The #ParisAttacks in Context

From Robin Simcox, at Foreign Affairs, "France's Perpetual Battle Against Terrorism":

ISIS spoke of France back in September 2014, when group spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani proclaimed to his listeners that “if you can kill an American or European infidel, especially the spiteful and cursed French, kill them in any way possible.” The response to this call was rapid: in December 2014, Bertrand Nzohabonayo attacked three police officers with a knife in Joué-lès-Tours and was shot and killed. Nzohabonayo had uploaded an ISIS flag to his Facebook account shortly before.

Weeks later, Said and Cherif Kouachi, two brothers who had been trained by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, murdered 12 staff members during an attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine’s headquarters in Paris. These particular strikes were not explicitly linked to ISIS, but the next ones were. Over a two-day period in January 2015, Amedy Coulibaly, one of Cherif Kouachi’s associates, killed five people in Paris. He had pledged loyalty to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

More was to follow. In April 2015, Sid Ahmed Ghlam allegedly planned to kill Parisian churchgoers and is suspected of having murdered a gym instructor during an attempt to steal her car. Ghlam’s plans were thwarted only when he accidentally shot himself in the leg and was forced to call an ambulance. Three months later, a heavily armed Ayoub el-Khazzani attacked a train heading to Paris from Amsterdam, only to be restrained by passengers and arrested. Both Ghlam and el-Khazzani are linked to the Belgian jihadist and Paris attacks mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a key figure in terror networks with ties to ISIS in Syria. Abaaoud was also linked to the ISIS cell operating in Verviers, Belgium, that was disrupted in January 2015.

MISSED SIGNALS

None of these cases were detected by French police before they began to unfold. Granted, other plots have been thwarted—such as an attack on a military base in the south of France—but in reality, other disastrous attacks were averted only through good luck and heroic citizens. France's domestic security agency, the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieure, was formed in May 2014, replacing the Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur. According to the France 24 journalist Leela Jacinto, the idea was to “beef up, enlarge, and provide more funds” to the DGSI in order to—as one French official put it—turn it into a “war machine” capable of staving off the terror threat. This task has had an inauspicious start.

The state of French security is problematic enough, but equally troubling is the fact that ISIS is now pulling off complex, coordinated plots that were previously perceived as too difficult for the group to execute...

Still more.

State Department Issues Worldwide Travel Warning

At USA Today, "State Department issues 'worldwide' travel alert."

And the opening segment from tonight's CBS Evening News:

New Jersey Tailgaters Cheered Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001

Did thousands cheer?

Don't know, but WaPo's Glenn Kessler claimed that Donald Trump's statement that Muslims cheered 9/11 in New Jersey was an "outrageous" lie. Ahem, not so outrageous after all.

Here's Kessler's hit job, at WaPo via Memeorandum, "Trump's outrageous claim that ‘thousands’ of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks."

And then see Power Line, "Washington Post's Fact Checker Doesn't Read the Washington Post."

And from Elizabeth Price Foley, at Instapundit, "MUSLIMS IN N.J. CHEERING AFTER 9/11? This is what Donald Trump has asserted, and according to the Washington Post report of Sept. 18, 2001, Trump is right."

@AmPowerBlog really??? He said thousands of muslims and he saw it on TV. No TV images found, no evidence of thousands. or even dozens.

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) November 23, 2015

#ParisAttacks Show Cracks in France’s Counterterrorism Effort

At WSJ:

French law-enforcement authorities had Hasna Aït Boulahcen in sight long before she surfaced as a suspected accomplice in the Paris terror attacks and died during a police raid. Her phone had been tapped as part of an unrelated drug-trafficking investigation, according to people familiar with the matter.

It wasn’t until days after the Nov. 13 attacks that French authorities learned that Ms. Aït Boulahcen was the cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a notorious Islamic State operative suspected of directing the terror spree that killed 130, the people familiar with the matter said.

That crucial piece of intelligence, supplied by Morocco, allowed French counterterrorism investigators to track Mr. Abaaoud to an apartment building in a Paris suburb, where Mr. Abaaoud, Ms. Aït Boulahcen and a third person, still unidentified, were killed Wednesday in a two-hour battle with police.

But the late discovery of Mr. Abaaoud’s connection with Ms. Aït Boulahcen has left French investigators stunned, one of the people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Abaaoud, a militant sought for months by French authorities, had a possible accomplice in Paris right under their nose.

“No need to fool ourselves,” a French government official said. “What we have in front of us is a complete failure.”

The intelligence breakdown comes 10 months after the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a kosher store revealed a French security operation hobbled by communication troubles among agencies.

As French authorities try again to analyze the cracks in their counterterrorism bulwark, French officials said they needed to better cooperate with allies while improving their capacity to process a welter of information.

The revelation that France was blind to the blood ties between the 28-year-old Mr. Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan origin, and Ms. Aït Boulahcen, age 26, is particularly vexing for France, which has been trying to repair its security relationship with Morocco...

Keep reading.

Millennials More Likely to Favor Censorship of Politically Incorrect Comments About Minorities

The fruits of decades of cultural Marxism, and of course, seven years of Obama.

At the Pew Research Center, "40% of Millennials OK with limiting speech offensive to minorities."

ADDED: From Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "THE GRIEVANCE GENERATION."

Selena Gomez and Kendall Jenner at the American Music Awards

Youth rules, I guess.

I was watching football and "Homeland," but it was hard to miss the sensational media coverage.

At London's Daily Mail, "Selena Gomez and Kendall Jenner bring sexy back to the American Music Awards as they lead the showstoppers on the red carpet."

BONUS: "Demi Lovato looks sensational in a gothic waist-cinching corset and sexy knee-high boots as she steals the show at the American Music Awards."

Obama's Syrian Refugee Debacle

From Glenn Reynolds, at Instapundit, "MY USA TODAY COLUMN: Obama’s Syrian Refugee Debacle: Characterizing Republicans as xenophobes won’t hide the fact that president’s foreign policy failures created refugee crisis."

And from the essay:

When President Obama spoke in Washington about the terrorist attacks in Paris, he was curiously unable to raise much passion. The passion came out only later in Turkey when he started attacking Republicans. Those attacks continued throughout that week, with charges that people who oppose resettling Syrian refugees in America are somehow xenophobic haters who are not in touch with American values.

There are two problems with this line of attack for President Obama. The first is that it isn’t true: The opponents of refugee resettlement aren’t xenophobic haters, but ordinary Americans — and, in fact, include roughly a fourth of the House Democratic Caucus, who voted with Republicans to limit refugee resettlement.

The second problem is that Obama himself is the source of the Syrian refugee crisis. But don’t take it from me. Listen to foreign-affairs expert Walter Russell Mead, an original Obama supporter himself: “To see the full cynicism of the Obama approach to the refugee issue," Mead wrote in The American Interest, "one has only to ask President Obama’s least favorite question: Why is there a Syrian refugee crisis in the first place?”

RTWT.

Alessandra Ambrosio Is Maxim's 'World's Sexiest Businesswoman...'

She's always been one of my favorites.

At Maxim, "Alessandra Ambrosio Is Maxim's December Cover Girl."

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Maxim salutes 'world's sexiest businesswoman' Alessandra Ambrosio as she poses naked in series of sultry shots."

Donald Trump 'Goes After' Mary Katharine Ham!

Well, I think it was good-naturedly.

See Twitchy, "Mary Katharine Ham gets attacked for basically agreeing with Donald Trump [video]."

Video of the initial segment, including Juan Williams, is at the link.

And here's Mary Katharine with Howard Kurtz. It's great to see her back on TV after the tragic loss of her husband. She's a great lady.

Katie Pavlich on Donald Trump's Call to Resume 'Enhanced Interrogations' (VIDEO)

From Fox & Friends this morning:

France Launches First Missions from Aircraft Carrier (VIDEO)

Via France 24:

Donald Trump Out Front in Both Iowa and New Hampshire, New CBS News Polls Finds (VIDEO)

At CBS News, via Memeorandum, "Poll: Trump retakes lead, Cruz surges in IA; Rubio second in NH."

