18-Nov-16: American service personnel killings in the Mid East get scant reporting and even less comprehension

A US soldier (in green) and his Afghan counterpart (blue) in a joint patrol
near Kandahar, Afghanistan, [Image Source]

Relatively little attention gets paid in the mainstream news media when American military personnel come under attack from so-called friendly forces while they serve in the Middle East. That's a shame became those killings tend to throw light on tendences that ought to be better understood.

A couple of recent examples.

Case number one: Two men - Army Sgt. Douglas J. Riney, 26, of Fairview, Illinois, and Michael G. Sauro, 40, a civilian employee of the US Army from McAlester, Oklahoma - were shot to death by "hostile enemy forces" in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, according to a US the military announcement in late October, quoted by the Chicago Tribune.

But how hostile were they?

According to a Military Times report, the attack happened at Camp Morehead, an ammunition supply point outside Kabul:

The shooter was reportedly wearing an Afghan Army uniform. The Riney’s unit was at the base to determine whether the Afghans were tracking their ammunition inventories properly, defense officials said. [Military Times, November 4, 2016]

So was the shooter an Afghan soldier? Merely dressed up as one? And does that count as hostile enemy action? Or was this the result of so-called friendly fire? We will probably never know since "the attacker was later killed", according to this source.

But we know there are precedents. For instance, it was announced back on September 15, 2012, that four International Security Assistance Force personnel "died... in southern Afghanistan following an insider attack suspected to involve members of the Afghan police". As later became via a Talbian report, the American soldiers were killed by policemen "loyal to the movement" in "a carefully premeditated attack on six US troops at a vulnerable observation post by a team of six Afghan policemen working with them that night." [Long War Journal, May 15, 2013]

Case number two: Three US military personnel were killed on November 4, 2016 in an attack at the gates of an air base in southern Jordan. The Al-Jafr air-field, in a remote desert location near the southern Jordanian city of Ma'an (population: 50,000) and closer to Saudi Arabia than to Iraq, supports US air operations in the region. Called the King Faisal Airbase in the Jordanian media, it also serves as the venue for joint US/Jordan training operations. The shooter fired at a car carrying the Americans as they were entering the base. A Jordanian officer was wounded.

The Americans were in Jordan on a training mission, officials said. The U.S. military typically maintains about 2,000 U.S. forces on the ground in Jordan to support training with the Jordanian military and operations against the Islamic State in neighboring Iraq and Syria... Pro-Western Jordan is a key member of a U.S-led military coalition against the Islamic State group, which controls parts of neighboring Iraq and Syria... The United States has spent millions of dollars to help the kingdom fortify its borders. For the West, any sign of instability in Jordan, a key ally, would be of great concern. ["Officials say three U.S. service members killed in Jordan attack", Military Times | Andrew Tilghman | November 4, 2016]

Was this a terrorist attack? Could be, now it's revealed the shooter was not only dressed as a member of "friendly" forces but actually was one.

U.S. officials are investigating the fatal shootings of three American soldiers at a Jordanian air base earlier this month as a possible act of terrorism. “Investigators are considering all potential motives and reasons for why American service members came under fire and they have not yet ruled out terrorism as a potential motive,” the American embassy in Jordan said in a statement Wednesday, the New York Times reported... Jordanian officials told reporters soon after the shooting that the vehicle carrying the service members failed to stop at the security gates. Two days after the incident, the Pentagon said the service members were killed when their vehicle came under fire as it was entering a Jordanian military base, indicating there was no issue with the vehicles failing to heed orders to stop. The Jordanian soldier who initiated the exchange of fire was wounded in the incident and remains in custody... The U.S. military has hundreds of trainers in Jordan, a close American security partner, to help bolster the country’s defenses against threats stemming from the Syrian civil war and terrorists in the region... [U.S. Investigating Deaths of American Soldiers in Jordan as Terrorist Attack | Natalie Johnson | Washington Free Beacon | November 17, 2016]

Here's how Jordan's government paints the killings:

A senior official on Saturday described the killing of three US instructors in a shootout at an airbase a day earlier as “unfortunate”. In remarks to The Jordan Times, Minister of State for Media Affairs Mohammad Momani extended Jordan’s condolences to the families of the persons who lost their lives. Meanwhile, Momani, who is also the government’s spokesperson, stressed that Jordan values its relationship with the US, reiterating that an investigation into the incident is under way... A Jordanian non-commissioned officer was injured, said the source, who warned against circulating the names of any of those involved in the incident, whether they are Jordanians or foreigners, threatening legal action against violators...  In a statement released Friday, a spokesperson for the US embassy in Amman said more information will be reported “when available and appropriate”... [Jordan Times, November 5, 2016]

At the risk of offending the Hashemite regime and violating its threats, the American victims are Staff Sgt. Matthew Llewellyn, 27, of Lawrence, Kansas, Staff Sgt. Kevin McEnroe, 30, of Tucson, Arizona, and Staff Sgt. James Moriarty, 27, of Kerrville, Texas. All are from the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky from where its men and women specialize in operations in the Middle East, Persian Gulf, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa.

