ISIS

[Rudolf Zlabinger]

From these murderers no dog takes even a bone no longer, as they are excluded even from Al Quaida and from the whole Islamic world thanks partially to OBAMA.

Their Kalifs have loosed their subservants and their dogsbodies around the world, they had used to threaten everybody wherever in the goddamm world he lives. They are only ridicule fools anymore.

They are as good as dead, and I wish them a painful and long dying everybody and I extremely warn all their fellow travellers, they could be lynched on open street, beheading is a good revenge, but you must first learn to be a good beheader.

The worldwide threat of ISIS is over now forever, without a drop of blood from us and also from you Americancs with the exception of the poor hostages dying a cruel death indeed. Although we all should take a wonderful gasp of relief of that.

The rest is simple, they are slaughtered by the Arabic world, not bothering about any "Genfer Convention",  including the whole peninsula, the Iran and the Turky, Assad, and our heroes, the Peshmergas all allied to Iraq, with the help of American and British bombs and modern weapons from everywhere.

But there are in addition to worldwide problems to solve a lot, before all the poverty and the dying first the children everywhere, where terrorism has is roots, but look at my recent contribution before, and if you want to read more serious texts from me, try to read Africas´s redemption in the board. Lets a kind of modern Neocolonialism be the solution. 

[SciFiAuthor]

it certainly isn't obvious to me.  ISIS has no air force and no navy.  if they did, those assets would be extremely easy (and extremely specific) targets for the united states military to destroy if necessary.  they are not a credible threat to the united states, and i've heard nobody make a case to explain how they are.  sure, they could come over here and blow things up, but as i said before, we can mitigate that risk by  1) enforcing our borders and 2) being more selective about who gets a visa.  there's no such thing as a foreign military adventure at a "reasonable" price tag.  each tomahawk missile costs $1,410,000.  think how many border guards could be employed with the money spent on that single missile.  think how many unmanned drones could patrol the border at the cost of ten tomahawk missiles.  it's just not making sense to me.  if ISIS is a threat to the united states, i'm certainly willing to be schooled, but i've not seen a single person make the case.  yeah, sure, i'd like to see those beheading butchers die a slow, painful death.  i understand revenge.  however, there's also the side of the coin that says, "if you don't want to get your head cut off slowly with a butter knife, stay the hell out of there."  i think this hard and heavy clamoring for military action really ratcheted up when the beheading videos started hitting youtube, and i don't think that's a case for war.  that's a case for westerners not going where they're not wanted.

I'm certainly sensitive to the border point, I agree, fortify the hell out of it and stay out of as many conflicts as we can. But ISIS is different. They don't want peace with us and they don't want to leave us alone. They're sufficiently screwy ideologically that they'll just eventually pick a fight much like the Japanese or the Nazis did. They are a belligerent organized ideology, rather than a reactionary one like most terrorist organizations.

And we have a vulnerability; all ISIS really needs to do to put us in trouble is to start capturing more oil fields and shutting them down. Right now they're selling the oil because they want the cash, but when they get enough cash, they could start screwing with oil prices and which would damage the hell out of the world economy by taking Iraqi oil offline (or more, who knows how far they could have conquered without intervention. I doubt Saudi or Jordan would fare any better than Syria, destabilize them and everything goes tribal and fucked up like Syria did). So it basically comes down to a preemptive war now, or a much bigger oil war later. Sad, I know, but oil is what keeps us all from starving.

[Yorkshire pud]

It's a shame the mainstream media and institutions of higher education not only permit but encourage the level of ignorance achieved by the left in the US. Their close minded hatred makes their opinions not only irrelevent but dangerous to the well being of the world. Educating the ignorant left is a job that never ends.

Oh where to start? You don't know what the 'left' is, let alone be critical enough to realise that in this thread it's the 'right' who bask in willful ignorance, because they can't bring themselves to accept their poster boy for overseas adventures, did it with selective and fabricated evidence, presented to congress and the UN, aided and abhetted by Tony Blair. Blind hatred? Do tell.

[Yorkshire pud]

I've never heard anyone deny that Saddam had WMD programs in the 80s and 90s, but what we have learned is that none of these programs were still in effect by the time Bush was trying to find an excuse to go to war with Iraq.