Trump's way out front in New Hampshire, at 32 percent, with Ted Cruz his nearest rival at 12 percent. The Iowa horse race is closer, but Trump, at 30 percent, is still nearly 10 points ahead in the Hawkeye State.

Some Holiday Shoppers Already Lining-Up for Deals (VIDEO)

Truly bizarre.

At CBS News 2 Los Angeles, "5 Days Before Black Friday, Some Folks Already Lined Up Looking for Bargains."

Mumbai Was Critical Model for #ParisAttacks

In more ways than one.

Not only did terrorists organizations, most likely Islamic State, grasp the tactical significance of Mumbai for terror campaigns, but police and intelligence agencies worldwide seized on the Mumbai attacks to upgrade training and readiness.

A fascinating piece, at USA Today, "Mumbai was big lesson in Paris-style attack":

WASHINGTON — While the dead were still being tallied at multiple terrorist targets in Paris, security analysts were drawing immediate comparisons to coordinated assaults seven years earlier in India.

The Mumbai attacks, carried out by Pakistani members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group at 12 locations across the city, served as a stunning warning to counterterrorism officials throughout the world, including the United States, and exposed the vulnerability of so-called soft targets —transportation centers, restaurants, hotels and sports arenas, among others — to rolling, multiple target attacks.

Within days after the November 2008 attacks, the New York Police Department staged elaborate exercises to mimic the four-day assault, which left more than 150 dead across Mumbai. In Boston, Mumbai commanders were brought to Massachusetts to prepare special bomb and SWAT units for the prospect of coordinated attacks there. And in Seattle, Mumbai is prominently referenced in a vulnerability analysis by the Office of Emergency Management as part of a “maximum credible scenario.’’

The method of attack in Mumbai — the deployment of heavily armed gunmen and the use of explosives, like in Paris — prompted one of the most dramatic reassessments of the terrorist threat since the Sept. 11 attacks, law enforcement officials and security analysts said.

James Waters, chief of the NYPD's Counterterrorism Bureau, said lessons learned in Mumbai have "without question'' heavily influenced how the nation's largest police force now responds to the current threat.

"It (Mumbai) was a watershed moment in counterterrorism,'' said Mitchell Silber, the NYPD's former director of intelligence analysis. "Before Mumbai, the focus of attention was on spectacular 9/11-style attacks or single-target bombings. Mumbai was essentially a raid by teams fanning out across the city. It is so eerily close to what occurred in Paris; it is almost like (the Islamic State) watched the documentary and sought to re-create it.''

Mumbai offered a simplistic yet lethal strategy that, like 9/11, ignited widespread fear.

Directed by a control group in Pakistan, 10 heavily armed gunmen arrived by boat and dispersed to targets throughout the city. Among them: the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, a local train terminal, a hospital and a Jewish community center.

Casualties mounted, analysts said, as the terrorists succeeded in confusing law enforcement's response.

For U.S. authorities, Mumbai brought into sharp and sudden focus how such a low-cost operation could have such high impact...

More.

'Homeland' Season 5, Episode 8: An Intelligence Expert Weighs In

As usual, the show was pretty gripping last night, especially that gasp! of a conclusion.

Careful spoilers, if you haven't watched it yet, at WSJ's Speakeasy blog:

Warning: This post contains major spoilers from tonight’s episode of “Homeland,” “All About Allison.”

The lesson we learned on tonight’s “Homeland,” is that it always pays to remember those tiny, seemingly insignificant details from a random conversation you had with someone a decade ago.

This week’s episode, “All About Allison,” spent a good portion of its time in flashback mode, where we saw a fresh-faced Carrie Mathison and a vacation-bound Allison Carr‘s first meeting back in 2005 Baghdad. Carrie had just arrived to relieve Allison of her post, with her predecessor positively itching for some R&R at a St. Lucia beachside bar called Banana Joe’s (remember that detail)...

Keep reading.

Islamic State Demonstrates Wider Range of Tactics

From earlier, "Scale of #ParisAttacks Underscores Global Threats."

Here's the Wall Street Journal a few days ago, "Islamic State Tactics Shift, Borrowing From al Qaeda."

And now from yesterday at the Los Angeles Times, a great piece, "Islamic State shows the ability to shift to more sophisticated tactics":

Islamic State militants may be under bombardment by a dozen world powers bent on wiping them out, but they have managed to expand their repertoire of terrorist tactics to carry out ever more sophisticated attacks that disrupt Western society.

The band of extremists has succeeded in escalating the pace and scope of deadly attacks with nimble improvisation and the ultimate commitment of its perpetrators: readiness to die for their cause.

In less than a month the extremists professing to be defending their "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq have blown a Russian passenger jet out of the sky with 224 people on board, executed two foreign hostages and terrorized Paris with coordinated strikes at the "soft targets" of a sports stadium, a theater and a pair of lively cafes.

On Friday, militants linked to a fellow Al Qaeda offshoot killed at least 20 people at a luxury hotel in Mali's capital, Bamako.

Aimed at jacking up the death toll and prolonging their time in the media spotlight, Islamic State and its affiliated militias have perfected their operations with practice and put their perceived enemies on notice that there is much more savagery to come.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned in a speech before the National Assembly on Thursday that France and the West face a new kind of war in which "terror is the first goal and the first weapon."

"The ways of striking, of killing, are constantly evolving. The macabre imagination of those giving the orders is without limits: assault rifles, decapitations, human bombs, knives, or all of them at once, carried out by individuals, or in this case, specially organized commandos," Valls said.

Since the cleaving of Islamic State from its Al Qaeda parent two years ago, the militants have shifted from a focus on battling rival Muslim factions in Iraq and Syria to waging multi-pronged attacks that compound their terrorism. The Paris attacks were their first European mission to adopt the methodology of deploying multiple strike forces that combine suicide bombings with random shootings, a hybrid tested in Mumbai, India, in 2008, when 166 were killed in a dozen separate attacks that paralyzed the city for four days.

The "complex operations," as they are called in counter-terrorism parlance, have the advantages, from the perpetrators' perspective, of dispersing law enforcement's response and portraying the militants as an omnipotent force, aiding them in recruiting other extremists...

Keep reading.

Santa Barbara Widow at the Center of Vacation Rental Controversy

Airbnb's taken up her cause.

At KEYT News 3 Santa Barbara:

Twitter Account Honors Victims of #ParisAttacks

At France 24, "Paris attacks: Twitter account honours victims."

It's really beautiful.

Isabelle Merlin, 44, France. Engineer. Loved music and singing. "Always present, friendly, funny." #enmémoire pic.twitter.com/hUAqaXfsUW

— En mémoire (@ParisVictims) November 21, 2015

Belgium Has Become Center of European Terror

At Der Spiegel, "Bad Brussels' Sprouts: Belgium Has Become Center of European Terror":

With 19 municipal mayors and six different police authorities, Brussels is a tangle of bureaucracy. It's also home to the suspected perpetrators behind Friday's Paris attacks. The failure of Belgian authorities has become a security problem for all of Europe.

The terror attack was the consequence of the opening of the borders on the European Continent, said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel. He added that police authorities in European Union member states exchange too little data. Michel also questioned the Schengen Agreement, which regulates the freedom of borderless travel within the EU. "We are now confronted with a new threat level in Europe," he said.

But these words didn't come this weekend, following the massacre in Paris of 132 people across the French capitol city on Friday night. They came after Islamists murdered the editors of the Paris-based French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo in January. Back then, the perpetrators also had links to Belgium. It wasn't the first time either. Police arrested 13 jihadists in Belgium and two even died in a shootout at the time.

Belgium now finds itself at the center of a major terror investigation once again. The suspected masterminds of the Paris terror attack came from Brussels' Molenbeek neighborhood, and at least one further perpetrator lived here. Security officials arrested several suspects during raids in the district over the weekend.

The greater Brussels area has long been considered to be a hotbed for radical Islamists. Troubled neighborhoods like Molenbeek and Anderlecht are known as being homes to secluded communities of immigrants in which radicals can easily go underground. So has Belgium become the center of terror in Europe and a security risk for the entire Continent?

