INTERVIEW — DR. SEBASTIAN GORKA — counter-terrorism and irregular warfare expert and author of new book “Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War”
TOPICS:
>> Reflect on 9/11 15 years later
>> Homeland chief worried about “lone wolf” attacks. (Washington Examiner) — The U.S. is better guarded against a coordinated, 9/11 style of terrorist attack, but there are major concerns about more attacks carried out by a single individual, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Sunday. Johnson did a round of the morning talk shows on Sunday, the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City and at the Pentagon. “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd quizzed Johnson over why significant numbers of Americans feel the country is less safe now than it was before Sept. 11, 2001, despite the creation of his own agency since then. A poll last month found 42 percent of respondents felt that way.
“That’s a good question,” Johnson responded. “They see what’s happening overseas, what’s happening in western Europe and they’re really concerned about our security environment.”
Johnson said the U.S. is better prepared to counterattack any efforts by terrorists to carry out a similar attack to 9/11. But what keeps him up at night, he said, is another “lone wolf” style of attack like those recently carried out in San Bernadino and Orlando. “Invariably, the higher probability type of threat is another San Bernadino, another Orlando, is the thing most in our minds,” Johnson said. “[It] keeps me up at night the most.”
>> France says three women arrested in failed attack near Notre Dame Cathedral were radicalized by Islamic State Three women behind a thwarted attack near Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris were radicalized by Islamic State commanders in Syria, and one had been engaged to an extremist who killed a priest in July, the Paris prosecutor said Friday. Francois Molins spoke a day after the women were dramatically arrested over the failed attack that centered on a car discovered Sunday morning in central Paris abandoned and loaded with gas canisters. No detonators were found in the car. “In the last few days and hours a terrorist cell was dismantled, composed of young women totally receptive to the deadly Daesh ideology,” Molins said, referring to Islamic State by its Arabic acronym. The women suspected of spearheading the failed plot included Ines Madani, a 19-year-old whose father owned the abandoned Peugeot car. Her written pledge of allegiance to Islamic State was found by police, a security official said Friday.
>> Teen suspected of plotting ‘imminent’ attack on Paris, report says. Authorities foiled an ISIS-linked attack in Paris on Saturday, arresting a 15-year-old boy suspected of preparing an imminent “violent action,” two judicial sources told Reuters. The boy, who was not identified, had been under house arrest since the coordinated Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people. After that deadly episode, France declared a state of emergency. It was not immediately clear why the teen was under house arrest. The boy was allegedly planning an attack on a public place, a source told Reuters. Another source said that the teen was in contact with a known Islamic extremist, Rashid Kassim. Kassim, a Syrian-based jihadist, is suspected of being behind a plot to attack a Paris train station this week. Authorities thwarted that scheme, however, arresting seven people, including four women.
Angela Merkel’s Problems in Germany Could Challenge Europe, Too
Angela Merkel’s open door migration policy will cost Germany at least £17BILLION this year
The U.K.’s plan to build a border wall is drawing comparisons to Trump.
Kerry just brokered Trump’s plan for Syria (Eli Lake) — On Friday evening, he told the press: “After a period of reduced violence, then we will see the United States and Russia taking coordinated steps to isolate and defeat the terrorist groups that have added immeasurably to Syria’s suffering and misery — and we will facilitate a political transition, which is the only way to bring about a durable end to this war.”
