A “deafening’’ explosion rocked Chelsea Saturday night, injuring 29 people, blowing out scores of windows and forcing the evacuation of at least two buildings.
The blast went off in a 4-by-4-by-3-foot construction Dumpster outside the Townhouse Inn of Chelsea at 131 W. 23d St.
Mayor de Blasio called the explosion an “intentional act,’’ but not believed to be connected to terrorism.
Modal Trigger
But tensions only rose when, three hours after the blast, a second device was found four blocks away — a pressure cooker that an early investigation found was likely also a bomb.
“The bomb squad believes it’s real,” a police source with knowledge of the investigation told The Post of that second device, found at 27th Street between Sixth and Seventh avenues. The cooker was safely removed from the scene by NYPD.
Hint: It’s not primarily poverty, political grievances, feelings of marginalization or lack of integration. When will world leaders wake up?
BY RYAN MAURO
Tue, August 30, 2016
Almost 15 years after the 9/11 attacks, the West is still debating the cause of such terrorism even as repeated studies and common sense points in one direction: Islamist ideology based on certain religious interpretations.
Now we can add another study to this heap of evidence, as a new study of foreign fighters has confirmed that ideology is the primary factor.
The new study released by the Canadian Network for Research on Terrorism, Security and Society is based on interviews with 40 foreign fighters who went overseas to join Islamist terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria and 100 other relevant players, such as their family members and online supporters.
Of these, 15 joined the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL), 12 joined Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Qaeda’s Syrian wing), three joined the Free Syria Army and 10 joined other rebel groups, mostly jihadist in nature.
Here are five of the most important findings from the study:
The primary factor is religious interpretation.
“As our interactions with these individuals are so heavily mediated by a religious discourse, we also think that religiosity (i.e., sincere religious commitment, no matter how ill-informed or unorthodox) is a primary motivator for their actions. Religion provides the dominant frame these foreign fighters use to interpret almost every aspect of their lives.”
And:
“There is a real concern with real moral issues, with knowing and doing the right thing—again, not as determined by the seeming apathetic and corrupt surrounding society but by some higher or transcendent authority.”
This is the obvious conclusion that many observers have sought to deny, such as when former State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf said ISIS is caused by unemployment and subsequently defended her comments. She was laughed out of her job, but her illogical understanding of the problem remains pervasive as many Westerners desperately seek to find a more comforting and relatable cause than Islamism for Islamist terrorism.
One Western Muslim told the authors, “The zeal of jihad always struck me when I would sit in my room and read Quran with English translation. I would wonder how jihad was fought today.”
The political gripes of the Islamist terrorists are a subset of their religious gripes.
“[Most] provided justifications for being a foreign fighter that were largely moral and religious in character, more than explicitly political.”
The researchers found that the decision to become a foreign fighter was more about rejecting Western governments and societies than a decision to combat Western foreign policy.
The common mantra that Islamist radicalization is simply a religious expression of political protests over Western “imperialism” is false. The primary factor is the adoption of the ideology and those that hold that ideology will become exponentially more infuriated over the West’s foreign policy. If you believe in resurrecting the caliphate, then you’ll rage against the West’s presence in the Middle East that stands in your way.
It’s not about inequality.
“None indicate, directly or indirectly, that forms of socio-economic marginalization played a significant role in their motivations to become a foreign fighter.”
Here we have yet another study finding no connection between Islamist radicalization and unemployment, poverty, lack of education, broken families, mental illness, etc. About half of the foreign fighters in this sample went to university and one-third graduated.
The study identified five “ecological niches of homegrown terrorism:” Late modernity (our Internet-driven society); the immigrant experience (most come from Muslim immigrant families); youthful rebellion; ideology and group dynamics.
The linkage between Islamism and lack of integration is overemphasized.
“The correlation between marginalization or lack of integration and radicalization are not as robust as commonly assumed.”