Six Police Agencies Working for 19 Mayors

Belgian lawmaker Hans Bonte says he "isn't surprised at all" that several terror suspects got arrested in Molenbeek. He attributes two factors to the development: the sectionalism of Belgium's policing and a lack of monitoring and social control of radicalized Muslims.

Brussels is a city of 1.2 million people and it has not one, but six different police agencies. These agencies answer to 19 different municipal mayors who are often political rivals. "It's unbelievable that something like this exists in Europe's capital," says Bonte.

Furthermore, the unresolved conflict between the country's two largest populations, the Dutch-speaking Flemish and the French-speaking Walloons is casting a shadow over all this. The Belgian government has sought for the past 40 years to defuse the situation through the decentralization of the state. Jan Flambon, the country's Flemish interior minister, has called for the six police authorities in the greater Brussels area to be merged in response to the Paris terror attacks, but he's unlikely to succeed. "That's a Flemish fantasy," sneers Ahmed El Kahnnouss, the deputy municipal mayor of Molenbeek, who says that the French-speaking areas insist on francophone police, in accordance with the country's traditional principle of communal autonomy.

The security agencies are also considered to be poorly equipped, especially in the less-prosperous areas like Molenbeek. "My impression is that they, even more frequently than us, are using outdated technology and that they have to drive around in less-efficient police cars," says one German security official. "Besides, the budgets are always very tight there." The official said that surveillance, wire-tapping and the deployment of informants is costly -- both in terms of personnel and money...

Keep reading.

And linked at the piece, "The Belgium Question: Why Is a Small Country Producing So Many Jihadists?"

Eyewitness Video Immediately After #ParisAttacks

The scene's out in front of one of the cafes. The clip's pixelated.

At Sky News, "Eyewitness Footage Shows Immediate Aftermath of #ParisAttacks."

The Booming Black Market for Fake Syrian Passports

At the Independent UK, "Paris terror attack: The booming black market for fake Syrian passports":

Fraudulent Syrian passports are nothing new on the migratory route from Turkey through Europe.

The terrorist who blew himself up outside the Stade de France had fingerprints matching that of a man who arrived on European shores Oct. 3 alongside desperate migrants who had crossed over from Turkey, according to French and Greek officials.

But the Syrian passport found near his body, which quickly sparked a political debate in Europe and the United States? It was a fake.

Fraudulent Syrian passports are nothing new on the migratory route from Turkey through Europe. Indeed, German officials this year estimated that nearly a third of asylum seekers falsely claimed they were Syrian.

That's because a Syrian passport has become a valuable item, as European nations have pledged to grant asylum to refugees from the Middle Eastern nation.

A range of individuals seek seek fraudulent Syrian documents. Many of them are so-called economic migrants who take life-threatening risks to get to Europe in search of a better life but aren't granted the same welcome as those fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Eritrea. As The Post reported in September, among the flood of Syrian war refugees seeking asylum are other migrants — Iranians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Somalis and Kosovars — some of whom pose as Syrians...

France Expands Government’s Security Powers in Wake of #ParisAttacks

I hope Hollande's able to push those constitutional revisions through the parliament.

Strip the freakin' jihadists of their citizenship and ship them off to Devil's Island.

At WSJ, "France Expands Government’s Security Powers in Wake of Paris Attacks":

PARIS—French police will have more power to detain suspects, disband associations and block websites under a bill approved by the lower house of parliament Thursday, the first in a series of sweeping proposals from President François Hollande to prevent a repeat of the terrorist massacres that shook Paris last week.

The proposed law, which adds to police powers as part of a three-month extension of the country’s state of emergency, passed 551-6. It will go before the Senate on Friday under an accelerated legislative procedure.

Expansion of security powers has been a central element in the response to the attacks, in which militants killed at least 129 people. Since Mr. Hollande declared a state of emergency early Saturday, police have mounted some 600 raids without prior judicial authorization. One assault early Wednesday led to the death of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is suspected of playing a major role in plotting the attacks.

The government also wants to update the constitution to enshrine new emergency powers, new surveillance methods and a broader ability to strip people of their citizenship.

“We are at war,” Prime Minister Manuel Valls told lawmakers. “It’s a new type of war—abroad and at home—where terror is the primary aim and the primary weapon.”

The French move came amid calls in the European Union for stronger coordination to combat terrorist attacks. Rob Wainwright, head of the EU police network Europol, told the European Parliament that European governments need to share more intelligence to prevent potential Paris-type terrorist attacks.

“It is reasonable to assume that further attacks are likely,” he said, adding that the Paris attacks were a clear statement of intent by Islamic State.

The French bill updates a statute crafted in 1955 during the Algerian War that gives police emergency powers including confining dangerous individuals to their homes, banning public gatherings and conducting searches and raids without judicial approval.

Under the new framework—which applies only during a declared state of emergency—the government will now be able to confine people or force them to wear electronic bracelets, under a lower standard, namely “serious reasons to think their behavior could be a danger to security and public order.”

The government will also have authorization to copy data on any computer system during its emergency raids.

It also can disband groups and associations that participate in or incite “serious violations of public order” and immediately block any “public communication service” that incites or condones terrorism. That boosts powers granted in a divisive law last year allowing police to block websites after informing operators and giving them time to remove information.

The government’s proposal to extend the state of emergency to three months forged rare unity in the National Assembly. Even far-right lawmaker Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, the niece of National Front leader Marine Le Pen, voted in favor.

“An exceptional situation calls for exceptional measures,” Ms. Maréchal-Le Pen said.

Yet not all lawmakers were on board. Pouria Amirshahi, a Socialist lawmaker on the left of Mr. Hollande’s party, voted against the extension along with five others at the National Assembly. One lawmaker abstained.

Mr. Amirshahi said the government is hastily curtailing civil liberties it would defend in normal times, setting the stage for potential abuses of government power. He argued the exceptional powers also aren’t necessary to carry out raids like the one on Wednesday that killed the suspected architect of the Paris attacks.

“The temptation of authoritarianism is taking hold of part of the elite. That often happens in times of high emotion,” Mr. Amirshahi said...

The "temptation of totalitariasm."

Pfft. Hollande should shuttle the socialists off to Devil's Island as well.

Bill Whittle's Firewall: How Leftists Cause Islamic State Terror Attacks (VIDEO)

He's a freakin' patriot.

To Crush Islamic State, the West Must Settle on Military Tactics, Cut Off Oil Money, Counter Propaganda

At WSJ, "The War on Islamic State":

The Paris attacks and the downing of a Russian airliner have heightened determination in Moscow, Paris and Washington to defeat Islamic State, a challenge easier said than done.

Many strategists say military advances will show little progress unless more work is done to eliminate the militant group’s financing, counter its propaganda and cut a diplomatic deal among world powers on Syrian rule.

For military planners, destroying the terrorist group’s headquarters and crippling its fighting force is a relatively simple assignment, say strategists: It would require some 40,000 troops, air support and two months of fighting.

The problem is what do to after taking responsibility for won territory. With the recent experience of Afghanistan and Iraq, that is a job no Western leader wants. Many officials, especially in Europe, believe a full-scale military response would help Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, by broadcasting an image of Westerners seizing Arab lands, attracting more followers to the militants’ cause.

“Drawing us into a ground war with them is a trap,” said a French government official. “Frankly, I doubt it would go very well.”

The options short of a ground invasion are limited. After fighting Islamic State for more than a year through airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, military officers, diplomats and analysts agree there is no easy formula for victory.

Western allies are developing ways to escalate their operations and shift tactics. France is stepping up air attacks and bringing in 24 planes on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, which will arrive in the eastern Mediterranean next week to triple French air power in the region.

The U.S. military has developed options to accelerate the fight against Islamic State, including measures designed to strengthen local partners—Kurdish forces, for example, in Iraq and Syria—against the militants.

The U.S. also is considering creation of a base in Iraq to launch raids on Islamic State leaders; tripling the number of special operation forces working in Syria; and expanding the list of Islamic State targets by risking additional civilian casualties in more aggressive airstrikes.