President Barack Obama said the US took the attack "very seriously", according to a BBC report.

Seriously or not, a reasonable person might wonder how likely it is that a full expose of what happened will ever be done by the Jordanian authorities, given their disdain for informing the public. If we knew the name of the injured Jordanian, we would certainly publish that too.

As to whether some of the blame attaches to the American victims, as Jordanian voices have said, a spokesperson for the US embassy in Amman said this past Wednesday that the investigation continues to be "ongoing and has not yet reached any conclusions... [and the Americans] appreciate the assistance of the government of Jordan... Contrary to press reports, there has been absolutely no credible evidence to suggest that US personnel acted contrary to orders or established procedures when accessing the base...” [Jordan Times, November 16, 2016].

Eric Barbee, the Embassy spokesperson, was evidently referring to this:

...Jordanian state media reported that the servicemen, from the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Fort Campbell, Ky., sparked the incident by disobeying orders from Jordanian soldiers... ["U.S. refutes claim its soldiers sparked Jordan shooting", USA TODAY, November 17, 2016]

The ongoing inability to solve the mystery of the October killings is less understandable once two especially notable previous Jordanian killings are considered.

• 2015: At least five people, including two Americans, two Jordanians and a South African, were killed after a Jordanian police officer opened fire at a US-backed police training facility near Amman, before being shot dead himself. At least four other people, including two more Americans, were injured in the attack, according to US officials. The attack took place at the Jordan International Police Training Center in al-Muwaqqar, on the outskirts of Amman... President Obama addressed the shooting before a White House meeting... “We take this very seriously and we’ll be working closely with the Jordanians to determine exactly what happened, but at this stage I want to just let everyone know this is something we’re paying close attention to... ["At least five killed by Jordanian police officer in training centre shooting", The Guardian, November 9, 2015]. Though the killings took place on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist human-bomb attacks on three Amman hotels, the Jordanian authorities declared the shooter to be "a lone wolf", "not a terrorist", and motivated by "financial pressures" [source]. By contrast, at least one Western news report quoted "security sources" saying the shooter was "a sympathiser of Islamic State with strong anti-Western feelings".
• 1997: A Jordanian soldier opened fire on a large group of about 40 Israeli schoolgirls from grades 7 and 8 at the AMIT Fuerst School in Beit Shemesh who were on a class excursion to the so-called “Island of Peace” at Naharayim, a scenic peninsula on the Jordan River near the Israeli border. He killed seven of them and injured six others. The Wikipedia account says he "expressed pride for his actions, was imprisoned by Jordanian authorities, but was later called a "hero" by the Jordanian Justice Minister, Hussein Mjalli, and Parliament, who called for his release". They were not alone. As an Alarabiya news report from 2011 observes, "Jordan's powerful Islamist movement and the country's 14 trade unions, which have more than 200,000 members, have repeatedly called for Dakamseh's release... The motives of Dakamseh [the shooter]... were never clear... [In the words of a letter handed to the government] demanding Dakamseh's release "We cannot imagine that a great fighter like Dakamseh is in jail instead of reaping the rewards of his achievement..."

The confusion and doubt about the involvement of "friendly forces" in the cold-blooded killings (sometimes called "blue-on-green" attacks - and here's a list of some others) of US service personnel on active duty in Moslem countries, and about their motivations, very likely contributes to the success of the terrorists rather than to their defeat. We shudder to think what it does to the feelings of the bereaved families back home.

1-Aug-13: Escalating troubles in Sinai and Gaza: Is it still news if Israel can't be blamed?

