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.

Black Friday Deals

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Jackie Johnson's Got Your Weekend Weather

It's been pretty nice out, warm.

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.

Xenia Deli Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Casting Call (VIDEO)

A nice Friday treat.

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."

House Approves Tougher Screening of Syrian Refugees

It's a major blow to Obama, although the bill's gotta go through the Senate, where Democrats are threatening a filibuster. This oughta be interesting.

At WSJ, "House Passes Bill to Halt, Overhaul Syrian Refugee Process":

WASHINGTON—Nearly four dozen Democrats joined House Republicans to pass legislation Thursday that would halt the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the U.S. and overhaul the screening process, delivering a rebuke to the White House in response to public anxiety sparked by last Friday’s Islamic State attacks in Paris.

President Barack Obama, who threatened to veto the legislation, and many Democrats have argued that barring Syrian and Iraqi refugees would be contrary to American values and a strategic blunder in the effort to combat the spread of Islamic State ideology.

The White House left open the possibility of agreement on different legislation—for which there was early bipartisan support—that would block other ways terrorists might be able to infiltrate the U.S.

The struggle to respond to the Paris attacks rippled first through the 2016 presidential campaign before quickly arriving on Capitol Hill in a messy legislative battle less than a week after the violence in France. The defection of 47 House Democrats suggested that Mr. Obama’s initial visceral response wasn’t sufficient to unify Democrats on national security, with voters feeling more vulnerable on that front heading into the elections.

In early public comments, Mr. Obama focused on the contrast between his philosophy and that of Republicans, some of whom suggested the U.S. take in only Christian, not Muslim, refugees. He said that those ideas were “shameful” and un-American and that halting the program would anger potential sympathizers with Islamic State and push them toward radicalization.

But as the House took up its bill Thursday, Mr. Obama and his administration concentrated more directly on the policy reasons for opposing it.

“We already have in place the most vigorous vetting process that we have for anybody who is admitted,” Mr. Obama said at an international summit in the Philippines. “We subject them to a process that takes anywhere from 18 to 24 months before they are admitted. And the idea that somehow they pose a more significant threat than all the tourists who pour into the United States every single day just doesn’t jibe with reality.”

White House officials on Thursday said security measures in the waiver program have already been enhanced, but expressed an openness to working with Congress on the issue.

Thursday’s vote exposed tension between lawmakers’ desire to take steps to bolster national security and the administration’s philosophical and policy objections to a bill that officials said would also be impossible to implement...

Keep reading.

Plus, see the huge roundup at Memeorandum.

New Islamic State Video Threatens to Blow Up the White House (VIDEO)

Kimberly Guilfoyle speaks with Catherine Herridge:

'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.

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The U.S. and Its Allies Can Defeat Islamic State. Joining with Putin, Assad, and Iran's Regime Would Be Immoral

From Garry Kasparov, at the Wall Street Journal, "Dancing With Dictators Against Islamic State":

Three days after coordinated terror attacks in Paris killed at least 129 people and put the lie to President Obama’s recent claim that Islamic State was “contained,” Mr. Obama took to the podium on Monday. Speaking from Antalya, Turkey, where he was attending a G-20 meeting, he threw the full weight of his rhetoric behind solidarity with France and behind the French military response against Islamic State, or ISIS. But he offered no policy changes. In other words, once again America is leading from behind.

Mr. Obama’s remarks in Turkey came after he sat down for an impromptu discussion with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who has shipped troops and military hardware to Syria to prop up the Bashar Assad regime and to produce desperately needed new war propaganda back home. A suggestion gaining currency in recent days—encouraged by the Putin-Obama photo op—that the U.S. and NATO cooperate with Mr. Putin against ISIS is ludicrous on many levels. The most obvious one being that Russian forces aren’t in Syria to fight ISIS.

Even after the death of 224 people—most of them Russian tourists—in the Oct. 31 Metrojet crash in Egypt that was almost certainly an ISIS terror bombing, Mr. Putin remains focused on his goals. He is in Syria to help Iran and Mr. Assad destroy any legitimate alternatives to the status quo. What is that status quo? The Assad regime and its Iranian backers controlling the region by force.

The Kremlin also wants to maintain a stream of Syrian refugees pouring into Europe. The migrant crisis is useful to Mr. Putin in two ways. It distracts European attention from his continuing military campaign against Ukraine. And the flood of refugees will enhance the fortunes of far-right European parties that openly embrace Mr. Putin, increasing pressure on the European Union to lift sanctions against Russia. If one of the terrorists in the Paris attack slipped into Europe with Syrian refugees, so much the better.

President Obama and other Western leaders desperate to resolve the conflict in Syria should keep in mind that the enemy of your enemy can also be your enemy. For the U.S. and the West, allying with Iran, Mr. Putin’s Russia and the Assad regime would be morally repugnant, strategically disastrous and entirely unnecessary. The immorality of such an alliance is self-evident: The U.S. officially designates Iran and Syria as state sponsors of terror...

He's brilliant.

Keep reading.

Republican Congressional Leaders Tell Obama to Stop Accepting Refugees from Syria (VIDEO)

Watch, at CBS Evening News, "Republican congressmen tell Obama to stop accepting Syrian refugees."