Derek Chollet, a former Pentagon official with the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. think tank, said taking more aggressive steps, such as sending U.S. forces to the front lines to call in airstrikes, could help in the fight but will take time. Entering into a ground war, he said, could be a mistake.

“We made a lot of decisions as a country in the wake of 9/11, in the fever of fear and the desire to do something decisive, that we are still digging ourselves out of,” he said.

Some strategists say Islamic State may be more vulnerable than it appears. The group seems to have challenged the world, said Michael Clarke, director of the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank in London. Islamic State has picked fights not only in the Middle East, but with the U.S., Russia and France. This week it baited Beijing by killing a Chinese hostage.

“They think this is their time in history, their victory is divinely assured,” Mr. Clarke said. “From a strategic point of view, they are making every mistake.”

The Paris attacks—along with the bombing of a Russian plane and attacks in Turkey—have raised the prospect of an alliance between Moscow and the West.

Whether the gestures of solidarity over the past week will continue is an open question. Russian aggression in Ukraine looms in the background. Many Western officials say Europe and the U.S. can’t ignore the annexation of Crimea or Moscow’s support for Ukraine separatists.

And, on Syria, the diplomatic rift remains between Russia, which sees the government of President Bashar al-Assad as the best bulwark against chaos in the region, and the West, which believes the Assad regime is to blame.

“There is the potential for this to work,” said a senior official in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “But you have to start any talk about any sort of coalition with a common objective, and we don’t yet have a common objective.”

European diplomats and scholars say both sides may now be willing to compromise. “This string of attacks have had a catalytic effect,” said Marc Pierini, a former European Union diplomat and scholar at the think tank Carnegie Europe. “Something is happening that is entirely new.”

Keep reading.

National Review's 60th Anniversary Issue

Jeff Jacoby has a write up, "At 60, National Review’s battle of ideas is as spirited as ever."

And at the magazine, "NATIONAL REVIEW 60TH ANNIVERSARY."

Deals in TV, Video, and Audio for Black Friday Week

At Amazon, Black Friday Deals Week - Save on TV, Video, Audio.

Also, Shop Amazon - Black Friday Office Deals.

Plus, for under the tree, from Ian Kershaw, Hitler: 1936-1945 Nemesis, and Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris.

"ISIL stands for the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” not the “Radical Jihad State of Iraq and the Levant,” which Clinton, Obama and the other P.C. Democrats seem to think it is. Geez..."

From Elizabeth Price Foley, at Instapundit, "WELL, IT’S NOT THE “RADICAL JIHAD” STATE, YOU KNOW: Rex Murphy writes in the Canadian National Post about Hillary Clinton’s doublespeak hypocrisy..."

Amber Lee's Monday Forecast

Via CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Why Paris Could Happen Here

From Mitchell Silber, at WSJ, "The elements of an attack are available, including the weapons, manpower and a ‘permissive environment’":

In the afternoon of Nov. 13, when news of the horrific Paris attacks began to reach the U.S. and the fear and chaos there began to sink in, many Americans asked one important question: Could a similar attack by jihadists linked to Islamic State occur in a major American city? The answer is yes.

To understand why, it is vital to deconstruct the Paris attack and the factors that enabled it and then see if they can be mapped onto an American urban environment. During my tenure as director of intelligence analysis at the New York Police Department, this is what we did after any major attack around the world to stay ahead of ever-evolving terrorist threats.

While more operational details of the Paris attack will be uncovered, four necessary ingredients have already emerged: First, European citizens willing to kill themselves and their countrymen. Second, material for the attack, including assault weapons and hydrogen peroxide for suicide bombs. Third, the technical and paramilitary skills to make improvised explosive devices and operate assault weapons. And fourth, a “permissive environment” in which the national and local security and intelligence agencies were not able to detect the plot in advance.

Thankfully, the United States has—in absolute numbers and per capita—significantly fewer members of its Muslim population who are alienated from American society, inspired by Islamic State’s toxic ideology and radicalized to violence. But they do exist. As FBI Director James Comey recently noted, the bureau has more than 900 active ISIS investigations in 50 states. Those are just the domestic ISIS supporters that the FBI knows about. In May two ISIS-inspired American citizens, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, stormed an event featuring Muhammad cartoons in Garland, Texas, wearing body armor and carrying assault weapons. If it were not for the good work of law enforcement, who shot and killed the men, scores may have been murdered.

What about material? Semiautomatic weapons with high-capacity magazines are fairly easy to acquire, legally or illegally. Hydrogen peroxide, the active ingredient for deadly triacetone triperoxide (TATP) explosives, is sold throughout the U.S. and requires only patience and small purchases at different locations to acquire enough for multiple explosive devices. The technical know-how to make operational explosive devices can be obtained through online tutorials or more directly (and thoroughly) by traveling overseas to training camps.

Mr. Comey told Congress this summer that upward of 200 Americans have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria to participate in the conflict. According to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, about 40 of those Americans have returned from the jihadist battlefields of Syria since that civil war began.

In May 2014, a U.S. citizen from Florida, 22-year-old Moner Abu-Salha, carried out a suicide-bomb attack for the al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria. After training in Syria he had traveled undetected to and from the U.S. There are likely more American citizens like Moner Abu-Salha.

As for the permissive environment: Some analysts argue that French and Belgian intelligence services and police are overwhelmed by the sheer number of potential terrorists, but that U.S. agencies aren’t as stressed and won’t miss anyone. That is dangerous and inaccurate. The 2013 Boston Marathon attack by the Tsarnaev brothers was not that long ago. In that case the FBI received warnings from Russia, conducted its own investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and then—despite his travel to a potential zone of conflict in the Caucasus and a pro-jihadist social-media profile—closed its investigation.

Police and intelligence agencies have an enormously difficult job because radicalization pathways to violence are not always straightforward...

Still more.

Salah Abdeslam, Subject of European Manhunt, Not Among 16 Arrested in Belgian Anti-Terror Raids (VIDEO)

Abdeslam's ability to elude capture for over a week is a terrifying indictment of the abilities of European counter-terrorism officials.

It's simply ridiculous that this jihadist is still at large.

The background's at WSJ, "Police Scour Brussels District in Terror Manhunt."

And at the Guardian UK, "Brussels terror raids: police announce 16 arrests but Salah Abdeslam not among them – as it happened."

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES," and Theo Spark's, "Cartoon Round Up..."

Cartoon Credit: Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – I Have Seen The Enemy."

Get $20.00 Off All-New Kindle Paperwhite

At Amazon, All-New Kindle Paperwhite, 6" High-Resolution Display (300 ppi) with Built-in Light, Wi-Fi - Includes Special Offers.

Plus, Delicious Deals on Holiday Kitchen.

And books for under the tree, from Nicholas Stargardt, The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939–1945, and Alistair Horne, Hubris: The Tragedy of War in the Twentieth Century.

Obama Scrambling Desperately to Regain Control of Syrian Refugee Debate (VIDEO)

I'm positively giddy with all the political flak Obama's taking.

I love it. It's so well-deserved, heh.

Even far left-wing journalists are slamming the idiot POTUS, so that's like icing on the cake.

At Politico, "White House scrambles to regain control of refugee debate":

Democrats who voted for an anti-refugee bill complain the Obama administration has failed so far to make its case.

The White House, caught flat-footed this week as President Barack Obama visited Asia, is scrambling to regain control of the debate on allowing Syrian refugees into the U.S. and to slow legislation that it says would be against American values.

In the days since a group of attackers unleashed a night of terror in Paris, Republicans have zeroed in on the threat that Syrian refugees could pose if fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant slipped in with them and have fast-tracked legislation that would tighten the screening process.

Dozens of Democrats, fearful of voting against such security measures, have joined the GOP effort, and they're publicly grumbling about subpar messaging from the White House.

But now the Obama administration has cranked up a multifront effort to halt the legislation and try to reclaim the conversation around the thousands of refugees who were due to be resettled in the U.S. next year.

Still more.

