Time to pull out all the stops against these savage monkeys.
Obviously, the increases in security have not stopped the terrorist attacks. People do turn other people in. Remember the bomber who lived in a cabin in Montana who sent a manifesto to the newspapers? His brother recognized his brother’s style of writing and turned him in.
In order to develop ‘intelligence’ on these groups, you have to have insiders willing to talk to police. There needs to be more incentive to do so either the risk of criminal prosecution (the stick) or more carrots (money, waiver of prosecution or green cards (or the EU equivalent).
Comparing Ted Kaczynski’s situation to ISIS is apples and oranges and in no way helpful.
And yea, I’m SURE no European terrorism expert ever thought of creating incentives for people to “talk” 8-|
First, I think there are families which do what they can. One of the potential bombers on a plane was reported by his own father. In other cases, family members can sometimes be just too close to realize the extent of what’s going on. One of the FBI profilers involved in the Columbine shootings told me that as soon as he entered the kid’s bedroom, he could see the pain and violence the student was capable of. He said that the parents were too close to the situation - they saw only their little boy, and had nothing to compare his behavior to. As far as they knew, all teenagers went through a phase like Dylan did. Think of how many teachers have trouble convincing parents their child is a bully, for instance. The parents don’t see the context, so they have no way to evaluate the behavior.
It’s pretty obvious the incentives to turn in potential terrorists are not enough. The border security is lax (remember that the Paris bomber got away to Brussels). People are let in with fake or no documentation from ISIS countries. I am not speaking of what governments should be doing, although that is certainly a potent point of discussion. I am speaking of what the families, neighbors, girlfriends, etc. should be doing. Surely people in that Maalbeck area of Brussels knew that suspicious people were doing suspicious things.
Again, my point is that the prospect of spending life in prison does not deter the terrorists because they know they will be dead. Authorities have to target those who would like to live and live outside of prison in order to prevent these atrocities.
The only thing I propose is not to give in to hysteria, fractalmstr.
And yea, TatinG, up to now security within the EU has been lax in the same way that security between, say, New Mexico and Colorado is lax. They considered themselves states. And people of freedom. Clearly, that is changing.
But go ahead, Captain Obvious, bloviate away. I’m sure terrorism experts globally are taking your advice to heart.
(Besides death and destruction, what I hate about terrorism is the way it drives way too many of us nuts. And spurs the fascist impulse. And I don’t necessarily exclude myself from these reactions, but at least I have enough self-awareness to curtail them.)
“Time to pull out all the stops against these savage monkeys.”
And what would that be?
“And yea, TatinG, up to now security within the EU has been lax in the same way that security between, say, New Mexico and Colorado is lax. They considered themselves states. And people of freedom”
What’s your opinion on Schengen, Tatin?
Whatever progress intelligence makes in thwarting attacks , terrorists seem to be one step ahead and with many plans in place.
The situation in Europe didn’t happen overnight . It has been simmering there for decades . I don’t actually believe we will ever be free from these attacks , worldwide
@carachel2 , it is very scary to let our kids go out into the world when things are so unpredictable, but Germany is about as safe as any other place these days. Unfortunately terrorist attacks can and do happen anywhere, including the States - I live in Boston and know many people who were at the Marathon a few years back, so unfortunately keeping our kids safe isn’t as easy as having them just avoid one particular place (for the most part - I wouldn’t exactly recommend a semester abroad in Syria, obviously). And I would imagine we are all still more likely to die in a car crash down the street from our house than in a terrorist attack. Bonn is several hours away from Brussels so there shouldn’t be any reason your daughter would be in more danger there than any other place in Germany. I lived in Germany for many years and they take their security pretty seriously these days, as unfortunately they must. Europeans have also dealt with it longer than we have, as others have mentioned.
Your daughter will have a wonderful, safe time and you will worry as we parents do, but she will be fine. My daughter is going to Israel in May - yes I’ll be biting my nails the whole, but two alum from her college were killed in robberies last summer in DC, where she goes to school, so I try in general not to let myself worry too much or else I’ll never make it through the day. Viel Spass to your daughter!!
For those who are terrified, I think it’s important to remember that you’re much more likely to be killed by someone you know than a random terrorist attack.
I am sorry that this is the world that live in, but I’m even more sorry that the 24/7 sensationalist media coerces people into living their lives in fear. Fear, by definition, is what terrorists (ALL terrorists, broadly defined) want.
@katliamom:
“Besides death and destruction, what I hate about terrorism is the way it drives way too many of us nuts. And spurs the fascist impulse. And I don’t necessarily exclude myself from these reactions, but at least I have enough self-awareness to curtail them”
Well said, and what you wrote indicates the struggle I have, with understanding that the people doing this represent only themselves, that I work with people who happen to be Muslim who I literally would trust my life with and whom I respect to the Nth degree, and then seeing something like this and feeling rage at what has happened. One of the gentlest of men I ever knew was a Bengladeshi Muslim who was a chef at Windows on the World, and he died on 9/11, he was in early that day supervising a training session for some new personnel, and I grieved and raged for him as much as I did anyone I knew or knew of who died on 9/11 (I lost count at about 25 people). I do get angry when people justify things like this, by giving a range of excused, like “Of course we are against terrorism, but you have to understand” and get the usual litany (the crusades, the economic injustices of the middle east, drone warfare, Israel, the isolation of Muslims in many places in Europe)…there is no excuse for this, and while grievences and social conditions need to be examined, either someone is against these kinds of things or they are not.
