Tag: attack

So at what point do we call this a domestic Islamist terror attack?

Oh, right. That’s scheduled for the Fifth of Never, as S.M. Stirling might say.

They’ll go with ‘lone wolf,’ which has the ‘advantage’ of being technically accurate while ignoring that groups such as ISIS have been looking for suitable ‘lone wolves’ for some time now. …And this is the point where the conversation gets tangled up and people end up glaring at each other, so let me just say that we will not resolve the problem until we admit that there is a problem. And by ‘we’ I mean ‘the current administration.’

Jihadi dragged into French courtroom, blindfolded and barefoot.

The French are being merciful.

Seriously, the guy’s still alive and has all his parts. Although I imagine that he’s had an exquisitely unpleasant time the last few days before whatever French counter-terrorism agency has possession threw some clothes on the jihadi and took him to be arraigned. Mind you, the fact that they’re actually charging him means that my earlier assumption that the fellow would go into in a French rendition black site and never, ever come out again is probably incorrect.

Which is just as well. Such places… well. They’re kind of poisoned fruit, really.

Moe Lane

Probable Islamist attack in Paris: 11 dead at satirical magazine.

Via @PhilWillSays comes this report of Islamist* terror in Paris: “Armed men stormed the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday morning, killing 11 people and injuring more, French President François Hollande said. The men opened fire inside the magazine’s offices using automatic AK-47 rifles before fleeing, a police officer said.” The ‘Islamist’ bit is not yet confirmed; but, given that this isn’t the first time that the magazine has been violently attacked (not to mentioned threatened, criticized, and sued), and given that every other time it’s been over Charlie Hebdo’s willingness to ‘draw Mohammad’ – well, it’s a well-traveled road at this point, no?

The French actually do not suffer as many attacks like these as one might expect, given how often their banlieues riot.  And I fully expect that the French anti-terror domestic security apparatus will be doing quite a bit to make sure that future attacks of this sort are discouraged.  That’s a polite, bloodless way of saying “Roughly several hundred people involved in radical Islamism will be snatched off of French streets in the next few weeks, and then tortured** for information. Many will not survive the process.” I don’t think that this is actually a superior way to handle things – frankly, it reeks of a colonialist mindset that has plagued Europeans for the last six decades –  but it is very much a French way of handling things.

In the meantime, our prayers and thoughts for the people attacked and murdered.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*Note suffix.  That is not a request, by the way.

**No, I don’t mean water-boarding. I mean the stuff that you don’t want to think about too much.

#rsrh *Somebody* in this adminstration lied to the American people about the Libyan Embassy attack.

Who.
Was.
It?

Let me summarize this bombshell from the Daily Beast – and yes, the term ‘bombshell’ qualifies:

Within 24 hours of the 9-11 anniversary attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi, U.S. intelligence agencies had strong indications al Qaeda–affiliated operatives were behind the attack, and had even pinpointed the location of one of those attackers. Three separate U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to The Daily Beast said the early information was enough to show that the attack was planned and the work of al Qaeda affiliates operating in Eastern Libya.

If this is true, then one of two things happened: either UN Ambassador Susan Rice lied to the American people the Sunday after the attack… Continue reading #rsrh *Somebody* in this adminstration lied to the American people about the Libyan Embassy attack.

Almost the Ultimate Carter Moment in Damascus.

Here is a free hint to all appointed members of the Obama administration: if Syrian ‘loyalists’ follow up today’s attack against the US Embassy in Damascus:

Protesters loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad briefly broke into the US embassy in Damascus on Monday and security guards used live ammunition to prevent them storming the French embassy, diplomats said.

…by actually seizing the embassy?  If that happens, start updating your resumes.  And don’t bother with sending them along to Democratic House Members (and any Democratic Senator up for re-election in 2012): we’ll be throwing them out of office, too.

Fair warning.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: I’d like to know what the rules of engagement are for our embassy guards in Damascus, too.