Donald Trump Says Maybe Black Protester 'Should Have Been Roughed Up...' (VIDEO)

The pearl-clutching left is having a Sunday tizzy over this.

At Vox, via Memeorandum, "Protester gets punched at Trump rally. Trump: “Maybe he deserved to get roughed up”."

Also at the Soros-back Think Progress, via Memeorandum, "Donald Trump: My Fans Were Right To Beat Up Black Protester."

CNN's Jeremy Diamond caught the video, "A black protester at Trump's rally today in Alabama was shoved, tackled, punched & kicked."

CNN's got the video, with Trump's comments on the background audio, "Donald Trump: Maybe protester 'should have been roughed..."

But listen to the whole thing. The comments, from his Fox & Friends interview this morning, come toward the very end of the clip:



The full background's at WaPo, "Trump on rally protester: ‘Maybe he should have been roughed up’."

Salma Hayek at Evening Standard Theater Awards

Holy smoke!

She's bursting out of her bustier!

At London's Daily Mail, "Ay Caramba! Salma Hayek, 49, commands attention in dramatic cleavage-enhancing gown at Evening Standard Theatre Awards."

Carmen Ortega for Playboy (VIDEO)

She's voluptuous.

At E!, "Hollywood Cycle's Carmen Ortega Strips Down for Playboy! See the Super-Sexy Pics."

She pushes the boundaries on Instagram too!

Pew Research Center Poll Finds at Least 60 Million Muslims Support Islamic State (VIDEO)

Here's the irrepressible Ezra Levant, at Rebel Media, "Pew poll: 60 million Muslims support ISIS."

At read it, at Pew, "In nations with significant Muslim populations, much disdain for ISIS."

Not everybody over there's disdaining ISIS, which is exactly the fun-fact Ezra points out.

Russians Write Messages on Bombs for Islamic State (VIDEO)

Watch, from Agence France-Presse, "Russian defence ministry releases new video."

And at London's Daily Mail, "'This is for Paris': Russian pilots write messages of support for terror victims on their bombs before launching latest air raids and cruise missile strikes against ISIS."

Nicholas Stargardt, The German War

I want this book for Christmas.

From Nicholas Stargardt, The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939–1945.

Synopsis

The Second World War was a German war like no other. The Nazi regime, having started the conflict, turned it into the most horrific war in European history, resorting to genocidal methods well before building the first gas chambers. Over its course, the Third Reich expended and exhausted all its moral and physical reserves, leading to total defeat in 1945. Yet 70 years on – despite whole libraries of books about the war’s origins, course and atrocities – we still do not know what Germans thought they were fighting for and how they experienced and sustained the war until the bitter end.

When war broke out in September 1939, it was deeply unpopular in Germany. Yet without the active participation and commitment of the German people, it could not have continued for almost six years. What, then, was the war Germans thought they were fighting? How did the changing course of the conflict – the victories of the Blitzkrieg, the first defeats in the east, the bombing of Germany’s cities – change their views and expectations? And when did Germans first realise that they were fighting a genocidal war?

Drawing on a wealth of first-hand testimony, The German War is the first foray for many decades into how the German people experienced the Second World War. Told from the perspective of those who lived through it – soldiers, schoolteachers and housewives; Nazis, Christians and Jews – its masterful historical narrative sheds fresh and disturbing light on the beliefs, hopes and fears of a people who embarked on, continued and fought to the end a brutal war of conquest and genocide.

Cyber Monday Sale

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Also, 12 Days of Deals - TV, Video, Audio

Plus, stay warm, Lasko 754200 Ceramic Heater with Adjustable Thermostat.

And for under the tree, Gary Kasparov, Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped.

Donald Trump Calls for Waterboarding in Fight Against Islamic State (VIDEO)

The video's here, from ABC's "This Week," "Donald Trump: I'll bring back waterboarding."

And at the Los Angeles Times, "Donald Trump calls for waterboarding to combat Islamic State."

Senator Dianne Feinstein: Obama Administration's Approach to Islamic State is 'Not Sufficient to the Job' (VIDEO)

That's putting it mildly, isn't it?

At CBS Face the Nation this morning:



ADDED: At the Los Angeles Times, "Feinstein criticizes Obama's Islamic State strategy, urges more U.S. special forces in Syria."

The Long War Continues

From Stephen Hayes and Thomas Joscelyn, at the Weekly Standard:

In many ways, the reaction to the horrific attacks in Paris has been familiar. There were the expressions of solidarity: flowers at French embassies; social media avatars changed from silly selfies to photos of the French flag snapping defiantly in the wind; buildings across the Western world lit up in red, white, and blue; spontaneous and deeply moving renditions of the national anthem, sung by spectators being evacuated from a soccer match at the Stade de France, site of one of the attacks, and three days later by French legislators after President François Hollande addressed them at Versailles.

There were glimpses of the attacks themselves: gut-wrenching descriptions of sudden horror from eye-witnesses; cell-phone videos capturing slices of the chaos and carnage; photos of rescue workers walking gingerly through broken glass and torn clothing and human flesh; and, later, the emotional remembrances of those lost, by friends and relatives whose ordinary Friday had just become the worst day of their lives.

And, of course, there were the condemnations and declarations of resolve from Western leaders: The world must not tolerate such barbaric acts; together we will fight those who have carried out such unfathomable deeds; we will work with the international community against terrorism; and on it goes.

President Obama’s words on the night of the attacks were familiar, too. “We’re going to do whatever it takes to work with the French people and with nations around the world to bring these terrorists to justice, and to go after any terrorist networks that go after our people.”

They were meant to be reassuring, but rang hollow. Nobody expected that the United States under Barack Obama would actually “do whatever it takes” to win a war the president has long neglected. Even his mouthing of the promise seemed perfunctory—a man saying what the president is supposed to say in such a moment, rather than a leader announcing a new American resolve in the long war against jihadism.

Obama validated this skepticism in short order. Three days after the Paris massacre, as President Hollande was calling the slaughter an “act of war” and preparing a full-scale international response, Obama gave a bizarre press conference in which he made clear that for him nothing had changed.

Speaking to reporters at the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, Obama said that, while the Paris attacks might have been a “setback” for his ISIS strategy, they would not change it. When reporters expressed surprise at his continued embrace of an approach that was failing, he lashed out at them for daring to question him. At a time when an American president might have been expected to show some righteous anger at the attackers and those who enabled them, Obama instead directed his fury towards critics at home who worry about jihadist violence against the homeland. It was a shameful spectacle, and a revealing one.

Barack Obama remains committed to a failed strategy against an enemy he has long underestimated in a war he has no plans to win. Nothing has changed. And this time, what’s past truly is prologue...

Keep reading.

Paris Attacks, Rise of Islamic State, Shake a Weakened Europe — And the International System

A great piece, from Robert Kagan, at the Wall Street Journal, "The Crisis of World Order":

The only alternative [to European and Obama-led global chaos] is to address the crisis in Syria and Iraq, and with it the terrorist threat posed by Islamic State. But just as in the 1990s, when Europeans could address the crisis in the Balkans only with the U.S. playing the dominant military role, so again America will have to take the lead, provide the troops, supply the bulk of the air power and pull together those willing and able to join the effort.

What would such an effort look like? First, it would require establishing a safe zone in Syria, providing the millions of would-be refugees still in the country a place to stay and the hundreds of thousands who have fled to Europe a place to which to return. To establish such a zone, American military officials estimate, would require not only U.S. air power but ground forces numbering up to 30,000. Once the safe zone was established, many of those troops could be replaced by forces from Europe, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, but the initial force would have to be largely American.

In addition, a further 10,000 to 20,000 U.S. troops would be required to uproot Islamic State from the haven it has created in Syria and to help local forces uproot it in Iraq. Many of those troops could then be replaced by NATO and other international forces to hold the territory and provide a safe zone for rebuilding the areas shattered by Islamic State rule.