Plus, see the big roundup at Memeorandum, "Jeb Bush Splits With Republicans Over Syrian Refugees."

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Discusses the #ParisAttacks on 'The Kelly File' (VIDEO)

Following-up from this morning, "Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Heretic."

4 Passengers Removed from Flight at BWI Marshall Airport (VIDEO)

The passengers looked like they were from "Middle Easter descent."

At the Baltimore Sun, "No threat found after passengers removed from plane at BWI."

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Heretic

Following-up from yesterday, "Europe's Terrorist War at Home."

Here's Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now.

Resist the Urge for Retribution After #ParisAttacks

So argues neorealist scholar (and infamous anti-Israel political scientist) Stephen Walt, at Foreign Policy, "Don’t Give ISIS What It Wants":

When a shocking event like the Paris attacks occurs, we know how the world will respond. There will be dismay, an outpouring of solidarity and sympathy, defiant speeches by politicians, and a media frenzy. Unfortunately, these familiar reactions give the perpetrators some of what they want: attention for their cause and the possibility their targets will do something that unwittingly helps advance the perpetrators’ radical aims.

What is most needed in such moments is not anger, outrage, or finger-pointing, but calm resolution, cool heads, and careful thought. What happened in Paris is an untold tragedy for the victims and deeply offensive to all we hold dear, but we must respond with our heads and not just our hearts. Here are five lessons to bear in mind as we reassess the dangers and search for an effective response.

No. 1: Keep the threat in perspective.

The sudden and violent deaths of some 130 innocent people in a peaceful city invariably grips our attention. But an event like this cannot shake the foundations of society unless we let it. The deaths in Paris last Friday, Nov. 13, are tragic, but these and similar incidents pale in comparison with the carnage and inhumanity Europe suffered from either 1914 to 1918 or 1939 to 1945. For all its current troubles, Europe today is richer, freer, safer, more open, more equal, and more stable than it has been since any other time in its history, and those achievements must not be surrendered. If France or its neighbors turn their backs on what has been built in Europe over the past 60 years, it will be a victory the attackers would welcome but most emphatically do not deserve.

Let us also remember that other cities and societies have experienced similar events yet are thriving today. New York, Oslo, London, Boston, Madrid, Paris, Ankara, and several other cities have faced costly terrorist attacks in recent years, yet one visits them today and finds communities that have rebuilt and recovered and are doing just fine. As we mourn the dead, we should take comfort in knowing that terrorism is a weapon of the weak and thus can have only a limited material impact on its targets. The City of Light will be here and thriving long after those who ordered these attacks are gone and mostly forgotten...

Keep reading.

What's amazing to me is how strikingly identical is the so-called neorealist take on the terror threat to the Democrat Party's failed appeasement policies. We can just keep shrugging our shoulders, saying that these massive terrorist attacks aren't really a threat to our existential values (much less our survival), all the while deploying rank partisan attacks on the so-called "Islamophobes" who've been right on the terror threat time and time again. Walt links, for example, to this hit piece on the counter-jihad right, "America’s leading Islamophobes spreading fear, bigotry and misinformation."

Walt's a far-left partisan hack all dressed up in scholarly garb, ensconced at Harvard's Kennedy School, spewing crap like this that's fundamentally no different from the antiwar bilge scraping the bottom of the far left-wing fever swamps.

It's true that terror attacks like Paris on Friday the 13th are unlike the threat of a strategic nuclear attack during the Cold War. But over time, the refusal of Western states to stand up to the Islamic invaders will undoubtedly result in increasing decline, decay, and ultimate disintegration and destruction. Western societies, enfeebled by Utopian feel-goodism, will simply give up the fight altogether, and then be run over soon enough by the violent Muslim hordes from the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond. See my post on Niall Ferguson, "After the Fall of the Roman Empire, #ParisAttacks Should Be Warning to the West." Europe's on the leading edge of the Western collapse. Perhaps America's "splendid isolation" behind our natural ocean defenses, will buy us some time. But decline is a state of mind more than anything else. So we won't be that far behind Europe so long as progressive (regressive) types like Walt, and his presidential hero Obama, hold sway over politics, culture, and ideas.

Why Belgium Keeps Popping Up in Terror Attacks

At Der Spiegel, "The Brussels Connection: Why Belgium Keeps Popping Up in Terror Attacks":

The Molenbeek district in Brussels is a well-known hotbed of Islamist activity. It has been linked to four major terrorist attacks in recent years. It is also illustrative of the problems facing Europe as it tries to deal with its radicals.

Confirming that the building you're standing in front of is in fact one of Brussel's largest mosques requires asking a passerby. There's no minaret and not even a sign noting that the building on Rue Delaunoy 40 is an important house of Muslim worship. The roller shutters and the large aluminum doors look more like a car repair shop. But on Fridays, as many as 600 Muslims come to pray in the Al-Khalil mosque, as the janitor proudly explains.

It is believed that the mosque has ties with the Syrian arm of the Muslim Brotherhood and it is considered to be one of the biggest and most influential mosques in Molenbeek, the Brussels neighborhood that seems to always be popping up when acts of Islamist violence in Europe are investigated. There was a link to the foiled terrorist plot on a high-speed Thalys TGV train bound from Paris to Brussels in August and there were links to the massacre of the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo in January. It has popped up in the news again following this weekend's horrific attacks in Paris. Authorities say that seven suspects have been arrested in Molenbeek and that several apartments have been searched.

