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Terrorism Tag

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 22, 2015 32 Comments
The 9/11 terror attack changed the way Americans think about and law enforcement / the feds treat hijacked airlines, and San Bernardino and Paris are changing the way that Americans think about "active shooter" situations in the gun-free zones in which they tend to occur. Previously, office workers were taught to hunker down and hide (under a desk, for example) if they could not get away from the building.  This is a bad plan.  Now, however, "active shooter training" for office workers does not recommend hiding, which was often in plain sight; instead, the recommendation is to fight back—with books and other objects that can be used to "distract" a terrorist or assailant. The Washington Post reports:
Spooked by a year of high-profile rampages, hundreds of companies and organizations like NeighborWorks are racing to train their workers how to react to a shooter in their workplaces. And after decades of telling employees to lock down and shelter in place, they are teaching them to fight back if evacuating is not an option. The idea: Work as a team to disrupt and confuse shooters, opening up a split second to take them down.

Posted by David Gerstman on December 20, 2015 15 Comments
Iran and its allies have taken a beating in Syria according to recent reports. Perhaps the most spectacular was the airstrike overnight that killed the notorious child killer, Samir Kuntar and eight other terrorists in a Damascus suburb. Prof. Jacobson rightly called Kuntar "among the most notorious and vicious terrorists," for shooting Danny Haran to death in front of his four year old daughter, Einat, and then killed her by smashing her head against a rock with his rifle butt. Needless to say Kuntar was treated as a hero by Hezbollah, who traded the bodies of IDF soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, to free Kuntar in 2008. He also received the Syrian Order of Merit from Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad shortly after his release. But Kuntar's killing is just a symptom of the recently reported problems plaguing Iran and its allies who are backing Assad.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 20, 2015 8 Comments
Chuck Hagel was Obama's third Defense Secretary--the other two: Robert Gates and Leon Panetta--to leave his position under difficult circumstances. As late as November 19, 2014, Hagel told Charlie Rose that he didn't wake up in the morning worried about his job, and in less than a week, on the 24th of November, news broke that Hagel had "stepped down."  Despite the rumors addressed by Rose, people were surprised by the news, and Joe Biden is reported to have been "ticked off" by the move. At the time, The New York Times reported that Hagel had stepped down "under pressure" from the White House.
Aides said Mr. Obama made the decision to remove his defense secretary on Friday after weeks of rising tension over a variety of issues, including what administration officials said were Mr. Hagel’s delays in transferring detainees from the military prison in Guantánamo Bay and a dispute with Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, over Syria policy.

