Slashdot Mirror
Islamic State Claims Responsibility for Paris Attacks; Death Toll At 127
The L.A. Times reports that Islamic State, the group variously known as ISIL, ISIS, and Daesh, has claimed responsibility for the multi-pronged terror attack yesterday in Paris which left at least 128 people dead, most of them from among the audience of a rock concert at the Bataclan theater, in the heart of the city. Details of how Friday’s assaults were carried out remained hazy. It was still unclear, for example, whether the restaurants and concert theater were attacked by two separate teams of militants or one group that went from one place to another. ...
Attackers opened fire on the crowd with automatic weapons, shouting “God is great!” or blaming France for airstrikes on Islamic State in Syria, according to some reports. Dozens of concert-goers were killed before French forces stormed the theater.
Many Parisians posted appeals and photos on social media asking for news of friends or loved ones whom they had not heard from since the attacks. One man said on Twitter that a government hotline set up to inquire about missing persons was so overloaded that calls could not get through.
In the wake of the attacks and with an overloaded public infrastructure, Facebook activated its post-disaster check-in tool for Parisians to notify loved ones that they are safe. According to Reuters, French President Francois Hollande has vowed to undertake a "mercliess" response to the attacks.
Things like this would not happen. I mean if we ban guns we will not have gun violence. If we ban poverty, we can get rid of poverty. If we would ban murder, we could get away from things like this happening. One thing is for certain though is that this is the fault of evil old white balding male republicans, who are to blame for everything untoward that happens in the world. If only evil white male rebuplicans had not prevented France from enacting their anti murder laws like they wanted to do a few years ago, no one would have died in this Paris catastrophe. But for the greed of old white men, who wanted to continue to profit off of murder, would all be living harmoniously together and driving around in bentlys.
Regardless, they are called "terrorists" because their strategy is not to defeat through superior military power, but to instill terror into the populace.
Terrorist is a pejorative term applied to them by the targets of the violence. They don't call themselves that. You can't determine their strategy with insults.
There were strong warnings in advance of the 9/11 attack, which the Bush/Cheney administration chose to ignore. (Could it be because they needed a "Pearl Harbor" event to catalyze the "New American Century" vision from PNAC?)
They then ignored the reality that Iraq had NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11, and lied their way to get us into Iraq (in accordance with the "New American Century")
It didn't work, because the full might of the country couldn't actually be used (being based on a lie, and not having full support)
This broke Iraq, and gave rise to ISIS, killing or displacing millions along the way.
My heart goes out to the victims in Paris, and the millions of others our nation has displaced, maimed, or killed in the service of our empire.