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This is good for data on the "is Islam inherently violent / are Muslims predisposed to terrorism" issue:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/14/are-all-terrorists-muslims-it-s-not-even-close.html

I read a report (can't find it off-hand now) partly written by a researcher who'd been interviewing captured Daesh fighters. The pattern that emerged as to why they were fighting was basically that most of them had been kids / teens during various US actions in the Middle East that had killed a load of civilians and given them a really horrific childhood, along with a sense of being outsiders with little pride or community. Daesh gave them the idea that they were fighting for 'their people' again. Hardly any of them brought up religion.

 LethalShade wrote:

 MrDwhitey wrote:
Honestly we're pretty stupid and impressionable when younger, and having an underlying distrust of what's told to you by western media exacerbated by a trained recruiter of "the other side", I can see how it works well.

I have something better : Distrust everything.

But yeah, it works. There were four confirmed French citizens involved into the attacks.

The Independent is reporting that all eight that have been identified all held EU passports

Abaaoud, the one behind Friday's attacks, died yesterday in the Saint Denis raid.
(Confirmed by the French government)

+ Manuel Valls warns against the risk of Biological attacks. This is the only thing that genuinely scares me.
(And of course my Gas Mask is old and I'm running out of clean filters. Useless against advanced combat gas and biological threats anyway.)

 Ian Sturrock wrote:
This is good for data on the "is Islam inherently violent / are Muslims predisposed to terrorism" issue:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/14/are-all-terrorists-muslims-it-s-not-even-close.html

I read a report (can't find it off-hand now) partly written by a researcher who'd been interviewing captured Daesh fighters. The pattern that emerged as to why they were fighting was basically that most of them had been kids / teens during various US actions in the Middle East that had killed a load of civilians and given them a really horrific childhood, along with a sense of being outsiders with little pride or community. Daesh gave them the idea that they were fighting for 'their people' again. Hardly any of them brought up religion.

To be frank, a terrorist group isn't that different from your typical street gang or drug cartel in terms of it's group dynamics. I doubt many people get into terrorism because strapping high explosives to their chests is a life goal. They join because they don't have much else. Terrorists groups, relative to other organizations, are just a gak ton more overt in their violence and motivated by politics/ideals rather than money. Even then, lots of people find ways to get rich off terrorism. The leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas are pretty damn rich.

 LethalShade wrote:
Abaaoud, the one behind Friday's attacks, died yesterday in the Saint Denis raid.
(Confirmed by the French government)

+ Manuel Valls warns against the risk of Biological attacks. This is the only thing that genuinely scares me.
(And of course my Gas Mask is old and I'm running out of clean filters. Useless against advanced combat gas and biological threats anyway.)

Was he one of the two unidentified bodies then?

Edit: Nevermind. Still catching up, was replying to a comment from page 21.

 d-usa wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:
I suggest we leave Assad alone. We were happy to before the Arab Spring, he survived the fire.

Our biggest lesson over the last 15 years should really be that stable dictatorships are better for our national interest and security than unstable democracies.

Look at Spain and Indonesia. look how do they transit from a long - reigning tyrants to Democracy.

This is a big question, Any long-reigning regime always share the same lingering problems..... "What will happen if the Leader in question passes away?" This is critical moment once the reign is coming to past. This is the best moment where the rivaling factions competing against each other to earn total supremacy (and destroy the others once and for all). Even if the old leader chose his/her successor. whether will the choices of succession respected by the interim government or will the said ruling body jeopardize the choice, does the successor posses enough prestige and charisma to earn national respect or whether will there be any rebellions? will the country delves into a civil war?

You can have safer, more stable country with a big guy ruling over it for a long long time with the less risks of terrorist cell proliferations, but you can't expect that the leader lasts forever. troughful transition plans and preparations are needed.

FacebookJunkie wrote:

 Breotan wrote:
All over Facebook, my friends are linking to cute little memes saying how no refugee has ever committed a terrorist act in the USA. They mainly direct this comment at people like our Republican politicians who want to defund or suspend our Syrian Refugee program.

