Terrorist attacks that almost occurred -- the lesson is that there are a lot of possible targets

If there is one lesson from these news stories is that there are a lot of targets for terrorists to hit.  Before going through the newest stories here is a bit of a review.

We are living in a new era.  In May, four people were shot dead at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.  In September, there were beheadings in Oklahoma and London.  October was even worse: a car attack in Quebec, a shooting in Ottawa, a hatchet assault in New York City, and a knife attack that left five dead at an Israeli synagogue.  This is but a sample.  

Now this week we have these stories:

From Fox News:

An alleged sympathizer of the Islamic State terror group was arrested in Ohio on Wednesday after authorities learned that he was plotting a shooting and bombing attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, considered members of Congress as "enemies," and planned to travel to Washington to kill employees and officers working in and around the U.S. Capitol, according to a criminal complaint. Authorities said he had two semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition, and planned to build and detonate pipe bombs at and near the U.S. Capitol. . . .

Meanwhile in Oklahoma a police chief was killed by another ISIS sympathizer.

An Oklahoma police chief survived being shot several times because he was handed a bulletproof vest just moments before entering the home of the suspect who posted statements about ISIS on social media. 

NewsOK.com reported that the Sentinel Police Chief Louis Ross was responding to the home linked to an earlier bomb threat. While police cleared out the house, they were confronted in one of the bedrooms and shots were fired. 

Ross was hit several times in the chest and arm. A man and his wife were arrested.
Authorities described the shooting suspect as a man in his 30s who posted statements on social media about ISIS. . . .

Also in Belgium:

Belgian authorities were searching for clues early Friday after police killed two in raids aimed at jihadists returning from Syria who were planning to launch a "Belgian Charlie Hebdo" attack, officials said. 

Police were searching in Verviers, where the raid took place, and the greater Brussels area as part of a weeklong investigation that started well before the terrorism spree last week that led to 17 deaths in the Paris area. The Belgian operations had no apparent link to the terrorist acts committed in France. 

And, unlike the Paris terrorists, who attacked the office of a satirical newspaper and a kosher grocery store, the suspects in Belgium were reportedly aiming at hard targets: police installations. . . . 

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Leading European Rabbi calls for Jews to be able to carry handguns

Putting 10,000 French soldiers in front of Jewish facilities will offer little protection as terrorists have control over where and when they attack.  Terrorists have important strategic advantages in picking the time and place for attacks.  Putting uniformed guards at places mean that terrorists will either kill these guards first or wait for them to leave an area before an attack occurs. From Israel National News:

A prominent European rabbi has called on governments to relax gun-licensing legislation to allow Jews to carry firearms for self-defense, following last week's deadly Paris attacks and amid rising anti-Semitism on the continent. 

Rabbi Menachem Margolin wrote to the governments of all EU-member states urging a change in the law to allow special gun permits for Jews at risk. 

In the letter Rabbi Margolin, who is director general of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE) and the European Jewish Association (EJA), wrote:  

"We hereby ask that gun licensing laws are reviewed with immediate effect to allow designated people in the Jewish communities and institutions to own weapons for the essential protection of their communities, as well as receiving the necessary training to protect their members from potential terror attacks." 

In a statement to Newsweek, which obtained a copy of the letter, Rabbi Margolin added that he believes that "as many people within the Jewish community as possible" should carry weapons. . . .

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Note that the places Al Queda has discussed attacking in the US are places where few permitted concealed handguns are allowed

From Yahoo News:

Al Qaeda militants in Syria are plotting attacks to inflict mass casualties in the West, possibly against transport systems or "iconic targets", the head of Britain's MI5 Security Service said on Thursday.Speaking after gunmen killed 12 people in an assault on a French satirical newspaper, MI5 boss Andrew Parker warned a strike on the United Kingdom was highly likely. . . .

From the Daily Beast:

In the Spring 2014 issue, for example, Inspire proposed attacking cities and military facilities in northern Virginia, the site of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, and targets in Los Angeles and Chicago. . . .