Rafah, near Gaza's border with Egypt: Each of the tents and
canopies covers a tunnel mouth [Image Source: Majed Abusalama]

Linda Gradstein, writing for The Media Line (and Ynet) describes a steadily growing shortage of fuel in the Gaza Strip, with serious and visible consequences. A Gazan economist she quotes says only about 25 percent of the required level of fuel is now available, and cars are lining up for hours at gas stations. Sewage treatment plants have been shut down, with untreated effluent being dumped into the Mediterranean. Naturally, this - along with the ecological mess it causes - is going to be blamed on the Israelis.

But in reality the cause is Egypt and Hamas.

Gradstein says the Egyptians have shut down 80 percent of the tunnels, numbering in the hundreds, that run between Egypt and Gaza. An extensive security crackdown waged by the transitional Egyptian government is underway right now. It's directed at the Sinai-based gunmen and terrorists about whom we have written here frequently.

But, and this is new, it's also directed at Hamas, whom the new Egyptian rulers accuse of conspiring with the overthrown Morsi government to carry out attacks on Egyptian soldiers and police in Sinai.

The Egyptians say the weapons for those attacks come through the tunnels and the perpetrators can flee into the safety of Hamas-controlled Gaza. hence the crackdown. And Israel? Listen to this:

“Israel is making every possible effort in order to enable the transfer of goods into the Gaza Strip given the current policy,” Guy Inbar, the spokesman for the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). "We emphasize that Israel does not limit the amount of goods transferred to Gaza and that the Kerem Shalom crossing has yet to reach its maximum capacity. As for today, it is possible to transfer 400 trucks every day, but the demand from Gaza is lower, and on an average day we receive requests for about 300 trucks.” Inbar said that in the last three weeks, 165 fuel tankers have passed via Kerem Shalom at the request of the Palestinians from Gaza.

We visited the crossings last summer and heard the same analysis.

Israeli sources quoted by Gradstein say Israeli fuel is three times more expensive than Egyptian, so sharp price increases are expected. Cement and other construction materials are also in short supply now, and the large and heavily publicized Qatar-funded building projects are currently on ice.

In an Al-Monitor piece on the Egypt/Hamas tensions ["The Silence on Gaza"], Shlomi Eldar looks closely at Gaza's problems and predicts worse ahead:

If, until recently, it seemed to the leaders of Hamas both in Gaza and on the outside that after seven years of a suffocating siege, all their troubles were about to disappear, they are now seeing their world turning against them... [Recently] the skies came crashing down on them. Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was deposed, and Hamas was pilloried along with him. Egypt’s new regime considers Hamas an enemy. The Egyptian army has launched a far-reaching offensive in the Sinai, and is waging a war of annihilation against the subterranean network of smuggling tunnels in Rafah, which were the main source of food and raw materials for the Gaza Strip. The light they saw at the end of the tunnel just a few months ago went out in a flicker. The markets emptied of goods, gasoline for automobiles has just about run out, and emergency stockpiles of gasoline and diesel fuel are running very low as well. The electricity is turned off every few hours, hospitals report that there is a shortage of drugs, and even cigarettes have vanished from the shops. Right now Gaza is going backward six or seven years to a situation in which it is hermetically sealed off, almost as it was after the Hamas military coup of June 2007. [Eldar]

Eldar thinks it's astonishing that Gaza's growing problems are triggering so little responsiveness among the circle of Hamas-friendly parties in the area.

• "Why isn’t the Al Jazeera network heard broadcasting from the Gaza Strip encouraging the local residents to take to the streets en masse, to tear down the wall around Rafah and burst into the Sinai?" asks Eldar.
• And the recently installed emir of Qatar, Gaza's recent hero, has he gotten lost? From Qatar, there is not "a word of condemnation directed at the new military and civilian leadership in Egypt", says Eldar.
• After all the reports in recent months that Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "the self-appointed patron of Gaza" was going to be visiting Gaza, it's now off the agenda. Turkey is no longer threatening to send its warships to sail alongside "aid" flotillas as they try to break through Israel’s maritime siege.
• The organizers of the bloody 2010 Turkish flotilla that included the Mavi Marmara, are silent. Nowhere to be seen. Eldar asks: "Isn’t this the perfect time to get the boat ready for another voyage? Isn’t this the right moment to recruit volunteers from Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and the Gulf States to load crates of food and medicine on deck, so that they can be delivered to the people of Gaza, who are under siege?" But they're not coming.
• Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, who sailed on board the yacht sponsored by the group “Free Gaza” is missing in action. Doing nothing. Saying nothing.

The answer, says Eldar, is obvious. 

