I'm Back this week. Let's watch the show now. This was such a whacky week but I realized why. Tonight is the full moon so its no wonder that the freaks came outta nowhere to get at me this week. It was not a bad week per se, but I had felt like my head was gonna explode. I maintain though, that I had the Magna Ball blues because last weekend was so epic being up in Watkins Glen, NY. I had the perfect weekend and therefore, I had to get back into the real world this hard week. Anyway, I cannot wait to dive into this show tonight!
And wow. Los Angeles Police will start wearing body cameras starting next month. Cool. Now they don't need people like the ones that filmed say the Rodney King beating.
And, yes. It is the 10th Anniversary after Hurricane Katrina and also yes, Georgie (Bush Jr.) is finally getting down to NOLA.
Bill is not talking about Donald Trump's hair while talking about the fact that he (Donald Trump) tried to prove that it was his real hair again yesterday. He allowed Barbara Walters to feel it. He allowed Mika Brzezinski to really feel his hair and then again, he allowed some random woman to feel it yesterday at some press conference.
I feel like that Jorge Ramos incident happened so long ago but I guess it did only happen this week.
BTW, I feel like that Hillary (Clinton) email scandal is not one either, but it is still in the air. Bill is also going over those Word Cloud's we wrote about this week on one of the Morning Joe recaps.
I also forgot about that Ashley Madison hacking but what is he saying now? 37,000,000 men have accounts on that site compared to their being 12,000 woman that have accounts. That is great. Great odds. Oh wow. Rick Santorum is on now. This should be good.
Bill and his guests tonight are Rick Santorum (Rick Santorum is a former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and a Republican candidate for President. He is the author of the 2014 book Blue Collar Conservatives: Recommitting to an America That Works, and a co-author – with his wife and daughter – of Bella’s Gift, which came out in February. Twitter: @ricksantorum), Robert Costa whom of course sees (Phish) shows, Wendy Davis, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Michael Weiss and holy canoli. Rick (Santorum) admitted to smoking pot. Now that is a funny joke about there being no mud in California for Bill to roll him through. Clever and quick witted joke. Rick is actually seeming real tonight. I love what he just rebutted to Bill about his comments about sex and imposing his views about sex in general on to other people. I actually agree that people that use Ashley Madison are immoral. I agree whole heartidly with that one.
Next, two amazing questions are asked to him. One is about what he would do about Climate issues and the other is what he would do to get money back out of politics. Rick does not believe there are problems with our environment as he throws out some comments that he calls facts. But they are not facts. Bill and former Rick Santorum also now discuss the Pope's stance on climate change in this clip.
Hey Rick. Al Gore was joking about being Catholic because the Pope said what he did about climate issues. Please. That is asinine to take that as literal statement. Gore was psyched about the Pope's comments in this regard and made that joke.
The panel again tonight is Robert Costa whom is a National Political Reporter for The Washington Post. He was previously the Washington Editor for National Review. He covered Donald Trump’s recent rally in Alabama, which he wrote about in his article, “Trump’s audacious Southern spectacle is part of his strategy.” Twitter: @costareports. Along with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) whom is the Congressman from California’s 48th district, currently serving his 14th term in office; he is a senior member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, where he chairs the Subcommittee on Europe, Asia and Emerging Threats. Twitter: @danarohrabacher. And, the third guest tonight is Wendy Davis whom is a former State Senator from Texas and was a candidate for Governor in 2014. She is the author of the book Forgetting to Be Afraid: A Memoir. Twitter: @wendydavis.
OK. About the gun safety issue and about that beloved 2nd Amendment because I am over this ridiculous mentality. And, honestly, last night in an idol conversation with one of my oldest and greatest friend (Jodi Block Paisner), she set me straight because i said the very same thing Bill just said which is how do you determine mental issues with regard to keeping a gun out of whomever's hands, without crushing its' civil liberties? Her answer was this, "The constitution is supposed to be fluid. The original drafters wrote it with the understanding that it would need to be changed with time. It has been amended something like 17 times in 240 years. Three times for slavery. Once for civil rights. Once to allow women to vote. Once for prohibition and another time to repeal that. Once for income taxes." I then saw the great point because think about it now and/or I said that "for instance, don't you think this part of it should be altered today?" and she replied saying this to me "the 2nd amendment: a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and ear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Also, Bill is so right about the women's issues that if someone is raped, it is beyond her control that it happened. Then, she gets pregnant which is another thing beyond her control. Only to what? Demand her or force her to do another thing she may not want to do. Listen. The bottom line is that it is the choice of that person. No wants to get an abortion. not one human wants that to happen in their lives. But fundamentally, it is the persons choice and so everyone must let it go. Let whomever be and live their life their ways. Its wild that people want to control other people. That is odd behavior. I am sorry. Worry about your own self and let whomever make their own decision no matter what it is in life. This is not brain surgery here.
