I go to the US OPEN every year. It looks like one is in an armed camp walking from the parking lots to the main gates. There is security everywhere and the walk in groups. Then once you get to the lines going into the grounds your bag is thoroughly searched ( and certain sized bags are banned, along with coolers and a whole bunch of other things. Last year they even confiscated my wee altoid tin because it is metal. There are armed security guards guarding the entry lines. Once inside the grounds there are more armed guards. There was an article this year of all the security precautions which are taken beginning several months before the open. Every truck is searched, every box, every everything. If I have time I’ll try to find the article. It was very interesting.
There is also a lot of things most people are not aware of going on. H is with NYS Homeland Security and there are operations going on all the time that people are completely unaware of - which is how you want it to be.
A lot of members are posting links pertaining to this event and related issues. This is a friendly reminder that links to blogs are against the CC Terms of Service. Double check before you copy and paste here.
"Driving through the Holland Tunnel, in particular, always freaked me out when I lived in Hoboken. I always imagined a wall of water coming towards me…shudder.
I could never, ever take the train through the Chunnel. I’d have to be sedated."
I have that same fear and even going through a small tunnel like the one in Baltimore (Memorial?) freaks me out. Just did that two weeks ago. My heart was pounding.
Just the thought of going through the Chunnel or Chesepeak Bay tunnel gives me panic.
Those NYC tunnels are particularly claustrophobic. I went through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel system a few weeks ago and it was fine. You’re not in a tunnel for very long and you come from big open spaces, which helps. The birds, sky, and water are very soothing. And it’s so expensive that it’s never really crowded.
My Dad told me that the tunnels were unnecessary unless the US had to suddenly ship out 2 aircraft carriers at the same time. The tunnels are there to provide open water for them should it ever be needed.
"The large number of foreign fighters traveling to fight in Syria from other countries magnifies the potential threat of an infiltration attack, especially given the high numbers of foreign fighters from countries that enjoy the Visa Waiver Program with the United States, such as Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
France has supplied more fighters to the Syrian conflict than any other Western country. In September, Prime Minister Manuel Valls told Parliament that 1,800 French citizens have been involved in jihadist networks worldwide – almost all of whom were drawn to the Syrian war. Nine months earlier, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve estimated that 185 militants had returned to France from Syria. Of those who had returned, he said 82 were in jail and 36 were under other forms of judicial control.
German security services report that 720 Germans have left for Syria.
Upward of 700 British citizens have left for Syria."
yea mcat2… it is tough. What do you do when they come back? Try to de-radicalize them? Lock them up for life? With U.S. or western European passports, you can basically travel freely.
You think countries want to track their own citizens going to Syria, but then you get into all the “spying on your own citizens” issues. Ideally, the countries can track and share names, but… it isn’t realistic that they can track everyone. And what are you going to do, create a worldwide blacklist?
A Europe with internal open borders is a great vision in theory, but it has real life consequences, especially when border controls aren’t the same quality in each member country.
France’s Hollande wants to withdraw French citizenship/residency/passports from those who go to Syria to fight. (seen on a crawl on CNN so no details).
So they could not hide behind a French passport or return to France.
From the trenches: we went to Place de la Republique yesterday to experience the moment of silence. And all my fears turned into incredible sadness. I also confronted the bullet holes and blood just 150 yards from our apartment.I now feel resolute. Sadness and anger get a pass. Fear no. We were originally going to spend this last week in Lyon but instead we stay “en terrasse” here in the city we love.
The morning of September 11 I was on the last commuter train headed to lower Manhattan by underwater tunnel. We had just seen WTC1 ablaze while the train was still above ground two stops before the tunnel. I thought that if the U.S. was under attack, no way would I want to be in an underwater tunnel. I got off the train, pronto.
I have taken the Chunnel a few times. I have a morbid imagination, so it wasn’t the most pleasant journey. But it was the best option given my situation at the time. I understand how people could just not muster up their courage to take that train.
H and I enjoyed our Chunnel crossing on the one and only time we were in Europe. We brought food and had a nice lunch during the crossing and didn’t see anything to alarm us during the trip. It was 1995, I believe. It was very quick and efficient.
I’m old school. I loved the leisurely pace of a channel ferry crossing. My wife and I had a nice lunch sitting by the big window watching the crossing. Going to the bar for a drink, play some slots, buy some duty free stuff. Life is too nice to hurry during the trip.
As a note, and probably repeating stuff that’s in this thread, these attacks weren’t “random” public spaces in Paris, an idea that is being pushed by the press, but rather were specifically aimed at:
National pride, being the soccer match.
A Jewish-owned theatre - or what the murderers believed was still Jewish-owned - known for holding Jewish and Israeli events.
A cafe majority Jewish-owned which was run by Muslims, meaning a place of cooperation. There is a long history of attacking the places where Jews and Muslims get together, such as cafes in Haifa and Jerusalem. They want to break down the cooperation between Muslims and Western society and the easiest way for them to start is with Jewish/Muslim relations.
I see they found syringes in the murderers’ hotel rooms. I expected that. These people use drugs generally and they specifically use them to go through with attacks. My understanding, from reading bits and pieces, is one way we look for terrorists is actually through drug connections.
I don’t know if anyone mentioned this but that Friday night there was a seminar/rally in the UK about the struggle to establish an Islamic State in Britain. [url=<a href=“http://www.meforum.org/5631/uk-muslims-told-to-struggle%5DHere.%5B/url”>http://www.meforum.org/5631/uk-muslims-told-to-struggle]Here.[/url] I wouldn’t normally mention such piffle except for the timing.
Regarding the choice of concert hall, it doesn’t seem it was chosen because it used to be owned by Jews. I’ve read that in the US, but the Bataclan (which means “messy noise”) is mostly known as a progressive/indie kind of concert hall. The targets were chosen for their meaning in French culture, which is how it’s known the perpetrators were French. You couldn’t have chosen places unless you knew their current “use” by Parisian youth. The whole neighborhood is hipsters+ chinatown.
I agree the targets were AND weren’t random, in that they didn’t aim at symbolic places nor specific people but aimed at hitting the way of life that goes with them - going out, drinking, dancing, intermingling, flirting, etc. For instance, the restaurants and cafés hit by the drive by shooters were likely not “chosen” as such, but because people were sitting on the pavement, enjoying an especially warm evening.
About potential terrorists posing as refugees and getting into the US: Nothing is certain, but posing as a refugee doesn’t seem like a good way to get here, if your desire is to blow up a football stadium and send yourself to paradise.
It’s not like a claimed refugee shows up at the airport and gets put on a plane to New York. The vetting process takes 12 to 18 months, or even more for Syrian refugees. Seems to me a terrorist doesn’t want to faff around for a year and a half, waiting to get in. Better to sneak in over the border or on a tourist visa and get busy building suicide vests.
ISIS itself explained why they chose Bataclan as a target when they claimed responsibility for the attack. In their statement, they claimed that Bataclan was chosen because it’s a place where "“where hundreds of apostates had gathered in a profligate prostitution party.”
Not because it was owned by Jews (or once owned by Jews), but because young people - and “apostates” - were there having fun.