This time there is no way to accuse Israel, because it is not involved in the injustice. These days, Israel barely imposes any restrictions whatsoever on the import of foodstuffs, clothing, and raw materials into the Gaza Strip. It is engaged in economic cooperation with Hamas, based on the transfer of goods through the Kerem Shalom border crossing. The real issue is that Hamas preferred to rely on the smuggling tunnels in Rafah, so as not to create a dependence on Israel.

Those smuggling tunnels, by the way, were not only Hamas' preferred option. They were central to the economic well-being of the fast-rising Gazan select nouveau riche, the favoured of Hamas society. And if they are being systematically shut down and destroyed by Egypt, this has implications. Khaled Abu Toameh, an Arab Israeli journalist whose writings we quote here often said something prescient a year ago:

If the Egyptian army succeeds in demolishing the underground smuggling tunnels that keep Hamas running, it could mark the end of the Islamists' rule over the Gaza Strip. But if Egypt's new president, Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood tie the hands of the Egyptian army's generals and keep them from completing the mission, Hamas will become even stronger and wealthier. [Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute Website, August 30, 2012]

His article is entitled "How Many Millionaires Live in the "Impoverished" Gaza Strip?". Since he's referring to the place that parts of the media routinely call a concentration camp, how does he answer?:

According to an investigative report published in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, there are at least 600 millionaires living in the Gaza Strip... The Palestinian millionaires, according to the report, have made their wealth thanks to the hundreds of underground tunnels along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Informed Palestinian sources revealed that every day, in addition to weapons, thousands of tons of fuel, medicine, various types of merchandise, vehicles, electrical appliances, drugs, medicine and cigarettes are smuggled into the Gaza Strip through more than 400 tunnels. A former Sudanese government official who visited the Gaza Strip lately was quoted as saying that he found basic goods that were not available in Sudan... Palestinians estimate that 25% of the Hamas government's budget comes from taxes imposed on the owners of the underground tunnels. For example, Hamas has imposed a 25% tax and a $2000 fee on every car that is smuggled into the Gaza Strip. Hamas also charges $15 dollars for each ton of cement, eight cents for a pack of cigarettes and 50 cents for each liter of fuel smuggled through the tunnels. [Khaled Abu Toameh]

The chaos in Sinai is exacting a rising toll in blood. A Turkish news agency says, in a story filed from El Arish today, that

At least 42 people, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in a spate of militant attacks in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula since July 5, two days after the army ousted elected President Mohamed Morsi, according to a tally compiled by Anadolu Agency. One soldier was killed and another one wounded on Thursday (today) in an attack by gunmen on a security checkpoint in the North Sinai city of Arish.

Al-Masry Al-Youm, an Egyptian news source, today quotes an un-named "security source" saying that interrogations of those arrested in Sinai in the last few days

have proven that there are ties between the extremists in Sinai and foreign intelligence bodies. The same source told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the investigation carried out by the general and military intelligence bodies has shown that the extremists have ties to elements in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as in Gaza... Approximately half of the extremists in Sinai entered Egypt during the rule of ousted President Mohamed Morsy.

All in all, it's unlikely the violence in Sinai and the turmoil in Gaza are going to end quickly though we confess to wondering (despite the fingers pointed at Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Hamas regime) how long before it's all blamed on our side again.

18-May-13: Kabul. The faces of terror's victims

With no sign of body parts or of smoking car wrecks, the powerful news photo below from this past Thursday conveys nothing more or less than the human dimension. A father and two children, dressed like us more or less, caught up against their will in something so grotesque that it defies rational explanation. Kabul is presumably where they live. For us, it might just as well as be Mars. For them it's home, the place where they live their lives. The terrorists understand that.

The caption to this Associated Press photograph reads in full:

An Afghan man directs his children away from the scene where a suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, May 16, 2013. A Muslim militant group, Hizb-e-Islami, claimed responsibility for the early morning attack, killing many in the explosion and wounding tens, police and hospital officials said. The powerful explosion rattled buildings on the other side of Kabul and sent a pillar of white smoke into the sky in the city's east. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

An image not to forget.

Image Source

27-Sep-11: Press freedom, democracy and terrorism: how is it that some people keep getting them mixed up?

For some weeks, there has been a steady stream of protests and advocacy concerning the arrest by Israeli authorities of a senior journalist. We're referring to Samer Farik Muhammad Allawi. He lives in Pakistan and has worked until two months ago as Aljazeera's Afghanistan bureau chief. Al Jazeera is headed by Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, a member of Qatar's royal family.

