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Terrorism Tag

Two Syrians in Germany attacked innocent civilians on Sunday. One killed a pregnant woman with a machete while the other detonated a bomb outside of a music festival. The bomber recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, which has led authorities to call it a terrorist attack. Authorities call the murder of the pregnant woman a crime of passion since the attacker was in love with her. The attacks come only days after Ali Sonboly, a German-Iranian 18-year-old, killed nine at a McDonalds in Munich.

After every mass shooting, even those clearly terror related, Obama and Democrats leap at the chance to push for anti-Second Amendment legislation that will disarm the innocent and the law-abiding. From calls for gun control "action" to executive orders to "a day of action" for gun control, we consistently hear about the need for strict gun control from the left.

Immediately after the terrorist attack by Mohamed Bouhlel in Nice, France, we were told he was a lone wolf, a guy "recently radicalized," suffering from depression, with no connection to Islamists or ISIS, a guy who just went crazy and drove his truck through a crowd. It was all BS, meant to deflect from the Islamic motivation and ties to terror networks. The cracks began to show when it was learned Bouhlel was texting with others shortly before the attack and several possible accomplices were arrested several days ago, *Shocked* – Nice truck terrorist maybe wasn’t a “lone wolf” after all. Now we can put all the "lone wolf" stuff to rest, as well as the "recently radicalized" excuses. France 24  reports, Nice truck killer had support, accomplices for carefully planned attack:

Barely 4 days after the deadly attack in Nice, France that killed 84 people and left more than 300 injured, Germany has been hit by a terrorist attack. A 17 year-old Afghan ‘refugee’ went on a stabbing spree inside a commuter train near the southern German city of Würzburg. According to eyewitnesses, the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he attacked passengers with knife and axe -- critically injuring four people. The attacker was killed by Special Forces just 500 meters from the crime scene, as he tried to flee. German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reports:
On Monday evening, a 17 year-old man injured 4 people critically and another one slightly in a commuter train. A man attacked passengers in the train, armed with a knife and an axe. After the train was stopped by the passengers in Heidingsfeld [near Würzburg], the 17 year-old escaped on foot. He was shot down by Special Forces as he tried to attack a police officer.

Remember when the media told us the Nice, France, truck terrorist was just a lone wolf, a psycho with no allegiance to or motivation by either Islam or ISIS? Just a wild and crazy guy who happened to load up a truck with weapons and drive it through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day, killing several dozen people? Well, it's not turning out that way. The media's "lone wolf" appears to be part of a wolf pack. https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/754706681754447872 Even CNN can't hide the "radicalized" part of Mohamed Bouhlel, though it still presents him as being a depressed loser:

The use of a truck as a terror weapon in Nice has shocked so many people not only because of the death toll, but also because the terrorist turned an ordinary device into a weapon. That was not the first time in France that a vehicle has been used in such a way. But in Israel the use of cars as weapons became commonplace since October 2015, when the current wave of Palestinian terror started. While usually referred to as the Knife or Stabbing Intifada, in fact shootings and car rammings have been used with great frequency. The car ramming terror was most intense in the last three months of 2015, with high density locations like bus stops a target. This video, in which a bus stop was rammed and the terrorist got out with a meat cleaver and attacked one of the injured people before being shot, received a lot of attention, including at Legal Insurrection:

Among the 84 people killed in the Nice terror attack were an American father and son from Austin, Texas. USA Today reports:
The two American fatalities from Thursday's terror attack in Nice, France, were a father and son from this Hill Country enclave who bonded through baseball and were on a family trip through Spain and France. Sean Copeland, 51, was vacationing with his wife, Kim, 39, and their son, Brodie, 11, along with two of Copeland’s children from a previous marriage: Maegan, 29, and Austin, 22.

We've been covering the Nice, France terrorist attack here at LI, including updates as more information becomes available.  Today, ISIS has claimed responsibility for the terror attack that killed 84 people, including two Americans, and wounded hundreds more. The New York Times reports:
The Islamic State claimed on Saturday that the man who attacked the seaside city of Nice, France, was one of the group’s “soldiers.” France’s defense minister promptly blamed the terrorist network for inspiring the assault, while its top law enforcement official said the attacker, who was not previously known to intelligence agencies, may have “radicalized himself very quickly.”

. . . .  The Islamic State had kept silent on the Nice attack until Saturday morning, when it declared, in a bulletin issued in Arabic and in English on its Amaq News Agency channel:

“Executor of the deadly operation in Nice, France, was a soldier of the Islamic State. He executed the operation in response to calls to target citizens of coalition nations, which fight the Islamic State.”