The difference is that in 1998 Iraq wasn't complying with UN resolutions but by 2003 they were.

Yeah but if GD knew that, he couldn't try and develop a laughably weak argument that has the cut and paste rant about 'the left'. That catch all phrase that is anyone he thinks will disagree with his ignorant bollox.

[PB the Deplorable]

... You don't know what the 'left' is...

Actually, you are the only person I've ever come across who can't place most well known historical political figures in the correct Left/Right category.  Do you really think Karl Marx sat at a desk all day for decades simply developing an argument on behalf of collective farms and little else?

Your insistence that Che and Fidel and Mao and Stalin and Pol Pot and the rest were not communists is no different from Obama telling us the Islamic State is not Islamic.

I'm starting to wonder if the National Organization of Women are women (actually, you may be onto something - I've wondered that for awhile). 

... they can't bring themselves to accept their poster boy for overseas adventures, did it with selective and fabricated evidence...

Do you have anything other than selective and fabricated evidence to prove Bush was actually lying?

[Catsmile]

I've never heard anyone deny that Saddam had WMD programs in the 80s and 90s, but what we have learned is that none of these programs were still in effect by the time Bush was trying to find an excuse to go to war with Iraq.

The difference is that in 1998 Iraq wasn't complying with UN resolutions but by 2003 they were.

Schooled in 2 sentences.
Thanks for trying to "educate the ignorant."
What he posted was such mindlessness it didn't even merit a reply in my book.
Like ignoring others children in public when they babble nonsense.
Next he might try to impress us with his superior intellect by counting to potato.   

Nice of you taking your time replying to spin, it implies you think they want a conversation.
Really it's just parroting a monolog, spinning a narrative, bolstering their beliefs. 

[Yorkshire pud]

Actually, you are the only person I've ever come across who can't place most well known historical political figures in the correct Left/Right category.  Do you really think Karl Marx sat at a desk all day for decades simply developing an argument on behalf of collective farms and little else?

Obama is left? Really? Ask the corporations in Wall Street and the London stock exchange, and drop in to poll the Nikei stockbrokers to see if they think the same! The pound got jittery before the last weekend simply because the 'Yes' vote poll in Scotland was drawing level with the 'No's' in the independence vote. 11bn quids negative worth jittery! You think if there was a wiff Obama was going all Commie or IS Wall street wouldn't cause the imminent and catastrophic collapse of the US economy?

Your insistence that Che and Fidel and Mao and Stalin and Pol Pot and the rest were not communists is no different from Obama telling us the Islamic State is not Islamic.

I'm starting to wonder if the National Organization of Women are women (actually, you may be onto something - I've wondered that for awhile). 


Do you have anything other than selective and fabricated evidence to prove Bush was actually lying?

Sure. Where were the WMD's that weren't found that Colin Powell showed 'photos' of in the UN? The yellow cake that never was?. The anthrax? The 45minute attack time Tony Blair presented that swayed the unsure MP's in Parliament? Even the head of the CIA referred to it as 'That 45 minute shit'. More?

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

Actually, you are the only person I've ever come across who can't place most well known historical political figures in the correct Left/Right category.  Do you really think Karl Marx sat at a desk all day for decades simply developing an argument on behalf of collective farms and little else?

Your insistence that Che and Fidel and Mao and Stalin and Pol Pot and the rest were not communists is no different from Obama telling us the Islamic State is not Islamic.

I'm starting to wonder if the National Organization of Women are women (actually, you may be onto something - I've wondered that for awhile). 

You forgot Bill Ayers.

[Rudolf Zlabinger]

Dear SciFiAuthor,

its over, belief me, they soon can not move even a finger, because they are dead, and there helps them neither money nor oil. A strong community, as ISLAM has also the power to cleanup itself.

all will be to the best soon, Rudolf.

[MR. Spock]

Beheading by ISIS is a sign that ISIS members are a group of "pussies".

[pate]

..blah..blah..blah..
So, we get to the point.  You, Little Hater, like Sci-Fi Author, Unquenchable Angst, Pate, Paladin 1991, and a few others I can't remember, have presented yourselves initially as "not having a dog in the fight" yet do not hesitate to conclude (like Jazmunda did, out of the blue) that it's only the lefties that do the slinging around here. Or that I am the original sinner...blah...blah...blah  Pp92  ...blah...blah..