On 9th August 2011, which happens to be the tenth anniversary of the murder of our daughter in a Hamas massacre, Allawi was arrested at the Allenby Crossing on Israel's border with Jordan. The charge was involvement in Hamas activities. Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organization.

Yesterday, Allawi was convicted in an Israeli court. Since the fact of his arrest has gotten wide coverage, and since - for strange and inscrutable reasons - the things he admits to doing have not (the Reuters report here, for instance), we are making our small contribution here to publicizing what Samer Farik Muhammad Allawi admitted to doing.

• Allawi, who happens to call himself a Palestinian Arab by birth, admitted that was recruited to Hamas in 1993.  
• Until 2004, he served Hamas as a member of its Supreme Palestine Committee that supervises and directs Hamas institutions and activity.  
• He collected donations for Hamas fronts including the Al-Aqsa Association and the so-called Palestinian Information and Media Center.
• While working for SPC, Allawi traveled to Syria in 2001 and 2003 in order to report on his activities to Musa Abu Marzook, deputy to Hamas fuehrer, politbureau head and Terrorist-in-Chief Khaled Mashal.  
• Allawi says Mashal asked him in 2004 to come and work for him as Hamas representative in Iran.  Allawi said no.
• Allawi admitted that in 2000, during a meeting with a Hamas operative in Dubai, he agreed to carry out activity of a military or organizational nature for Hamas.  Specifically, Allawi proposed that he would work to aid Hamas in advancing its goals by utilizing his position as a senior journalist with Al Jazeera.
• In 2006, Allawi met in Qatar with Hamas terrorists who also serve as Al Jazeera correspondents. Collectively they agreed to exploit their work with Al Jazeera in order to strengthen Hamas in a variety of ways including criticizing American operations in Afghanistan and expressing support for the Palestinian resistance - a euphemism for the terrorist groups, chiefly Hamas, that target Israeli civilian populations.
• In 2010, during another meeting with Hamas "operatives" in Al-Jazzera's hometown of Qatar, Allawi was asked again to undertake subtle public advocacy to benefit Hamas and the Palestinian struggle by leveraging his journalistic position to undermine support for the Americans.

Allawi was convicted yesterday (26-Sep-11) on the basis of his own confession, in the framework of a plea bargain. He will serve no additional jail time, though he now has a suspended sentence of three years hanging over his head.

Those who believe Aljazeera and similar news agencies deliver objective news reporting with no bias, no advocacy, no hidden deals or agendas, will keep believing. But at least now there's a written record of what this particular reporter has admitted. (And we have it in Arabic too, here.)

Oh, and in case he plans to go report from Gaza, Allawi's Hamas colleagues, those world-class champions of democracy and free speech, have introduced some brand new rules. The BBC has a summary today: "Gaza foreign press restrictions imposed by Hamas... New restrictions on foreign journalists working in the Gaza Strip have been introduced by the Hamas authorities. The Islamist movement which governs the Palestinian territory says journalists must now apply five days in advance in order to work there."

We wonder whether Aljazeera's editors will consider this worthy of their objective, impartial attention.

15-Oct-10: Is Europe facing a terror attack?

Earlier this month, the US State Department advised Americans living or traveling in Europe to conduct themselves as if terrorists are plotting attacks in Europe. Yesterday (Thursday), its counterterrorism coordinator Daniel Benjamin clarified that the terror plot focused on Europe is still enough of a threat for the US to maintain the current advisory. It's a step below a formal warning advising Americans not to visit Europe.

So often when terrorism is under discussion, you hear voices downplaying the dangers (for instance, "Some Muslims, Officials See Terror Alert As Alarmist" on the National Public Radio website this week) and that's certainly the case in this current alert. European and Pakistani officials, for instance, have questioned out loud whether the US is overreacting. TIME Magazine captured the European ambivalence well last week in an opinion piece entitled "Terror Threat: Caught Between Caution and Alarm". The acrobatics described here are impressive:

Given the thickening flurry of terror-related developments around the world — intelligence discoveries, counter-terrorism efforts, rising threat levels — the global public, and people in Europe in particular, could be forgiven for reading them as worrying signs of a looming strike on Western soil. Yet despite the feeling that all this activity is reaching a critical mass, European security officials stress that they have no reason to believe an attack is imminent. And they note that while the general terror threat is indeed relatively high, it is not acute.

Relatively high danger, but not acute. It's not only Europeans who are living in denial about Islamic terror but they certainly contribute a certain distinctive style.

