General CT in Europe (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

A debate on the Forum, started a couple of days ago on the current thread on French CT, deserves a thread - for the debate and wider implications, especially as savagery is a feature (hat tip to Adam G for his post).

This post will drop from No.1 when the posts are transferred.

The main thread on French CT is:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=15299

[davidbfpo]

Richard Barrett, ex-SIS, has a short article today that fits here; the actual title being 'The best defence against terrorism is to show that it does not work as a way of changing government policy or public perception'. A key passage:

There are two strands to making terrorism less attractive. The first is to encourage public resilience to terrorism; the second is to ensure a proportionate response.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...-it-does--not/

[AdamG]

A debate on the Forum, started a couple of days ago on the current thread on French CT, deserves a thread - for the debate and wider implications, especially as savagery is a feature (hat tip to Adam G for his post).

This post will drop from No.1 when the posts are transferred.

Awesome. Suggest migrating Slappy's Sherman reference and my response as well.

[davidbfpo]

Azor,

How does 'collective punishment' of Muslims post-Nice work when the NYT reports? My emphasis added:

When a Tunisian man drove a truck down a crowded street in Nice last week in an attack claimed by the Islamic State, more than one-third of the people he killed were Muslim, the head of a regional Islamic association said on Tuesday.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/wo...lims.html?_r=0

There is a far wider application as it is a fact that more Muslims have been killed across the globe by Jihadists, than non-Muslims.

[davidbfpo]

The Soufan Group Intel Brief has an article today. BLUF:

Several recent terror attacks have involved suspects previously unknown to counterterrorism officials. • Investigators have used terms like ‘rapid radicalization’ to describe the trajectory of suspects who displayed no traditional indicators of terrorism.
• The absence of narrow terrorism indicators is not followed by the absence of indicators of radicalization and violence.
• Broadening the scope of indicators to include the propensity for violence and misogyny, among others traits, may demonstrate that radicalization is a much longer process than widely understood.

Link:http://soufangroup.com/tsg-intelbrie...-of-terrorism/


Changing the CT machinery maybe needed, with a potentially wider role for advance warning from civil institutions and the public.

[AdamG]

Anyone care to place their bets now?

MUNICH (AP) — Police were hunting Saturday for clues to explain why an 18-year-old German-Iranian man opened fire at a crowded Munich shopping mall and fast-food restaurant, killing nine people and wounding 16 others before killing himself.

The attack in the Bavarian capital sparked a massive security operation as authorities — already on edge after the recent attacks in Wuerzburg and Nice, France — received witness reports of multiple shooters carrying rifles shortly before 6 p.m. (1600 GMT). Six hours later police declared a "cautious all clear," saying the suspect was among the 10 dead and that he had likely acted alone.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/...cid=spartandhp

[AdamG]

A priest has been killed in an attack by two armed men on his church in a suburb of Rouen in northern France.

The attackers entered the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray during Mass, taking the priest, Fr Jacques Hamel, 84, and four other people hostage.

Police later surrounded the church and French TV said shots were fired. Both hostage-takers are now dead.

The Amaq news agency, linked to so-called Islamic State, said "two IS soldiers" had carried out the attack.

President Francois Hollande said the men had claimed to be from IS.

Speaking in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, he said the attackers had committed a "cowardly assassination" and France would fight IS "by all means".

Pope Francis decried the "pain and horror of this absurd violence".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe...e=news_central

[davidbfpo]

One of the events in Germany, the machete attack on a woman @ Reutlingen, although not IS-related, but a crime of passion does have one relevant aspect:

A BMW driver then accelerated and knocked him down. After that he lay on the ground and did not move.

In some reports the driver appeared likely to have been a Muslim. I only cite the source of the quote:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016...thern-germany/