I'd like to leave this here... (Link only because it's really long so I'm not gonna copy/format it while I'm at work.)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3322649/The-enemy-Nearly-SEVENTY-arrested-America-ISIS-plots-include-refugees-given-safe-haven-turned-terror.html

America's 'enemies within': How nearly SEVENTY have been arrested in America over ISIS plots in last 18 months - including refugees who had been given safe haven but 'turned to terror'

The problem with the Daily Mail is it is basically a right wing hate rag. Read its stories in this context.

Another poster has pointed out that many of these arrests relate to people in the US sending money and material to terrorists.

Various hyphenated Americans have done this for decades. NORAID funding helped IRA terrorists kill British soldiers, policemen and civilians.

I will never understand the American terrorist fund raising. I know many people in the UK were lost for words when the New York Fire Department has a fund raising dinner with guest star Gerry Adams as their main speaker two weeks after 9/11. For years people excused, as far as one can the fund raising, as American citizens had little or no experience of direct terrorism. it was assumed 9/11 would be a wake up call...

 Knockagh wrote:

FacebookJunkie wrote:


Various hyphenated Americans have done this for decades. NORAID funding helped IRA terrorists kill British soldiers, policemen and civilians.

I will never understand the American terrorist fund raising. I know many people in the UK were lost for words when the New York Fire Department has a fund raising dinner with guest star Gerry Adams as their main speaker two weeks after 9/11. For years people excused, as far as one can the fund raising, as American citizens had little or no experience of direct terrorism. it was assumed 9/11 would be a wake up call...

It was. For the usual scum in the Irish American community it was business as usual, but because the UK was quick to respond to the call to deal with the Taliban the mood in the US changed.

I remember articles at the time using the UK as an example of 'how to come to terms with the reality of terrorism'. It was a PR disaster for Sinn Fein and NORAID, who quietly closed up shop. It was the wisest thing for them to do, those who are their supporters would do so silently if at all, and the funding ground would be allowed to lie fallow rather than have it burned out by public opinion in the US. In this way the UK profited from 9/11 as the Good Friday agreement was largely seen as optional by the IRA, some of the bloodiest attacks occurred since 1997, but post 9/11 they had no choice but to come to the negotiating table for real, and I for one believe US Government pressure on Sinn Fein was largely responsible for that. The Bush-Blair alliance was uneven, but we got that much out of it, and frankly that was worth the price we paid in backing US interventions.

170 hostages taken in Bamako, Mali by 2 armed men. 2 Malians and 1 French are dead.

(Mali is an old French colony and we have soldiers there)


EDIT : French GIGN (SWAT) is coming to Mali.

 LethalShade wrote:
170 hostages taken in Bamako, Mali by 2 armed men. 2 Malians and 1 French are dead.

(Mali is an old French colony and we have soldiers there)


EDIT : French GIGN (SWAT) is coming to Mali.

French troops still station in Mali? which units do these troops belongs to?
- Army
- Legion Etrangerie
- Other (specify)

Army. The Légion Etrangère went to Mali in 2013 and left in 2014 (Opération Serval).

I'm surprised we sent the GIGN, though. I've never heard of them intervening abroad.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Excuse my American ignorance, but why bars?

fermentation of grain is a sin

 Rune Stonegrinder wrote:

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Excuse my American ignorance, but why bars?

fermentation of grain is a sin

A feeble excuse, but technically acceptable as a statement. Though targeting bars per se has not IHO been a policy but a point of conveneince.

1. Bars.especially tropical ones tend not to have much in the way of walls or doors, allowing unsupervised and unmonitored access from any direction.

2. Bars are patroned by large dense crowds of easily identifiable people, and bar clients tend to segregate. Its easy to find a tourist nation specific bar in any tourist resort town.