Anyway, have you seen the latest Uncosmopolitan Magazine?
Funny stuuf. Today's Mid-Show Interview is with Michael Weiss whom is a Senior Editor for The Daily Beast, and author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. He is a contributor to Foreign Policy and CNN, as well as editor of The Interpreter magazine. He reported from war-torn Aleppo, Syria in August 2012, and from Syrian refugee camps in southern Turkey in May 2012. Twitter:@michaeldweiss.
Al Qaeda Trash Talks ISIS
Yes, it sounds funny in a sick kind of way, but al Qaeda is actually right about ISIS’s wanton murder of Muslims.
Al Qaeda is at it again. The group is trolling ISIS, which is increasingly becoming its favorite target (next to America, of course). The trash-talk between these two is starting to rival the hype before a WWE championship wrestling match.
But the lethal battle between them makes one thing clear: Their actions are truly not about religious ideals. Rather, their focus is on the far more secular goal of advancing their respective political agendas.
That doesn’t mean the both ISIS and al Qaeda don’t invoke Islam when helpful. In fact, al Qaeda’s latest trolling of ISIS cites Islamic principles. This took place a few days ago in the latest issue of al Qaeda’s magazine where, in a Seinfeldesque “Soup Nazi” type way, al Qaeda told ISIS: “No paradise for you.”
Why does al Qaeda claim that ISIS’s fighters will not be heading to paradise, known in Islam as “jannah”? Because ISIS fighters have slaughtered Muslims in large numbers as well as other religious minorities.
As Adam Gadahn, the al Qaeda spokesman who was recently killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan, explained in the current issue of the al Qaeda magazine (presumably he was speaking not from paradise but from here on Earth, before the drone found him), ISIS’s horrible crimes committed “against Muslims cannot simply be overlooked or forgotten with time.” He also condemned ISIS for “attacking and displacing largely powerless and defenseless minorities and slaughtering their men and enslaving their women and children.”
Gadahn warned in dire terms that there will be “severe punishment” and “darkness” on “the Day of Judgment” for ISIS fighters because of committing these immoral actions, as well as for those “who encouraged, condoned or justified them, even if from behind a computer or mobile phone thousands of miles away.” He added, “Jihad is not a video game; it is real life, with real consequences, in this world and the next.”
Our elected officials and media should echo al Qaeda’s latest message of publicizing ISIS’s daily slaughter of fellow Muslims. This hopefully will make it more challenging for ISIS to secure the vital resources it needs to survive.
First off, you have to fight laughing when you hear al Qaeda, a group that has slaughtered thousands of innocent people, attempt to take the moral high ground. But there is a method to al Qaeda’s madness. They are in a life-and-death competition with ISIS for recruits and funds and they believe these types of attacks can hurt ISIS on both fronts.
Al Qaeda is emphasizing that ISIS has been slaughtering Muslims, including Sunnis, in large numbers to undermine ISIS’s appeal to other Muslims. I wrote about this very issue in October where I set forth in detail the brutal murders of Sunni Muslims, including women and children, at the hands of ISIS. My point was to implore the U.S. media to cover ISIS’s butchering of Muslims—not just the horrific killing of Christians or Westerners—because it could hurt ISIS’s recruitment efforts in the long run among Muslims.
Keep in mind that al Qaeda has seen firsthand what happens when you start killing your fellow Sunni Muslims in large numbers. This was one of the primary reasons that Sunni leaders in the Anbar province of Iraq united in 2006, in what is called the “Anbar awaking,” to fight al Qaeda, as explained to me by Laith Alkhouri, a NBC News counterterrorism expert and director of research and analysis for the Middle East at Flashpoint. Sunni leaders then fought side by side with Iraq security forces and U.S. troops, ultimately ending al Qaeda’s rule of the area.