There are no easy solutions. I work in one of the prime terrorist targets in the world (NYC), I ride the subways, I use the port authority bus terminal and spend a lot of time in the city at things like ball games and other places where there are a lot of people, so this is not abstract (I kind of find it sad that often those least likely to be subject to terrorism are the ones who rage the most). You do what they have done in NYC, the cops have a first class anti terror program tied into the feds and overseas agencies, you take what steps you can. Terrorists tend to look for easy targets, and if you make it difficult, they will try and switch to other targets. Airports and train stations are tought, because they are public spaces, but you use things like video monitoring, you use scanners that may be able to pick up bomb residue, you don’t allow anything to sit around unattended, but in the end, it comes down to how determined someone is. It also takes coordination, the NYC cops have people embedded from what I understand with foreign anti terrorist and intelligence agencies, like the Mossad. It also is going to take cutting off their money, while as some have said it is relatively easy to make a bomb, the kind of sophisticated organization ISIS has, its social networking and so forth, doesn’t come cheap, and the money trail needs to be followed. It also is going to take putting real pressure on the Saudi Government and its crazy W’habbi religion supported by the government, to stop it funding the radical Islam that is helping drive all this, and it is going to mean putting pressure on Saudi Arabia to weed out the members of the government and the royal family who are funding both Al Qaeda and ISIS (best words about Saudi are with friends like that, who needs enemies).
It also means being resolved not to give in to the terrorists, part of what they want is basically for the west to ‘declare war on Islam’, they are looking to create intemperate environments to create a self fulfilling prophesy. It also means not letting fascism win or political extremism, Paul Ryan was interviewed this morning after the attacks broke, and of course he started a political polemic about how this is the result of cutting the defense budget and not supporting NATO and how we needed to beef up defense spending, which as a response is idiotic (you don’t fight terrorism with aircraft carriers and advanced fighters and other conventional weapons; we would be better cutting spending on that kind of stuff and spending the money on advanced intelligence and special forces and black ops, conventional warfare does squat to eradicate terrorism). It also means spending money on preventing terrorism other ways, getting rid of the issues that cause it, whether it is radicalized preaching that is allowed to flourish, or as Indonesia is doing, fighting back with campaigns to undercut the fundamentalist message, rather than supporting it the way Iran or Saudi does.
The fact that [Abdeslam] was able to evade authorities for so long demonstrates the high level of support for their network in the community," said Cilluffo.
"“Time to pull out all the stops against these savage monkeys.”
And what would that be?"
Build walls, Yuuuuggge walls. And make Isis pay for it. 
“I’m even more sorry that the 24/7 sensationalist media coerces people into living their lives in fear.”
And politicians.
^^^ Yes, I agree and I don’t want to live a life full of fear. I can’t deny I have some hesitation to go back to Europe anytime soon, and not just because of fear of a terror attack.
They have a lot of problems going on in many areas and don’t seem to have a good handle on them.
My husband was in an airport in another European City when the attacks took place today. He sensed something was off , but there were no announcements of any kind. The security was tight ( although it was from my personal experiences with major European airports , extremely tight in Amsterdam last Sept )
He also noticed that many churches and landmarks were protected with armed military , but didn’t know if that has been happening since the Paris attacks. My sister was in one of the cities he was in 6 months ago and she didn’t see any machine gun armed protection.
It’s just so sad that this is what has become of our world
“They have a lot of problems going on in many areas and don’t seem to have a good handle on them.” I have plenty of friends in Europe who have said virtually the same thing about the US for years. D teaches English at a Community College in Germany. Most of her students fear the gun violence here and because of this they have nixed travelling here.
Personally, I feel safer in Europe.
I connected through CDG in Paris a few months ago. Security was extremely tight. It took no longer to get through security checks than it would at an airport in the USA but I would say that security personnel there seemed much more vigilant and well trained and the types of screening seemed more productive and logical than what we have stateside. Taking off your shoes is not something the majority do but they will ask some to do so (profiling based on my observation). It was comforting to see how very efficient and thorough they are.
Don’t forget that we can’t let “those people” into this country. Whoever “those people” are.
Sorry I couldn’t resist!
I vote for marketing people, personal injury lawyers who advertise on tv, and finance people:)
Belgium is a particular problem. Because of their history of conflict between French speaking Belgians and German speaking Belgians, there are separate government groups that don’t necessarily communicate or cooperate with each other. Belgium has 4 mayors, 4 different police forces for each sector. They need to get their act together!
So they caught the last guy who was directly associated with the Paris attacks in November just a few days ago. They found all sorts of evidence that the terrorist network was larger and more sophisticated than they had assumed. They found dozens of unused burner cell phones, for example. The guy they caught was living in his old neighborhood. There’s a lot of catch up that needs to be done and people are dying because of it.