Wow, I am honored to be in such esteemed company. 

I don't recall ever presenting myself as "not having a dog in the fight" I do recall that a few months back I responded to one of your posts (where you weren't calling Quick Karl names) and said that at best you had an ignorance of geography and at worst you had an ignorance of what you were talking about.

I have no doubt I have drunkenly typed something insulting to you, if it caused butt-hurt, let me be the first to apologize to you!

I consider myself a conservative, but not a Pat Robertson Conservative.  IF you understand that.  I like some others considered the second Gulf War to be a mistake, as I recall I considered it a mistake in the First not to drive on into Bagdhad and get Saddam at that time.  I figured the second go around would end up being a Vietnam 2 in some respects, we would eventually tire of the left bleating about unfair war or whatever and pull out, at which point the area would promptly fall back into being the problem that it was before we got involved.

Jesus, here I am with the ...blah...blah...blah...

Nevermind.  Exiting the region with no troops on a postage stamp base flying the American flag as a sort of monument to our blood and treasure spent is what I mean by a Vietnam 2.  I fully expect the same result in Afghanistan btw.  THAT pisses me off.  Just like we did in Vietnam, almost on the same time-line.

I blame the left, democrats, and communists for Vietnam, and all the Vietnam 2, 3, 4 etc adnauseum...    Blech, I am tired of typing, but I am enjoying the shadenfreude (sp) of reading these merged threads... it was quite rewarding... Thanks!

PEACE!

[FightTheFuture]

it certainly isn't obvious to me.  ISIS has no air force and no navy.  if they did, those assets would be extremely easy (and extremely specific) targets for the united states military to destroy if necessary.  they are not a credible threat to the united states, and i've heard nobody make a case to explain how they are.  sure, they could come over here and blow things up, but as i said before, we can mitigate that risk by  1) enforcing our borders and 2) being more selective about who gets a visa.  there's no such thing as a foreign military adventure at a "reasonable" price tag.  each tomahawk missile costs $1,410,000.  think how many border guards could be employed with the money spent on that single missile.  think how many unmanned drones could patrol the border at the cost of ten tomahawk missiles.  it's just not making sense to me.  if ISIS is a threat to the united states, i'm certainly willing to be schooled, but i've not seen a single person make the case.  yeah, sure, i'd like to see those beheading butchers die a slow, painful death.  i understand revenge.  however, there's also the side of the coin that says, "if you don't want to get your head cut off slowly with a butter knife, stay the hell out of there."  i think this hard and heavy clamoring for military action really ratcheted up when the beheading videos started hitting youtube, and i don't think that's a case for war.  that's a case for westerners not going where they're not wanted.

Al Qaeda did not have an Air Force or a Navy, but they struck a pretty serious blow to this country, but more importantly, they forever changed the way we view the world around us. The reason al Qaeda was able to do what they did, was because they were permitted a safe environment to grow, recruit, train, and plot attacks against the West.

We have tried Fortress America in the past, and It simply does not work. We MUST stay engaged. Perhaps someday it may be that we don't have to be all over the world, constantly vigilant, ready to strike, but that is not our reality now. Look at it this way; is it better to learn early of a developing threat, or let it grow and metastasize and then learn about it after the attack?

I'm not advocating constant, never ending, full-scale warfare. Of COURSE that is unsustainable and impractical. I am talking about increasing our human intelligence gathering assets around the world. Working with other governments and their intelligence gathering services in order to always be able to identify a threat in its infant stages -- when a couple of well place drone attacks or a special operations team can extinguish the threat, and not 3 battle groups and the 3rd Infantry Division and 82nd airborne.or wide scale invasion.


I'm telling you right now, if we don't obliterate this Isis threat, they will be here. They will strike fear in the heart of this country. You can scrutinize visas, try to secure the border -- which is impossible anyway --  but I can promise you, they will come. They will be here, and they will do things that you could never imagine in your darkest nightmares. And they won't come looking like Sheikh Abdul Rahman, they will come looking like a fresh faced, smiling college student from Saudi Arabia here to study mathematics or agriculture. And when enough of those freshly scrubbed, clean shaven college students gather, and go out and cut the heads off of every child in every child care in the city, people will again ask, "why didn't we know this was coming??", "Why couldn't we do something??"

[PB the Deplorable]

... Sure. Where were the WMD's that weren't found that Colin Powell showed 'photos' of in the UN? The yellow cake that never was?. The anthrax? The 45minute attack time Tony Blair presented that swayed the unsure MP's in Parliament? Even the head of the CIA referred to it as 'That 45 minute shit'. More?

Yes. 

Where is the part about George Bush knowing at the time that everything he and everyone else had been told was wrong? 

Are the US President and the UK PM really supposed to chuck all the intel from our sources, from our allies, and even from countries we aren't close to, and listen to a handful of people he's never heard of?  Is there evidence he even knew of them and their story even reached his desk? 

[Juan]

This left-right argument is silly.  They are all authoritarian and looking to loot us all in favor of their buddies.
As for Saddam, he had violated 19 UN resolutions.  Back then, that meant something, though no one seems to pay the UN any attention now.

[Yorkshire pud]

Yes. 

Where is the part about George Bush knowing at the time that everything he and everyone else had been told was wrong? 

Are the US President and the UK PM really supposed to chuck all the intel from our sources, from our allies, and even from countries we aren't close to, and listen to a handful of people he's never heard of?  Is there evidence he even knew of them and their story even reached his desk?

That's the point; it was the handful of people no-one had heard of that was the basis of the declared intelligence used to go to war with Iraq. This despite that this information had been well and truly uncorroborated at best or debunked as false. In short, the information that was presented to the UN, Congress and Parliament was not the truth, or skewed to fit.

The mobile chemical plants on trucks? Made up by a wannabee asylum seeker who happened to be a chemical engineer. The German IA spent 18 months trying to establish his story to be true, but after investigating (using of all things US spy satellite photos) they found his story was impossible. It couldn't happen. They told the CIA and MI5, and the head honchos confirmed it. It didn't however fit the policy that Bush's puppet masters wanted to hear and it didn't justify attacking Iraq. Easy solution; use bits of the story that are plausible, ignore the bits that show it's not possible and dress it up as fact. The best lies are based on fact, they're easier to sell.

[Yorkshire pud]

This left-right argument is silly.  They are all authoritarian and looking to loot us all in favor of their buddies.
As for Saddam, he had violated 19 UN resolutions.  Back then, that meant something, though no one seems to pay the UN any attention now.

Israel has violated International law and UN resolutions for years; when are they going to be attacked by NATO? Saudi Arabia has a terrible human rights record, when will they be attacked?

[FightTheFuture]

Israel has violated International law and UN resolutions for years; when are they going to be attacked by NATO? Saudi Arabia has a terrible human rights record, when will they be attacked?

Exactly. Which goes to my argument that the UN is a complete farce. We should evict them immediately  after permanently  withdrawing.

[bateman]

Hello mission creep! Nice to see you again.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/world/middleeast/isis-airstrikes-united-states-coalition.html?_r=0&referrer=

[FightTheFuture]

Hello mission creep! Nice to see you again.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/world/middleeast/isis-airstrikes-united-states-coalition.html?_r=0&referrer=

It needs to forego the creep and start sprinting. We should have had 10-15k troops on the ground a month ago. IMHO.

[Uncle Duke]

It needs to forego the creep and start sprinting. We should have had 10-15k troops on the ground a month ago. IMHO.

Don't know about the number, but it will take properly supported, professional ground forces to destroy IS.  Up to this point IS has fought as a conventional force, not an insurgency.  A lightly armed but highly mobile force backed by unchallenged airpower could act as the hammer to drive them to an anvil, like the Turkish border.

[albrecht]

So they shot down a Syrian aircraft today (not sure how high it was flying or what weaponry was used as article just said "anti-aircraft".) But it would appear that ISIS/ISIL/SI does have some decent weapons which complicates things. Also I am very wary of Obama's plan to arm rebels. He tried that before and, along with captured weapons from Iraq, now those weapons are in the hands of ISIS/ISIL/SI. The supposed "rebels" Obama supports arming even signed some kind of agreement with ISIS/ISIL/SI. [Can't we make weapons that can be sabotaged or rendered useless if they fall into the wrong hands? Everything seems to have a microchip these days; just insert some line of code saying "destroy" or that must be updated every year or something?]