Al Qaeda’s new criticism of ISIS is also interestingly an attempt to “out Muslim” ISIS. New York City-based Imam Shamsi Ali, who recently traveled to his home country of Indonesia to counter ISIS’s recruitment efforts there, explained that al Qaeda is cleverly trying to recruit young Muslims to their cause by positioning themselves as more “Islamic and more ethical than ISIS.” But as Ali notes, al Qaeda is no such thing. That’s why he’s working tirelessly to ensure that young Muslims don’t fall for the lies of either al Qaeda or ISIS.
Ali, like Alkhouri, made it explicitly clear that neither ISIS nor al Qaeda’s actions are predicated upon the tenets of Islam. Rather, as Alkhouri succinctly put it, both ISIS and al Qaeda have “agendas that are purely political with a flavor of Islamic principles.” And they are both using the “flavor of Islam” to entice new recruits, raise funds, and counter each other.
But before you dismiss this as another attempt by me or other Muslims to claim ISIS and al Qaeda’s actions are not based on Islam, here’s something else to keep in mind. If ISIS and al Qaeda were truly following the principles of Islam, why are they locked in a deadly fight with each other? And their battles are far more than trolling each other on Twitter. As Alkhouri explained, ISIS and al Qaeda fighters are “literally beheading each other in military battles.”
The reality is that al Qaeda and ISIS are both about power, ego, vanity, and everything else that leads political groups to splinter from each other. As Daniel Byman, the director of research and a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, recently said in his testimony before Congress, the battle between al Qaeda and ISIS is based on differing political agendas. That is why the current leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, broke from al Qaeda in 2014 after clashing repeatedly with al Qaeda leadership over the direction the terrorist group should follow, but not over religious differences.
The war of words and weapons between ISIS and al Qaeda will continue until one prevails. But our elected officials and media should echo al Qaeda’s latest message of publicizing ISIS’s daily slaughter of fellow Muslims. This hopefully will make it more challenging for ISIS to secure the vital resources it needs to survive. That could very well mean the end of ISIS and, ironically enough, free up our resources to focus more on defeating al Qaeda.
France Terrorism 2015: After Train Attack, Charlie Hebdo, French Try To Step Up Anti-Terror Efforts But Brace For More Violence.
For much of the past two decades, French domestic security has been hailed as the gold standard in European defense circles. Where some neighboring nations experienced deadly terrorist attacks, such as the 2005 London subway bombing that killed 52 people, France’s offices, streets and subways remained largely devoid of high death tolls and terrorism.
“[France] had a strong reputation for the simple and striking fact that there had not been any major terrorist attack between 1986 and 2012,” said Frank Foley, a professor at King’s College in London who specializes in counter-terrorism. “People looked to that and said, 'What are the French doing?”
France's reputation for keeping its citizens safe from terrorism took a major hit in 2015 -- first with the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January that left 12 at the satirical magazine dead in Paris, then days later with two shootings at a suburban kosher market and again Friday, with the attempted attack on a Paris-bound high-speed train that resulted in terrorism charges for one man. Heated debate among French officials and security analysts has raged throughout the year over the effectiveness of the country’s security mechanisms. While some counter-terrorism experts in France have urged the country's leadership to take a more aggressive approach toward fighting terrorism by expanding the "Sentinelle" surveillance system and special task forces within the national police, other defense experts said they feared all the vigilance in the world could not prevent the inevitable: another terror attack in the near future.
“At the end of the day, no matter how much you improve, the nature of terrorism is that some individuals are able to slip through the cracks” said Foley. Though a large-scale terrorist attack on par with 9/11 was unlikely to happen, he said, when it comes to frequent, small-scale attack attempts, “This is something that society will have to get used to.”
The first re-evaluations of the French domestic security approach began in January after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. In addition to the deaths of 12 people in that instance, four more people were killed two days later in a related hostage situation by a friend of the Charlie Hebdo attackers. The violence rocked not just France but all of Europe, inciting fear across the continent of similar attacks.
French citizens’ wariness of Muslims was further heightened after last week’s attempted train attack, which was staged by a Moroccan national suspected of having links to the Islamic State militant group. Those fears were already well established following the Charlie Hebdo incident, which was perpetrated by two self-identified Islamists, and worries of another Islamist attack have since grown considerably.
