Acts of Terrorism megathread

[Duque de Bragança]

That's three Sudanese men now arrested, the first an acquaintance from the perpetrator and the third a resident of the same refugee home, according to French media. So no longer a lone wolf attack.

https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/attaque-de-romans-sur-isere-un-troisieme-soudanais-en-garde-a-vue-20200405

[Duque de Bragança]

Back to "normal" ?
Knife attack so ™Religion of Eternal Peace™ most likely.

https://www.france24.com/en/20200621-several-people-killed-in-stabbing-spree-in-reading

British police declare deadly Reading stabbings 'terrorism'




British police said on Sunday they were treating a stabbing spree in which a lone assailant killed three people in a park in the southern English city of Reading as a "terrorism incident".

"Counter Terrorism Policing can now confirm that the stabbing incident that happened in Reading last night (20/6), has now been declared a terrorist incident," Thames Valley Police said in a statement.

The Thames Valley Police force said officers arrested a 25-year-old local man at the scene and they were not looking for anyone else.

"There is no intelligence to suggest that there is any further danger to the public," Detective Chief Superintendent Ian Hunter said earlier on Sunday.

British media had earlier reported that police suspected a terrorist motive and that the man arrested was Libyan. Police did not confirm that or release the suspect's name.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his "thoughts are with all of those affected by the appalling incident in Reading".


Boris Johnson #StayAlert
✔
@BorisJohnson
My thoughts are with all of those affected by the appalling incident in Reading and my thanks to the emergency services on the scene.

The violence erupted around 7pm as families and friends were enjoying a warm, sunny evening in the Forbury Gardens park in Reading, a town of about 200,000 residents 40 miles (64 kilometres) west of London.

Witnesses reported that police cars and helicopters descended on the park. Within minutes police had blocked off several roads, and two air ambulances landed nearby.

Personal trainer Lawrence Wort said the park was full of groups socialising on the grass when "one lone person walked through, suddenly shouted some unintelligible words and went around a large group of around 10, trying to stab them".

"He stabbed three of them, severely in the neck, and under the arms, and then turned and started running towards me, and we turned and started running," Wort said. "When he realised that he couldn't catch us, he tried to stab another group. He got one person in the back of the neck and then when he realised everyone was starting to run, he ran out the park."

Police said that "a number of people were injured and taken to hospital. Tragically, three of these people died, and another three sustained serious injuries".

The Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading said it was treating two casualties from the incident.

The incident came hours after a Black Lives Matter demonstration at Forbury Gardens, but police said there was no connection between the attack and the protest.

Nieema Hassan, one of the organisers of Saturday's protest, said demonstrators had left by the time the violence occurred. In a social media post, she said she was "praying for the people that are affected. I hope they're OK".

Britain's official terrorism threat level stands at "substantial", the middle level on a five-rung scale, meaning an attack is likely.

It had previously stood a notch higher for several years. The country has been hit by a series of violent attacks in recent years, including a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in 2017 that killed 22 people and two deadly vehicle and knife attacks in London the same year.

Airline worker Carlos Garcia Pascual was walking to his home near Forbury Gardens when emergency vehicles and police officers descended. He said it was "chaos" as police yelled at people to leave the area.

"We didn't know if it was a situation like happened in London a few years ago, where the attackers were on the loose," he said. "Forbury Gardens is a peaceful place, a lot of families go there with their kids to play, picnics. To realize that happened in Forbury Gardens is really hard to believe."

(FRANCE 24 with AP and REUTERS)

[Tamas]

Seems like he was a 25 years old Lybian refugee out from prison on probation (non-terrorism). Was under close supervision due to severe mental health issues.

Although I guess the three dead would dispute the efficiency of that supervision.

[Josquius]

Sounds like a similar profile to a lot of the German attacks. Frustrated unwell refugees decide they may as well go out in the name of extremism.

[Tamas]

Sounds like a similar profile to a lot of the German attacks. Frustrated unwell refugees decide they may as well go out in the name of extremism.

Does seem like the Muslim version of suicide by cop.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I'm never particularly comfortable with referring to these attacks by a single person with a history of violence and serious mental health and addiction issues as terrorism. It always seems to slightly glamourise it to me. I'm not saying you need a grand network and a mastermind behind it all. But it feels like you should need more than this in a weird way. I always feel these cases should be treated more like school shootings than terrorism.

[Tamas]

Yeah I'm never particularly comfortable with referring to these attacks by a single person with a history of violence and serious mental health and addiction issues as terrorism. It always seems to slightly glamourise it to me. I'm not saying you need a grand network and a mastermind behind it all. But it feels like you should need more than this in a weird way. I always feel these cases should be treated more like school shootings than terrorism.

It would be if they were white.


On the other hand, its a hard border to establish, because if the insane person's reasoning is religious, i.e. that it is ok and indeed beneficial for him afterlife-wise to kill people not of his religion, then it is kind of terrorism.