At the same time, an internationally negotiated and blessed process of transition in Syria should take place, ushering the bloodstained Mr. Assad from power and establishing a new provisional government to hold nationwide elections. The heretofore immovable Mr. Assad would face an entirely new set of military facts on the ground, with the Syrian opposition now backed by U.S. forces and air power, the Syrian air force grounded and Russian bombing halted. Throughout the transition period, and probably beyond even the first rounds of elections, an international peacekeeping force—made up of French, Turkish, American and other NATO forces as well as Arab troops—would have to remain in Syria until a reasonable level of stability, security and inter-sectarian trust was achieved...

RTWT.

Brussels on Total Lockdown After Authorities Warn of Paris-Style Terrorist Attack (VIDEO)

Gateway Pundit has the sensational headline, "BREAKING: Troops Deployed on Brussels Streets as Belgium Warns Terror Attack Imminent."

And see the Guardian UK, "Brussels in lockdown after terror threat level is raised to maximum," and "Threat of 'imminent' Isis attack puts Brussels on lockdown – as it happened."

Still more at the Mirror UK, "Terror police arrest six Brits as security forces put Brussels on lockdown." And the Daily Mail, "Belgium on terror lockdown: Brussels metro closed after police seize chemicals and explosives amid alert over 'imminent' Paris-style ISIS attack."

Caitlin O'Connor Rule 5

Well, this Caitlin's a real woman, heh.

Watch, via the Chive, "Who's That Girl - Get to Know Caitlin O'Connor."

And she's on Twitter.

BONUS: At WWTDD, "Topless Caitlin O’Connor Has Commercial Grade Boobs."

Insider Reports: Obama Refuses to Read Fresh Intelligence on Radical Islamist Threats

Well, following up on our "Worst. President. Ever."

It turns out Barack Hussein won't even read fresh intel on Islamic jihad.

Here's Katie Pavlich, "Attkisson Source: Obama Is Flat Out Refusing to Hear Intel on Islamic Terror Groups."

And listen to the interview from Steve Malzberg, "Sharyl Attkisson: Sources Say Obama Won't Read Reports on Terrorist Groups..."

Hey, Thanks to the Reader Who Bought Michael Savage's New Book, Government Zero: No Borders, No Language, No Culture

Actually, thanks to all of my readers who've been shopping through my Amazon links. I appreciate it.

But special thanks to the reader who picked up Michael Savage's new book. I didn't even know Michael Savage had a new book, heh.

Here, Government Zero: No Borders, No Language, No Culture.

Worst. President. Ever.

From Robert Tracinski, at the Federalist, "Barack Obama: Worst. President. Ever." (Via Instapundit.):

I still remember a lot of people telling me in 2006 that George W. Bush was the “worst president ever.”

They had no idea what they were talking about. This is what the “worst president ever” looks like. In his response to the attacks in Paris, Barack Obama has shown us a leader who is not just inadequate to his core responsibilities, but contemptuous of them...

In Historic Shift, More Mexicans Leaving the U.S. Than Entering (VIDEO)

This was at Pew Research the other day, "More Mexicans Leaving Than Coming to the U.S."

And at the Sacramento Bee, "Study finds more Mexicans leaving the US than coming":

SAN DIEGO - More Mexicans are leaving than moving into the United States, reversing the flow of a half-century of mass migration, according to a study published Thursday.

The Pew Research Center found that slightly more than 1 million Mexicans and their families, including American-born children, left the U.S. for Mexico from 2009 to 2014. During the same five years, 870,000 Mexicans came to the U.S., resulting in a net flow to Mexico of 140,000.

The desire to reunite families is the main reason more Mexicans are moving south than north, Pew found. The sluggish U.S. economic recovery and tougher border enforcement are other key factors.

The era of mass migration from Mexico is "at an end," declared Mark Hugo Lopez, Pew's director of Hispanic research.

The finding follows a Pew study in 2012 that found net migration between the two countries was near zero, so this represents a turning point in one of the largest mass migrations in U.S. history. More than 16 million Mexicans moved to the United States from 1965 to 2015, more than from any other country.

"This is something that we've seen coming," Lopez said. "It's been almost 10 years that migration from Mexico has really slowed down."

The findings counter the narrative of an out-of-control border that has figured prominently in U.S. presidential campaigns, with Republican Donald Trump calling for Mexico pay for a fence to run the entire length of the 1,954-mile frontier. Pew said there were 11.7 million Mexicans living in the U.S. last year, down from a peak of 12.8 million in 2007. That includes 5.6 million living in the U.S. illegally, down from 6.9 million in 2007.

In another first, the Border Patrol arrested more non-Mexicans than Mexicans in the 2014 fiscal year, as more Central Americans came to the U.S., mostly through South Texas, and many of them turned themselves in to authorities.

The authors analyzed U.S. and Mexican census data and a 2014 survey by Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography. The Mexican questionnaire asked about residential history, and found that 61 percent of those who reported living in the U.S. in 2009 but were back in Mexico last year had returned to join or start a family. An additional 14 percent had been deported, and 6 percent said they returned for jobs in Mexico.

Dowell Myers, a public policy professor at the University of Southern California, said it's lack of jobs in the U.S. — not family ties — that is mostly motivating Mexicans to leave. Construction is a huge draw for young immigrants, but has yet to approach the levels of last decade's housing boom, he said.

"It's not like all of a sudden they decided they missed their mothers," Myers said. "The fact is, our recovery from the Great Recession has been miserable. It's been miserable for everyone."

Also, Mexico's population is aging, meaning there's less competition for young people looking for work. That's a big change from the 1990s, when many people entering the workforce felt they had no choice but to migrate north of the border, Myers said.

While the U.S. economic recovery is sluggish, Mexico has been free in recent years from the economic tailspins that drove earlier generations north in the 1980s and 1990s. While many parts of Mexico suffer grinding poverty and violence, others have become thriving manufacturing centers under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Still more.

Donald Trumps Walks Back Comments on Establishing Database to Track Muslims (VIDEO)

Shoot, I love the idea of Muslim database.

And frankly, it's not even Donald Trump who's been pushing the idea, but the leftist media that's trying to smear him as a Nazi. See Joel Pollack, at Big Government, via Memoerandum, "How the Media Smeared Donald Trump as a Nazi."

No matter. The politically correct mobs have called for Trump's head, just like ISIS beheads apostates.

At the Washington Post, "Trump distances himself from database to track Muslims":

Donald Trump on Friday backed away from the idea that he wants to create a database to track Muslims in America as fellow presidential candidates blasted the proposal as “abhorrent” and “shocking.”

Trump said the notion that he would implement a database as a way to follow Muslims was not his.

“I didn’t suggest a database — a reporter did,” Trump tweeted Friday. “We must defeat Islamic terrorism & have surveillance, including a watch list, to protect America.”

NBC News asked the candidate Thursday night whether there should be a “database system that tracks Muslims” in the country. Trump said “there should be a lot of systems beyond databases” and started talking about the U.S. border and building a wall across it. When asked whether it was something a Trump White House would implement, the candidate said,“Oh, I would certainly implement that — absolutely.”

Trump appeared somewhat confused — or annoyed — when asked about the proposal later in the night. When asked to explain the difference between a Muslim database in the United States and the registry of Jews that once existed in Nazi Germany, Trump repeatedly said, “You tell me.”

Yahoo News first asked Trump about a database Thursday. The candidate did not take a stance but raised concerns about Muslims in the United States. Trump has said that he would close mosques and would not rule out the idea of giving Muslims identification cards noting their religion.

“I find it abhorrent that Donald Trump is suggesting we register people,” former Florida governor Jeb Bush said Friday on CNBC.

“You’re talking about internment. You’re talking about closing mosques. You’re talking about registering people. And that’s just wrong — I don’t care about campaigns,” Bush said. “It’s not a question of toughness — it’s manipulating people’s angst and their fears. That’s not strength. That’s weakness.”

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who introduced a bill that would have barred Syrian refugees from coming to the United States, said he does not think that people should be tracked by their religion. Democrats blocked Cruz’s bill Thursday.

“I’m a big fan of Donald Trump’s, but not a fan of government registries of American citizens,” the presidential candidate said in Sioux City, Iowa. “First Amendment protects religious liberty.”