 In Los Angeles, there are only about 240 concealed handgun permits in an adult population of about 8 million people.  In Chicago, it costs about $500 to go through the process of getting a concealed handgun permit.

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Why isn't Obama imposing sanctions on North Korea for its act of war? Isn't attacking Sony an attack on US territory?

While many in the media is attacking Sony for its "cowardice," can one really expect Sony to stand up to such pressure by itself.  After all, the media with its constant reporting based on this stole information has done huge damage to Sony.  Representative Ed Royce discusses one thing that the Obama administration could do here



Possibly if the Obama administration had come forward sooner, the results from this past week could have been avoided.

But NBC's Pete Williams says: "“I would say the best I can tell from that is that [the Obama administration] haven’t a clue [what to do about North Korea]."

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Powerful interview of CIA interrogation "architect" where he reacts to Senate interrogation report

The interview with Psychologist James Mitchell is very powerful (it is available here).  Really brings into question the Senate Democrats' report.  Senate Democrats have publicly outed this man and have put his life in danger.  They also refused to talk to Dr. Mitchell or anyone else who was actually involved in these interrogations.  This is only two-thirds of his Mitchell's interview tonight, but it is still very worthwhile.

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Newest piece at Fox News: "‘Lone Wolf’ terror attacks: We're sitting ducks and Americans with guns are last line of defense"

John Lott's newest piece at Fox News starts this way:

The recent spate of “lone wolf” terrorist attacks both here and in Canada seem to have come out of nowhere. And it’s clear that they have left Americans and Canadians as sitting ducks. 

Simply by using the Internet, ISIS has encouraged “lone wolf” individuals. These “wolves” have initiated attacks on their own with no planning or coordination with others and without leaving a trail of clues about their intentions. Law enforcement authorities and our government are not well suited to defend against such individual terror strikes. As Israel has learned about such attacks, there are just too many targets to defend. 

So what can be done to protect public safety? When police and the military can’t be everywhere, the last line of defense is having more citizens carry guns. 

Just look at the alleged lone wolf attacks in the last few months. A clear pattern seems to be developing: from the beheading a month ago in Oklahoma to last week’s car attack in Quebec, the shooting at the National War Memorialin Ottawa, and the hatchet assault in New York City. 

Jerusalem last week also experienced a similar Jihadist attack, with a terrorist driving his car onto a crowded sidewalk. 

The announcement Wednesday that the federal government is beefing up security at federal buildings misses the real problem: as we’ve already seen in the last month, there are an uncountable number of targets. Publicly announcing beefed up security at federal building simply makes it more likely that other targets will be hit. 

After the attack on Parliament, Canada rushed to give more detention and surveillance power to security agencies. Not only is such a move more costly, . . .

The piece is continued here.

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Unfortunately, last week's attack on the Canadian Parliament seems to have doomed some simple long needed reform of gun control

The Huffington Post is quite happy about this:

The Conservative government appears to be quietly shelving its controversial “Common Sense” gun bill in light of Wednesday’s shooting.  

Government House Leader Peter Van Loan’s office was silent Friday about the future of Bill C-42. Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney’s office refused to comment, directing inquiries to Van Loan. The Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act was scheduled to be debated for the first time on the day of the shootings, with three days set aside for discussion. It no longer figures on the government’s stated agenda. 

But NDP Public Safety critic Randall Garrison told The Huffington Post Canada on Friday that he understands why the government might want to shelve this bill for the time being. 

“I think it’s obvious that the climate where firearms were used to murder a member of the Canadian Forces and to bring an attack into the House of Commons means that the climate for a discussion on a bill that would loosen, in any way, restrictions over the licensing of firearms is unlikely to be something the government wants to do right now,” he said. . . .

Unfortunately, these restrictions are the exact opposite of what they should be doing. 