“There is a lack of discernment,” said Antoine Sfeir, a Franco-Lebanese journalist who has written several books on Muslims in the West. “The French are convinced that the entire Arab population is Muslim and that all Muslims are possible Islamists,” Sfeir said, adding that most of the Muslim population in France has embraced a secular lifestyle.
France has one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe, estimated at around 1 million people. Many Muslim families in France have lived there for more than half a century and feel completely integrated into broader society. A portion of the Muslim population, however, has said they feel marginalized by certain French laws and traditions, such as a 2010 law that banned all religious symbols in schools, including the hijab, or Muslim headscarf.
“We talk too much about Muslims,” said Fateh Kimouche, a French activist and practicing Muslim. “When a Muslim is a criminal, we punish him for his Muslim-ness, not his crime."
The French government, the ministry of the interior and the ministry of defense have responded to fears of another attack through several new counter-terrorism measures instituted in January as well as a revamped anti-terror task force. "We must prepare for other attacks," French President François Hollande said Monday in a statement following Friday's foiled train attack.
As part of the upgrades to and expansions of its national security programs, the country's defense ministry put an emphasis on heightened surveillance of suspicious individuals. The “Sentinelle” program, a government-run surveillance system that has existed since the 1980s, hired hundreds more analysts and put an emphasis on aggressive monitoring of possible extremists. There are estimated to be at least 10,000 police or agents who patrol the streets, surveying train stations, suspicious individuals and religious sites.
Highlighted among the revamped details in 2015 was the GIGN, or the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, a specialized task force within the French national police that is trained to respond to emergency attack and hostage situations. The intervention group has existed since 1975, but it was repurposed to focus more specifically on counter-terrorism. GIGN does not do any surveillance, however, as they are strictly an intervention team.
After the attempted train attack Friday, when a potential bloodbath was averted by three off-duty U.S. servicemen and several bystanders who wrestled a heavily armed gunman to the ground while being shot and stabbed in the process, French security experts again re-evaluated security measures. Some argued for increased security checks on trains, especially those that cross national borders.
But heightened security in public places would not be a practical solution, said Axel Dyevre, a private security consultant and former French military officer. “You can’t police a train; it’s impossible,” he said. “Think about how it would be if you went into the subway and you had to pass through airport security.”
Dyevre, like many of his colleagues said he believed surveillance, rather than increased security, was the best way to pinpoint terrorists before they struck. “In order to protect ourselves from terrorism, it’s more a question of intelligence,” he said.
Given that the assailant in the train attack, Ayoub El-Khazzani, was on several watch-lists, certain analysts have said that surveillance needs to include mandatory intervention and interrogation. Khazzani had for many months been flagged by the French government as a "Fiche S," or State Security Risk. Individuals are categorized as "Fiche S" as a result of committing crimes of varied natures, ranging from banditry to terrorism, but the categorization does not require further attention or surveillance, according to French newspaper Libération. As of June 2015, more than 400,000 people were on that list.
There were only about 30 individuals on the terror watch list who France should immediately detain and question, according to Christian Harbulot, a French intelligence and defense expert.
“It's nice to know who's thinking about attacking French soil," said Harbulot, but "surveillance alone can accomplish nothing at all."
And, it is time for New Rules. New Rules folks:
regardless of it all happening onthis crazy, crazy week, please...stay...in touch!
And, yes. It is the 10th Anniversary after Hurricane Katrina and also yes, Georgie (Bush Jr.) is finally getting down to NOLA.
Bill is not talking about Donald Trump's hair while talking about the fact that he (Donald Trump) tried to prove that it was his real hair again yesterday. He allowed Barbara Walters to feel it. He allowed Mika Brzezinski to really feel his hair and then again, he allowed some random woman to feel it yesterday at some press conference.
I feel like that Jorge Ramos incident happened so long ago but I guess it did only happen this week.
BTW, I feel like that Hillary (Clinton) email scandal is not one either, but it is still in the air. Bill is also going over those Word Cloud's we wrote about this week on one of the Morning Joe recaps.
I also forgot about that Ashley Madison hacking but what is he saying now? 37,000,000 men have accounts on that site compared to their being 12,000 woman that have accounts. That is great. Great odds. Oh wow. Rick Santorum is on now. This should be good.