Another GOP hopeful, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, said Trump’s comments show that he is “unable to unite and lead” the country.

“The idea that someone would have to register with the federal government because of their religion strikes against all that we have believed in our nation’s history,” he said in a statement.

Kasich is an idiot. It won't be long before his campaign folds like a cheap pup tent.

Still more at the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "Donald Trump Sets Off a Furor With Call to Register Muslims in the U.S."

Islam Still Rooted in the Dark Ages

From Julia Hartley-Brewer, at Telegraph UK, "Islam is still rooted in the values of the dark ages – and until we accept that, we will never get rid of radicalism":

British Muslims must “tackle extremism”.

We must stop tolerating “social segregation”.

“For too long we have buried our heads in the sand” about the growth of extremism among young Muslims in our country.

No, not the words of Ukip’s Nigel Farage but of Labour’s London Mayoral candidate, Sadiq Khan, speaking today at a Westminster lunch.

Mr Khan, a Muslim born in London to Pakistani immigrants, is one of the very few politicians in mainstream politics who is brave enough to speak the truth about the ever growing issues facing Britain’s Muslim population.

Of course, being a Muslim himself, Mr Khan is automatically exempt from the usual barrage of cries of “racist” and “Islamophobe” from the liberal thought police.

Yet it is nevertheless a courageous politician who dares to point out what is blatantly obvious to the rest of us – but which our elected representatives are mostly too timid to admit.

Yes, as Mr Khan said, British Muslims “have a special role to play in tackling extremism”. As he says, that’s not because they – simply by virtue of sharing the same religion as the terrorists – are any more responsible for terror attacks than non-Muslims, but because they can be “more effective” at tackling that extremism.

Britain’s extremist Islamists, after all, are not coming from ordinary Christian, Sikh, Hindu, Jewish or atheist backgrounds. They are coming from ordinary Muslim families, they have Muslim friends and they live in largely Muslim neighbourhoods.

It is therefore those families, friends and neighbours who are likely to be the first to hear those extremist views and thus be in the position to challenge them at the earliest opportunity and, we hope, stem their growth into full-bodied Islamist violence.

And that is crucial to Sadiq Khan’s other key point: it is time the social segregation of Muslims came to an end.

For too many decades, many of Britain’s 2.7 million Muslims have lived here as a separate, co-existing community, right at the heart of our great cities but at the fringes of our society.

As Mr Khan said: “Too many British Muslims grow up without really knowing anyone from a different background. We’ve protected people’s right to live their cultural life at the expense of creating a common life.”

Huge numbers of British Muslims are concentrated in distinct neighbourhoods, often living with, going to school with, working with, befriending and marrying only other Muslims. “This,” as Mr Khan so rightly pointed out, “creates the conditions for extremism and radicalisation to take hold.”

Is it really any wonder then that so many young British Muslims feel they are not really British when they have grown up isolated and alienated from the rest of the population?

British Muslims need to face up to some home truths. But so too does Sadiq Khan.

Because, despite talking so much sense about integration and tackling extremism, the Labour MP still wasn’t brave enough to tell the one truth that really does need to be faced if we are going to end this deadly threat.

“It is ludicrous to pretend that Islamism has nothing to do with Islam. It has everything to do with Islam.”

In the very same speech, Mr Khan said the Paris terror attacks were carried out “in the name of a sick and evil ideology, a grotesque and perverse worldview which has nothing to do with the Islam that I know.”

That is nonsense. It is ludicrous to pretend that Islamism has nothing to do with Islam. It has everything to do with Islam and that is precisely why it has such a potent appeal to so many young Muslim men and women.

As any scholar of Islam will tell you, the ideology behind Isil and al-Qaeda is as rooted in the Koran as are daily prayers and eating halal meat. Like Christianity, it just depends which verses you care to read and how literal an interpretation you choose to give them.

The ideology behind Isil is as rooted in the Koran as are daily prayers  Photo: Getty

While Christianity has certainly been the cause of more than its fair share of violent bloodshed over the centuries, it has now evolved into a religion that is largely a force for peace.

Islam, though, has never been through an enlightenment or a reformation and is still rooted in the values of the dark ages. That is why Islamic extremism has boomed at a time when the rest of the world is embracing the liberal, democratic values of the 21st century.

Sadiq Khan should be applauded for his courage in speaking the truth about segregation and radicalisation.

But until we all accept the truth about the roots of Islamic extremism, we won’t win the battle for hearts and minds – let alone the bloody war that awaits...

Paris Terror Mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud Also Visited Germany

At Der Spiegel, "Abdelhamid Abaaoud's Death: Paris Terror Mastermind Also Visited Germany":

SPIEGEL ONLINE has learned that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind behind Friday's Paris terrorist attacks who was killed in a Wednesday police raid, also entered Germany multiple times.

The man who has been described by French officials as the mastermind and "brains" behind Friday's terror attacks in Paris has been confirmed dead. The local public prosecutor said Thursday that Abdelhamid Abaaoud was killed during a raid on an apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis on Wednesday. Officials identified the terror suspect by way of skin samples of the 27-year-old Belgian extremist.

According to information obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE, Abaaoud made repeated visits to Germany. Federal Police at the Cologne-Bonn Airport registered him on Jan. 20, 2014 as he tried to catch a flight to Istanbul. At the time, he told officials he wanted to visit friends and relatives in Turkey before returning to Cologne. Officials believe he then used another route to return to Europe.
At the time, Belgian authorities had issued orders to track Abaaoud's movements in the Schengen Information System (SIS), a database used by countries that are members of the European Union's Schengen area of borderless travel. Under the Belgian orders, he was not to be arrested or detained. German officials passed the information on to Belgium at the time.

Security sources in Germany say that Abaaoud also visited Cologne back in 2008, when he reportedly applied for an export registration plate for a large vehicle. But the circumstances surrounding the visit remain unclear. Investigators say they have no further information about the visit.

Abaaoud was considered Belgium's most dangerous Islamist extremist and was believed to have been a key figure in Friday's deadly attacks in Paris. The Islamist extremist, born in Brussels' Anderlecht district, is suspected of having organized the attacks, and security forces had conducted a desperate search for him after the massacre. French security forces killed Abaaoud during a seven-hour police deployment early Wednesday morning in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, during which officers fired more than 5,000 rounds.

In addition to Abaaoud, Hasna Aitboulahcen, a woman identified by officials as the terror mastermind's cousin, also died in the raid on Wednesday after detonating a suicide vest...

Actually, reports now say that Hasna Aït Boulahcen did not detonate a suicide bomb. See the London's Daily Mail, "'Cowgirl' cousin did NOT blow herself up... but died when third ISIS terrorist detonated suicide vest standing next to her in Paris siege apartment, police reveal."

In any case, still more at Der Spiegel.

Record Number of #Refugees Around the Globe

At USA Today, "Record refugee crisis hits all parts of globe":

LONDON — The heart-wrenching plight of desperate refugees, most of them Syrians, who are fleeing to Europe by land or sea is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Yet it is only part of a troubling trend that has reached unprecedented levels:

More people from every corner of the globe have been uprooted by war, persecution or natural disasters than ever before in history.

That amounts to 55 million people "forcibly displaced" at the end of 2014, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. That doesn't count tens of millions more in poverty who are voluntarily seeking a better life elsewhere.

Given all the conflicts and chaos raging around the world — and distressed economic conditions in so many countries — the world's migrant crisis likely will remain at record levels this year, too. And it is sure to prompt more pushback from nations worried about the costs of housing migrants and threats from terrorists sneaking across borders amid the hordes of refugees...

Keep reading.

The Ululations of Radical College Crybabies

From Michelle Malkin:

Deray McKesson, the professional agitator whose racial rabble-rousing began at tax-subsidized Teach for America, proudly unveiled his new enterprise on the Internet Thursday: A website chronicling “THE DEMANDS” of his radical brothers and sisters on college campuses across Northern America.

“We recently launched http://thedemands.org which compiles the college demands from across the country,” he tweeted. “Check it out.”

