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Terrorism Tag

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 13, 2015 32 Comments
Following the terror attacks in Paris by Islamic radicals, the Obama administration is preparing for a summit on "extremism" which is leaving many people wondering one thing. Who are they talking about? Byron Tau of the Wall Street Journal:
White House to Convene Summit on Violent Extremism The White House will convene a summit next month on ways the U.S. and other governments can counter violent extremism and domestic radicalization, the Obama administration said Sunday. The Feb. 18 event will highlight efforts at home and abroad aimed at stopping extremists from “radicalizing, recruiting, or inspiring individuals,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a written statement.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf appeared on the Megyn Kelly show last night and was asked by guest host Martha MacCallum to name the extremists. Like everyone else in the White House, she had a hard time putting it into words.

Posted by Amy Miller on January 12, 2015 5 Comments
British lawmakers are shifting uncomfortably after receiving pushback over proposed anti-terrorism legislation that scholars say could fatally limit the fundamental rights of British citizens both at home and abroad. Via Bloomberg:
Provisions in the bill would allow the government to invalidate a British national’s passport while he or she is abroad and prevent their return to the U.K. without an agreement to comply with certain conditions. “This gives rise to a very real risk that the human rights of U.K. nationals will be violated as a result of the imposition of temporary exclusion orders,” Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights said in a 43-page report published today. “We are opposed in principle to any exclusion of U.K. nationals from the U.K., even on a temporary basis.” Home Secretary Theresa May introduced the bill in November, saying the terrorism threat in Britain is greater now than at any time since the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. Militants in Syria “are trying to direct terrorist attacks in the U.K.,” Andrew Parker, the head of the domestic intelligence agency known as MI5, said in a Jan. 8 speech.
The fact that this pushback is happening so soon after terror attacks ravaged the streets of Paris is not insignificant, especially in the UK. As early as late November of last year, UK Home Secretary Theresa May was pushing for new laws that would force schools, universities, and councils to join the fight against terrorism, and afford authorities much more investigative power and control over terrorism suspects. Parliament's joint human rights committee has expressed concerns over the lack of rights protections in the new legislation, saying that if enacted, it could severely limit academic freedom on campus:

Posted by Amy Miller on January 11, 2015 21 Comments
Loin des yeux, près du coeur. I plugged it in to Google, which promptly spit out, "out of sight, near the heart." Not the most elegant translation, but I got the point as I walked through the crowd that gathered in Washington, DC to march in solidarity with those attending the National Unity Rally in Paris. The French Embassy billed the event as a "silent march," saying that "[t]his march is open to all who would like to join together to honor the memory of the victims of the attacks and engage in solidarity in the fight for freedom of speech and freedom of opinion." There was very little pomp; the organizers seemed to be more concerned about making a statement than they were about making sure dignitaries had a chance to speak. Before the event began, the crowd mingled happily, taking pictures and talking about maintaining a free press; French flags and copies of Charlie Hebdo were passed around as the crowd spilled off the sidewalks and onto Pennsylvania Avenue. unnamed-14

Posted by Amy Miller on January 10, 2015 15 Comments
The terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Casher Kosher supermarket this past week most likely believed that their actions would silence a satirical publication and its readers, and tear people of different religions apart. Instead, their brutal actions awoke a nation and in turn, the world:
More than 100,000 people gathered in cities around France as night fell to pay tribute to the 12 people gunned down in an attack against the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly on Wednesday. In Paris tens of thousands more gathered at Republique square, not far from where the attack took place, police said. Officials in cities such as Marseille, Toulouse and Lyon also reported thousands gathering in public spaces on the country's darkest day in decades. Demonstrators wore black stickers marked "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie), a slogan aimed at showing solidarity with the victims of the deadliest attack in France in decades. In a somber address to the nation, Hollande pledged to hunt down the killers and urged the country to come together after the tragedy. "Let us unite, and we will win," he said. "Vive la France!"
The terror attacks have inspired songs and artwork, and the "#JeSuisCharlie" hashtag has gone viral.

