After the horrible attacks in Paris and the subsequent raids by the national police….there seems to be a massive amount of misinformation….so bad that some media sources are making up their own headlines….confusion seems to be the only constant in this whole incident.
But most of this is today’s news…..I would like to drop back to last week before the Paris attacks…..
It appears that France has the same problem that Washington had before 9/11……that being that there was info coming in that something was about to happen and the government decided that it was unreliable and ignored it…..and BAM!
It is being reported that France was told by Arab intel sources that there would be an attack……
As ISIS continues to grow in the Middle East, those nations in the vicinity have been watching close, and gathering large amounts of intelligence on them. Yet when ISIS looks to attack Western nations like France, advance warnings from the Arab nations appear to go unheeded.
Both Iraq and Saudi Arabia reportedly provided France with warnings ahead of the Friday ISIS attacks, and a lot of other Arab nations seem to be awash in intelligence that Western nations treat with automatic suspicion.
Officials also complain that those nations haven’t always been a forthcoming with intelligence as the US and others would’ve hoped in the past, though it seems that’s a poor excuse for spurning their intelligence now that it’s on offer.
I know that hindsight is 20/20…….but maybe we should start putting a little more faith in the intel that is offered…..and maybe we could avoid some of the bloodshed.
As I was about to publish this post news has come out that should make some happy…….
He’s dead: Authorities in Paris today said the man believed to have orchestrated the terror attacks in the City of Lights was killed in Wednesday’s police raid, reports the AP. The fate of Abdelhamid Abaaoud had been unclear as authorities tried to identify the remains of two people killed during the raid in the suburb of Saint Denis, but the city prosecutor said today that Abaaoud had been identified through skin samples. A woman blew herself up at the start of the raid, and the 28-year-old Abaaoud apparently was killed in that explosion. The woman who died may be Abaaoud’s cousin, who had been wiretapped by security agencies, reports CNN.
The head of a special forces unit, speaking to Le Figaro, explained why the bodies weren’t easy to identify, the AP reports. He says that when officers entered the building, one of the bodies fell from the third floor to the second floor. “The corpse was mutilated, probably from grenades, and he wasn’t recognizable,” he says. “Other people were in the stairwell, two men hiding under blankets and whatever they could find. We arrested them.” Prior to the raid, Abaaoud was believed to have been in Syria, notes Reuters, but intelligence revealed that he had slipped back into France undetected. At a Wednesday press conference, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the terror cell had been preparing to carry out a fresh attack. Five police officers were injured during the operation and a police dog was killed. (Abaaoud’s own family may be celebrating news of his death.)
One down….thousands to go!