Friday, June 26, 2015
Europeans Must Learn How to Deal with Terrorists in their Midst
This has been a terrible day in Europe and beyond. This morning, a 35-year-old man who lives near Lyon headed an hour south to Grenoble. His goal was an Air Products tank farm and refillng area in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier near Grenoble. He stopped near his destination, beheaded the owner of a delivery van he commandeered, dumped the body onto the ground near the Air Products entry gates - a knife was found nearby - and attached the severed head to a chain fence with Islamist flags and Arabic writing surrounding it. He then drove the delivery van, familiar to plant personnel because it was used to make drliveries to the plant, into the entry area and rammed into oxygrn tanks, causing an explosion that badly damaged the van. Two people were injured, apparently lightly. Plant security personnel stopped him as he was trying to open acetone tanks. Surveillance video camera footage may be useful in the case, according to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve. Police believe he acted alone. He was arrested and identified as Jassine Salhi. He had been on a French security force list of radicalized French residents from 2006 to 2008, then later as someone who was in contact with extremist salafists. But he had no police record and so his surveillance ended. His wife and sister are also in custody. ~~~~~ In Sousse, Tunisia, soon after the Grenoble attack occurred, a student-terrorist with no police record used a Kalachnikof to mow down and kill 37 European tourists and injured 39 others on a beach at two hotels. Police opened fire and killed the attacker. Preliminary investigation shows that those killed were mostly British, Belgian and German. The Tunisian president has called for international help, saying that Tunisia doesn't have the capacity to deal with islamist jihadists alone. ~~~~~ And, in the third terrorist attack today, a suicide bomber killed at least 27 at a Shiite mosque in the Kuwaiti capital, Kuwait City, during Friday prayers. It was Kuwait's first terrorist attack since 1983. ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly explosion that wounded 227 others, according to the Kuwait Ministry of the Interior. ISIS militants this week had called for violence during the Moslem holy month of Ramadan. Eyewitnesses say the suicide bomber was young - about 20 years old. He entered the mosque, stood with men at the back and exploded his large suicide bomb. Kuwait is sunni but has a shiite minority, although there is little apparent animosity between the sects in Kuwait. ~~~~ Dear readers, the EU leadership seems unable to talk about terrorism in Europe except in flurries after an attack occurs. Consequently, Europeans have difficulty comprehending that islamist terrorists are in their midst. France says it has more than 5,000 terrorists on a watch list but cannot possibly track all of them all the time. France and Belgium have large North African Moslem population. Britain has a minority mix of Pakistanis and others. Germany has a minority mix of Turks and Balkan Moslems. Every European country tries to welcome and integrate these minorities, but they often live in enclaves making daily surveillance difficult. There are rumors strongly denied by France and Britain that some of these enclaves are run by local unelected leaders using Sharia law and are no-go zones for police and security forces. In addition, the large Schengen Zone in the EU does not require border controls when moving from one country to another inside the Zone. Passports are controlled once when entering any country in the Zone. It is much like travelling from state to state in America. The big difference is that thousands of young disaffected European Moslems regularly are radicalized by jihadist imams in European mosques and often travel to Syria, Afghanistan or Pakistan for jihadist indoctrination and training. In addition, more than a hundred thousand refugees flood into Europe from the Middle East and Moslem Africa every year. It is impossible to adequately control the backgrounds of all these refugees or keep track of them as they try to illegally disperse throughout the EU. And while there are very few terrorist attacks in Europe itself, Europeans have a history of taking holidays in Tunisia, Turkey, Egypt and Morocco. A serious education effort needs to be made to sensitize Europeans to the dangers of travel in these areas. And every EU country needs to teach its citizens the essentials of traveling and going about their daily lives in Europe in the new atmosphere of threats from terrorists. EU leaders need to speak out and initiate awareness programs to help improve the security of their citizens. The United States would do well to do the same. And, lastly, we all join in prayers and thoughts for the families of those so cruelly cut down today.
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I'm not sure that there is any "dealing" with terrorists. They are untrustworthy. Lying is second nature to them. Their sole aim in this life is to die in the cause for Mohammad. they respect nothing but the word of Mohammad. They are molesters of women and children. They live life in the starkest of living conditions.
ReplyDeleteWhat of these characteristic makes anyone think that honest and binding negotiation came be possible?
In all too many ways, Europe is in a pre-9/11 counterterrorism posture. Many countries have legal barriers that prevent law enforcement and intelligence agencies from cooperating effectively, EU member states often share information in an ad hoc and decentralized way, and a number of states lack the necessary laws to prosecute foreign fighters even when they are detected.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the Mediterranean countries where these terrorists are headed, like Italy and Greece, also have a disincentive to screen them. Overwhelmed by large migrant populations drawing on social services, these governments have a reason to “look the other way” and let unregistered migrants make their way into the rest of Europe to become another country’s problem. These transit routes are disturbingly susceptible to terrorist exploitation.
Europe has a very serious, and very unaddressed terrorists problem.
The Greek government has plenty of challenges ahead of it: A towering debt, chronic unemployment and relations with the rest of Europe. But it also has an urgent security problem.
ReplyDeleteGreece has become an unwitting crossroads -- both for jihadists trying to reach Iraq and Syria from Europe, and for fighters returning home from the Middle East.
Greece's long land and maritime boundaries, its proximity to Turkey, the explosion of illegal migration from Syria and the country's dire financial situation make it an inviting hub for jihadist groups, according to multiple counterterrorism sources.
One source close to the Greek intelligence services told CNN there may be some 200 people in the country with links to jihadist groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the al Nusra Front -- the two groups that most Europeans join.
The terrorist threat is increasingly diverse and geographically diffuse throughout all of Europe. Although Al Qaeda (AQ) and its affiliates have been increasingly constrained through international action, the threat remains significant, complex, and very unpredictable.
ReplyDeleteThe PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) machinery remains strong in Europe. Though some EU countries, such as Britain, have banned the PKK and its reincarnations, the organization remains free in a few EU countries, such as Greece. PKK fronts and sympathetic organizations thrive in most EU member states.
In January of this year the European Union have announced that they will adopt new laws to combat terrorism – “LAWS?” Laws will allow the action, but it is grunt work, digging out the terrorists where they live and prepare for attacks that will stop terrorists.
The EU needs to either get into the anti-terrorists business or get out of the government business.