Previous studies have shown a linkage between a lack of assimilation and Islamist radicalization. For example, Marc Sageman’s pivotal study based on 400 biographies of Al-Qaeda members found that80% “were, in some way, totally excluded from the society they lived in.”
This study doesn’t deny that a correlation exists, but rather that the correlation is played up too much. The authors refer to how some respondents described feeling out of place in the West as they saw how it conflicted with their faith. In these cases, the religious belief is prompting the individual to marginalize himself, as opposed to Western society marginalizing the individual and pushing him towards radical beliefs.
They aren’t lone wolves.
“The process of self-radicalization needs to be legitimated to be complete.”
The researchers found that, in most cases, “outside mentors” enter the Islamist’s life and guide him into becoming a foreign fighter. They are not lone wolves if they are being led, even if it is online.
The West can either craft a strategy for each Islamist terrorist group it goes up against, starting over and over with each new manifestation or it can target the common variable between all of them. This study, like others before it, finds that the common variable is Islamism and its foundational religious interpretations.
Ryan Mauro is ClarionProject.org’s national security analyst, a fellow with Clarion Project and an adjunct professor of homeland security. Mauro is frequently interviewed on top-tier television and radio. Read more, contact or arrange a speaking engagement.
How is your Merkelsommer going? For now, Britain seems to be missing the worst. True, a couple of men of Middle Eastern appearance tried to abduct a soldier near his base in Norfolk for what was unlikely to have been an interfaith dialogue session. But Britain’s geographical good fortune, relative success in limiting weapons and our justified scepticism of the undiscriminating ‘open borders’ brigade mean that we have so far been spared the delights of what Angela Merkel’s growing army of critics refer to as her summer of terror.
It is now a fortnight since Mohammed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ploughed a truck along the Nice seafront, killing 84 people. The following Monday Mohammed Riyad, who said he was from Afghanistan but almost certainly came from Pakistan, screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ while hacking with an axe at his fellow passengers on a Bavarian train. The next day another Mohammed, this time Mohamed Boufarkouch, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ and stabbed a Frenchwoman and her three daughters (aged eight, 12 and 14) near Montpelier. Mixing things up a little, that Friday’s shooter in Munich was a child of Iranians called Ali David Sonboly. Skip forward a couple of days and a ‘-Syrian asylum seeker’ with a machete was hacking a pregnant woman to death in Stuttgart. The next day another ‘Syrian asylum seeker’, Mohammad Daleel, carried out a suicide bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, Bavaria. And a little over 24 hours later two men shouting the name of Isis entered a church in Rouen during Mass, took the nuns and congregation hostage and slaughtered the priest with a knife.
Islamist knifemen forced priest, 84, to kneel and filmed his death as they slit his throat: Hollande says ‘France is at war with ISIS’ after jihadists storm French church during Mass chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’
Priest had throat cut while another hostage is fighting for life after knifemen burst into Normandy church at 9am Reports that one of the attackers shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they launched attack at Gambetta Church near Rouen Vatican has condemned the ‘barbaric’ killing of the 84-year-old priest and an anti-terror investigation is underway ISIS claim responsibility for the atrocity while Francois Hollande says France is ‘at war’ with the terror group One of the attackers lived locally and had electronic tag having been jailed in France for trying to travel to Syria French authorities revealed this afternoon that they have arrested a third man in connection with the attack
By PETER ALLEN IN FRANCE and JULIAN ROBINSON FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 03:55 EST, 26 July 2016 | UPDATED: 10:31 EST, 26 July 2016
The ISIS barbarians who stormed into a church in Normandy filmed themselves butchering an elderly priest after forcing him to the ground at the altar, it has emerged.
The 84-year-old priest, named as Jacques Hamel, had his throat cut while a nun is critically injured in hospital following the raid which saw five people held hostage by ISIS assailants shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’.
The two killers were ‘neutralised’ by marksmen as they emerged from the building, which is now being searched for explosives. French president Francois Hollande said France is ‘at war’ with ISIS while the terror group has claimed responsibility for the killing.