Posted by New Neo on December 20, 2015 23 Comments
Why indeed? After all, 9/11 was far, far worse in terms of loss of life. The attacks themselves during 9/11 were far more high-tech and fiendishly clever, as well. There have been many, many terrorist attacks since, and they have all caused outrage and consternation. But something about the Friday the 13th attacks in Paris and the recent one in San Bernardino seems to have affected people more deeply than any other attacks except 9/11. 9/11 was so spectacular, so creative in a near-diabolical way, that it seemed almost otherworldly or like science fiction. The targets were major national symbols. Paris and San Bernardino were relatively pedestrian, as evil inspiration goes. They were fairly low-tech, and involved the sort of places we go to every day: random cafes and restaurants, a stadium, a concert hall, a business meeting and holiday party. Places to relax and enjoy, the sort of places nearly all urban people go to on a regular basis, or at least on occasion. That's why it took very little imagination to put ourselves in the place of the unlucky (and mostly young) people who lost their lives there.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 20, 2015 17 Comments
An Air France flight was diverted to an emergency landing after a bomb-like device was found in a bathroom. It was a fake, made of cardboard with a crude timer on it, as would have been obvious to anyone handling it. But the pilots took no chances. CBS News reports:
Kenyan authorities are questioning several suspects who were on an Air France flight from Mauritius to Paris that was forced to land early Sunday in the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa after a device suspected to be a bomb was found in a lavatory. The CEO of Air France said hours after the plane had been grounded that the device discovered in the bathroom was a fake bomb. The Boeing 777 was heading to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris from Mauritius when its pilots requested an emergency landing at early Sunday in the Kenyan city of Mombasa. Frederic Gagey, the head of the airline, said the device was made of cardboard, paper and a household timer, and had been found in a little cupboard that is behind a mirror.
Here are images being widely reported as the fake bomb [See also Featured Image]:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 20, 2015 9 Comments
Samir Kuntar was among the most notorious and vicious terrorists. A Druze, he was part of a group that landed in Israel in 1979, took a family hostage, and smashed a 4-year old child's head against a rock with his rifle butt:
On April 22, 1979, Quntar, commanding a small unit of four armed men, piloted a small dinghy from Lebanon to the northern Israeli town of Nahariya. Undetected by the Israeli Navy, the terrorists struck at midnight and wasted little time: spotting a police car, they opened fire and killed one officer, Eliyahu Shahar. Then, they proceeded into the town, forcing their way into the nearby home of the Haran family. Danny Haran, 31, and his daughter Einat, 4, were taken hostage. Smadar, Danny’s wife, managed to grab her infant daughter Yael, 2, and hide in the apartment’s narrow attic. Terrified, and anxious to keep the child from crying, Smadar accidentally choked her baby to death. Quntar and his men, meanwhile, took Danny and Einat to the beach, where they were met by Israeli soldiers and police officers. A short firefight ensued, but Quntar had other targets in mind. He shot Danny in the back at close range, murdering him in front of his small daughter. Then, he took Einat and smashed her skull against a rock with the butt of his rifle.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 18, 2015 4 Comments
Earlier this week we reported that the body of Tashfeen Malik, the female San Bernardino terrorist who slaughtered 14 of her husband's co-workers, was still unclaimed. As I predicted, Malik was buried without fanfare in an Islamic cemetery alongside her murderous spouse:
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, who opened fire on a San Bernardino holiday party earlier this month, were buried Tuesday in a quiet, graveside funeral. Many of those who attended mosque with the couple refused to attend, two mosque members said. ...The funeral followed traditional Islamic rituals, said an attendee. At a Muslim cemetery hours away from San Bernardino, the bodies were cleansed according to Islamic rules, wrapped in white cloth and buried.
Those attending the funeral at a graveyard some distance from San Bernardino are keeping the location of the burials under wraps, fearing the graves would be desecrated.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on December 17, 2015 4 Comments
Russia's policy of bloody deterrence and intimidation is reaping battlefield victories, and exposing US fecklessness in Syria.  President Obama has decided the risk of alienating the Syrian population and providing propaganda fodder for ISIS and other anti-Western organizations outweighs the benefits of a substantive military intervention, but Russian President Vladimir Putin's s opposite strategy moots the theory.  Syrians afflicted by foreign military intervention and Islamists capitalizing on it are unlikely to parse their anger according to which foreign power actually caused their losses. Particularly since ISIS bombed a MetroJet airliner on October 31, 2015, killing 224 people, including 219 Russians, the Russian and American campaigns in Syria could not be more different.  Russia now operates four forward operating bases in Syria and claims to have flown more than 4,000 sorties and hit 8,000 targets since September 30, 2015 and to have conducted fifty-nine sorties on December 15 alone, hitting 212 targets, killing 321 ISIS fighters and destroying 100 oil facilities. After the MetroJet bombing, Russia also deployed ground forces to Syria for the first time.  According to Lt. Colonel James G. Zumwalt, USMC (Ret.):
Comparable to our own elite fighters of Delta Force, Russian special forces have an operational edge ours do not. While battlefield actions by U.S. forces will, appropriately, always be defined by the laws of land warfare, Russian special forces historically have tossed their moral compass aside. By doing so, they convey a clear message—in blood—to adversaries.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 17, 2015 6 Comments
More than 15 months have passed since the end of the conflict in Gaza between Israel and the terrorist outfit Hamas, but the campaign of slander against Israel and witch-hunt against the members of its armed forces still continues. Last week British authorities briefly detained a retired IDF reserves officer, apparently based on a list compiled by a "pro-Palestinian group" of soldiers involved in alleged 'war crimes' during last year's Operation Protective Edge. The officer was held for questioning for hours and was only released after Israeli Foreign Ministry intervened. British authorities have since apologized for the incident, but this once highlights how anti-Israel groups are subverting the laws in the West in an attempt to strip Israel of its right to defend itself in the face of terror. The incident took place just days after a fact-finding group comprising of military experts from around the world published their report on the 50-day clash between Israel Defense Force (IDF) and militant islamist outfit Hamas in Gaza. Around 14 high-ranking military officers came together to form the High Level Military Group (HLMG) earlier this year. Former head of India's Defence Intelligence (DG DIA) Lt. General Kamal Davar was accompanied by former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan Colonel Richard Kemp, along with other top military commanders from U.S., Germany, Italy, Spain and France.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 16, 2015 18 Comments
Legislation designed to strengthen the existing Visa Waiver Program was lumped into the massive omnibus bill. The Visa Waiver Program currently allows foreign nationals holding citizenship from any of the 38 participating countries (there are a few other qualifying factors) to bypass consular processing in order to request entry to the U.S.. Though the House bill was introduced in January, the terrorist attacks in Paris last month prompted Congress to consider legislation designed to strengthen the existing Visa Waiver Program of which France is a particpant and, “help prevent terrorists from entering the United States,” said Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ). USA Today reported Wednesday:
The visa-waiver provisions were included in a 2009-page spending bill to fund the federal government until next October. The House and Senate are expected to vote on the bill without changes by Dec. 22.
I read both the House and Senate version of the bill last week and outlined them in painful detail here. In sum, the bill could be a little stronger, but it makes solid, substantive reforms to the existing visa waiver program.