On the streets here, people express shock over the attacks. "That's not Islam," says a man with a stubbly beard, cap and brown coat who is standing in front of the mosque with acquaintances on Sunday. The longer he speaks, the more worked up he gets and, in the end, there are tears in his eyes and his voice trembles. "I just don't understand it."

That's the one side of Molenbeek, a city district that could look like a working class district in any major city in Germany. For the overwhelming majority of its residents, the idea of killing in the name of Allah is inconceivable.

A Focal Point of the Islamist Scene

But there's another side to Molenbeek: The one that is considered to be the focal point of Western Europe's Islamist scene. Following Friday night's terrorist attacks in Paris, a suspect was arrested on Saturday afternoon at the Osseghem metro station in Molenbeek. A short time later, heavily armed police removed a man from a gray VW Golf not even 100 meters away who is believed to have been in Paris at the time of the attacks. A total of seven people have been arrested so far in Molenbeek.

It is estimated that Muslims make up 6 percent of the Belgian population, but that figure is 25 percent in Brussels and 40 percent in Molenbeek. The unemployment rate in the district is 30 percent, but it is believed to be even higher among immigrants. "Most of the Muslims are moderate, but there are also sharply radicalized groups with connections, for example, to the Salafists," says Brussels-based journalist Mehmet Koksal, who has been covering the Islamist scene for years. "They tell young people that they aren't European or Belgium and that it's 'us against the others.'"

The result of this can be tangible in the district. "If a person eats publicly during Ramadan or a woman doesn't wear a headscarf, they may become the subject of hostility," he explains...

That's not good. Not good at all.

Still more.

Frances Townsend, Former Homeland Security Adviser, Warns Against Terror Threat to the U.S. (VIDEO)

Shoot, get this lady back at Homeland Security, sheesh.

Watch, "Could the United States be the next Paris?"

'From Paris, With Love': U.S. Joint Direct Attack Munitions Marked with Message of Revenge, in Solidarity with France

Heh.

At London's Daily Mail, "'From Paris, With Love': Emotive message of revenge scrawled across the U.S. bombs destined for Syria."

Obama's Stubborn, Willful Complacency on #ISIS

From Marc Thiessen, at the Washington Post:

Somehow, to paraphrase President Obama, it has become routine — the president dismisses the terrorist threat, only to see terrorists carry out horrific attacks that give lie to his complacency.

On Sept. 6, 2012, Obama boasted at the Democratic National Convention that “al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat.” Five days later, al-Qaeda-linked terrorists attacked two U.S. diplomatic compounds in Benghazi, Libya, killing the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

On Jan. 7, 2014, Obama dismissed the Islamic State as the “JV” team in an interview with the New Yorker, adding that the rise of the Islamic State was not “a direct threat to us or something that we have to wade into.” That same month, the Islamic State began its march on Iraq, declaring a caliphate, burning people alive in cages and beheading Americans.

Then on Thursday, Obama did it again, telling ABC News, “I don’t think [the Islamic State is] gaining strength” and promising “we have contained them.” The very next day, the Islamic State launched the worst attack on Paris since World War II, killing at least 132 people and wounding more than 350 others.

How many times is this sad spectacle going to repeat itself?

Until the American people runs the Democrat cowards out of D.C.?

Probably.

But keep reading.

Charles Krauthammer Eviscerates 'Delusional' Obama on U.S. Response to #ParisAttacks (VIDEO)

Krauthammer's more fired up here than I've seen him in a long time.

Obama Won't Send Ground Troops to Defeat Islamic State (VIDEO)

As I've been saying, nothing's going to change. Nothing.

At London's Daily Mail, "Barack Obama won't send troops to the Middle East, says Paris attack was a 'setback'."

Candice Swanepoel for Victoria’s Secret Holiday 2015 (VIDEO)

She's so sweet and lovely.

Watch, "On the Set of the VS Bombshell Fragrance Campaign."

Republicans Revolt Against Obama Administration's Importation of Syrian Refugees (VIDEO)

Following-up from Sunday, "Obama Administration to Accelerate Importation of Syrian 'Refugees' to the United States."

And this is major.

At Politico, "Governors revolt against Obama's Syrian refugee plan."

And, "Syrian refugee fight sparks government shutdown threat":

A cascade of Republicans on Monday implored the Obama administration to scrap plans to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States next year, saying they pose an unacceptable security risk in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris.

And, in a dramatic twist, the sudden standoff is raising the possibility of a government shutdown next month...

The Dems are not doing so great on foreign policy right now, and it really --- really --- shows.

Keep reading.

Our Choice: Kill or Be Killed. Which One is it Going to Be?

From Julia Hartley-Brewer, at Telegraph UK, "Islamic State cannot be defeated with kindness. It's time to kill or be killed":

Contrary to popular belief, peace, love and understanding don’t stand a chance.