One of the men who stormed into the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray near Rouen during mass was a local man, who was being monitored by electronic tag after being jailed for trying to join fanatics in Syria.
This afternoon it emerged that the murdered clergyman was deputising while the parish priest was on holiday. French authorities say they have arrested a third man in connection with the attack.
It comes as it emerged that the building was one of a number of Catholic churches on a terrorist ‘hit list’ found on a suspected ISIS extremist last April.
There are also reports that one of the attackers was a local resident who was under electronic tag surveillance having been jailed in France for trying to travel to Syria in 2015. His bail terms allowed him to be unsupervised between 8.30am and 12.30pm – the attack happened between 9am and 11am.
BBC Scrubs ‘Ali’ From Munich Killer’s Name On TV, In Articles, AND On Social Media
The BBC has unilaterally chosen not to report the Munich attacker’s full name, in what appears to be an attempt to scrub any Muslim or Islamic heritage link to its coverage of the incident.
Most sources at this point suggest that Ali David Sonboly – the Munich attacker who targeted children and killed nine yesterday – is not connected to radical Islam, but the BBC has gone to extraordinary lengths to try to keep any reference to his heritage out of its coverage, opting to name him only as “David Sonboly”.
Other news organisations including the Wall Street Journal, Independent, Daily Mail, and Sky News named the attacker as “Ali David Sonboly” or “David Ali Sonboly”. CNN even referred to him simply as “Ali Sonboly
‘Boom boom boom – he’s killing the kids’: Gunman shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ executed children in Munich McDonald’s before rampaging through mall killing NINE with police now hunting three attackers
A number of people have been killed and another 10 people are injured after gunmen went on a shooting rampage
Police operation is ongoing in Munich, with the force warning people to stay in their homes and avoid public spaces
Terrified shoppers were seen running for their lives from the Olympia Shopping Centre after hearing gunshots
Witnesses said that the shopping centre gunman screamed ‘I’m German’ and ‘Allahu Akbar’ before shooting
Gunman reportedly fled after his shooting spree on the city underground network, which has now been shut down
City is in lockdown as police say they are searching for up to three gunmen, who are all on the run, after the attack
By ANTHONY JOSEPH and PATRICK LION and ALAN HALL IN BERLIN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:33 EST, 22 July 2016 | UPDATED: 17:24 EST, 22 July 2016
A gunman shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ opened fire at children in McDonald’s before rampaging through a shopping mall, killing at least eight people.
Munich is in lockdown tonight, as a major police operation is ongoing around the city’s Olympic Park, with the force warning people to stay in their homes and avoid public spaces.
A ninth body has been found tonight and investigators are looking into the possibility of it being the attacker.
Terrified shoppers were seen running for their lives from the Munich Olympia Shopping Centre, in the district of Moosach, after hearing gunshots.
Witnesses said that the gunman screamed ‘I’m German’ and ‘Allahu Akbar’ before shooting at children.
A woman named Loretta said she was in the McDonald’s when the man with a gun came out of a bathroom and began shooting.
She told CNN: ‘I come out of the toilet and I hear like an alarm, boom, boom, boom. He’s killing the children. The children were sitting to eat. They can’t run.’
Loretta said she had been in the bathroom at the same time as the shooter, with her eight-year-old son. She said the man yelled: ‘Allahu Akbar!’
Gunman in Munich opens fire at a McDonalds by the Olympia shopping centre
Unconfirmed reports that there could be shootings in city centre
Unconfirmed reports that there were three locations
Interior ministry says at least three killed
Gunmen still on the loose
Islamic State supporters celebrate on social media
Munich police are hunting for three gunmen who they believe have carried out attacks at three locations in the city.
On Twitter, the local forces said shootings had taken place at Hanauer Straße, then the Riesstraße, and also at the Olympia shopping center.
Yet the local state broadcaster said there was only one location – the shopping centre.
WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Terrorist uses lorry to mow down crowds during Bastille Day celebrations in Nice Death toll currently stands at 84, 202 were injured, 52 are in a critical condition and 25 are on life support machines ID card belonging to Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a French Tunisian man, 31, from Nice, found next to his body His cousin said Bouhlel, a father of three, told MailOnline he flouted every rule of Islam, beat his wife and took drugs Police say terrorist’s wife Hajer arrested and in custody as officers work on his motives and if he had accomplices At least 10 babies and children were killed, some in buggies, with least 54 children also being treated in hospital Eyewitnesses said driver zig-zagged at 40mph to hit crowds of people who were sent flying or jammed under wheels
By MARTIN ROBINSON, UK CHIEF REPORTER and NICK FAGGE IN NICE and SARAH DEAN and JAMES DUNN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 16:27 EST, 14 July 2016 | UPDATED: 14:07 EST, 15 July 2016
Police today arrested the wife of the ISIS fanatic who killed 84 people including at least ten children in Nice using a lorry and a handgun.
It has been revealed that killer Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, a French Tunisian and married father of three, was depressed about the break up of his marriage before he mounted pavements at high speed and ploughed through crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice last night.
He had separated from wife Hajer some two years ago following a series of violent arguments, and he was said to have been upset in recent months as their divorce had been finalised.
Today Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said police have arrested his wife, as detectives try to establish his motives and if he had accomplices.
Dramatic footage released today shows the moment he was shot dead by five police officers in the 19-tonne lorry he used as a murder weapon on his mile-long killing spree.
One eyewitness filmed armed officers approaching the cab of the lorry and firing repeatedly through its windscreen and doors before it appears Bouhlel can be heard screaming after being hit by a police bullet and he died slumped in the passenger seat.
Witness Nadar El Shafei told the BBC: ‘He died inside the vehicle – I saw his head [hanging] out of the window, they kept shooting him from all sides just to be sure. Then they asked us to run away in case there were others inside the car or a bomb.’
While the Obama administration continues to allow the Muslim Brotherhood to direct American foreign policy and, therefore, to implement “strategies” that render America defenseless in the face of Jihad and stealth Jihad, there are some alternative strategies that have the potential to turn this catastrophic situation around completely in America’s favor.
Below are 9 concrete steps that, if implemented by a future American administration, would make a big difference in preserving our civilization and in defending Americans from terrorism:
1. Label the Enemy and Make a Threat Assessment.
The Obama administration continues to refuse to label our enemy and, therefore, it continues to enable our defeat in the terror war. It is urgent that we name our enemy (i.e. Islamic Jihad) and definitively identify what ideology inspires our enemy (i.e. Islamic law).
2. Scrap “Countering Violent Extremism.”
“Countering Violent Extremism” is the pathetic and destructive focus of the Obama administration in allegedly fighting the terror war. On the one hand, this “focus” is vague to the point of being meaningless and completely incapacitates us. On the other hand, this focus allows the administration to perpetuate the destructive fantasy that there are other types of “extremists” — who just happen to be the Left’s political opponents — that pose a great threat to the country.
For example, as Stephen Coughlin has revealed, the “violent extremists” the administration is clearly worried about are the “right-wing Islamophobes” whom the administration obviously considers to be the real threat to American security.
The “Countering Violent Extremism” is trash and needs to be thrown in the garbage.
3. Stop “Partnering” With Muslim Brotherhood Front Groups.
The government needs to stop cooperating with, and listening to, Muslim Brotherhood front groups such as CAIR and ISNA immediately. The Muslim Brotherhood document, the Explanatory Memorandum, has made it clear that the Brotherhood’s objective is to destroy our civilization from within by our own hands with the influence of these groups. Moreover, as Robert Spencer advises, there needs to be legislation that will bar all such groups and affiliated individuals from advising the government or receiving any grants from it.
4. Implement a Concrete “Countering-Jihad” Strategy.
After discarding the “Countering Violent Extremism” absurdity, a concrete Counter-Jihad strategy must become an official policy. It must specifically register that Jihadists are the enemies and that Islamic law (Sharia) is what specifically motivates them.
Most importantly, as Sebastian Gorka urges in Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War, the government needs to lay down a vision, an actual “threat doctrine analysis” in a thorough document, just like George Kennan’s Long Telegram and NSC-68 did in laying out the strategic foundation to fighting communism in the Cold War. It is absolutely mind-boggling that nothing of this sort exists today in our terror war — and it is a reflection of the Left being in charge and of the destructive defeat that it is sowing.
4. Launch Our Own Counter-propaganda Campaign.
The Left and Islamists engage in propaganda 24/7. What does our propaganda war entail? Zilch.
Sebastian Gorka is crucially correct, therefore, when he recommends a national counter-propaganda campaign that involves a two-part approach: the first being the bolstering of efforts to define our enemy (Steps #1 and #4 above) and, second, the strengthening of our allies and partners in their own counter-propaganda efforts – which must include our empowering of Muslims who are trying to form an anti-Jihadist version of Islam.
Consequently, educational programs have to be set up everywhere, from public schools to universities to workplaces, in businesses and numerous other institutions. These programs must crystallize what exactly Islamic Law is and how it inspires and sanctions violence against unbelievers. This has to also involve, as Gorka urges, “a nationwide program of education that includes the armed services as well as federal, state, and local police forces and the intelligence community.”
The education campaign must also focus on the second part of Gorka’s counter-propaganda campaign, which is to help strengthen Muslims who seek to seize Islam from the jihadists’ hands.
6. Affirm Sharia’s Assault on the U.S. Constitution as Seditious.
Once the truth is accepted that jihadis are inspired and sanctioned by their Islamic texts, it must logically become required that mosques, Islamic schools and groups have to immediately curtail any teaching that motivates sedition, violence, and hatred of unbelievers (i.e. remember how CAIR advised Muslims not to talk to the FBI). Indeed, once the government discerns and labels the elements of Islamic law that threaten the American Constitution, any preaching and spreading of those elements in America must be labelled as seditious.
7. Put Pressure on Mosques, Islamic Groups and Schools.
Authorities have to start subjecting mosques and other Islamic institutions to surveillance — and discard the suicidal leftist notion that it is “racist” and Islamophobic to do so. Islamic institutions have to be made to buffer their lip-service against terror with actuallydoing something about it. As Robert Spencer counsels, this has to involve introducing programs that teach against jihadists’ understanding of Islam — and these programs have to be regularly monitored by the government. (This will be a part of Gorka’s suggested counter-propaganda campaign discussed in Step #5).
Spencer rightly stresses that the paradigm has to become that Muslim communities have to win the “trust” of intelligence and law enforcement agents, rather than the other way around, which is, absurdly and tragically, the case right now.
8. Bring Counter-Jihadists into the Government.
Instead of having Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers like Mohamed Elibiary serving on the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council (he “resigned” in Sept. 2014 under mysterious circumstances), and Muslim Brotherhood-linked individuals like Huma Abedin serving as the right-hand woman of Hillary Clinton, we need to bring in people who actually love America and want to protect it. We all know who these noble and courageous individuals are – and some of them are referenced in this article. The government must also bring in brave Muslim individuals who genuinely reject Jihad and empower them in propagating their anti-jihadist vision for Islam.
(P.S. Yes, there is an argument to be made that Islam cannot be Islam without Jihad. But the debate over this belongs in another forum. And whatever the answer, it does not mean that the effort to empower Muslims who want to make the anti-jihadist Islamic vision possible should not be made.)
9. Ridicule the Enemy.
Ridicule is a vicious and potent weapon. There is a baffling and shameful silence in our culture’s sphere of comedy, especially in Hollywood and our media, with regard to the myriad ingredients of Sharia and Jihad that merit at least a million hilarious satirical sketches.
Bill Maher, for whatever unappealing drawbacks he has in conservatives’ eyes, has set a bold standard in this respect in his Burka Fashion Show skit. American comedians need to start writing scripts that follow in Maher’s footsteps and Americans need to encourage and equip them to do so – and to also vigorously defend them from the attacks and slanders they will inevitably receive from totalitarian leftist and Islamic forces.
We must never underestimate the crippling effect of comedy on the totalitarian Mullahs of the world. Indeed, the contemptuous, snickering and roaring laughter of people, as they gaze at the pathetic rules and lives of Sharia’s gatekeepers, poses a danger to tyrants like no other.
Jamie Glazov is the editor of Frontpagemag.com. He holds a Ph.D. in History with a specialty in Russian, U.S. and Canadian foreign policy. He is the author of United in Hate, the host of the web-TV show, The Glazov Gang, and he can be reached atjamieglazov11@gmail.com.
Ridgewood NJ, Kennedy Odede knows a thing or two about falling into the clutches of a terror group.
Raised in devastating poverty in Africa’s largest urban slum, Kibera, Odede fell into a violent street gang as a child, drawn by the sense of belonging to a community united in its struggle for survival.
Now founder and CEO of the acclaimed nonprofit Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) and co-author of the New York Times bestselling book Find Me Unafraid:Love, Loss and Hope in an African Slum, Odede understands that similar to street gangs, terrorism is fueled by emptiness, despair and a lack of meaning.
Messages such as “Join the fight for freedom,” and “The western world is ruining us,” resonate with and attract people when their own communities, government, parents and social networks have nothing to offer.
The only viable solution, Odede says, is to attack the root cause — social disconnection — by engaging vulnerable individuals in their communities through activities such as sports, clean-up projects and education.
This is exactly what Odede and his wife Jessica Posner Odede did in founding SHOFCO, which transforms poor, urban communities in Kenya through tuition-free education for girls and holistic social services for all, filling the dangerous void created by despair with supportiveness and hope.
There’s much more on SHOFCO’s story and the outcome in Find Me Unafraid:Love, Loss and Hope in an African Slum, which Odede and Posner wrote together. It releases in paperback on July 26 (Ecco / Harper Collins). The book has received glowing praise from Chelsea Clinton, Gloria Steinem and several Nobel Prize Winners.
About Kennedy Odede
One of Africa’s best-known community organizers and social entrepreneurs, Kennedy Odede the co-author with Jessica Posner Odede of the New York Times bestselling book Find Me Unafraid:Love, Loss and Hope in an African Slum. Founder and CEO of the nonprofit Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) based in Kenya, he is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and was awarded the 2010 Echoing Green Fellowship, which is given to the world’s top emerging social entrepreneurs. He also won the 2010 Dell Social Innovation Competition and was named one of Forbes’ 2014 30 Under 30: Social Entrepreneurs.
Kennedy speaks six languages, is a senior fellow with Humanity in Action, and an Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow. His work has been featured in the PBS documentary Half the Sky, by Chelsea Clinton and Maria Menounos on NBC, by President Bill Clinton, and on multiple occasions by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times.
SHOFCO combats extreme poverty and gender inequality by linking schools for girls to a set of high-value, holistic community services for all. In 2016 it will reach 100,000 people.
Witnesses describe an exchange of gunfire between the driver and police as terror fears grow after incident in Nice
BY TOM MICHAEL
14th July 2016, 10:30 pm
AT least 73 have been killed and 100 injured after a suspected terrorist ploughed a lorry into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day in France.
Witnesses reported an exchange of gunfire in the aftermath of the incident which happened shortly after 10.30pm on the Promenade des Anglais .
The incident happened in the southern city of Nice on the French Riviera, where crowds had gathered for a firework display for the French national day.
Videos posted online showed panicked people running from the scene in fear, while witnesses reported terrified onlookers throwing themselves into the sea to escape the crush of bodies.
Victims were reportedly mown down over a 2km stretch of road, with some eye witnesses describing an exchange of gunfire between the driver and the police.
And photos emerging of what appeared to be the bullet-riddled windscreen of the lorry abandoned lorry in the middle of the road seemed to confirm the reports of a shootout.
(CNN)The long-classified pages detailing alleged Saudi Arabia government ties to the 9/11 hijackers will be released by Congress as early as Friday, sources told CNN Thursday.
Known as the “28 pages,” the document was part of a 2002 Congressional investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks and has been classified since the report’s completion.
Sources said there are still some procedural steps that need to be taken before the release.
Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said the report will be posted on line soon.
“The House Intelligence Committee will get the redacted report today or tomorrow,” Schiff said. “The Senate and House intel committees should then give the formal go ahead to release the report since they originally produced it.”
Under pressure from the victims’ families and lawmakers, President Barack Obama said in April his administration would declassify the pages. That same month, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said mid-June was a realistic target date for their release.
A three-part attack beginning with a diversion is a new level of sophistication. That should scare the U.S. and Europe.
Three months after attacking Brussels airport, terrorists have shown in the attack on Istanbul’s international airport an alarming ability to stay one move ahead of the defenses put in place to stop them—an agility in planning that could present a new and serious threat to airports in the U.S.
Most experts agree that the Istanbul atrocity has the hallmarks of ISIS. Even then, the sophistication of how the attack was carried out has surprised them.
It was carried out in a way that suggests the kind of advance intelligence, careful study of a target, and cool execution that would normally be practised by Western special forces.
Lynch: “Partial Transcript” Of Orlando 911 Calls Will Have References To Islamic Terrorism Removed
In an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd, Attorney General Loretta Lynch says that on Monday, the FBI will release edited transcripts of the 911 calls made by the Orlando nightclub shooter to the police during his rampage.
“What we’re not going to do is further proclaim this man’s pledges of alleigance to terrorist groups, and further his propaganda,” Lynch said. “We are not going to hear him make his assertions of allegiance [to the Islamic State].”
The Washington Post reported last week that the gunman made multiple phone calls while holding hostages: “The gunman who opened fire inside a nightclub here said he carried out the attack because he wanted ‘Americans to stop bombing his country,’ according to a witness who survived the rampage.”
Salon reported that: “Everybody who was in the bathroom who survived could hear him talking to 911, saying the reason why he’s doing this is because he wanted America to stop bombing his country.”
The Washington Post also noted that during his 911 call from the club, the gunman referenced the Boston Marathon bombers and claimed “that he carried out the shooting to prevent bombings, [echoing] a message the younger Boston attacker had scrawled in a note before he was taken into custody by police.”
FBI Director James Comey said at a press conference that the shooter’s past comments about Islamist groups were “inflammatory and contradictory.”
A group of radical Islamists attacked a listening party in Istanbul where Radiohead was holding a listening party for fans in support of their new album.
The men reportedly stormed the record store, Velvet Indieground, in Istanbul, Turkey, and used pipes to violently beat fans running away from the venue for drinking alcohol during the holy month of Ramadan.
“Our hearts go out to those attacked tonight at Velvet IndieGround in Istanbul,” Radiohead said in a statement. “We hope that someday we will be able to look back on such acts of violent intolerance as things of the ancient past. For now, we can only offer our fans in Istanbul our love and support.”
It’s unknown how many people were injured in the uproar or the severity of their injuries.
One of the store’s owners allegedly posted about the encounter on Reddit, saying, “I am the person that’s speaking in that video. I am the owner of that periscope account. They were determined to kill us. We were beaten by more than 20 men with pipes in their hands, beer bottles were broken on our heads. I don’t even know how we made it out. I will share the details later guys, just hoping that no one will die.”
The event was part of a global listening party in support of Radiohead’s new album, “A Moon Shaped Pool,” and included specially curated playlists, games, and limited-edition vinyls.
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