Next, two amazing questions are asked to him. One is about what he would do about Climate issues and the other is what he would do to get money back out of politics. Rick does not believe there are problems with our environment as he throws out some comments that he calls facts. But they are not facts. Bill and former Rick Santorum also now discuss the Pope's stance on climate change in this clip.
The panel again tonight is Robert Costa whom is a National Political Reporter for The Washington Post. He was previously the Washington Editor for National Review. He covered Donald Trump’s recent rally in Alabama, which he wrote about in his article, “Trump’s audacious Southern spectacle is part of his strategy.” Twitter: @costareports. Along with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) whom is the Congressman from California’s 48th district, currently serving his 14th term in office; he is a senior member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, where he chairs the Subcommittee on Europe, Asia and Emerging Threats. Twitter: @danarohrabacher. And, the third guest tonight is Wendy Davis whom is a former State Senator from Texas and was a candidate for Governor in 2014. She is the author of the book Forgetting to Be Afraid: A Memoir. Twitter: @wendydavis.
OK. About the gun safety issue and about that beloved 2nd Amendment because I am over this ridiculous mentality. And, honestly, last night in an idol conversation with one of my oldest and greatest friend (Jodi Block Paisner), she set me straight because i said the very same thing Bill just said which is how do you determine mental issues with regard to keeping a gun out of whomever's hands, without crushing its' civil liberties? Her answer was this, "The constitution is supposed to be fluid. The original drafters wrote it with the understanding that it would need to be changed with time. It has been amended something like 17 times in 240 years. Three times for slavery. Once for civil rights. Once to allow women to vote. Once for prohibition and another time to repeal that. Once for income taxes." I then saw the great point because think about it now and/or I said that "for instance, don't you think this part of it should be altered today?" and she replied saying this to me "the 2nd amendment: a well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and ear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Also, Bill is so right about the women's issues that if someone is raped, it is beyond her control that it happened. Then, she gets pregnant which is another thing beyond her control. Only to what? Demand her or force her to do another thing she may not want to do. Listen. The bottom line is that it is the choice of that person. No wants to get an abortion. not one human wants that to happen in their lives. But fundamentally, it is the persons choice and so everyone must let it go. Let whomever be and live their life their ways. Its wild that people want to control other people. That is odd behavior. I am sorry. Worry about your own self and let whomever make their own decision no matter what it is in life. This is not brain surgery here.
Anyway, have you seen the latest Uncosmopolitan Magazine?
Al Qaeda Trash Talks ISIS
Yes, it sounds funny in a sick kind of way, but al Qaeda is actually right about ISIS’s wanton murder of Muslims.
Al Qaeda is at it again. The group is trolling ISIS, which is increasingly becoming its favorite target (next to America, of course). The trash-talk between these two is starting to rival the hype before a WWE championship wrestling match.
But the lethal battle between them makes one thing clear: Their actions are truly not about religious ideals. Rather, their focus is on the far more secular goal of advancing their respective political agendas.
That doesn’t mean the both ISIS and al Qaeda don’t invoke Islam when helpful. In fact, al Qaeda’s latest trolling of ISIS cites Islamic principles. This took place a few days ago in the latest issue of al Qaeda’s magazine where, in a Seinfeldesque “Soup Nazi” type way, al Qaeda told ISIS: “No paradise for you.”
Why does al Qaeda claim that ISIS’s fighters will not be heading to paradise, known in Islam as “jannah”? Because ISIS fighters have slaughtered Muslims in large numbers as well as other religious minorities.
As Adam Gadahn, the al Qaeda spokesman who was recently killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan, explained in the current issue of the al Qaeda magazine (presumably he was speaking not from paradise but from here on Earth, before the drone found him), ISIS’s horrible crimes committed “against Muslims cannot simply be overlooked or forgotten with time.” He also condemned ISIS for “attacking and displacing largely powerless and defenseless minorities and slaughtering their men and enslaving their women and children.”
Gadahn warned in dire terms that there will be “severe punishment” and “darkness” on “the Day of Judgment” for ISIS fighters because of committing these immoral actions, as well as for those “who encouraged, condoned or justified them, even if from behind a computer or mobile phone thousands of miles away.” He added, “Jihad is not a video game; it is real life, with real consequences, in this world and the next.”
Our elected officials and media should echo al Qaeda’s latest message of publicizing ISIS’s daily slaughter of fellow Muslims. This hopefully will make it more challenging for ISIS to secure the vital resources it needs to survive.