Posted by Amy Miller on January 09, 2015 11 Comments
Terrorists murdered 10 members of Charlie Hebdo's team on Wednesday; six of them were cartoonists, and all of them believed passionately in the right to express themselves via satire no matter who was likely to be offended by it. The remaining members of the editorial team have chosen to release an issue next week, and the cover photo, recently shared on Twitter, will serve as a perfect memorial to the spirit and memory of those who fell victim to the brutal attack: Translation? Urgent: hiring 6 new cartoonists. Deep breath.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 09, 2015 12 Comments
Overnight Eastern time a Kosher supermarket in Paris was attacked. Reports indicate two people killed and multiple people being held hostage. Meanwhile, the murderers of the the staff of Charlie Hebdo apparently are cornered and also have one or more hostages. UPDATES: France Hostage Takers Attackers Charlie Kosher Supermarket Sky News Four Hostages Dead Sky News Hostages Freed Jewish Grocery

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 08, 2015 37 Comments
When Islamic radicals opened fire at the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo yesterday, a small group of French police officers rushed to the scene and then immediately fled---because they weren't armed. Awr Hawkins of Breitbart reported:
Unarmed Paris Police Officers Forced to Flee as Armed Terrorists Attack During the January 7 terror attack on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters, several Paris police officers fled, unable to disarm the threat, because they themselves were unarmed and outgunned. Breitbart News previously reported that “black-hooded-men” with Kalashnikovs entered the Charlie Hedbo headquarters and opened fire, killing 12 people–including those who were killed outside the building as the gunmen headed back to their car. CBS News relayed reports from Britain’s Telegraph newspaper that the first two officers to arrive “were apparently unarmed” and “fled after seeing gunmen armed with automatic weapons and possibly a grenade launcher.”
This isn't meant to be a jab at French police officers. They were simply operating within the confines of France's law enforcement policies. In fact, two of them lost their lives in the attack. Noah Rothman of Hot Air notes:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 08, 2015 11 Comments
Working in the political sphere has provided a sort of quasi-emotional inoculation. For the most part, I'm able to read and write about all kind of stories, tragedies, atrocities, and hypocrisies without having much more reaction than, "Seriously? You've got to be kidding me!" before moving on the next le sigh-worthy moment. I imagine doctors have a similar arrangement. It's not that they don't care, but as a matter of practicality they cannot become emotionally entangled with every single patient without risking professional burnout. But then there are stories, tragedies, atrocities, and hypocrisies too powerful for the inoculation. The destruction of Charlie Hebdo is one of those. I'm not yet able to comprehend that a group of Muslim terrorists exterminated an entire newspaper. In the most literal sense, the terrorists won. The goal was to destroy Charlie Hebdo for printing "offensive" images of Muhammad; and that's exactly what they did. Mission accomplished.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 07, 2015 42 Comments
The wake of the attacks on Charlie Hebdo is littered with a confusing mix of blame, counter blame, politically correct waffling, and outrage from every possible race and creed. Financial Times columnist Tony Barber went down the familiar road of blaming freedom of expression by way of a call for "common sense":
Charlie Hebdo is a bastion of the French tradition of hard-hitting satire. It has a long record of mocking, baiting and needling Muslims. Two years ago the magazine published a 65-page strip cartoon book portraying the Prophet’s life. And this week it gave special coverage to Soumission (“Submission”), a new novel by Michel Houellebecq, the idiosyncratic author, which depicts France in the grip of an Islamic regime led by a Muslim president. This is not in the slightest to condone the murderers, who must be caught and punished, or to suggest that freedom of expression should not extend to satirical portrayals of religion. It is merely to say that some common sense would be useful at publications such as Charlie Hebdo, and Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten, which purport to strike a blow for freedom when they provoke Muslims.
But that's just one columnist's opinion, right? (To be fair, the Financial Times editorial board went in a completely different direction.) In an op-ed from today's New York Times one Nick Kristof is ready to string up the attackers, but doesn't want to put a label on what motivated them:
One of things I’ve learned in journalism is to beware of perceiving the world through simple narratives, because then new information is mindlessly plugged into those story lines. In my travels from Mauritania to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan to Indonesia, extremist Muslims have shared with me their own deeply held false narratives of America as an oppressive state controlled by Zionists and determined to crush Islam. That’s an absurd caricature, and we should be wary ourselves of caricaturing a religion as diverse as Islam. So let’s avoid religious profiling. The average Christian had nothing to apologize for when Christian fanatics in the former Yugoslavia engaged in genocide against Muslims. Critics of Islam are not to blame because an anti-Muslim fanatic murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011. ... The great divide is not between faiths. Rather it is between terrorists and moderates, between those who are tolerant and those who “otherize.”
Who's really responsible? Maybe the Jews. Or the West. Or people who assume "freedom of expression" means freedom to insult Muhammad without getting blown away. At least that's what's swirling around on Twitter right now:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 07, 2015 37 Comments
There was an attack on a French satirical publication, Charlie Hebdo, using automatic weapons and a rocket-propelled grenade, killing 12. The killers are at large as of this writing. The NY Times reports:
Masked gunmen with automatic weapons opened fire in the offices of a French satirical newspaper on Wednesday in Paris, the police said, killing 12 people and then escaping in a car. President François Hollande said the attack on the weekly, Charlie Hebdo, was “without a doubt” an act of terrorism and raised the nationwide terror alert to its highest status. He said that several terrorist attacks had been thwarted in recent weeks.... A senior French prosecutor said the victims included two police officers, including one assigned to guard the newspaper’s offices and its top editor. The second officer was shot and killed as he lay on the ground, the police said.... [A] United States official noted that, according to social media reports, the attackers did refer to the Prophet Muhammad, saying he was “avenged.”
(More video and Twitter updates later in post)