3. Bars are patroned by transients, and its easy for a bar patron to fit in without talking to anyone. Its easy commonplace and ok to just turn up with a backpack. Just also easy to leave it against the bar and disappear 'to the toilet' while the bomb ticks down.

4. Bars are patroned by visible drunks, who might not notice things sober people do. By approaching a part of a bar where you know you wont get attention because of the people nearest to you, a terrorist can improve his chances.

5. Bars are often covered with iconography. A tropical bar patroned by the French, Aussies, Australians etc may well have iconography identifiable with that country. It lets the world know who you are bombing without having to go through first world security.

Frankly I am surprised there are as few large bar attacks are there are. They are an ideal soft target, with 'Allah hates alcohol' being a side issue you can add for flavour on top.

Eagles of Death Metal have done their first interview about the attack in the Bataclan venue on 13/11/15

There's only a minute preview here, but the full interview will be aired next week. I gotta tell ya, even for a minute's worth it was upsetting to hear them talk about it.

http://www.nme.com/news/eagles-of-death-metal/89874

We have an update.

According to the Daily Mail, Salah Abdeslam, a suspect in the Paris attacks has been captured in Brussels. Follow the link for the full article (image heavy so I'm not doing a full quote).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3498786/Prime-suspect-Paris-attacks-escaped-police-Brussels-shoot-Salah-Abdeslam-s-fingerprints-raided-flat.html

'We got him!': Police capture world's most wanted man as ISIS fugitive behind Paris attacks is shot in raid on Brussels hideout

If we can be extra careful with which posts we quote, so we don't drag up points from last year and so on.

thanks

Throw it into the deepest hole we can find on this planet and let it rot. Bonus points for making the rest of its life as painful as possible.

Good job on the men in blue, thanks for the work, effort and risk you were willing to take in order to make the world a bit safer again.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Throw it into the deepest hole we can find on this planet and let it rot. Bonus points for making the rest of its life as painful as possible.

Good job on the men in blue, thanks for the work, effort and risk you were willing to take in order to make the world a bit safer again.

Lo and behold! This is a rare day indeed, for not only has this terrorist finally been captured, but also I find myself agreeing with Sigvatr!

I favour a firing squad.

Thorough interrogation to find out any information possible would be a better idea, followed by trial and a suitably long term of imprisonment.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Thorough interrogation to find out any information possible would be a better idea, followed by trial and a suitably long term of imprisonment.

This.
Islamists want to be martyred for their so-called cause. Just throwing the pathetic wretches into a black hole and leaving them to rot from old age is a much worse fate for their barbaric kind.

Mind you, I'm also for hacking off their penis with a dull spoon first, but then, I'm also a woman so I would take much greater pleasure in this ultimate humiliation than most probably would!
Would definitely bring an added sense of justice, considering how Islamists treat women & girls in general as being nothing more than sacks of baby-pooping meat. (which under their laws apparently can, and indeed should be physically beaten & raped into submission, because... "reasons".)

We calling for waterboarding-scale interrogation?

Why not simply put him in prison, just like any other convicts. But, if he doesn't cooperate during interrogation, deny him his religious tenets. Feed him only pork products. etc...

He's a radicalized believer...

Let's not get involve with the interrogation process in France Whembly. They already know what not to do after the US example

Forced conscription working on a pork farm! Make me delicious bacon you fiend!

He'll make the special sauce just for you Grey.

On topic, I would say interrogation followed by a very, very, very long time in a cell. None of this torture bs, we're not them.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Thorough interrogation to find out any information possible would be a better idea, followed by trial and a suitably long term of imprisonment.

Maybe he can bunk with Breivik.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
I favour a firing squad.

Traditionally, firing squads are for soldiers. Criminals like this should be hanged.

Just lock him in solitary for rest of life.

He,d start angry but break as hw relises he would never see human contact outside his jailors and neve see anything but concrete walls.

No freedom, just soul destroying imprisonment

The death penalty is the only logical course to take when dealing with animals like this. The world would be better off without them.