First off, you have to fight laughing when you hear al Qaeda, a group that has slaughtered thousands of innocent people, attempt to take the moral high ground. But there is a method to al Qaeda’s madness. They are in a life-and-death competition with ISIS for recruits and funds and they believe these types of attacks can hurt ISIS on both fronts.
Al Qaeda is emphasizing that ISIS has been slaughtering Muslims, including Sunnis, in large numbers to undermine ISIS’s appeal to other Muslims. I wrote about this very issue in October where I set forth in detail the brutal murders of Sunni Muslims, including women and children, at the hands of ISIS. My point was to implore the U.S. media to cover ISIS’s butchering of Muslims—not just the horrific killing of Christians or Westerners—because it could hurt ISIS’s recruitment efforts in the long run among Muslims.
Keep in mind that al Qaeda has seen firsthand what happens when you start killing your fellow Sunni Muslims in large numbers. This was one of the primary reasons that Sunni leaders in the Anbar province of Iraq united in 2006, in what is called the “Anbar awaking,” to fight al Qaeda, as explained to me by Laith Alkhouri, a NBC News counterterrorism expert and director of research and analysis for the Middle East at Flashpoint. Sunni leaders then fought side by side with Iraq security forces and U.S. troops, ultimately ending al Qaeda’s rule of the area.
Al Qaeda’s new criticism of ISIS is also interestingly an attempt to “out Muslim” ISIS. New York City-based Imam Shamsi Ali, who recently traveled to his home country of Indonesia to counter ISIS’s recruitment efforts there, explained that al Qaeda is cleverly trying to recruit young Muslims to their cause by positioning themselves as more “Islamic and more ethical than ISIS.” But as Ali notes, al Qaeda is no such thing. That’s why he’s working tirelessly to ensure that young Muslims don’t fall for the lies of either al Qaeda or ISIS.
Ali, like Alkhouri, made it explicitly clear that neither ISIS nor al Qaeda’s actions are predicated upon the tenets of Islam. Rather, as Alkhouri succinctly put it, both ISIS and al Qaeda have “agendas that are purely political with a flavor of Islamic principles.” And they are both using the “flavor of Islam” to entice new recruits, raise funds, and counter each other.
But before you dismiss this as another attempt by me or other Muslims to claim ISIS and al Qaeda’s actions are not based on Islam, here’s something else to keep in mind. If ISIS and al Qaeda were truly following the principles of Islam, why are they locked in a deadly fight with each other? And their battles are far more than trolling each other on Twitter. As Alkhouri explained, ISIS and al Qaeda fighters are “literally beheading each other in military battles.”
The reality is that al Qaeda and ISIS are both about power, ego, vanity, and everything else that leads political groups to splinter from each other. As Daniel Byman, the director of research and a senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings, recently said in his testimony before Congress, the battle between al Qaeda and ISIS is based on differing political agendas. That is why the current leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, broke from al Qaeda in 2014 after clashing repeatedly with al Qaeda leadership over the direction the terrorist group should follow, but not over religious differences.
The war of words and weapons between ISIS and al Qaeda will continue until one prevails. But our elected officials and media should echo al Qaeda’s latest message of publicizing ISIS’s daily slaughter of fellow Muslims. This hopefully will make it more challenging for ISIS to secure the vital resources it needs to survive. That could very well mean the end of ISIS and, ironically enough, free up our resources to focus more on defeating al Qaeda.
France Terrorism 2015: After Train Attack, Charlie Hebdo, French Try To Step Up Anti-Terror Efforts But Brace For More Violence.
“[France] had a strong reputation for the simple and striking fact that there had not been any major terrorist attack between 1986 and 2012,” said Frank Foley, a professor at King’s College in London who specializes in counter-terrorism. “People looked to that and said, 'What are the French doing?”
France's reputation for keeping its citizens safe from terrorism took a major hit in 2015 -- first with the Charlie Hebdo massacre in January that left 12 at the satirical magazine dead in Paris, then days later with two shootings at a suburban kosher market and again Friday, with the attempted attack on a Paris-bound high-speed train that resulted in terrorism charges for one man. Heated debate among French officials and security analysts has raged throughout the year over the effectiveness of the country’s security mechanisms. While some counter-terrorism experts in France have urged the country's leadership to take a more aggressive approach toward fighting terrorism by expanding the "Sentinelle" surveillance system and special task forces within the national police, other defense experts said they feared all the vigilance in the world could not prevent the inevitable: another terror attack in the near future.
