AFGHANISTAN - Peace Talks vs Attacks

"Amid peace talks, Taliban claims deadly explosion in Kabul" PBS NewsHour 9/2/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In Afghanistan, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a massive explosion that rocked Kabul, killing at least five and wounding 50.  It targeted the heavily secured area that’s home to several aid agencies and international organizations, and came as the U.S. envoy briefed the Afghan government on a draft peace deal.  Special correspondent Jane Ferguson joins Judy Woodruff with the latest.

"In Afghanistan, the Taliban uses violence as leverage during peace negotiations" PBS NewsHour 9/3/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In the Afghan capital of Kabul, 16 people died in a car bomb Monday night.  A compound housing mostly international workers was the target, and the Taliban claimed responsibility even as they participate in peace talks with the U.S.  Why has there been a “massive uptick in violence” recently, and what might the tentative peace deal include?  Special correspondent Jane Ferguson joins Judy Woodruff.

"What’s next for U.S.-Afghanistan peace talks?" PBS NewsHour 9/8/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump announced on Twitter on Saturday that he had canceled a secret Camp David meeting with the Taliban and Afghan officials, after the insurgent group “admitted” to a suicide attack in Kabul that killed 12 people, including a U.S. soldier.  The Wall Street Journal’s Kabul bureau chief, Craig Nelson, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the road ahead in ending America’s longest war.

FILM - "Hotel Mumbai"

"How ‘Hotel Mumbai’ illuminates the courage of the everyday hero" PBS NewsHour 4/4/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In 2008, a series of terror attacks rocked Mumbai [India], ultimately killing more than 160 people over three chaotic days.  Now the horrific experience of those trapped in a hotel during the siege is being shared in “Hotel Mumbai.”  Amna Nawaz sits down with director Anthony Maras and actors Nazanin Boniadi, Dev Patel, and Armie Hammer, to discuss how the film portrays the courage of the everyday hero.

HOTEL MUMBAI Official Trailer (2019)

NEW ZEALAND - The Terror Attack

"New Zealand mosque suspect embraced white supremacy, previous acts of hate" PBS NewsHour 3/15/2019

Shooter's manifesto said Trump "Symbol of renewed white identity."  Just think about that and Trump's lack of total condemnation of white supremacy.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Christchurch, New Zealand’s second-largest city, was the site of horrific carnage Friday, as a gunman stormed two mosques during Friday prayers, killing at least 49 people and injuring dozens more.  Police arrested the alleged shooter, who cited other mass killings as inspiration.  Amna Nawaz reports on what New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called one of the country’s “darkest days.”

"Why alleged New Zealand mosque killer represents a broader ‘social movement’" PBS NewsHour 3/15/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Deadly terror attacks in New Zealand Friday caused global shock, but the extreme anti-immigrant, white supremacist ideology of the suspected Australian gunman is not new.  Judy Woodruff talks to Humera Khan of Muflehun a nonprofit fighting hate and extremism, University of Chicago’s Kathleen Belew, and Matthew Knott of the Sydney Morning Herald about the scope of this malignant "social movement."

REMINDER:  The internet, especially social media, allows the spreading of ideas good AND bad.

"The role of media and technology after terror attacks" PBS NewsHour 3/16/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The gunman accused of killing 49 people at two New Zealand mosques Friday live-streamed the attack, emailed his manifesto to media outlets, and shared his racist and hateful messages online.  Charlie Warzel opinion writer-at-large for The New York Times and Joan Donovan of Harvard University, join Hari Sreenivasan to discuss changing technology and the media's role and responsibilities.

TERRORISM - New York City Attack

"Suspect in custody in NYC after 'lone-wolf' truck attack" PBS NewsHour 10/31/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  At least eight people are dead and more than a dozen injured after a rented pickup truck plowed into a busy bicycle path near the World Trade Center Memorial in Manhattan on Tuesday.  A 29-year-old male has been taken into custody and Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed that they believe it to be an act of terror.  Special correspondent Marcia Biggs talks with Judy Woodruff from New York.

"Fatal NYC truck incident called an act of terror, here's what it has in common with recent European attacks" PBS NewsHour 10/31/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  After a deadly truck attack killed eight in Manhattan on Tuesday, multiple news networks have identified the driver as Sayfullo Saipov of Tampa, Florida.  John Yang speaks with Lorenzo Vidino of George Washington University about how the latest incident may fit into recent acts of extremism in Europe.