Meanwhile back on Earth, the State Department says its intelligence was gathered from multiple sources over several months and is credible. Some of the plot details come from the interrogation of Ahmed Siddiqui, an Afghan with German citizenship, captured by US forces in Afghanistan during July and the source of some detailed operational information about European jihadist circles. Siddiqui was a cleaner at Hamburg airport and a devout member of the al-Quds mosque in Hamburg several of the 9/11 hijackers gathered prior to their attack.

Concern over the presence of German citizens in Pakistan's tribal areas has gotten some media attention in past weeks. The BBC, relying on German media sources, said last week that several Islamist militants disappeared from their homes in Hamburg in 2009 and were believe to have gone to Pakistan's North Waziristan. A week ago, the German interior ministry revealed that 70 Germans had gotten paramilitary training in Afghanistan and Pakistan... and a third of them had returned home. In August 2010, German police shut down that Hamburg mosque on the basis that it had become a focus for terrorist activity. 
Associated Press today quotes the State Department's people saying "The credibility of the information was what was most striking about this – and the fact that it was so internally consistent... We tried to couch it as carefully as we could [but] we had an obligation – both an ethical one but also a legal one – to warn American tourists that this was a concern."

Tony Blair used to be prime minister of the UK. Today he sees himself having a similar kind of ethical obligation. In a speech that got wide coverage last week, Blair noted that these has been a failure to challenge the ''narrative'' that Islam was oppressed by the West and that this is fuelling extremism around the world. Too many people accept the extremists' analysis, says Blair. For example, that the actions taken by the military forces of western countries in the wake of the 9/11 mass terrorism were directed at countries because they were Muslim

Blair says:

''We should wake up to the absurdity of our surprise at the prevalence of this extremism... Look at the funds it receives. Examine the education systems that succour it. And then measure, over the years, the paucity of our counter-attack in the name of peaceful co-existence. We have been outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised.''

Not only outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised. But also outsmarted.

Ron Ben-Yishai gets scant media attention outside Israel, but he is often on the money. He published some observations a week ago, pointing out that the US warnings are based on concrete intelligence from intelligence agencies in the US, Pakistan, Britain, France, and Germany. He backs up the reports of Afghan jihadists with German passports, and says they are getting plenty of attention from US forces. Let's quantify that:

"Since entering the White House, US President Barack Obama has authorized no less than 122 drone hits against senior al-Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban leaders hiding out in the tribal regions of the country. This is more than double the number of attacks former President George W. Bush authorized in all eight years of his presidency. Just last month, at least 22 such attacks in Pakistan alone killed dozens of Muslim terrorists. In response... jihadists are now trying to leave Pakistan for a revenge campaign in Europe. The reasoning is clear. There are many American tourists on the continent, whose urban centers and public transportation systems are packed with people, and security measures are relatively lax. The preferred method of attack is shooting attacks and taking hostages. This modus operandi, which was successfully executed last year in Mumbai, India... allows the perpetrators, British and German citizens, to reach their targets unhindered, armed with assault rifles and handguns that can be obtained on the local market and hidden in handbags."

Ben-Yishai says the Pakistani-Germans are partnered with a North African group called "al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb". They recently kidnapped several groups of French tourists and professionals from the mining and oil industries; one of the French hostages was murdered in a jihadist execution. Now the terrorist leadership has decided to carry out a mass-casualty attack

"by detonating explosives at central French tourist sites, first and foremost being the Eiffel Tower. This is the reason that French authorities have evacuated the site, a symbol of France's strength, twice in recent weeks... It is likely that this information reached the security establishment in Paris after Italian police arrested a French citizen of Algerian descent in possession of explosive devices about a month ago. It remains unclear whether the Pakistani group and the North African group are coordinating their attacks with one another."

He says al-Qaeda is trying to time the actions of the two groups in order to create the impression of simultaneous, coordinated attacks on different sites in Europe, something which would increase their deterrent effect and grant al-Qaeda new momentum.

Meanwhile, even in France, there are some sane voices capable of observing and then acting. Jean-Louis Bruguière, France's top anti-terrorism official in the recent past, says

"all European nations are paying close attention to movement and planning in the Pakistan border area, because "since 2008, as Islamist networks in Europe have re-focused full attention on the Afghan jihad, we've all seen an increasing flow of Europeans traveling to the region for combat and terror training." ...al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb "has proven its stated strike out at France by kidnapping French citizens in Africa which means we're taking its promises to unleash violence on French soil more seriously than ever."

Thank goodness for that.