[grumbler]

What distinguishes terrorism from other kinds of violence, IMO, is:
1.  The victims of the terrorist act are not the targets of the act, and
2. There is a political motive (whether normal politics, religious politics, gang politics, etc).

Random violent people suffering from religious delusions are not terrorists, they are just random violent people suffering from religious delusions.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah and this guy's had, I believe, 10 convictions in the past 5 years including for assault, racially aggravated crimes and knife crimes (from what I've read I think he even assaulted a judge in a hearing at one point). Given all of that, I'm not sure he should have been on the streets and he was literally homeless. He also has serious mental health issues including PTSD, but also has addiction problems.

He's been sectioned now - which is not normal in terrorist incidents - and I think he probably should have been in some form of mental health institution a long time ago

[Duque de Bragança]

Knife attack in Paris near the former Charlie Hebdo office. In time before the second wave/lockdown? 

https://www.france24.com/en/20200925-four-injured-in-knife-attack-outside-charlie-hebdo-s-former-office-in-paris-suspects-at-large

Suspect arrested after knife attack outside Charlie Hebdo's former office in Paris

Issued on: 25/09/2020 - 12:53


At least two people were wounded in a knife attack Friday near the former offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, police said Friday. A suspect has been arrested.


Two victims were in a critical condition, the Paris police department said.

Police said one suspect had been detained after the attack, which occurred as the trial was underway for the alleged accomplices of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack.

A Paris police official said that while authorities initially thought two attackers were involved, they now believe it was only one person, who was detained near the Place de la Bastille in eastern Paris.

Police initially announced that four people were wounded in the attack, but the official told The Associated Press that there are in fact only two confirmed wounded. Police could not explain the discrepancies.

"A serious event has taken place in Paris," said Prime Minister Jean Castex, who was addressing reporters when the attack occured and cut short a visit to northern Paris to head instead to the crisis centre of the interior ministry.

"Four people have been wounded and it seems that two are in a serious condition," he said at that time.

The prime minister added the attack had taken place "in front of" the weekly's former offices in the 11th district of central Paris. The magazine's current address is kept secret for security reasons.

Intervention de police en cours secteur Richard Lenoir à #Paris11.
Évitez le secteur.

— Préfecture de Police (@prefpolice) September 25, 2020
The stabbing came as a trial was underway in the capital for alleged accomplices of the authors of the January 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo.

Twelve people, including some of France's most celebrated cartoonists, were killed in the attack by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi and claimed by a branch of Al Qaeda.

A female police officer was killed a day later, followed the next day by the killing of four men in a hostage-taking at a Jewish supermarket by gunman Amedy Coulibaly.

The 14 defendants stand accused of having aided and abetted the perpetrators of the 2015 attacks, who were themselves killed in the wake of the massacres.

The magazine, defiant as ever, had marked the start of the trial by republishing hugely controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that had angered Muslims around the world.

Al-Qaeda then threatened Charlie Hebdo with a repeat of the 2015 massacre of its staff.

The trial in Paris had resumed Friday after a suspect's coronavirus test came back negative.

The hearing for the fourteen suspects, which opened on September 2, was postponed Thursday after Nezar Mickael Pastor Alwatik fell ill in the stand.

His lawyer Marie Dose said her client had suffered from "a lot of fever, coughing, vomiting and headaches".

He was back in the box on Friday, after the presiding judge informed defence and prosecution lawyers by SMS late Thursday that the test results allowed for the trial to go ahead.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

[Crazy_Ivan80]

probably nothing to do at all with the religion of peace and tolerace. just like those women who apparently received a beating in Mulhouse and Strassbourg because their skirts were too short.

[Duque de Bragança]

probably nothing to do at all with the religion of peace and tolerace. just like those women who apparently received a beating in Mulhouse and Strassbourg because their skirts were too short.

™Religion of ETERNAL peace™ as per Charlie Hebdo   
More lax law enforcement and immigration at the cause.

More info on the background of the perpetrator
https://www.france24.com/en/20200926-suspect-in-paris-knife-attack-was-unkown-for-radicalisation

Suspect in Paris knife attack was not on police radar

Issued on: 26/09/2020 - 09:51

Two people were injured in a knife attack outside satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo's former offices in Paris on September 25, 2020 © Gonzalo Fuentes, REUTERS


The primary suspect in Friday's knife attack outside the former Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was not on police radar – despite a recent arrest for carrying a weapon.[/b][/size]


The suspected assailant was arrested in June, but had not been previously flagged for possible religious radicalisation, according to the interior ministry.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that the 18-year-old suspect arrived in France three years ago as an unaccompanied minor, apparently from Pakistan, but that his identity was still being verified.

Two people were wounded in the attack outside Charlie Hebdo's former offices, in Paris's eastern 11th arrondissement (district). The suspect, his face speckled with blood, was arrested by police on the steps of the Bastille Opera House, not far from the scene.