[GeorgieForPresident2216]

So they shot down a Syrian aircraft today (not sure how high it was flying or what weaponry was used as article just said "anti-aircraft".) But it would appear that ISIS/ISIL/SI does have some decent weapons which complicates things. Also I am very wary of Obama's plan to arm rebels. He tried that before and, along with captured weapons from Iraq, now those weapons are in the hands of ISIS/ISIL/SI. The supposed "rebels" Obama supports arming even signed some kind of agreement with ISIS/ISIL/SI. [Can't we make weapons that can be sabotaged or rendered useless if they fall into the wrong hands? Everything seems to have a microchip these days; just insert some line of code saying "destroy" or that must be updated every year or something?]

I have to agree.  It just seems like it's taking the old playbook which has led to the current problems.  At the same time, The Iraqi government claims the US did not sell them the warplanes they've been requesting for years, which they say would have allowed them to control the uprising on their own.

[Uncle Duke]

So they shot down a Syrian aircraft today (not sure how high it was flying or what weaponry was used as article just said "anti-aircraft".) But it would appear that ISIS/ISIL/SI does have some decent weapons which complicates things. Also I am very wary of Obama's plan to arm rebels. He tried that before and, along with captured weapons from Iraq, now those weapons are in the hands of ISIS/ISIL/SI. The supposed "rebels" Obama supports arming even signed some kind of agreement with ISIS/ISIL/SI. [Can't we make weapons that can be sabotaged or rendered useless if they fall into the wrong hands? Everything seems to have a microchip these days; just insert some line of code saying "destroy" or that must be updated every year or something?]

Wouldn't be too concerned about IS shooting down a Syrian jet.  The Syrian Air Force does not have the intel and SEAD capabilities of a US/UK led force, nor are its pilots as well trained trained or their tactics honed and combat proven.  Yes, there's always the chance even small arms could bring down an advanced combat aircraft, the "golden BB" in combat pilot jargon, but not very likely if the crews mission plan properly and fly as they've been trained. 

IF we do lose a plane, either through combat or mechanical failure like the F-15E over Libya, I'd be very concerned about our combat search and rescue (C/SAR) capabilities in the area.  How would the American people (and maybe more importantly, the Administration) react to seeing a captured USAF or USN pilot, especially a woman, beheaded by these butchers?

[FightTheFuture]

Don't know about the number, but it will take properly supported, professional ground forces to destroy IS.  Up to this point IS has fought as a conventional force, not an insurgency.  A lightly armed but highly mobile force backed by unchallenged airpower could act as the hammer to drive them to an anvil, like the Turkish border.

I think we're probably on the same page, or at least in the same chapter. I really believe after the midterms. the President will be "more flexible" and do what everyone knows has to be done. That includes dropping a highly mobile fighting component, like the 101st,  slightly to the west. That would cut off escape routes and provide an adequate force to mop up any remnants after we bomb the daylights out of them in Syria and chase them down into Iraq.

After we get the Kurds supplied up, advised, and air fortified, our Army special operators then push the main Iraqi army  up from the south. Nowhere to run; nowhere to hide. Textbook hammer and anvil againstin northern border

[Faustina]

I listened to that first guest on c2c last night, and he got me all spooked out that ISIS will be here in America, doing "bad stuff" to Americans on their own soil, within two months.  He sounded quite sure about this, and said that, so far they have done everything they threatened to do, and this was one of the threats:  that they would be here on U.S. soil within two months.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2014/09/15

"In the first half of the program, history professor William R. Forstchen discussed his analysis of ISIS and detailed the level of terror it could bring to the US heartland. "My great concern is that everything that ISIS has promised they would do, they've done," he lamented of the terrorist group's frightening rise to power. Forstchen also expressed concern that recent CIA estimates suggest that ISIS has grown from 5,000 to over 30,000 members in just a few months. Additionally, he observed that ISIS now also includes thousands of Europeans and hundreds of Americans who have traveled to the Middle East to train with the group. These militants are particularly worrisome, he said, because they can return to their native Western countries and easily blend into the population until the time to strike arrives.
Forstchen theorized that, should ISIS attack America, it will be through a series of strikes against "soft targets," specifically schools in suburban and rural areas. Following that, he postulated that shootings along highways would begin sometime shortly thereafter as panicked parents are rushing to schools to evacuate their children. Such a disconcerting and multifaceted attack, he said, would cripple the American economy and possibly create a Constitutional crisis as the population demands action against this insurgency within the country. On when such an event may unfold, Forstchen chillingly surmised that the terrorists are already within the United States and are simply waiting for a signal to commence some kind of coordinated attack."