The tributes to the dead in the Paris terror attacks have been deeply moving. The candlelight vigils have been eerily beautiful. And the images from around the world of public buildings lit up in the tricoleur have been a vivid reminder that, regardless of our national or religious differences, we are all one humanity.

All of these niceties are heart-warming and reassuring at a time when the world seems a very uncertain and frightening place.

Indeed, there has been much written and spoken since the bloody horrors of Friday night about how, in the fight against evil, it is peace, love and understanding that will win. How, in the battle against men with guns, grenades and suicide vests, it is the simple courage of people standing together that will ultimately triumph.

Those platitudes might sound great, they feel very nice to say and they are certainly reassuring to hear and read.

After all, we were all raised on fairy tales that told us, again and again, that in the end it is good that will overcome evil every time.

There is just one crucial problem: none of it is true.

Good doesn’t triumph over evil. And, contrary to popular belief, peace, love and understanding don’t stand much of a chance in the face of a barrage of bullets or a suicide bomber pressing the trigger at a football stadium or in a crowded concert hall.

Indeed, the triumph of good over evil has rarely happened in human history without the helpful backing of rather a lot of guns, tanks and bombs. The good guys only win when their guns, tanks and bombs are bigger and better than those of the bad guys.

Yes, there have been plenty of peaceful protests for civil rights, democracy and even against the might of the Soviet Union during the East European so-called “velvet revolutions”. But, by and large, those successes have been won only when the men with guns chose of their own free will, in the face of the combined might of the people, to put their guns down...

More.

François Hollande Proposes New Security Measures to Fight Islamic State (VIDEO)

At the Wall Street Journal, "France’s President Proposes Measures to Fight Islamic State":

PARIS—French President François Hollande on Monday vowed to adopt hard-line security powers in an attempt to reassure a nation traumatized by the Paris attacks that left at least 129 people dead.

The president said he wants Parliament to update and potentially expand his powers under France’s state-of-emergency statute while extending the current state of emergency for three months.

The Socialist leader also signaled a shift in foreign policy by proposing a single alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama to combat Islamic State, the militant group Mr. Hollande says carried out the massacre.

“France is at war with jihadist terrorism that threatens the whole world,” Mr. Hollande said after observing a minute of silence with senators and lawmakers.

The French leader called for a United Nations Security Council meeting and assistance from other European countries provided under European Union treaties, as he seeks to repel further terror attacks.

Mr. Hollande’s first-ever address to both houses of Parliament charted a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s security policies at home and abroad that could require changes to the constitution.

His martial language at the Château de Versailles—once home to the French monarchy—indicated Mr. Hollande is preparing the country for potentially draconian policies, such as expelling foreigners considered a threat and stripping French nationality from dual-nationals involved in terror activities.

The president’s 45-minute speech was received with a standing ovation from all political sides and a rendition of the national anthem, “La Marseillaise.” But civil-liberty advocates quickly raised concern over his intentions.

“If you give the president powers that have been reserved practically for civil war, that is extremely serious,” said Adrienne Charmet, campaign director for French digital-rights group la Quadrature du Net.

Created during the Algerian war in 1955, the state of emergency gives authorities far-reaching powers, including banning travel in certain areas, shutting shops and concert halls.

The interior minister can ban people from leaving their homes, and the state can take “all measures” to control the press and radio. Searches can be undertaken without a judge’s approval, and those who refuse to comply can be fined and held in custody for as long as two months.

To account for technological advances since the 1950s, Mr. Hollande asked lawmakers to update the state-of-emergency law on confining individuals to their homes and search seizure. Faced with a war on terror, constitutional laws relating to wars on foreign soil should be updated so the president can take exceptional measures without resorting to a state of emergency, he said.

Before Mr. Hollande’s address, political rivals slammed the president for failing to prevent Friday’s attack...

Well, at least Holland goes to the parliament to push legislators to pass sweeping reforms. Obama just issues an executive order and to hell with it.

But keep reading.

Parisians Should Be Revolted by Eiffel Tower Peace Symbol

And they should "revile those who created and promoted it."

Says Mark Steyn, "Cool Civilizational Death Wish Goes Viral!":

Just in case our enemies needed another reason to despise us, today the inactivist group Somnolent Tilty-Headed Wankers for Peace launched an exciting new graphic: the same old clapped-out hippie peace symbol but incorporating the Eiffel Tower (right)! Isn't that a cool, stylish way of showing how saddy-saddy-sadcakes you are about all those corpses in the streets of Paris? It's already gone viral! And that's all that matters, isn't it?

Our enemies use social media to distribute snuff videos as a means of recruitment. We use it to confirm to them how passive and enervated we are: What was it the last time blood ran in the streets of Paris? Oh, yeah, a pencil - for all those dead cartoonists. But, given that blood in the streets of Paris looks like becoming a regular event, it helps to have something of general application. What about, ooh, a tricolor with a blue tear at the end? No, better yet: a peace symbol with a croissant in the middle. No, wait...

What's that? All you are saying is give peace a chance? But what, in fact, are the chances of peace for Paris and France? What are the odds?

Oh, sorry. All they were saying is give peace a chance. And, having said it, they've gone back to sleep until the next atrocity requires another stupid hashtag or useless avatar.

Parisians should be revolted by this third-rate gimmick, and revile those who created and promoted it.