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 16, 2015 5 Comments
It's funny to watch Hillary Clinton attack empty slogans when her party is built on them. In a campaign stop in Minnesota, she thought she was going after Republicans but as Daniel Bassali of the Washington Free Beacon notes, some people heard it differently:
Hillary Clinton Inadvertently Hits Obama: ‘Shallow Slogans Don’t Add Up To A Strategy’ Meant to be a subtle jab at her Republican rivals, Hillary Clinton inadvertently took a dig at President Barack Obama’s current strategy in fighting the Islamic State during her national security speech in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Tuesday. The Democratic frontrunner directly rebuked the concept of containing ISIS, something Obama claimed to have accomplished just hours before the coordinated terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on December 15, 2015 10 Comments
President Obama and the Defense Department are warning of the dangers of deploying ground troops to Syria without first answering whether ISIS can be defeated without them. Critics say the status quo is not doing the job.  Max Boot wrote in the Wall Street Journal on December 8 that air power alone cannot defeat ISIS.  The same morning, former Army Chief of Staff retired General Ray Odierno likewise told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that air power has never won any war in history, and added that “[y]ou can't defeat ISIS without having people on the ground.” On the other hand, Gen. Paul Selva, Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee the next day that, “[i]t's clear from ISIL's strategy that their objective is to cause us to engage in what they believe is an apocalyptic war with the West.”  Selva added, “anything that we do to feed that particular frame of thinking counters our national security.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 15, 2015 14 Comments
Last week, we reported that one of the San Bernardino killers, Syed Rizwan Farook, had pictures of educational institutions on his camera, indicating that high school and college campuses were potentially being targeted for future terror acts. Tuesday, the entire Los Angeles Unified School District has been shut down because of credible threats involving bombs and packages:
All Los Angeles Unified School District schools were closed Tuesday until further notice after LAUSD received a "credible threat," according to school district officials and police.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on December 14, 2015 18 Comments
Daesh (ISIS) is waging digital war and the Department of Homeland Security refuses to look at an applicant's digital footprint. That seems smart. But that's not even the worst part. DHS kept the no social media policy in place for fear of "bad public relations." Terrorist attacks on the homeland? Meh. We can't peruse a Mrs. San Bernardino Terrorist's Twitter feed because that might look bad! tumblr_mbx25zhydh1qkk6oystupidistthingeverheard_zps95af7487

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 14, 2015 18 Comments
We reported dive crews were searching a lake in San Bernardino for evidence related to the terror attack that left 14 Americans dead. It appears that investigators may have located some:
Divers recovered items from a lake in San Bernardino, Calif., where a couple who killed 14 at a nearby regional center Dec. 2 possibly dumped evidence on the day of their shooting spree, according to various media accounts,

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 13, 2015 8 Comments
While in Paris last month, Obama was petulant and dismissive in criticizing Republicans who "pop off" about his nearly imperceptible ISIS strategy. He said, "if folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan. If they think that somehow their advisers are better than my chairman of my Joint Chiefs of Staff and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them. " Setting aside the fact that Obama is not listening to his own advisors on the subject of ISIS and even required that intel about ISIS be modified to meet the WH narrative, this is a rhetorical strategy that has worked for him in other cases such as ObamaCare.  It's so effective for him that many Americans actually believe that Republicans have offered no ideas for health care reform should ObamaCare be repealed or simply collapse.  Obama hopes that the same thing will happen regarding ISIS, but so far at least, that does not seem to be the case. Instead, not only is the press pushing Obama on ISIS in the wake first of Paris and then—though less so—after the San Bernardino terror attack, but Republicans do have plans for defeating ISIS.  One such plan was released this week by Ted Cruz.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 11, 2015 17 Comments
Investigations are continuing into the terrorist couple, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, who slaughtered 14 coworkers in San Bernardino and were planning to kill the first responders with explosives. The quest for clues has led to a local lake:
An FBI dive team was searching a lake Thursday near the site of the terror attack in San Bernardino, California -- a spot where investigators were told the shooters spent time. The FBI would not discuss the specific evidence it was looking for, but said it was seeking "anything that had to do" with the shooting. ....The investigators appear to be combing an area near the shallow edge of the lake. The water is so murky that divers cannot actually see through it, so they are largely feeling their way through.
Investigators had received indications through leads that at some point they came to this park, though they didn't specify exactly what was being sought when reporters queried them.

Posted by Mike LaChance on December 11, 2015 55 Comments
As you may have heard, gun sales are soaring following the terror attack in San Bernardino. In fact, Black Friday saw more applications for necessary background checks than ever before. According to Josh Earnest, the White House doesn't appreciate this. David Rutz reported at the Washington Free Beacon:
White House: Recent Surge in American Gun Sales is ‘Ironic and Tragic’ White House spokesman Josh Earnest called it “ironic and tragic” Thursday that a spike in American gun sales has occurred in the wake of mass shootings in places like San Bernardino and Colorado Springs. On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the FBI did 175,754 background checks, part of the seventh consecutive record-breaking month in gun purchases. Gun rights experts told the Free Beacon that recent terrorist attacks and the Democratic push for more gun control have fueled this surge.
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