The U.S. Congress has released 28 pages about the 9/11 attacks that discuss potential Saudi Arabia ties to the terrorist attack. The papers remained classified for 13 years after the investigation by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees. They found:
According to sources familiar with the documents, the information in the pages lays out a number of circumstances that suggest it's possible two of the 9/11 hijackers living in California in the months leading up to the attack were receiving operational support from individuals loyal to Saudi Arabia.

Breaking news reports indicate a large truck ploughed through pedestrians celebrating Bastille Day in the southern beach town, Nice. American media reports as many as ten dead, but foreign outlets have reported as many as 73. Latest updates at bottom of the post; refresh for most recent coverage. What we know:

In April I wrote about Israeli tour guide Kay Wilson, originally from Britain, and American tourist Kristine Luken, Britain outraged by Palestinian payments to terrorists “who left this British woman for dead”:
I don’t know Kay Wilson. But I’ve seen her on social media, both Facebook and Twitter. She frequently makes reference to how she was carved up and butchered by Palestinians, but harbors no hatred of Palestinians. Israelly Cool has extensive archives on Kay Wilson. I never really knew her story, though. But that story is in the news in Britain as part of the British coming to terms with their role in supporting terrorism against Jews in Israel through financial aid to charities and the Palestinian Authority.... Kay Wilson is in the news because The Daily Mail has an extenstive write-up on her story, and how the terrorists who butchered her are being paid by the Palestinian Authority while in prison, a common benefit bestowed on those who murder or maim Jews.
Accompanying Wilson that day was Luken, exploring the Christian roots in the Holy Land. Luken did not survive.

On Tuesday morning July 12, 2016, the family of Hallel Yaffa Ariel, the 13-year-old Israeli girl who was brutally stabbed to death on June 30th as she lay asleep in her bed, was granted special permission to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem—the most sacred site in Judaism. Hallel’s anguished parents, Rina and Amihai Ariel, had reportedly requested permission to ‘pray for the ascent of Hallel’s soul’ at the holy place that was dear to her and their hearts. [caption id="attachment_177363" align="alignnone" width="550"]Credit: The Times of Israel Credit: The Times of Israel[/caption] Rina Ariel had written directly to PM Netanyahu asking him to personally intercede. Via a YouTube video that went viral over the last few days, they also invited their fellow Israeli citizens to join them in the special prayer service:

Palestinian incitement to hate and attack Jews has been a frequent topic here lately. It is not just a key cause of the current so-called "Knife Intifada" (which also involves shooting and other forms of attack), but also an impediment to any chance of peace. It is a top-down (from the Palestinian Authority, Fatah, and Hamas) and bottom-up (social media) phenomenon that is particularly focused on young children and teens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBtEDMsl_SM Here is another example, from PalMedia Watch:

Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn and the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency is reported to be on Trump's short list for the vice presidential slot. General Flynn was forced out of the DIA in 2014 amid rumors that his "management style" was "chaotic." The Washington Post reported at the time:
Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn is expected to end his tenure as DIA director this summer, about a year before he was scheduled to depart, according to officials who said Flynn faced pressure from Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and others in recent months . . . . . . . . Flynn, who served as a top intelligence adviser to Gen. Stanley McChrystal in Iraq and Afghanistan, arrived at the DIA in July 2012 vowing to accelerate the agency’s overhaul. Asked after a public speech how he would treat employees reluctant to embrace his agenda, Flynn said he would “move them or fire them.” He drafted a blueprint that called for sending more employees overseas, being more responsive to regional U.S. military commanders, and turning analysts’ attention from the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan to a broader array of emerging national security threats.

I originally set out to write this post two weeks ago. June 25, to be precise, as part of my ongoing chronicling of the lives and deaths of Israeli victims of Palestinian terror. But then there were two high profile terror attacks, the stabbing death of 13-year old Hallel Yaffa Ariel as she slept in her bed; and the shooting attack on a family car, killing father-of-ten children Michael "Miki" Mark in front of his wife and some of his children. Writing about those attacks and others, and the fall out -- including how the mother of the murderer of the 13-year old said she was proud of her son -- kept me from finishing this post, the first draft of which was June 23. It's a sad sign of the times. I can't keep up with the number and pace of deadly Palestinian attacks, one more horrible than the next. This post is about victims of Palestinian terror Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin, who were shot to death in front of their children on October 1, 2015:

The 2016 Summer Olympics begin in Rio next month and everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. The police have told tourists they cannot protect them, scientists found a superbug in the water, and no one can find a missing Gitmo prisoner in Brazil. The police put out a "Welcome to Hell" sign outside of Rio's main airport. https://twitter.com/Deadspin/status/750392561836097537