[UPDATE! Saddy-sad pianist plays "Imagine" outside the Bataclan theatre:

Imagine there's no countries...

Keep this up and there won't be.]

It's French artist Jean Jullien who created the idiotic peace symbol. I tweeted a far better version:

.@jimsciutto @jean_jullien Actually, this is probably the more appropriate peace sign: pic.twitter.com/B7T6YhLmWh

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 14, 2015

Terror Suspect Remains at Large as Belgian Police Press Manhunt — #ParisAttacks (VIDEO)

At the Wall Street Journal, "Belgian Police Push Manhunt as French Authorities Crack Down on Extremists":

Belgian police scoured a Brussels neighborhood for a suspect believed to have been critical to the attacks that rocked Paris and said they were holding two people in connection with the planning, as authorities in Paris announced raids of dozens of homes in a new crackdown on radical Islamists.

Authorities in Belgium and France are also investigating whether another man—a Belgian named Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is suspected of being the mastermind behind a foiled Belgian terrorist plot in January—was involved in Friday’s onslaught, officials familiar with the probe said.

Officials said Mr. Abaaoud, who was raised in Brussels, returned to Europe from Syria to carry out the failed Belgian plot from earlier this year, which had been aimed at killing police officers, officials say. He is then believed to have escaped to Syria after police shot and killed two other men suspected of being involved in the plot in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers.

“It’s one of the things we are examining, but it hasn’t been confirmed,” a Belgian official said of Mr. Abaaoud’s possible involvement in Friday’s attacks in Paris.

Officials are urgently scrambling to tighten the net on extremists, both in Europe and abroad. French jets struck Islamic State positions near the militant group’s stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, and authorities carried out raids in several cities across France amid fears that attackers might strike again in the country or elsewhere on the continent.

French President François Hollande proposed extending France’s state of national emergency for three months and called for international co-operation from Russia and the U.S. as he pledged to step up air strikes against terrorist bastions.

“They fight us because France is a country of freedom,” he said. “Our democracy has beaten far greater adversaries.”

The rapidly moving investigation in both Belgium and France is revealing a picture of a network of terrorists, many of them born in Europe, who were trained in Syria or elsewhere in the Middle East, and who managed to evade authorities even as they crossed borders.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which wreaked havoc at a sports arena, a concert hall and through the streets of Paris, killing at least 129 people, but it hasn’t provided specific information...

Keep reading.

Europe's Terrorist War at Home

From Ayaan Hirsi Ali, at WSJ, "Learn from Israel, end the open-borders policy, and dig in for a long war of ideas against Islamists":

As long as Muslims say IS has nothing to with Islam or talk of Islamophobia they are a part of the problem.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali (@Ayaan) November 15, 2015

French President François Hollande declared the Nov. 13 terrorist attack in Paris an “act of war” by Islamic State, and he was right, if belated, in recognizing that the jihadists have been at war with the West for years. Islamic State, or ISIS, is vowing more attacks in Europe, and so Europe itself—not just France—must get on a war footing, uniting to do whatever it takes militarily to destroy ISIS and its so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Not “contain,” not “degrade”—destroy, period.

But even if ISIS is completely destroyed, Islamic extremism itself will not go away. If anything, the destruction of ISIS would increase the religious fervor of those within Europe who long for a caliphate.

European leaders must make some major political decisions, and perhaps France can lead the way. A shift in mentality is needed to avoid more terror attacks on an even bigger scale and the resulting civil strife. Islamic extremists will never succeed in turning Europe into a Muslim continent. What they may well do is provoke a civil war so that parts of Europe end up looking like the Balkans in the early 1990s.

Here are three steps that European leaders could take to eradicate the cancer of Islamic extremism from their midst...

Keep reading.

Deals on Office Products (BUMPED)

At Amazon, Shop Black Friday Office Deals.

Plus, from Daniel Byman, Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and the Global Jihadist Movement: What Everyone Needs to Know.

William McCants, The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State.

Erick Stakelbeck, ISIS Exposed: Beheadings, Slavery, and the Hellish Reality of Radical Islam.

Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.

Europe's Dangerous Refugees

At Der Spiegel, "Paris Attacks: How Great Are the Terror Dangers Posed by Refugees?":

It has now been confirmed that one of the Paris suicide bombers reached Europe disguised as a refugee. Security officials had long felt that such a scenario was unlikely. How big is the risk?

It hasn't taken long for the French authorities to begin learning details as to who was behind Friday night's terrorist attacks in Paris. Several of perpetrators, officials learned over the weekend, are from France, with two having most recently lived in Brussels and two more residing just outside of the French capital. Investigators believe that a 27-year-old Belgian man named Abdelhamid A. was the coordinator of the attacks, which cost the lives of at least 132 people at multiple sites in Paris on Friday evening.

One piece of news regarding the attackers, however, has received a particularly large amount of attention. Not far from the corpse of one of the suicide bombers, a Syrian passport was found. On Monday, French authorities confirmed that the attacker traveled with the passport into the European Union via Greece as a refugee.

The discovery would seem to confirm the fears of many in Germany and Europe that terrorists are among the hundreds of thousands of refugees currently streaming into Europe.