“At the end of the day, no matter how much you improve, the nature of terrorism is that some individuals are able to slip through the cracks” said Foley. Though a large-scale terrorist attack on par with 9/11 was unlikely to happen, he said, when it comes to frequent, small-scale attack attempts, “This is something that society will have to get used to.”
The first re-evaluations of the French domestic security approach began in January after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. In addition to the deaths of 12 people in that instance, four more people were killed two days later in a related hostage situation by a friend of the Charlie Hebdo attackers. The violence rocked not just France but all of Europe, inciting fear across the continent of similar attacks.
French citizens’ wariness of Muslims was further heightened after last week’s attempted train attack, which was staged by a Moroccan national suspected of having links to the Islamic State militant group. Those fears were already well established following the Charlie Hebdo incident, which was perpetrated by two self-identified Islamists, and worries of another Islamist attack have since grown considerably.
“There is a lack of discernment,” said Antoine Sfeir, a Franco-Lebanese journalist who has written several books on Muslims in the West. “The French are convinced that the entire Arab population is Muslim and that all Muslims are possible Islamists,” Sfeir said, adding that most of the Muslim population in France has embraced a secular lifestyle.
France has one of the largest Muslim populations in Europe, estimated at around 1 million people. Many Muslim families in France have lived there for more than half a century and feel completely integrated into broader society. A portion of the Muslim population, however, has said they feel marginalized by certain French laws and traditions, such as a 2010 law that banned all religious symbols in schools, including the hijab, or Muslim headscarf.
“We talk too much about Muslims,” said Fateh Kimouche, a French activist and practicing Muslim. “When a Muslim is a criminal, we punish him for his Muslim-ness, not his crime."
The French government, the ministry of the interior and the ministry of defense have responded to fears of another attack through several new counter-terrorism measures instituted in January as well as a revamped anti-terror task force. "We must prepare for other attacks," French President François Hollande said Monday in a statement following Friday's foiled train attack.
As part of the upgrades to and expansions of its national security programs, the country's defense ministry put an emphasis on heightened surveillance of suspicious individuals. The “Sentinelle” program, a government-run surveillance system that has existed since the 1980s, hired hundreds more analysts and put an emphasis on aggressive monitoring of possible extremists. There are estimated to be at least 10,000 police or agents who patrol the streets, surveying train stations, suspicious individuals and religious sites.
Highlighted among the revamped details in 2015 was the GIGN, or the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group, a specialized task force within the French national police that is trained to respond to emergency attack and hostage situations. The intervention group has existed since 1975, but it was repurposed to focus more specifically on counter-terrorism. GIGN does not do any surveillance, however, as they are strictly an intervention team.
After the attempted train attack Friday, when a potential bloodbath was averted by three off-duty U.S. servicemen and several bystanders who wrestled a heavily armed gunman to the ground while being shot and stabbed in the process, French security experts again re-evaluated security measures. Some argued for increased security checks on trains, especially those that cross national borders.
But heightened security in public places would not be a practical solution, said Axel Dyevre, a private security consultant and former French military officer. “You can’t police a train; it’s impossible,” he said. “Think about how it would be if you went into the subway and you had to pass through airport security.”
Dyevre, like many of his colleagues said he believed surveillance, rather than increased security, was the best way to pinpoint terrorists before they struck. “In order to protect ourselves from terrorism, it’s more a question of intelligence,” he said.
Given that the assailant in the train attack, Ayoub El-Khazzani, was on several watch-lists, certain analysts have said that surveillance needs to include mandatory intervention and interrogation. Khazzani had for many months been flagged by the French government as a "Fiche S," or State Security Risk. Individuals are categorized as "Fiche S" as a result of committing crimes of varied natures, ranging from banditry to terrorism, but the categorization does not require further attention or surveillance, according to French newspaper Libération. As of June 2015, more than 400,000 people were on that list.
There were only about 30 individuals on the terror watch list who France should immediately detain and question, according to Christian Harbulot, a French intelligence and defense expert.
“It's nice to know who's thinking about attacking French soil," said Harbulot, but "surveillance alone can accomplish nothing at all."
Last, here is Overtime with everyone tonight:
