I think attacks in the US are likely.

 

(This was posted on 21 November, 2015 on Sic Semper Tyrannis)

There is a lot of "bleeding heart silliness" being spouted in the media as US networks try to convince themselves that IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE!  Well, IMO that is incorrect and it probably will happen here.

The US and Saudi Arabia, are, I think the two most important target areas for IS.  The US because it represents the new Rome, the great Satan and Saudi Arabia because IS sees the royal family as sinners who should not be in charge of the Haramayn.

We have pretty solid police in the US and robust external border controls at crossing points, but, in fact we have a large and potentially recruitable disaffected segment in our population among racial minorities, resident Muslim youth and the like.  Remember.  It only takes a few people to pull off such attacks.  Weapons are easy to obtain in the US and the materials with which to make explosives are everywhere.

Four of the Paris attack group had entered Europe in the last few months, two on Syrian passports as part of the migration and two on Turkish passports simply traveling within the Schengen area without much trouble.  You never know what you don't know and we don't know how many others IS has sent toward targets in Europe and North America, especially before the Paris attacks.

PM Trudeau and his political colleagues are going to admit at least 25,000 "Syrian" migrants to Canada in the next few months.  There is no possibility that the Canadian authorities will be able to adequately screen that number of people for identity or prior associations.  It will anger Canadians here for me to say so but the US/Canada border is a joke.  You can walk across it in thousands of places outside the ken of authorities on either side.

The pattern is clear, IS sends in fighters to reinforce local adherents.

IS has announced its intention to attack New York City and Washington, DC.

We should take this statement of intention very seriously.  pl

http://globalnews.ca/news/2352983/60-of-canadians-disagree-with-liberal-plan-to-accept-syrian-refugees-ipsos-poll/

Comments

[Joseph Moroco]

"There is a little thing called the Atlantic ocean that protects us from that."

Didn't work in protecting us from the Tsarnaev's.

They ain't crossing the pond in dhow's.

[Valissa]

Where did I say the US was suddenly unsafe? I made no such assertion. You appear to have completely misunderstood my comment. Of course the US is an overwhelmingly safe country. That was the point of my referring to the Bruce Schneier book. But that is not the point of this post.

[AEL]

Canada is not taking unaccompanied males as refugees. Only women and children, or families.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-refugee-plan-women-children-families-1.3330185

[Farmer Don]

My guess is that, quietly the total immigrant number will NOT go up by 25,000. There will be a lessening of immigrants from other countries, so there will not be a 10% increase in work load.

Also the unpleasant reality is that with over one mass murder per day in the US, except for the anti Muslim excitement it would stir up, nothing much would change.

Instead of riding on the shoulders of a giant, the old PM Trudeau used to say we were a mouse living in the same pen as an elephant, and we had to be very careful where it stepped next. Which I think is closer to the truth.

[Matthew]

Walrus: At a certain, point our people with their hands out will have to value American lives more than they value foreign money... obtained from the real state sponsors of terrorism, er, American "allies" in the Gulf.

That feel-good story yesterday about Qatar arranging the prisoner exchange in Lebanon is case in point.

[turcopolier]

Farmer Don

Your smug attitude of superiority really annoys. IMO you should stay out of the US. Someone might shoot you down in Florida or wherever you go to escape the moose and wolves. pl

[Oily]

Searching for "ISIS attack Washington" returns thousands of news articles - the pump is primed. Congress has to do a budget deal or government "shuts down", allowing the clowns to go home. Ramp up in "shooter incidents" to push the gun seizure agenda are speeding up. Anyone have anything on simultaneous "training ops" going on in the DC area during early December??

Seems like a great opportunity to blame shut-down on 'terror' and push agendas.

I, for one, am NOT fearful of ISIS here in the most heavily armed country on the planet. I am far more fearful of what government and other nebulous agencies allow or assist to happen, with the collusion of the treasonous for-profit press.

[turcopolier]

Oily

I did not suggest that you should be afraid. I am not afraid. Why should you be? pl

[Fred]

Farmer Don,

"with over one mass murder per day in the US"

It sounds like you not only have an opinion but you have your own facts to support it too. Given these facts all those refugees should be looking to live in your utopia and not our Republic.

[Fred]

AEL,

The males would be permanently forbidden to come? I think that runs counter to what the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms the article references states. In addition "once in Canada, officials broadly expect refugees to be "mobile" in about a month's time: While thousands of people may arrive temporarily in one location, they may quickly disperse throughout Canada."

I sure hope the "screening" the new pm has is better than the unicorn screening the US is doing for the FSA volunteers. Since, as the Col. pointed out, there are plenty of places to easily cross the border into the US.

[JONST]

It is your mentality, and cliches, wrapped up in hyperbole, and topped with slice of nonsense and exaggeration, that worries me the most. Or, rather, who shares it with you. I live in Maine. I love the open border and support it, for all its risks. But in your case...

[Farmer Don]

We're now averaging more than one mass shooting per day ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../were-now-averaging-more-than-one-m...
Aug 26, 2015 - 238 days, 247 mass shootings. ... But it's nevertheless a fact that the level of gun violence we see in the U.S. is like nothing seen in other .

Fred, Just taking the word of the Washington post.

[Farmer Don]

Just to be annoying to some one as experienced, sagacious and prolific as yourself, is a step up for me.

AS far as Moose and Wolves, here my problem is Coyotes. They steal dogs from the yard, are always yipping & howling, and have got me jumpy.

Even though they are not supposed to attack people, I would be a lot happier if I could carry some kind of hand gun with me at night, like you are allowed to in the USA.

FD

[turcopolier]

Farmer Don

I re-phrase your winter problems as "snow drifts and enraged Ukrainians." If you move to Fargo, you could have a gun and fewer Ukrainians or you could smuggle a gun into Canada by walking across the unguarded border, but you would have to watch out for Ukrainians or coywolfs, a new menace. Of course in Fargo you might run into some unpleasant people as well. pl

[Tyler]

WRC,

Actually I was surprised to find it was both agencies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Ressam

Some other notes:

Ressam entered Canada on February 20, 1994, using a fake, illegally altered French passport in the name of "Anjer Tahar Medjadi".[10][15] When immigration officials at the Montréal-Mirabel International Airport arrested him and confronted him about the altered passport, he divulged his real name and applied for refugee status.[10] In his effort to obtain political asylum, he told the Canadian authorities a false story about having been subjected to Algerian abuse and torture.[7][16] He was released pending a hearing, and approved for up to three years of welfare benefits.[13][14] His application for refugee status was denied on June 6, 1995, and his appeal was denied

On May 4, 1998, a warrant was issued for his arrest by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.[10] At the time the warrant was issued, Ressam was in Afghanistan, attending a terrorist training camp. He evaded deportation thereafter by using a Canadian passport he had obtained in March 1998 by submitting a baptismal certificate; he used a stolen blank certificate, filling it in with the fake name, "Benni Antoine Noris."[7]

He supported himself by theft (stealing tourists' suitcases at hotels, pickpocketing, and shoplifting), and through welfare benefits of C$500 per month.[7][16] He was arrested four times, but never jailed.[7][16] By 1999, Ressam had a Canadian criminal history for theft under C$5,000, an outstanding Canada-wide immigration arrest warrant, and a British Columbia-wide arrest warrant for theft under C$5,000.[1]

CANADA!

[Tyler]

"JEEZE ITS JUST A RABID DOG I KNEW A DOG ONCE AND IT WAS FRIENDLY YOU GUYS ARE SO AFRAID I SWEAR WHY SO SCARED OF A RABID DOG DON'T YOU KNOW MORE PEOPLE DIE FROM BATHTUBS THAN RABID DOGS?" - half of the commentariat here

[Ken Roberts]

Coywolfs? Coywolfs? What's the world coming to! The language is shifting around me. Last week I learned a new word "bromance", used by the publicists to describe the normal friendship between the two male leads in "Grantchester" (a good series, btw). Now we've got "coy wolves"?

Local bumper sticker: "Eat Ontario lamb. 20,000 coyotes can't be wrong."

Ok, back on topic. Murderers, that what I think these sorts (San Bernardino) are. Too dignified to give them a "terrorist" label. Just scum. Outliers, statistically, and outlaws -- ie beyond the law. So we have to deal with it, with them. Preventatively, one hopes -- which comes from keeping aware and all the little communications which indicate someone is going weird.