According to a report on Greek radio, a second attacker may also be suspected of having traveled to northern Europe via Turkey and Greece. Thus far, however, there hasn't been an official statement given regarding the second case.

At the moment, only the following is known: The finger prints of the attacker who blew himself up in front of the Stade de France stadium on Friday evening match those taken of the man as he traveled into Greece carrying a Syrian passport. The man, identified on the passport as Ahmad Almohammad, arrived in Greece at the beginning of October via the island of Leros, authorities say. Police officials say that the young man was registered there along with a group of 69 refugees. As part of the registration procedure, his fingerprints were taken, officials said.

On Oct. 7, the 25-year-old, who called himself Ahmad Almohammad, entered Serbia from Macedonia and continued on to Croatia and Austria. The Serbian Interior Ministry issued a statement saying that he was not armed when he traveled through Serbia. According to French justice officials, however, the passport that he was carrying was falsified and had been prepared in Turkey. The confirmation that an attacker traveled into the EU as a refugee confirms a scenario that security officials had long thought possible, but unlikely. After all, Islamic State hardly needs to send assailants into Europe as refugees in order to carry out terrorist attacks on the Continent. Hundreds of Islamists from Germany, along with thousands from other European countries are currently in IS-held regions of Syria and Iraq of their own free will. Because they possess citizenships of European countries, they can return whenever they like. French officials said on Monday that at least three of the suspected attackers had spent time in Syria since the end of 2013 and subsequently returned to France.

In addition, there are large numbers of extremists who grew up in Europe and are prepared to take part in violent attacks here. The attacks in Paris at the beginning of this year on the editorial offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and on the Jewish supermarket Hyper Casher demonstrate as much. So too does the subsequent attack in Copenhagen, which saw a jihadist who had grown up in Denmark shoot two people to death.

Intended to Mislead?

But there remain a number of open questions. The true identity of the man who traveled into Greece as a refugee with the falsified passport isn't yet known. There are many possibilities. One is that he wasn't a Syrian at all. He may have been an Islamist known to European security officials and who had joined the Islamic State in Syria. For such an Islamist, it may seem easier to enter Europe as a refugee under an assumed identity -- because Syrians who arrive in Europe are almost guaranteed of being granted refugee status.

But there are other questions as well. Why, for example, was the attacker carrying a passport at all? It looks as though Islamic State wanted the passport to be found, which would play into the hands of Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks, in two ways. First, it would increase fears in the West due to the large numbers of refugees currently arriving, and it would further divide European society. Secondly, it would discredit the refugees themselves. For Islamic State, refugees are traitors for fleeing the country rather than joining Islamic State for the establishment of a Caliphate.

The passport also raises questions when it comes to the coordination of the terror attacks as well. Most of the attackers were French, that much has become clear. As such, it wasn't a fake refugee who brought terror to Europe. The chief coordinator is thought to be a Belgian man. It is unclear how an attack could have been prepared and organized with an attacker who had only been in Europe for a few weeks. But here too, the available information is sketchy. On Monday, the French government said that the attacks appear to have been planned in Syria...

Keep reading.

CNN just reported that six of the eight attackers traveled to Syria, so I'll be looking for more information on that. Stay tuned.

American Colleges Are Reaping the Progressive Whirlwind

A roundup on campus fascism, from Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit.

ADDED: From William Jacobson, at Legal Insurrection, "Anti-Israel students target UT-Austin Israeli Studies prof after disrupting his speech."

French Authorities Name Belgian National Abdelhamid Abaaoud as Mastermind of #ParisAttacks

At the Guardian UK, "Abdelhamid Abaaoud named as alleged mastermind of Paris terror attacks."

More at WaPo, "Raids spread across France and Belgium amid manhunt for suspects."

Reports: Salah Abdeslam Arrested in Belgium #ParisAttacks

At London's Daily Mail, "Fugitive 'blood brother' 'is arrested in Belgium after fleeing building with his hands in air as police fired tear gas'."

It's going to be a big news day.

After the Fall of the Roman Empire, #ParisAttacks Should Be Warning to the West

From Niall Ferguson, at the Times of London, "Like the Roman empire, Europe has let its defences crumble."

And ungated, at the Australian, "Paris attacks: fall of Rome should be a warning to the West":

I am not going to repeat what you have already read or heard. I am not going to say that what happened in Paris on Friday night was unprecedented horror, for it was not. I am not going to say that the world stands with France, for it is a hollow phrase. Nor am I going to applaud Francois Hollande’s pledge of “pitiless” vengeance, for I do not believe it. I am, instead, going to tell you that this is exactly how civilisations fall.

Here is how Edward Gibbon described the Goths’ sack of Rome in August 410AD: “ ... In the hour of savage licence, when every ­passion was inflamed, and every restraint was removed ... a cruel slaughter was made of the ­Romans; and … the streets of the city were filled with dead bodies ... Whenever the Barbarians were provoked by opposition, they ­extended the promiscuous massacre to the feeble, the innocent, and the helpless …”

Now, does that not describe the scenes we witnessed in Paris on Friday night?

Keep reading.

And beware complacency.

France's President Lied, Frenchmen Died

At FrontPage Magazine, "It’s time to tell the truth about the migrant crisis."

