Terror attack in Barcelona

[Darkpriest]

I hope all of your friends and family is safe... really disgusting stuff.

 

Currently at least 13 confirmed dead and many more wounded. Reports are that they have one of the terrorists locked on, but he got hostages in a restaurant

Edited August 17, 2017 by Darkpriest

[Labadal]

The worst thing is that there's basically nothing that can be done to stop stuff like this happening,

[HoonDing]

I guess it's a Muslim? Since Trump tweeted immediately.

[Raithe]

I don't think anyone knows for certain.

 

A van zigzags and plows through pedestrians, then the driver escapes on foot. There are some mixed reports that a man originally from North Africa has been arrested.

[Malcador]

I guess it's a Muslim? Since Trump tweeted immediately.

Aren't we still waiting for facts?

[smjjames]

I guess it's a Muslim? Since Trump tweeted immediately.

 

Now he needs to condemn the one in Charlottesville.

 

As for who the suspects are, yeah, they say they have one in custody and another is on the run, possibly hiding in a bar or something, but identity hasn't been released yet.

 

edit: Actually, police have released a photo of the suspect, who was born in morocco: http://www.bbc.com/news/live/40966524 Still too early to assume much though.

Edited August 17, 2017 by smjjames

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I think we can agree both sides are at fault here.

[smjjames]

I think we can agree both sides are at fault here.

 

Depending on which 'sides' you mean, heh.

 

Also, BBC live says that one suspect has been killed in a shootout. Again, very little information atm.

[Volourn]

"Now he needs to condemn the one in Charlottesville."

 

That's funny. He did that. THREE TIMES.

 

LMAO

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I guess it's a Muslim? Since Trump tweeted immediately.

So much for carefully waiting for all the facts...

I guess he only waffles and waits when it's an attack by a white, right-wing, American male.

Edited August 17, 2017 by Deadly_Nightshade

[rjshae]

In the end, Terrorists just spread hate.

 

Peace and happiness, everybody.

[Darkpriest]

Apparently there as an attempt for another terror attack, but Police managed to react and kill the terrorists in Cambrils before they could launch their attack

[Malcador]

And now an attack in Finland.

[smjjames]

edit: Showed up on BBC pretty quick. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40978446

Edited August 18, 2017 by smjjames

[injurai]

This past week has been an intense look at what beliefs and ideas can do to warp people.

[Chilloutman]

this week? xD

[Malcador]

Well an intense look. Every day is a look, just degrees change.

[Darkpriest]

There was also some random knife attack in Dusseldorf, Germany - still not sure if terrorist driven or not (1 dead, and few injured)

Edited August 18, 2017 by Darkpriest

[injurai]

Yeah, intense like a microcosmic look.

[HoonDing]

WOW, seems the Spanish cop who shot 4 terrorists dipped his bullets in pig's blood beforehand.

[Chilloutman]

what? xD

[Darkpriest]

I think he was making some joke in relation to Trump's reference to a fake fact on Gen. Pershing (or whatever the name was)

[HoonDing]

WOW, apparently the cop was a woman too. Meaning no 70 virgins for the jihadis.

[smjjames]

Looks like the animosity between Spanish and Catalan officials (and general animosity between the two) may have contributed to the Spanish terror cell not being caught earlier. Not saying that it was THE reason why, but as we've seen in other cases in Europe (Belgium comes to mind) where authorities weren't really cooperating with each other as far as intel goes, the lack of cooperation between authorities can definetly cause problems.

[Agiel]

Barcelona reminds us there is no 'end' to terrorism

by Tom Nichols

 

Spain has suffered its worst terror attack in over a decade, and as usual, too many Americans are rushing to draw the wrong conclusions from another European tragedy. There were immediate comparisons in the media with the incident days earlier in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which a white supremacist plowed into a crowd, despite the fact that car attacks have been used by European terrorists for years. For his part, President Trump, after sending a tweet in which he offered his condolences, sent his usual admonitions about stopping Islamic terrorism by “whatever means necessary” and castigated Democrats and judges for refusing to “give us back our protective rights” (whatever that means).

 

The Barcelona horror, however, should not be a call to imaginary arms, but a sobering reminder of the limits democracies face when trying to prevent terrorist attacks. Americans should remind themselves of three realities in the wake of the Barcelona attack. First, no matter what sort of muscular rhetoric Trump or other leaders deploy, there is no way to eliminate these kinds of low-technology terror attacks. Good police and intelligence work can prevent some of them, and inventive barriers can shift their location. But Western societies are open societies, and short of turning ourselves into prison camps — which our enemies would gladly see us do — there is no way to stop someone from driving a car into other human beings or stabbing people at will.

 

The reality is that terrorist organizations like ISIS have shifted away from lavish Al Qaeda style operations like 9/11 or the synchronized bombing of multiple passenger aircraft precisely because they are so difficult. The results are spectacular, but these kinds of assaults require a great deal of planning, investment, time — and at least a modicum of skill among the terrorists. The Barcelona attack, by comparison, required a 17-year-old and a van. (The terrorists in Spain also intended to include explosives in the plan, but some of their comrades accidentally blew themselves up, testimony to their ability to inflict heavy casualties by more ordinary means, despite their incompetence.)

 

 

Second, we live in a globalized world where the movement of people is now less important than the movement of ideas. At least two of the Barcelona terrorists were Spanish citizens, which is line with similar attacks carried out by native-born citizens in the United States and Europe. Stopping jihadis at the border is a comforting thought, but it’s not much of a solution when young men who are already citizens of Western nations by birth can self-radicalize by spending enough time on the internet or making short trips to other countries.

 

Finally, we need to stop lumping all forms of public violence under the blanket term of “terrorism.” Comparisons to Charlottesville or other attacks by individual men with a history of violence and instability (such as the mayhem created by sniper Micah Johnson in Dallas, would-be assassin James Hodgkinson in Alexandria, and mass killer Omar Mateen in Orlando) are pointless. Barcelona and other terror attacks are the handiwork of networked conspirators engaged in ongoing operations against civilians and their governments.

 

Of course, these networks seek out lonely and isolated men, a fishing expedition at which ISIS in particular has become especially adept. And we must investigate why these alienated young men kill, often in horrific attacks against their schools or their communities. But not all mass killers are terrorists, and if we default to the methods of counterterrorism to deal with people better understood as deranged losers, we will overreact and spread ourselves so thin that we will needlessly place ourselves in more danger from actual terrorist networks.

 

Terrorism is a method, and extremists fighting an asymmetrical war against the far greater capacity of governments will never stop using it. There is no “end” or solution to this problem. Struggles with such groups will always be a protracted conflict requiring fortitude and realistic expectations about our own security in a free society. The sooner we realize this, the sooner we will stop searching for a sudden and magical victory, and the more wisely we will husband our resources for what is inevitably a long and grinding fight.

 

Call it cold, calculating mathematical logic, but I really only see this as a continuation of attacks on civil society conducted by aimless losers that date back for at least two centuries (within living memory in Europe includes the Red Brigade of Italy kidnapping and executing a Prime Minister, the Baader-Meinhof Gang robbing banks, taking airliners hostage, and bombing airbases, and the IRA dropping time bombs into London dustbins).

Edited August 20, 2017 by Agiel