Posted by David Gerstman on December 28, 2014 10 Comments
A new Hamas "How To" video is going viral in Palestinian social media circles. It isn't how to rebuild buildings. Or how to make peace with Israel. It's how to stab Jews. How do it properly and inflict maximum damage on the victim and increase the likelihood of killing him or her. The Jewish Press reports:
The “resisters of occupation in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem” are spreading on Arab social media a frightening video demonstrating tactics on how to stab a Jew to death quickly and efficiently. The 1-minute and 13-second video, as seen below, shows the “teacher” calmly walking up to a “victim,” stabbing him, and walking away. One of the tactics appears to imitate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) method of beheading. The guide to killing Jews teaches that after stabbing the victim, the knife should be twisted to maximize wounds and cause death.

Posted by David Gerstman on December 25, 2014 3 Comments
Tzipi Livni, Israel's former peace negotiator, dropped a bombshell yesterday when she explained in an interview with New York Times columnist Roger Cohen, how Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas torpedoed the American sponsored peace process earlier this year. One would think that Abbas, who claims he wants a state for his people would try and negotiate one. Instead he took unilateral actions that alienated even the likes of Livni. For those who believe that the Palestinians would benefit from statehood, Abbas' behavior is incomprehensible. Why would Abbas pass up a chance to negotiate for a state for his people, something which conventional wisdom tells us would benefit not only the Palestinians, but the whole Middle East as well? (In fact. Abbas may be refusing to compromise with Israel because Palestinians don't want him to.) But that isn't the only recent report of Palestinian leaders putting their own concerns ahead of those of their people. Neri Zilber of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote Gaza's Explosion Waiting to Happen for Politico earlier this week. The central part of Zilber's report focused on the infighting between Fatah and Hamas, that has delayed the rebuilding of Gaza. Fatah, for its part, is supposed to take control of Gaza, but as one Fatah official asked "How do you expect me to go work in the Gaza Strip 'when the Qassam Brigades [Hamas’s elite military wing] goes ahead of me in both power and weapons?'” Zilber summed up the issue:
Seven years of Hamas control over Gaza would be gradually replaced by the Fatah-dominated PA, billions of dollars in donor aid would flow in, and the Gazan people would be liberated from the continued rule of an internationally-designated terrorist organization (and the continued need for an Israeli and Egyptian blockade around the territory). Or at least that was the idea. But all these plans are on hold as Hamas and the PA engage in a game of political chicken, staring each other down , a reality confirmed to me over the past month in conversations with nearly two dozen Israeli and Palestinian officials (from both Fatah and Hamas), international diplomats and non-governmental sources based in Israel and the West Bank, some of whom requested to remain anonymous so as to speak more freely.