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One of the Canadian shooters, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, recent convert to Islam, long criminal record

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau's name was apparently previously known as Michael Joseph Hall prior to converting to Islam.  He had been designated a high-risk traveler and that his passport had recently been confiscated.  Zehaf-Bibeau had a long criminal history with arrests for robbery, making threats, and various drug offenses.  He served time in prison on at least a couple of occasions (67 days for the uttering the threat), but he was still able to obtain a gun.  Apparently, he wasn't on the government's watch list of about 90 high-risk individuals and few under the radar.

This attack comes on the heels of another recent muslim convert who used his car to run over two soldiers in Canada, killing one of them.

Terrorist ideology inspired a recent convert to Islam to drive his car into two Canadian soldiers, killing one, before he was shot dead by police, authorities said on Tuesday.
Quebec police spokesman Guy Lapointe said the act was deliberate and that one of the two soldiers was in uniform. There were no other suspects. 

Public safety minister Steven Blaney called it a “terrible act of violence against our country, against our military and against our values” that was “clearly linked to terrorist ideology”. 

Police identified the dead military member as Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, 53.
The suspect, Martin Couture Rouleau, 25, was known to authorities and recently had his passport seized, police commissioner Bob Paulson said. . . . 

Martin Couture Rouleau staked out the parking lot for 2 hours waiting for the soldiers.  He was apparently arrested in July, but was let go because he hadn't committed a crime and they did not view him as a threat to others.

Sadly, but not surprisingly given these two attacks on soldiers, the Canadian government is urging members of the military not to wear their uniforms when they are off duty.  In the attack today, the ceremonial guard who was in uniform was definitely targeted.

Possibly the weapon used in the attack was a shotgun.  Reports from the Chicago Tribune to the CBC indicate:

"He was wearing blue pants and a black jacket and he had a double barrelled shotgun and he ran up the side of this building here and hijacked a car at gunpoint," construction worker Scott Walsh told Reuters. . . .

In Jerusalem, an Arab terrorist rammed his car into a crowd, killing an infant and wounded several others.

A three-month-old girl, identified by her grandfather as Chaya Zissel, was killed and several US citizens and Israelis were wounded Wednesday evening when a convicted Palestinian terrorist from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan rammed his vehicle into a crowd of people in the capital. . . .  

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Absolutely devastating contrast between Obama's bragging about “Al Qaeda is on the path to defeat" and what has happened

If you like to see a video with some of Obama's bragging claims about his victories against Al Qaeda with what has actually happened, the beginning of this video with Obama's quotes is worth a look.

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Mass public shooting in Belgium, four dead at Brussels Jewish Museum

Muslim terrorist kills four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.  Despite a five year prison term for a violent crime, somehow the killer was able to obtain what is claimed to be a machine gun.  From the BBC:

Police found Mr Nemmouche had in his possession a Kalashnikov rifle and a handgun believed to have been used in the attack, the Paris prosecutor told a news conference on Sunday. . . .At the time of his arrest, authorities say he had a machine gun wrapped in the flag of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) . . .The 29-year-old was in prison for five years in France for robbery and released in December 2012, Mr Molins said. . . . .

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Is it believable that 40 to 50 people a week actually are accidentally bringing guns on commercial airline flights each week?

From the Orlando Sentinel:

"It strains credibility when 40 to 50 people a week show up with guns at the security checkpoint and then say 'I forgot.' They didn't forget their ticket. They didn't forget their pants. They've been on notice for over 12 years that guns are not permitted and it's time they be held responsible for violating the law." . . .

To put this in some perspective, 16 million passengers travelled per week in 2012.  40 or 50 cases out of that is about 0.0003 percent.  But it probably makes sense to say that 16 million is not the right group making the mistake here.  Suppose we are dealing with the 5 percent of adults who carry permitted concealed handguns (putting aside non permit holders and that permit holders are relatively wealthier and are therefore more likely to be flyers).   That would then be 800,000 (16 million times 5 percent).  Then implies an error rate of between 0.005 and 0.00625 percent, or about 5 or 6 per 100,000 travelers.  

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