Cal State Long Beach Vigil for Nohemi Gonzalez (VIDEO)

Via Ruptly:



Earlier, "Cal State Long Beach Student Nohemi Gonzalez Killed in #ParisAttacks (VIDEO)."

Keep it Moving, No Islamists to See Here

The left's response to the Paris attacks has been unreal, even more than usual.

Here's just one snapshot, from Matt Labash, at the Weekly Standard:

As a committed, long-standing Twitter detractor, I’ve exhaustively bashed the social networking site for all imaginable crimes, and even unimaginable ones.  But through the gift of hindsight, I admit giving Twitter short-shrift in one department: it tends to work like they say old age does, concentrating your quirks, tics and psychopathologies, making you yourself, only more so.  This is generally not a good thing. Unless you like watching people foul the bed. (And I do!)

Last night, during one of the most widespread, bloodiest terror attacks in European history, it was Dean Obeidallah’s turn. For those unfamiliar with the social-justice comic (a self-cancelling proposition), Daily Beast columnist, and American-Muslim host of XM’s The Dean Obeidallah Show, there, I’ve just familiarized you. His overriding mission, however, is spreading the gospel of the Religion of Peace ®, to combat those who unfairly stereotype Islam as being the Religion of Pieces.

 “I want to be your Muslim friend,” Obeidallah’s written, “so if you don’t have one, follow me on Twitter.”

Since I’m not on Twitter, I couldn’t make new friends with Obeidallah. But as the death toll in Paris kept climbing, I could read his feed. Which was not unlike watching a mental breakdown unspool in real time. Obeidallah started innocuously enough, keeping the victims in his prayers...

Keep reading (tweets are embedded at the piece).

A real meltdown. Pathetic.

Wake Up, Mr. President

At WSJ:

President Obama on Sunday promised to “redouble” U.S. efforts against Islamic State, which shows he isn’t deaf to the political impact of Friday’s murderous assault in Paris. But why should anyone believe him? After years of dismissing the rising terror threat, Mr. Obama needs an epiphany if he doesn’t want to be remembered as the President who allowed radical Islam to spread and prosper.

“It is an act of war that was waged by a terrorist army, a jihadist army, by Daesh [the Arab name for Islamic State], against France,” said French President François Hollande on Saturday, in words that met the moment. Contrast that to Mr. Obama, who on Friday morning told ABC News that “we have contained” Islamic State. Some are saying Mr. Obama is guilty of bad timing, but the truth is worse: The remark is what he believes, or at least what he has wanted Americans to believe.

***
The Paris massacre should mark the end of that self-deception. Jimmy Carter shed his illusions about the Soviet Union after its invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and Mr. Obama needs a comparable rendezvous with reality. This will be harder for Mr. Obama, a man of great ideological vanity, but perhaps the prospect of defeat for his party in 2016 will force him to see the world more clearly.

For seven years Mr. Obama has used the unpopularity of the Iraq war as a shield for his retreat from antiterror leadership and the Middle East. His periodic drone strikes and his most notable security success, the Osama bin Laden raid, obscured the jihadist danger growing in the wake of America’s departure from Iraq and abdication in Syria.

Mr. Obama also deposed Moammar Gadhafi in Libya but then did almost nothing to help Libyans restore order. Americans saw a glimpse of the gathering storm in the terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, but the White House blamed it on an obscure video.

Now Americans can see clearly the spreading infection from Islamic State and a resurgent al Qaeda. It isn’t merely a regional threat, as Mr. Obama once claimed. Its offshoots have spread into North Africa across the Middle East to Afghanistan. The civil war in Syria has spawned a refugee crisis that has descended on Europe and may have provided cover for at least one of the Paris jihadists.

Islamic State also isn’t the “jayvee” terror team, as Mr. Obama once claimed...

Keep reading.

And flashback, "The World Will Blame President Obama If Iraq Falls."

Pre-Dawn Counterterrorism Raids Launched Across France — #ParisAttacks #Toulouse

Telegraph UK is reporting, "Paris attacks: Pre-dawn anti-terror raids launched across country • French jets unleash 'massive' airstrike on Isil in Raqqa • Europe-wide manhunt for suspect on run."

And at the Guardian UK, "Paris attacks: anti-terrorism raids across France as hunt for Salah Abdeslam continues – live":

What we know about the anti-terrorism raids

Information is still patchy but here is what we have gathered from French media reports:

French police are hunting Salah Abdeslam and others believed to have been involved in orchestrating the attacks on Paris on Friday.
It is not certain that the raids in the early hours of Monday morning are directly linked to the attacks on the capital.

Raids are reported to have taken place in Toulouse, Grenoble, Jeumont (on the French-Belgian border), and the Paris suburb of Bobigny.

Reports say at least three people have been arrested in Toulouse, and weapons possibly seized, with further arrests in Grenoble.
In Jeumont, streets were closed off around a building that was being searched. Searches were also carried out in homes in Bobigny.

*****

Anti-terrorism raids and the hunt for suspects

French police continue to hunt for Salah Abdeslam – believed to be one of three brothers involved in Friday night’s attack, who is on the run – and others thought to have been involved in orchestrating the attacks on Paris on Friday.

Overnight raids have taken place in Toulouse, Grenoble, Jeumont (on the French-Belgian border), and the Paris suburb of Bobigny. It is not certain that the raids in the early hours of Monday morning were directly linked to the attacks, but they were carried out under the national state of emergency declared by president François Hollande.

Several arrests have been reported across the locations, with buildings searched. Weapons were reportedly seized in Toulouse...

ADDED:

My colleague Kim Willsher in Paris has more on the overnight raids:

French police and gendarmes carried out a series of raids across the country overnight. From early reports it appears most were part of a general “preventative” anti-terrorist swoop as part of the country’s state of emergency and not directly linked to the search for the perpetrators of the Paris attacks.

The decree made by the French council of ministers at an emergency meeting after the Paris attacks, relating to the first paragraph of the 1955 law on a “state of emergency”, which gives the authorities extraordinary powers to order home searches “day or night”.

In Toulouse, French media reported a “preventative operation” in and around the area that was home to Mohamed Merah, known as the “ride-by killer” who gunned down several soldiers, then attacked children at a Jewish school, murdering a a total of seven people over several days before dying in a police shoot-out in 2012.

At least three people have been taken into police custody. Reports say these were “administrative searches” on properties as part of a general anti-terrorist operation and not part of the Paris attack investigation. Police seized “illegal substances” including cannabis, and one weapon.

In Grenoble and around, Le Dauphiné Libéré newspaper is reporting that units of gendarmes carried out an anti-terrorist operation at around 15 sites during which “more than half a dozen people were arrested and arms seized”. The paper said the operation, which lasted an hour, was part of a national swoop.

Another local newspaper in the north of France in the Pas de Calais region is reporting a raid at the town of Jeumont near the border with Belgium. Reports suggest gendarmes in “around 50 vans” swooped on the town, but it is not known whether the raid is directly linked to the Paris attacks, or being carried out as part of a general operation in France.

There was another overnight operation by gendarmes at Bobigny a suburb of Paris. Again details are sketchy...

More, "Paris attacks: French police launch raids as military strikes Isis in Syria."

Disagreement Over Whether France Could Have Prevented #ParisAttacks

The blame game.

See Politico, "The blame game begins in France":

PARIS — French commentators and experts weighed in Sunday with critical assessments of the government’s handling of the fight against terror in recent months, focusing on shortcomings in its understanding of the threat leading up to Friday’s attacks.

While some argued that French authorities had underestimated the terrorist threat to France by failing to respond to it as an all-out war, others claimed the attacks may have been caused by the country’s get-tough policies at home and abroad.

“It was a war. A real war. We knew it, but in the end, we preferred to turn a blind eye,” wrote Alexis Brézet, managing editor of the right-leaning Figaro newspaper, in a column on the front page of a special edition on the terror attacks.

Vincent Desportes, a retired army general who headed one of France’s must prestigious military schools, said in an interview with L’Obs that the country was facing a war “which targets France, our values, our lifestyle, our liberties.”

He said, “Unfortunately, France did not want to recognize this state of war.”

Brézet, Desportes and other commentators focused on what they called numerous shortcomings in France’s handling of the anti-terror fight after the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in January.

Brézet referred to “numerous alerts,” but noted that several counter-terrorism measures had not been implemented, including surveillance of radical imams. He also decried the lack of surveillance of people who had traveled to Syria and returned to France, as well as the “short-sighted diplomacy” which “pretends — rightly so — to fight Daesh in Syria, but refuses stubbornly to support its main adversary, Russia, because it supports [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad’s regime.”

Desportes called on France to rethink its priorities in the fight against terrorism and improve its military strategy.

“We will certainly need to withdraw from some external operations,” said Delportes. “We need to redeploy forces on French soil, and better use them on the ground.”As long as Western countries cling to political correctness, afraid to hurt the feelings of Muslims, then folks can forget about defeating Islamism. It's all of a package. You gotta go all in, or forget about it.

While Europe Slept

From Bruce Bawer, While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within.

Obama Releases 5 Yemeni Guantánamo Inmates to United Arab Emirates

See?

Nothing's going to change. Nothing.

At AoSHQ, "Obama Orders Five Gitmo Detainees Released to United Arab Emirates."

Also at WaPo, "Pentagon transfers 5 Yemenis being held at Guantanamo Bay to UAE."

New York Daily News Posts Graphic Photo of #ParisAttacks on Front Page

Lots of folks were outraged, apparently, but I think they did the right thing.

From yesterday morning, at Twitchy, "‘L’HORREUR’: Tomorrow’s New York Daily News cover shows the true horror of Paris [Warning: graphic photo]."

An early look at tomorow's front page: More than 150 people killed in Paris terror attacks https://t.co/HyxABfpk4w pic.twitter.com/DFVxOsnSpS

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) November 14, 2015

On Location: Ezra Levant Reports from France on #ParisAttacks (VIDEO)

He's such a good man, and it's great to see him reporting from Paris.

U.S. Malls, Stadiums Boost Security After #ParisAttacks (VIDEO)

The NFL's especially taking a second look at security.

An interesting clip, at ABC News, "Assessing Vulnerability of Americans In Wake of Paris Attacks."