I've also heard that members of ISIS have been spotted on the Texas border near El Paso.

Scary stuff.

[Rudolf Zlabinger]

Dear Faustina,

ISIS itself is being destroyed now as an organization, and the members will be probably killed, as they are captured. Excluded from the world of ISLAM, prosecuted by a front of the civilized nations they have no chance to survive. The casting out from ISLAM made the authority of their Caliphs obsolete, so their global influence on worlds Moslems was once broken down, and so their global threat has been also gone.

What remains are frustrated fans, they cannot accept, that their "romantic" dreams now not come true, and their wildest phantasies, they blow now through the social media. May be, that there are single "fighters" ready to make terror acts, that's a real danger, we have to take serious. But these guys are not able to establish a kind of organization, as they normally are lone wolfs with serious social (and mental) defects. So the threat is at the normal every day´s criminal level.

What now can happen is the emergence of legends and conspiracy theories as they normally follow such impressing events as ISIS was. You should not take them too serious. The future may create certainly kinds of supermen and also super soldiers, but that are developments of the next 100 years, but not sudden now.

My deepest consternation is dedicated to the poor hostages they suffered a horrible death, and the hostages they will still be killed by these murderers, before they die themselves.

They for me are martyrs for another hopefully following development of ISLAM now is casting out also the rest of Islamic terror organizations, freeing the world from another long lasting evil.

So lets close this horrible story of ISIS, lets forget them and lets hope, that we soon can remove the roots of these terroristic histories.

All the best, Rudolf

[Camazotz Automat]

Dear Faustina,

ISIS itself is being destroyed now as an organization, and the members will be probably killed, as they are captured. ....

...So lets close this horrible story of ISIS, lets forget them and lets hope, that we soon can remove the roots of these terroristic histories.

That was a good post, RZ.

[Uncle Duke]

I listened to that first guest on c2c last night, and he got me all spooked out that ISIS will be here in America, doing "bad stuff" to Americans on their own soil, within two months.  He sounded quite sure about this, and said that, so far they have done everything they threatened to do, and this was one of the threats:  that they would be here on U.S. soil within two months.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2014/09/15

"In the first half of the program, history professor William R. Forstchen discussed his analysis of ISIS and detailed the level of terror it could bring to the US heartland. "My great concern is that everything that ISIS has promised they would do, they've done," he lamented of the terrorist group's frightening rise to power. Forstchen also expressed concern that recent CIA estimates suggest that ISIS has grown from 5,000 to over 30,000 members in just a few months. Additionally, he observed that ISIS now also includes thousands of Europeans and hundreds of Americans who have traveled to the Middle East to train with the group. These militants are particularly worrisome, he said, because they can return to their native Western countries and easily blend into the population until the time to strike arrives.
Forstchen theorized that, should ISIS attack America, it will be through a series of strikes against "soft targets," specifically schools in suburban and rural areas. Following that, he postulated that shootings along highways would begin sometime shortly thereafter as panicked parents are rushing to schools to evacuate their children. Such a disconcerting and multifaceted attack, he said, would cripple the American economy and possibly create a Constitutional crisis as the population demands action against this insurgency within the country. On when such an event may unfold, Forstchen chillingly surmised that the terrorists are already within the United States and are simply waiting for a signal to commence some kind of coordinated attack."

I've also heard that members of ISIS have been spotted on the Texas border near El Paso.

Scary stuff.

Haven't listened to this show yet, but the threat of terror attacks against US schools is one that has been around for a number of years.  Before I retired I got to attend an unclassified briefing on the 2004 terror attack on Breslan (Russia) school by Chechen Muslims.  The analysis part of the brief included a rundown of a series of suspicious incidents across the US dealing with foreign nationals and schools/school buses.  The most chilling involved a middle school in the midwest that agreed to allow the use of their gym for what what supposedly a Saturday basketball tournament sponsored by the local Boy Scouts. 

Long story short, a school maintenance man happened to show up at the school at the time of the tournament to find no basketball, but dozen or so men and women (in hajabs) of Middle Eastern heritage in various locations throughout the school with video cameras, tape measures, and detailed notes/sketches of the building.  When challenged, they claimed they were simply checking out the school for friends who would soon be moving into the area.  They claimed no knowledge of any basketball tournament, saying they entered the building after finding it unlocked. The police were called, but they had cleared out before the cops arrived.  The phone and fax numbers used to request access to the school were found to be disconnected, the address given to be fraudulent, and the local Boy Scouts had never heard of the man who made the arrangements.

A disturbing aspect of this threat is the number of school districts that refuse to allow local, state, and federal authorities access to their buildings to train for hostage rescue scenarios.  Reasons for not granting access ranged from not wanting to scare the locals to a zero tolerance of firearms in school buildings. One school administrator ever went so far as to tell authorities their schools faced no threat because guns were not permitted in their buildings.

[albrecht]

Haven't listened to this show yet, but the threat of terror attacks against US schools is one that has been around for a number of years.  Before I retired I got to attend an unclassified briefing on the 2004 terror attack on Breslan (Russia) school by Chechen Muslims.  The analysis part of the brief included a rundown of a series of suspicious incidents across the US dealing with foreign nationals and schools/school buses.  The most chilling involved a middle school in the midwest that agreed to allow the use of their gym for what what supposedly a Saturday basketball tournament sponsored by the local Boy Scouts. 

Long story short, a school maintenance man happened to show up at the school at the time of the tournament to find no basketball, but dozen or so men and women (in hajabs) of Middle Eastern heritage in various locations throughout the school with video cameras, tape measures, and detailed notes/sketches of the building.  When challenged, they claimed they were simply checking out the school for friends who would soon be moving into the area.  They claimed no knowledge of any basketball tournament, saying they entered the building after finding it unlocked. The police were called, but they had cleared out before the cops arrived.  The phone and fax numbers used to request access to the school were found to be disconnected, the address given to be fraudulent, and the local Boy Scouts had never heard of the man who made the arrangements.

A disturbing aspect of this threat is the number of school districts that refuse to allow local, state, and federal authorities access to their buildings to train for hostage rescue scenarios.  Reasons for not granting access ranged from not wanting to scare the locals to a zero tolerance of firearms in school buildings. One school administrator ever went so far as to tell authorities their schools faced no threat because guns were not permitted in their buildings.

1) scary. But in a relatively free society it is very hard to prevent crazy people and terrorists from attacks on "soft targets." While certain safeguards and changes are logical a more important priority should be keeping the bad guys out (secure border, less immigration from suspect countries, better monitoring of those on VISAs, and actually using our suveillence grid- if we are datamining and recording everyonw how come we miss Boston bombers? But find the teen who downloaded a movie?) And better mental healthcare for inviduals marginalized nor crazy here. But eventually (like driving a car) we have to accept some level of risk of crime and even terrorism to live in a somewhat free country. We also should he aggressively profiling for known variables (age, race, accent, religion, etc.)
2) I always wondered what kind of gas Russia used in Beslan? I know it killed some innocents but something like a gas seems to me to be a good option. Something that knocks out everyone. Or (more expensive) even a fire control system that floods room with CO2 (everyone would passout but if  O2 was administered to the victims fast maybe no damage done.?)

[Uncle Duke]

1) scary. But in a relatively free society it is very hard to prevent crazy people and terrorists from attacks on "soft targets." While certain safeguards and changes are logical a more important priority should be keeping the bad guys out (secure border, less immigration from suspect countries, better monitoring of those on VISAs, and actually using our suveillence grid- if we are datamining and recording everyonw how come we miss Boston bombers? But find the teen who downloaded a movie?)
2) I always wondered what kind of gas Russia used in Beslan? I know it killed some innocents but something like a gas seems to me to be a good option. Something that knocks out everyone. Or (more expensive) even a fire control system that floods room with CO2 (everyone would passout but if  O2 was administered to the victims fast maybe no damage done.?)

There was no gas used at Brelin, you're thinking of the theater in Moscow.