'Most Americans want people who behead Americans destroyed considerably sooner than that. They wonder why the world's greatest military can't do that...'

Well, you'd think so, but then again, we've got Obama as president.

See Michael Barone, at the Washington Examiner, "Obama gets really angry -- at Americans."

Obama's Phony War

From Charles Krauthammer, at the Fresno Bee, "Obama’s phony war on terror":

WASHINGTON - A Syrian passport was found near the body of one of the terrorists. Why was it there? Undoubtedly, to back up the Islamic State boast that it is infiltrating operatives amid the refugees flooding Europe. The passport may have been fake, but the terrorist’s fingerprints were not. They match those of a man who just a month earlier had come through Greece on his way to kill Frenchmen in Paris.

If the other goal of the Paris massacre was to frighten France out of the air campaign in Syria – the way Spain withdrew from the Iraq War after the terror attack on its trains in 2004 – they picked the wrong country. France is a serious post-colonial power, as demonstrated in Ivory Coast, the Central African Republic and Mali, which France saved from an Islamist takeover in 2013.

Indeed, socialist President Francois Hollande has responded furiously to his country’s 9/11 with an intensified air campaign, hundreds of raids on suspected domestic terrorists, a state of emergency and proposed changes in the constitution to make France less hospitable to jihad.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama, titular head of the free world, has responded to Paris with weariness and annoyance. His news conference in Turkey was marked by a stunning tone of passivity, detachment and lassitude, compounded by impatience and irritability at the very suggestion that his Syria strategy might be failing.

The only time he showed any passion was in denouncing Republicans for hardheartedness toward Muslim refugees. One hundred and twenty-nine innocents lie dead but it takes the GOP to kindle Obama’s ire...

Come to My Window

I woke up yesterday with this song on my lips.

I don't know why. I love it. And I love Melissa Etheridge.

A nice break from terrorism blogging, in any case.



More blogging tonight. Thanks for reading.

Black Friday Countdown in Camera, Photo, and Video

At Amazon, Shop - Countdown to Black Friday in Camera, Photo & Video .

And check out Audrey Kurth Cronin, How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns.

Majority of Americans Rejects Obama's Syrian Refugee Importation Plan

It's not huge, but no matter: Obama's clearly on the wrong side of the issue.

At Bloomberg, via Memeorandum, "Bloomberg Poll: Most Americans Oppose Syrian Refugee Resettlement."

San Francisco Practices Security Drills Ahead of Super Bowl 50 (VIDEO)

Oh boy, it's like September 11 all over again.

The Super Bowl's February 7, 2016. The NFL's no longer using Roman numerals, which is like, finally.

Watch, at CBS News San Francisco, "Military Teams Practice Security Drill at Levi's Stadium Ahead of Super Bowl 50."

'The Hunger Games' Deserved Better Ending Than 'Mockingjay -- Part 2'

Well, I'm going to go see it either way.

But see Kenneth Turan, at the Los Angeles Times, "Movie Review: Jennifer Lawrence and 'The Hunger Games' deserved a better ending than 'Mockingjay -- Part 2'":

"The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2" is exactly what you would expect from its ungainly title, and that turns out to be not quite enough.

That's a bit sad because novelist Suzanne Collins' saga of resistance and rebellion in the totalitarian future state of Panem as led by redoubtable warrior Katniss Everdeen has been such a reliable staple of popular entertainment that it would be swell if the fourth and final film of the series ended things on a completely satisfying note.

And in truth many of the same elements of the previous films are present here. Stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth return for the fourth time as ace archer Everdeen and her pair of devoted swains, director Francis Lawrence is back for his third film, and screenwriters Peter Craig and Danny Strong mark this as their second effort. Even the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, who appeared in two other films in the franchise, is seen briefly in the finale.

On the level of stunts and action, "Mockingjay — Part 2" has its share of briskly executed, efficiently done set pieces as the rebellion against that nasty President Snow (Donald Sutherland) edges closer and closer to the Capitol.

But what made the best of the "Hunger Games" movies so effective was the emotional connection its shrewd plotting created by combining a coming-of-age saga, romantic rivalry and broader concerns about violent spectacle used to manipulate public opinion.

In theory, all this should come to a head in this final film, but the aesthetically misguided idea of breaking the final book into two films, commercially remunerative though it might have been, has ended up making the dragged-out proceedings feel anti-climactic and emotionally static...

Keep reading.

WATCH: First Video Footage of #ParisAttacks Inside Cafe

At London's Daily Mail, "EXCLUSIVE: First footage of Paris attacks shows diners diving for cover as jihadist sprays café with bullets... and women he tried to kill at point-blank range but who escaped because his gun jammed."

Also, a report at CBS News New York, "Paris Attacks Caught on Camera."

France Leads From the Front

France is at the forefront of the global war on terror.

There's no doubt about it.

At the Wall Street Journal:

‘Strategic patience” is how the Obama Administration describes its approach to national security, based on its view that time is on our side in dealing with threats such as Islamic State (ISIS). “We cannot afford to be buffeted by alarmism in a nearly instantaneous news cycle,” National Security Adviser Susan Rice said in February. We doubt French President François Hollande agrees.

French security forces Wednesday conducted hundreds of antiterror raids and placed more than 100 suspects under house arrest. Police fought a gun battle in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, which ended when a terrorist detonated her suicide vest. Belgian-born Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind of Friday’s massacre, was thought to be in the targeted apartment and it wasn’t clear as we went to press if he was among those killed.

Meanwhile, security forces found a weapons cache in the city of Lyon that included Kalashnikov rifles and a rocket launcher. On Tuesday German authorities evacuated a soccer stadium in Hanover based on a “concrete indication about a concrete danger,” according to the state premier of Lower Saxony. Paris-bound flights have been diverted following bomb threats and France-bound jihadists have been arrested as far as Moldova.

Such threats are a reminder that the urgency of French antiterror actions is less about revenge than the pressing need to prevent another attack. Europe was fortunate earlier this year when a police raid in Belgium prevented an imminent terrorist attack, and again in August when three Americans and a Briton prevented a jihadist from opening fire on a high-speed train.

But luck runs out, especially when you treat terrorism largely as a matter for cops and courts. ISIS was able to conduct three mass-casualty attacks in three countries in less than three weeks and is threatening more attacks elsewhere. France has some 11,500 names on government watch lists. Many are likely to be detained under the three-month state of emergency that Mr. Hollande declared after Friday’s attacks, but authorities can’t track them all...

Keep reading.

Al-Nusra Front Commander and Syrian Reporter Killed While Filming Interview (VIDEO)

Via My Pet Jawa.

Islamic State Terrorists 'tortured wounded victims by slitting their stomachs with knives...'

Astonishing brutality.

Truly demonic.

At the Mirror UK, "British survivor of Eagles of Death Metal concert tells how ISIS terrorists 'tortured wounded victims by slitting their stomachs with knives'."

Brigitte Gabriel and Robert Spencer on Steve Malzberg Show (VIDEO)

Via Jihad Watch.

Islamic State Releases Video Threatening Attack on New York City (VIDEO)

At NYDN, "ISIS releases video warning of attacks on New York City," and at USA Today, "ISIL releases video threatening attack on New York City."



More at AoSHQ, "ISIS Now Threatens NYC, Times Square Specifically."

Obama Gets Hammered by Democrats Over 'Condescending' Paris Rhetoric

I hate the Hill's homepage. All the autoplay video and so forth ... it's a disaster.

But they publish good stuff. So, if you can bear it, here's the link, at Twitter, "Obama comes under criticism from Dems over Paris rhetoric."

The Democrat chickens are coming home to roost, big time.

French Officials Trying to Determine If Abdelhamid Abaaoud Died in Saint-Denis Raid (VIDEO)

The Telegraph UK has this breathtaking headline right now, "Paris attacks: Terrorist mastermind Abdelhamid Abaaoud 'killed' in French police raid, reports claim • Prosecutor reveals incredible details of siege."

But the Wall Street Journal's circumspect, "French Trying to Determine If Mastermind of Paris Attacks Was Killed in Raid":

PARIS—French police were working to establish late Wednesday whether the presumed mastermind of the Paris terror attacks was among the dead after police rained more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition on a suspected safe house in an assault that lasted several hours.

At least two people were killed and eight others detained after a raid that turned the gritty northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis into a heavy combat zone. The gunbattle—in which more than 100 police officers took part and one suspect, a woman, blew herself up with a suicide vest—was so fierce that the ceiling of the besieged apartment collapsed.

The operation was launched following a tip that a Belgian-born Islamic State operative Abdelhamid Abaaoud, suspected of being the architect of Friday’s Paris killings and other terrorist plots in Europe, was in the apartment at the time. French officials said that Mr. Abaaoud had been planning subsequent attacks on targets such as Paris’s La Defense business district.

He wasn’t among those detained in Wednesday’s raid, officials said. It also wasn’t clear whether he was among the fatalities. Paris prosecutor François Molins said French authorities haven’t conclusively identified those killed in the assault and are still examining the bodies.

If his death is established, Mr. Abaaoud’s presence so close to the scene of the Paris attacks would deepen concerns about Europe’s security, and raise questions over how an Islamic State operative who featured prominently on Western military’s target lists slipped back through borders to sow terror in the heart of the Continent. Until recently, Western security officials had thought Mr. Abaaoud was in Syria.

Wednesday’s fighting began before dawn on the Rue du Corbillon, a narrow street in working-class Saint-Denis, which has a large Muslim population. “It was an extremely difficult operation,” Mr. Molins said.

Police acted on a tip they initially received late on Monday. It took the French security services a day to verify the information using telephone and banking records, Mr. Molins said.

At 4:20 a.m., police RAID and BRI special forces converged on a third-floor apartment. The assault team faced an immediate setback: The explosive charges that they placed at the apartment’s armored door didn’t immediately succeed in breaching it, giving the terrorists inside time to regroup and mount a fierce resistance.

“I first thought that maybe France had won the soccer game, and that it was firecrackers. Then I understood that something really bad was happening,” said Bibikoresha Lallmahamood, 43, who lives a few blocks away...

Still more.

Five Syrians with Stolen Passports Arrested in Honduras

Yes, because they no doubt were fleeing hardship and persecution.

At USA Today, "Report: U.S.-bound Syrians arrested in Honduras with fake passports":

Five Syrians trying to make their way to the United States using stolen Greek passports were arrested in Honduras, police there said Wednesday.

The men were arrested after they flew into the airport in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa late Tuesday night and were questioned by immigration officials, according to La Prensa. They were trying to make their way to northern Honduras to complete their journey to the U.S. by land, crossing Guatemala and Mexico to reach the southwest border of the U.S.

Aníbal Baca, a police spokesman, said the Hondurans were already on alert following the terrorist attack in Paris and were tipped off by Greek law enforcement about the men's voyage. Baca told the newspaper that Greek diplomats visited the airport and confirmed that none of the men spoke a word of Greek.

"The passports were stolen (in Greece), those are not their real names, we are confirming their identities," Baca told La Prensa...

Keep reading.

Attitudes on Syrian Refugees Change After #ParisAttacks

This is becoming the defining political issue right now, in both Europe and the U.S.

At WSJ, "Goodwill to Syrian Refugees Drains Away After Paris Attacks":

IZMIR, Turkey—Rising international concern over potential security threats posed by refugees from the Middle East has done little to deter thousands of people there from attempting the dangerous journey to Europe.

As the prime ministers of Turkey and Greece met Wednesday in Ankara to discuss ways to better tackle the migrant crisis, people were still making their way to the Turkish coast with their eyes set on sanctuary across the Aegean Sea.

The increasing hostility and suspicion that they now face in Europe in the wake of last week’s Paris attacks represent a striking reversal from the international sympathy generated for Syrian refugees after the drowning of a young boy on the Turkish coast in September.

For millions of Syrian refugees, the options appear to be constricting.

“We worry that these attacks in France will change the conditions for refugees in all European countries,” said one Syrian rebel commander who traveled to the coast to send his wife and two sons off on a smuggler’s boat for the Greek islands.

French and Greek officials have said fingerprints taken from one of the suicide bombers matched the prints of a man who entered Europe via the Aegean island of Leros on Oct. 3, using a fake Syrian passport.

That sparked widespread concerns that Islamic State extremists were capitalizing on international goodwill to sneak into Europe to carry out terrorist attacks.

On Tuesday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported that antiterrorism units in Istanbul had detained eight suspected Islamic State members who were planning to go to Europe. The suspects, who came from Casablanca, Morocco, were planning to take a bus to Izmir, cross the Aegean Sea to Greece, and then head to Germany, according to Turkish officials.

Across Europe now, politicians across Europe are trying to restrict or eliminate the open-door policies that allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants, many of them from Syria, to enter Europe this year...

Still more.

Europe Hasn't the Slightest Clue About the 'Refugees' Entering Their Countries

This is mind-boggling, "Paris Attacks Complicate Europe’s Already Strained Border Controls":

That human tide has left security forces all along the trail from Greece through Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria with little choice but to let migrants on through to their desired destination of Germany or Scandinavia.

Checks conducted en route vary, leaving the authorities with an incomplete picture of who is arriving.

Recent arrivals in Berlin said in interviews on Monday that they favored more security checks. Mobi Clureshi, 24, now helping as a translator at Berlin’s main refugee registration center, said he arrived from his native Pakistan via Russia three months ago. He went to Paris shortly before Germany and said he had felt unsafe in its multicultural environment.

“I think they allow too many people to get in,” he said. “They don’t check everyone.”

Fingerprinting should be more widespread, he suggested. “When you cross a border and you have a system like that,” he said, “the world would be more secure.”

Some 5,000 refugees are arriving daily at the five crossing points between Bavaria and Austria. The authorities try to take everyone’s fingerprints and check all identity documents, but the data is not stored because of German legal protections of privacy, Johannes Dimroth, a spokesman for the German Interior Ministry, said on Monday.

However, most of the new arrivals are applying for asylum and are taken to a registration center, where they are formally registered before a much more thorough check and an interview — with a translator, if necessary — as the asylum application is reviewed, Mr. Dimroth said.

The countries that the migrants enter before reaching Germany have even fewer protections. For Austria, which more than 500,000 people have traveled through this year, just over 70,000 requested asylum and went through a full check and registration. The large majority move on, with no record being taken of their having been there, because the country has insufficient infrastructure to do so, Interior Ministry officials in Vienna said. Most migrants also refuse to be registered before they reach the country in which they want to settle, they added.

The border with Slovenia is now the most common point to enter Austria after the trek through the Balkans. More than 220,000 people have passed through Slovenia since Oct. 17, when Hungary closed its border with Croatia and forced the migrants to shift west.

Slovenia has started constructing a razor wire fence on its 400-mile southern border with Croatia — a measure it insists is not shutting the frontier but merely controlling the influx and thus enforcing the Schengen zone, of which it is a member but Croatia is not. Once in Slovenia, migrants are fingerprinted, and in most cases their picture is taken, and their names and documents are entered into a European database. Names are also checked against databanks of criminal records.

Many migrants show up without documents. They are registered with names and information they give to border personnel, Slovenian officials said. Only 79 migrants so far have requested asylum in Slovenia.

Most of the migrants arrive in Slovenia from the Balkan trail that starts in Macedonia and goes to Serbia, which is in neither the European Union nor the Schengen zone, but where 430,000 migrants have been registered passing through this year. Interior Ministry officials there declined to say whether fingerprints were taken or personal documents examined. Only 548 people sought asylum in Serbia this year, officials said...

Who the hell knows who's entering those countries? The Europeans sure don't.

Emma Sky, The Unraveling

At Amazon, The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq.

Gifts for the Grill Master

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