov Designates CAIR, Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terror Groups
 
• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terror organizations and transnational criminal organizations on Tuesday.
 
• Under the new designation, the two and their affiliates are subject to “heightened enforcement” and are barred from buying or acquiring land in the state.
 
• “The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’” the governor stated.
Afghan National Sentenced to Serve 15 Years After Plotting Election Day Terror Attack
 
• Abdullah Haji Zada, a 19-year-old Afghan citizen and U.S. lawful permanent resident, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for conspiring to receive firearms and ammunition intended for an Election Day terrorist attack in November 2024, on behalf of ISIS. He pleaded guilty in April 2025 and faces deportation to Afghanistan after his term.
 
• Zada and co-conspirator Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 28, another Afghan national, acquired two AK-47-style rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition to target a crowd in a U.S. city on Election Day, aiming to advance ISIS's violent extremist ideology. The plot was disrupted by the FBI and the Oklahoma City Joint Terrorism Task Force in October 2024.
 
• Tawhedi pleaded guilty in June 2025 to providing material support to ISIS, facing up to 35 years combined.
 
PEDOPHILES/CHILD PREDATORS
 
Dramatic Increase in Arrests of ‘Nihilistic Violent Extremism,’ Individuals Targeting Children
 
• The FBI says it has seen a dramatic 490 percent increase in Nihilistic Violent Extremism (NVE) arrests during the past fiscal year. These arrests are mostly associated with 764, an online network that preys on young children.
 
• The United States Attorney’s Office for Maryland explained that the 764 network “uses known online social media communications platforms as mediums to support the possession, production, and sharing of extreme gore media and child sex abuse material with vulnerable, juvenile populations. These individuals often conduct coordinated extortions of teenagers, blackmailing the victims to comply with the group’s demands.”
 
• NVE is a law enforcement term describing individuals who are motivated to violence, mainly out of a hatred for society and a desire to see society collapse. The FBI views 764 cases as a subset of the Nihilistic Violent Extremism category.
 
ANTIFA
 
Accused Antifa Supporters Plead Guilty to Terrorism Offense in ICE Facility Shooting
 
• Five accused Antifa supporters–Nathan Baumann, Joy Gibson, Seth Sikes, Lynette Sharp, and John Thomas–pleaded guilty on November 19, 2025, in federal court in Fort Worth, Texas, to one count of providing material support to terrorists. The pleas mark the first such federal terrorism charge against Antifa members, following President Trump's designation of the group as a domestic terrorist organization.
 
• The attack targeted the Prairieland Detention Center, an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, where the group fired gunfire and fireworks at the building, wounding an Alvarado Police Department officer in the neck. The officer returned fire, but assailants continued shooting at him, and an unarmed DHS corrections officer, with one shouting “get to the rifles” during the assault.
 
• Each faces up to 15 years in federal prison, the first federal material-support-to-terrorism convictions tied to Antifa since its domestic terrorist designation.
 
JAN 6TH PIPE BOMB MAKER
 
Brian Cole Jr., the Virginia man accused of placing pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee buildings in Washington, D.C., in January 2021, made his first appearance in federal court Friday as his family yelled in support as he was led out.
 
Cole, 30, was informed about the charges against him as he appeared before a judge in Washington.
 
Government prosecutors told Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya Cole spoke to law enforcement for over four hours Thursday, and they would provide a transcript of the conversation to Cole’s defense attorney, John Shoreman, over the weekend.
 
Cole was wearing a tan jumpsuit and glasses and told Judge Upadhyaya he did understand the charges against him. Cole was not shackled.
 
Members of Cole’s family were in the courtroom and yelled in support as he was led out, "We love you, Brian. We’re here for you, baby."
 
The next step is a detention hearing on Dec. 15. Cole will remain in federal custody pending the next court proceeding.
 
He was arrested Thursday. During 2019 and 2020, he purchased multiple items consistent with components that were used to manufacture the pipe bombs placed at the RNC and DNC, authorities said.
 
Surveillance footage released by the FBI shows a suspect placing the two explosive devices near the buildings in Washington. The explosives found hours later by law enforcement were determined by the FBI to be "viable devices that could have been detonated, resulting in serious injury or death."
 
Cole was charged with transporting an explosive device in interstate commerce and with maliciously attempting to destroy property using explosive materials, according to a criminal complaint.
 
On Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel criticized the Biden administration over the handling of the case.
 
MIDDLE EAST SITREP
 
ISW Key Takeaways:
 
• Assadist Insurgency Efforts: Former senior Assad regime officials are likely funding and equipping clandestine networks in Syria to conduct insurgent activity against the Syrian transitional government. Assadist officials’ claims that three prominent former Assad officials command nearly 100,000 dormant insurgent fighters in and near coastal Syria are almost certainly an exaggeration.
 
• Alawite-Syrian Government Relations: Many Alawites in Syria continue to hold grievances toward the Syrian transitional government that malicious actors may seek to exploit, but the vast majority of the Alawite community does not appear inclined to use violence to address these grievances. The Syrian government has additionally taken steps in recent months to build stronger relationships with some Alawite communities along the coast.
 
GLOBAL GROWTH
 
According to the latest U.N. Trade and Development Report, global economic sentiment remains negative. Output growth is still slowing, and the dominant trend is prolonged uncertainty as economies struggle to adjust to shifting external conditions. The report warns that global growth shows no sign of a quick recovery, and in fact the slowdown will likely erase part of 2025's early momentum, when imports spiked in anticipation of new tariffs.
 
It also underscores a widening gap between global trade and global finance, a sign of deeper structural imbalances.
 
At the same time, the report highlights indicators that the global economy is transforming. For example, it cites the rising weight of the Global South in trade and in contributions to global output growth. It also notes countries’ push to diversify export markets and production through deeper regional integration to reduce exposure to policy-driven trade disruptions.
 
GZB INFOCUS:
 
Key Takeaways:
 
• The value of U.S. digitally-delivered exports totaled $741 billion in 2024, up 11% over the year.
 
• The UK and Ireland play an outsized role in exports, powered by multinational activity and established tech ecosystems.
 
From Amazon’s massive cloud business to Spotify’s streaming subscriptions, digital exports totaled $4.8 trillion last year.
 
Not only that, they comprised over two-thirds of global service exports. America’s big tech giants play a major role not only in America’s digital export engine, but in countries like Ireland, where Meta, Google, and other major players base their European headquarters.
 
This graphic shows the top 30 countries by digitally-delivered exports in 2024, based on data from the World Trade Organization.
 
In 2024, U.S. digital exports reached $741 billion, covering 15% of the global total.
While these exports include Meta and Google’s multi-billion dollar ad businesses, they also cover online education, financial activity, and a wide spectrum of services delivered without in-person human interaction.
 
With $488 billion in exports, the UK stands as another global leader in digital sales. Today, roughly 3.2 million jobs in the country are linked to digital exports, driven by its tech and financial services industries.
 
As we can see, Ireland ranks third with $425 billion in digitally-delivered exports.
 
Additionally, exports expanded 24% in 2024, the fastest rate across the biggest export nations. In particular, Ireland’s role as a European hub for major tech firms means many regional digital sales are attributed to the country, boosting its role in the global digital economy.
 
Pray.
 
Train.
 
Stay informed.
 
Build resilient communities.
 
—END REPORT