My simplistic guidelines for a good society are three: foster physical well-being (health, food, safety, job, etc); mental well-being (young and old have roles in community, the transition from child to adult is facilitated, etc); and fairness (equal before the law, etc). It seems to me that the SB shooters had all three positives in their contexts. So what was their problem? Maybe just psychopaths? Only way to pre-identify that is interaction, individually. One can work to foster those three guidelines (or some other list) for society in general but still have to consider the particular cases, identify and address outliers.

Well, it appears we here in Canada weren't the source of these particular folks, but don't mean to come across as smug. We have plenty of psychos here, Bernardo, et al. Sometimes we get it spectacularly wrong -- eg, guy named Morin was framed by police officer (planted cigarette butts, I think) for child murder because he didn't converse readily, bit reclusive. Took a long trial to sort that out, and while focus was mis-directed, nothing useful being achieved. No resolution, etc. Can't fix the past, but we can learn from it if we're honest with ourselves, if organizations are willing to be honest within themselves.

Important not to go off the rails ourselves because of spectacular happening. Keep eye on ball, etc. What has happened to last week's number 1,2,3 urgent priorities?

ps. What's that about Ukrainians? I have Ukrainian friends, Russian friends, Turkish friends, Greek friends, Polish friends, Serbian friends, on and on the list goes. Same as just about for anyone, I think. Many, many more friends than not. So judging by nationality is pretty much unhelpful for deciding on actions or postures.

Mind you, I don't think I've met any coy wolves. Just a coyote and he/she was just passing thru. Probably heading to the sheep pasture down the road a bit.

I appreciate this site. Good info and perspectives, and diverse viewpoints.

Cheers, and thanks!

kr

[turcopolier]

Ken Roberts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coywolf
You have Ukrainians as friends? Not sure we need you here. What are all those other groups? (Are Canadians really this humorless? Maybe all that political correctness has rotted your brains) pl

[Babak Makkinejad]

All the variety of people you have mentioned as your friends are from older pedigreed countries and states.

Majority of Muslims today live in countries that are not even hundred years old, some considerably less, harkening to the years immediately after the end of World War II.

For them, I surmise, the new states in which they find themselves does not carry enough of an identity to provide them with an anchor for the purposes of orientation and understanding in this world. Invariably, they fall back on Islam, their core identity that overwhelms everything else.

Some, clearly, strongly believe that Islam is in danger and under attack and thus their core identity as a human being.

Those then are willing to act on those beliefs. Almost all of them are young men with roots from outside of the old Seljuk Empire boundaries.

[AEL]

Families are welcome. So presumably, a husband can join up with wife/children at a later time if, for whatever reason, he does not come with them in the initial rush. In this batch no single males are being considered. They are welcome to apply and follow the regular refugee process.

The families/women/children policy does not violate the Charter because applicants are not subject to Canadian law until they arrive in Canada. If a single male does make it to Canada, he is entitled to claim asylum just like everyone else.

As an aside, Canada is having troubles finding refugees who want to come. Apparently quite a few are hopeful that the civil war will sort itself out relatively soon so they can go home. Furthermore, showing up in Canada in January is not particularly appealing.

[oofda]

Colonel-
A bit off topic,( but a recent simulated war game by retired Israeli Generals See U.S.-Russian Coalition Easily Overpowering ISIS.

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.689912

[turcopolier]

oofda

Oh sure, can do easy and then go back to chasing the survivors with SOF, intel and police. pl

[Jonathan]

San Bernardino Gunwoman Pledged Allegiance to ISIS, Officials Say

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/05/us/tashfeen-malik-islamic-state.html?module=Notification&version=BreakingNews&region=FixedTop&action=Click&contentCollection=BreakingNews&contentID=55400225&pgtype=article

[Fred]

Ken,

you sure seem to have a lot of friends. That's great. Do you have any friends who are actual Canadians? Just curious as you haven't mentioned any.

[Fred]

Farmer Don,

Oh the WAPO said so why bother checking or even reading:
"These numbers are compiled by the moderators of the GunsAreCool subreddit..."