I did. Man, oh, man, are the kids “DEMAND”-y these days!

Whoops, kids, did I offend you with “Man, oh, man?” I plead guilty to “cisheteropatriarchy.” Also: ageism! Prosecute me for serial microaggressions and throw me in the safe-space violators’ slammer.

But I micro-aggress-digress.

The current list of campuses represented on TheDemands.Org includes 37 institutions of higher learning. Or rather, higher moaning.

I’m calling the website the Social Justice Warrior Entitlement Mob Tracker.

It’s a useful database of progressive brats who are part of a clearly coordinated “Black Lives Matter” hijacking of American colleges and universities (with a few Canadian groupies tagging along). Whatever legitimate complaints these privileged — yes, you are privileged to be attending college in America in the 21st century — students may have had, they’ve utterly beclowned themselves with their over-the-top hysterics.

Leading the list is the University of Missouri, which claimed the scalps of the school’s president and chancellor last week for insufficient attention to alleged bias incidents and drunken catcalls.

It wasn’t enough. Never enough.

The Mizzou mob is also demanding a new race-based hiring quota increase for “black faculty and staff members campus-wide by 10 percent” and an increase in “funding and resources for the University of Missouri Counseling Center for the purpose of hiring additional mental health professionals, particularly those of color.”

Shakedown godfathers Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have taught their protesting progeny well.

At Amherst College, the “uprisers” are pressuring the president to make — take a deep breath — a “statement of apology to students, alumni and former students, faculty, administration and staff who have been victims of several injustices including but not limited to our institutional legacy of white supremacy, colonialism, anti-black racism, anti-Latinx [sic] racism, anti-Native American racism, anti-Native/ indigenous racism, anti-Asian racism, anti-Middle Eastern racism, heterosexism, cis-sexism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, ableism, mental health stigma, and classism.”

Alas, there’s no safe space from coddled, overly verbose narcissists...

Still more.

Rachel Harris Playboy's November Playmate of the Month (VIDEO)

Watch, "A Creative Force: Miss November 2015 Rachel Harris."

BONUS: At Egotastic!, "RACHEL HARRIS TOPLESS PLAYBOY PLAYMATE OF THE MONTH COVERED IN NOTHING BUT SEXTASTIC."

ISIS: The State of Terror

More for your war on terror library, from Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger.

At Amazon, ISIS: The State of Terror.

Mali Hostage Crisis Ends With 27 People Dead (VIDEO)

At WSJ, "Mali Hostage Crisis Ends With 27 People Dead, Including Five Attackers, Military Officials Say":

Soldiers in Mali’s capital shot their way into a Radisson Blu hotel and liberated dozens of captives after a 10-hour siege by Islamist gunmen that left 27 people dead, including five attackers, ending one of the biggest hostage standoffs in recent years.

Troops from France—the former colonial power—and United Nations peacekeepers blocked roads while Malian soldiers with Kalashnikov rifles fought their way to the top floor of the seven-story hotel in Bamako. Inside, five gunmen had been holding 170 hostages, according to officials and witnesses.

Several hours earlier, the gunmen—who witnesses said chanted “Allahu akbar” as they burst into the hotel around dawn—released 30 hostages who said they successfully recited the Islamic profession of faith.

Malian military officials confirmed the death toll early Friday evening without identifying the other 22 people killed. At least one American and one Belgian were among the dead, officials from those countries said.

“When the terrorists understood that we were coming for them, they executed the hostages in their possession,” said one soldier.

Next to him, another soldier had tears streaming down his face. “He just lost his friend,” the first soldier said.

It remained unclear who conducted the attack. Early on, officials feared it was the work of Islamic State allies looking to strike French interests, just a week after the group killed 130 people in Paris.

But those fears didn’t appear to be borne out by early evidence, and Islamic State made no claim of responsibility.

Mali has some half-dozen Islamist groups. For three years, al Qaeda allies here have been waging smaller assaults on police and soldiers on a monthly basis, alongside threats of worse to come.

Just last week, Mali’s most prominent Islamist commander, Iyad Ag Ghaly, called for attacks on French targets, and the Radisson, used by French officials, seems in keeping with that. Linked to al Qaeda, he is on the State Department’s list of specially designated global terrorists. Several al Qaeda-linked accounts on Twitter cheered Friday's attack as a success...

Keep reading.

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Poll: 6 in 10 Say United States at War with 'Radical Islam', Repudiating President Obama and Hillary Clinton

That's one of the major findings in this new blockbuster Washington Post/ABC News poll.

See, "Americans more fearful of a major terror attack in the U.S., poll finds." The raw internals are here:

Fears among Americans about terrorist attacks on U.S. soil have risen sharply a week after a major assault in Paris killed 130, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, which finds a majority believing that the country is at war with “radical Islam.”

Fully 83 percent of registered voters say they believe a terrorist attack in the United States resulting in large casualties is likely in the near future, rising from 73 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll earlier this month asking the same question. Forty percent say a major attack in the United States is “very likely,” up eight percentage points since last week’s attacks to match the record level of concern recorded after the 2005 subway bombings in Britain.

The Post-ABC poll finds a majority of Americans want the United States to join a military response to the Paris attacks, including increasing airstrikes and sending ground troops to fight the Islamic State, which asserted responsibility for last week’s mayhem.

But the poll also finds evidence of the public hesitation about a major military commitment, with more saying the United States should play a supporting role, and only one-third of all respondents supporting deployment of large numbers of ground forces.

The findings underscore the heightened anxiety many Americans feel after the Paris attacks, as well as a broader dissatisfaction with President Obama’s approach to terrorism. They come as the House voted Thursday by a large majority — 289 to 137 — to restrict Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the United States, despite a White House veto threat, and as several Republican presidential candidates are urging stricter control on admitting refugees and a deeper military involvement overseas. The poll found over half of adults oppose accepting refugees from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, even if they are screened for security.

Rather than rally around the commander in chief, the public’s ratings of Obama on dealing with terrorism have fallen to a record low 40 percent, with a smaller 35 percent approving of his handling of the Islamic State. Obama’s ratings on terrorism have fallen seven points since January, driven largely by a 20-point drop among political independents and an 11-point drop among moderates.

Ken Kaas, a 50-year-old heavy-equipment operator in Pottstown, Pa., described the president’s approach in a single word: “horrible.”

“I just think he’s just politically correct, doesn’t want to ruffle feathers and is not a strong leader,” said Kaas, a Republican, who added that he preferred the strategy espoused by many GOP presidential candidates. “They’re stronger, and they seem to be more caring of Americans and our cause, as opposed to trying to appease the world.”

The Paris attacks also appear to have bolstered public support for circumventing civil liberties to pursue potential terrorists. A 72 percent majority say the federal government should investigate possible terrorist threats even if they intrude on personal privacy, rising nine percentage points since January to the highest level since 2010....

Fifty-nine percent of respondents say the United States is “at war with radical Islam,” while 37 percent say it is not. Republicans have embraced the term and criticized President Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for not using it. Clinton, who is running for president, says “radical Islam” wrongly conflates Islamist jihadists with the teachings of Islam and Muslims more broadly, but fellow partisans do not appear to have such reservations. Fifty-two percent of Democrats say the nation is at war with radical Islam.

Sixty percent support sending more ground troops to defeat Islamic State. That's a really striking figure, considering the intense opposition we've had to Middle East ground deployments this last few years.



Americans have had it with this administration on national security, and it's going to hurt the Democrats. Independents and moderates have swung sharply against Obama in his handing of the terrorist threat. A shrewd GOP nominee will be able to eviscerate Hillary Clinton on the issues next year, and the field seems to be narrowing down to Trump and Rubio as the front-runners. Carson's fading.

More at the link.

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Al-Murabitoon, with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Claims Responsibility for Mali Hotel Attack (VIDEO)

At Long War Journal, "Al Qaeda group claims credit for attack on hotel in Mali’s capital."

Also at Pamela's, "Mali: Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” take hostages, free those who can recite Qur’an."

Plus, at CNN, "UPDATE: #ParisAttacks death toll rises to 130, says French Prime Minister."