Witnesses described seeing the assailant striking the victims with a large meat cleaver, which was later found near the site of the attack. Sources have since confirmed that the main suspect has confessed to the stabbings.

"{He} takes responsibility for his action which he places in the context of the republication of cartoons" of the Prophet Mohammed in Charlie Hebdo, one of the sources said.

France's PNAT specialist anti-terror prosecution office said it has opened a probe into charges of "attempted murder related to a terrorist enterprise" as well as "conspiracy with terrorists".

Seven people including the main suspect were being held for questioning in connection with the attack, which Darmanin said was "clearly an act of Islamist terrorism".

"This is a new bloody attack on our country," Darmanin told France 2 television.

'Odious attack'

Prime Minister Jean Castex, visiting the scene, said the lives of the two victims "are not in danger, thank God".

The Premieres Lignes news production agency said the wounded were its employees – a man and a woman taking a cigarette break outside.

"They were both very badly wounded," the founder and co-head of Premieres Lignes, Paul Moreira, told AFP.

Another employee, who asked not to be named, said he heard screams.

"I went to the window and saw a colleague, bloodied, being chased by a man with a machete."

The company specialises in investigative reports and produces the prize-winning Cash Investigation programme.

In a Twitter post, Charlie Hebdo expressed its support for "the people affected by this odious attack".

They were victims of "fanaticism" and "intolerance", Charlie Hebdo said, calling the main suspect and his possible accomplice "terrorists".

'Underestimated the threat'

The stabbing came three weeks into the trial of suspected accomplices in the 2015 massacre of Charlie Hebdo's staff, which was claimed by a branch of al Qaeda.

The newspaper has angered many Muslims around the world by publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed over the years, and in a defiant gesture reprinted some of the caricatures ahead of the trial.

Twelve people, including some of France's most celebrated cartoonists, were killed in the attack on Charlie Hebdo by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, on January 7, 2015.         

A female police officer was killed a day later, followed the next day by the killing of four men in a hostage-taking at a Jewish supermarket by gunman Amedy Coulibaly.

The trial has reopened one of the most painful chapters in France's modern history, with harrowing testimony from survivors and relatives of those who died.

The magazine received fresh threats from al Qaeda this month after it republished the controversial cartoons.

More than 100 French news outlets on Wednesday called for continuing support for Charlie Hebdo against what they described as the "enemies of freedom".

Just this week, police relocated the paper's head of human resources, Marika Bret, from her home following death threats.

Darmanin said he had asked the Paris police chief "why we underestimated the threat" in the street next to Charlie Hebdo's former offices.

The co-head of Premieres Lignes, Luc Hermann, told BFMTV that since the start of the trial "there has been absolutely no security for this street and symbolic building".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP)

[Eddie Teach]

Je suis Charlie. 

[Duque de Bragança]

More info about the perpetrator:

Paris knife attack suspect wanted to set Charlie Hebdo offices on fire


A man who injured two people in a knife attack outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week admitted that he wanted to set its offices on fire, the lead prosecutor in the case said Tuesday. The suspect also said he lied to police about his age, later confessed to being 25 years old.


Prosecutor Jean-François Ricard told a news conference the suspect carried three bottles of the flammable paint thinner White Spirit, which he was going to use to set Charlie Hebdo's former offices on fire in an act of revenge against the satirical newspaper, which republished cartoons picturing the Prophet Mohammed on September 2.

Ricard also said the man had operated under a false identity and that a photo of his passport on his phone showed that he was 25 years old, not 18 as he first said. 

The assailant in the attack, which the French government has called an act of "Islamist terrorism", had originally identified himself as Hassan A., an 18-year-old born in the Pakistani town of Mandi Bahauddin.

He entered France in 2018 under a false identity that gave him access to social security aid for minors, Ricard told a news conference.

After Friday's attack, investigators became suspicious about his claims when they found a photo of an identity document on his phone that appeared to suggest his name was Zaheer Hassan Mehmood, age 25.

"He eventually admitted that this was his true identity and that he was 25 years old," Ricard said.

It was under that identity that he appeared in a video filmed before the attack in which he said he was avenging the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed by the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

The magazine was the scene of a massacre by Islamist gunmen in January 2015, and the trial of 14 alleged accomplices in that attack is currently under way in Paris.

The attacker seriously injured two employees of a TV production agency, whose offices are on the same block that used to house Charlie Hebdo. They are now in stable condition, officials said.

He told investigators he thought he was targeting employees of Charlie Hebdo but did not realise the weekly had since moved to a new location that is kept secret because of security risks.

Ricard said the attacker had never attracted the attention of any government intelligence agency before Friday's assault.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)

https://www.france24.com/en/20200929-paris-knife-attack-suspect-wanted-to-set-former-charlie-hebdo-offices-on-fire

[The Brain]

Is it legal to lie to the police about your identity?