Posted by Amy Miller on December 18, 2014 19 Comments
When Dzhokhar Tsarnaev helped plot the terror bombing at the 2013 Boston Marathon, he probably didn't suspect he'd remain alive long enough to take advantage of the ensuing media tidal wave. Not so fast. Tsarnaev survived the bombing and ensuing chase, and is now on trial for murder in what might shape up to be one of the most hostile venues in the history of the American legal tradition. (Think that's hyperbole? Have you ever met someone from Boston? They take Boston seriously.) U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. has denied Tsarnaev's attorney's request to move the trial to a venue less intimate to the vicious crime his client committed, and at the latest hearing, supporters of Tsarnaev came from around the country to demand justice for a man they claim is being framed by the U.S. government. From Bloomberg:
The mother-in-law of a Chechen murder suspect killed by FBI agents probing the Boston Marathon bombing disrupted a pre-trial hearing for defendant Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, shouting the U.S. must “stop killing innocent boys.” The outburst came as Tsarnaev seeks to move the Jan. 5 trial to Washington or New York from Boston, where his lawyers argued jurors will be biased against him. The 21-year-old faces possible execution if convicted in the 2013 attack that killed 3 and injured 260. An earlier request to move the case was denied.
She's not the only one who made a scene:

Posted by New Neo on December 16, 2014 15 Comments
There has been another outrageously evil attack in which Islamist terrorists target children, this time in Pakistan:
Militants from the Pakistani Taliban have attacked an army-run school in Peshawar, killing 141 people, 132 of them children, the military say. Officials say the attack in the north-western city is over, with all the attackers killed. Seven militants took part in all, according to the army.
Gunman methodically went from room to room and shot most of the victims in the head. The terrorists are reported to have been wearing suicide vests, and this article indicates that some of those vests were set off after Pakistani security forces came to the scene. The school appears to have had its own security, but:
The gunmen, who several students said communicated with each other in a foreign language, possibly Arabic, managed to slip past the school's tight security because at least some of them were wearing Pakistani military uniforms, some witnesses said.
When I wrote the introductory sentence to this post, I was careful to say that this attack involved the targeting of children. It is important to state that the killing of children was completely intentional and the main goal of the operation, rather than children being accidental collateral damage in an attack on other people. This is an important distinction, a line the terrorists (and the left) purposely blur in statements such as this:
"We selected the army's school for the attack because the government is targeting our families and females," said Taliban spokesman Muhammad Umar Khorasani. "We want them to feel the pain."

Posted by Amy Miller on December 15, 2014 36 Comments
Last night's hostage situation in Sydney lasted almost 17 hours and captivated the entire world, which was of course exactly what Islamic cleric Man Haron Monis had in mind when he walked into that cafe. When the guns stopped firing, a man and woman lay dead, four more were rushed away with injuries, and Australian authorities were left with the task of scraping up what was left of Monis. From the Daily Mail:
Initially one man emerged with his hands up and lay down on the ground in front of police. Seconds later, a group of at least five hostages appeared suddenly after apparently escaping the cafe. Seven Network reporter Chris Reason, who was watching the siege from his newsroom across the road, said Monis was attempting to usher the hostages from one side of the café to the other when a group broke away. It is not clear what prompted police to storm the building, but it is believed Monis fired his shotgun, reportedly killing one of his captives. This appeared to be the trigger for tactical police to move in. Within seconds, they had blasted through the cafe door and opened fire with automatic weapons, also hurling what appeared to be stun grenades. The sounds of explosions echoed through the city, and the flashes of rifle fire and the grenades lit up the area. The gunfight lasted less than two minutes, and more hostages emerged after the police raid. As the scene calmed down, a bomb disposal robot was seen entering the cafe. The dramatic end to the siege came as the gunman holding the remaining captives was revealed as a self-proclaimed Islamic cleric Man Haron Monis.

Posted by Amy Miller on December 14, 2014 19 Comments
New South Wales olice officers are handling what many suspect could be a hostage situation in a downtown Sydney cafe. Bloomberg reports:
About half a dozen armed officers wearing helmets and body armor were stationed on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Martin Place, about 20 meters from the Lindt cafe entrance. Pedestrians were blocked from the CBD square, which houses offices for Macquarie Group, the central bank and Westpac Banking Corp. Channel Seven showed images of people inside the cafe with their arms up pressed against the window and holding a black flag with white lettering. New South Wales police confirmed an operation was underway in Martin Place, and declined to provide further details. Sky News said the Sydney Opera House was evacuated after a suspicious package was found.
SKY News has the live video feed: Here is a custom Twitter feed we put together of news sources in Australia:
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