"New York suspect reportedly planned attack for a long time.  What more could law enforcement do to prevent terrorism?" PBS NewsHour 11/1/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The suspect in the deadly New York attack, Sayfullo Saipov, was charged by the federal government for providing support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.  Special correspondent Marcia Biggs reports on how investigators are piecing together a clearer picture of what led to the attack, and Hari Sreenivasan talks to retired FBI counterterror official Jeffrey Ringel.

NIGER - What We Know

My summary, typical military SNAFU.

"The top U.S. military commander has promised answers about the Niger attack.  Here's what we know so far" PBS NewsHour 10/23/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The details surrounding the deaths of four American soldiers in Niger this month remain murky, even as President Trump's response to the families of the fallen has been sharply criticized.  For more on what the special forces were doing at the time of the attack, as well as the broader mission in Niger, Judy Woodruff talks to Eric Schmitt of The New York Times and Laura Seay of Colby College.

TERRORISM - Barcelona

"After attack, Barcelona comes to terms with new reality" PBS NewsHour 8/18/2017 😢

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Fourteen are dead, including one American, after Thursday's attack on Barcelona and another in a Spanish coastal town, where a car drove into a crowd and five men jumped out with knives; all were shot dead by police.  Special correspondent Jack Parrock reports from Barcelona.

RELATED:  "What we know — and don't know — about the terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils" by Joshua Barajas and Erica R. Hendry, PBS NewsHour 8/18/2017

UNITED KINGDOM - Bridge Attack

"Police identify two men behind London terrorist attacks" by Erica R.  Hendry, PBS NewsHour 6/5/2017

Excerpt

Metropolitan police say they have identified two of the three attackers behind Saturday's terrorist attack.

Police said in a statement they believe Khuram Shazad Butt and Rachid Redouane, both from Barking, east London, were responsible for the attacks that killed seven and injured 48 on the London Bridge and Borough Market.

It was the third terrorist attack in the country in three months, occurring less than two weeks after a suicide bomber killed 22 and injured 116 at an Ariana Grande concert at the Manchester Arena.

Butt, 27, was a Pakistan-born British citizen who was known to the police.  But “there was no intelligence to suggest that this attack was being planned,” police said in a statement.

Redouane, 30, was believed to be Moroccan and Libyan; he also used the name Rachid Elkhdar, police said.  A third attacker has not been identified.

Police and counter-terrorism officers have arrested 12 people since Saturday night's attacks.  They've also searched six properties, officials said.

“The police and our partners are doing everything we can across the country to help prevent further attacks and protect the public from harm,” Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said in a statement.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan led a vigil for victims of the attack Monday night in Potters Bridge Park, “to show the world that we stand united in the face of those who seek to harm us and our way of life.”

“We must defeat this threat.  Our values must prevail,” Khan wrote in an op-ed for the Evening Standard.  We should not jump to knee-jerk conclusions, but failing to act is simply not an option.

"U.K. police make arrests in bridge attack as politicians argue over security" PBS NewsHour 6/5/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Police raided an apartment complex and tire shop Monday in East London, detaining more people in the wake of Saturday's attack that killed seven.  Officials also named two of the attackers, who were shot dead minutes after driving a van into people and then stabbing others.  Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports on how the attack is playing into politics on both sides of the Atlantic.

UNITED KINGDOM - London Attack

"UK remains on alert after London terror attack" PBS NewsHour 6/4/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Britain remains on high alert following Saturday night's terrorist attack on two locations in central London.  At least seven people died after attackers ran a van into pedestrians on London Bridge and stabbed others nearby.  NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Malcolm Brabant joins Hari Sreenivasan from London.

"After terrorist attacks, how can Britain bolster security?" PBS NewsHour 6/4/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  British Prime Minister Theresa May called on the country to ramp up its security protocol hours after it was struck by the third terrorist attack Saturday in as many months.  Peter Neumann, a professor at King's College who is also with the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence, joins Hari Sreenivasan from London to break down security tactics.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION - Kushner + Russia Chaos

Now, from the most corrupt Administration in U.S. history:

"Damage control over Jared Kushner's reported Russia communication hasn't quelled criticism" PBS NewsHour 5/29/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Several top Trump administration officials have come out defending senior adviser Jared Kushner after it was reported that he had discussed with the Russian ambassador the possibility of opening a secret communication backchannel between the Trump team and Russia.  William Brangham gets perspective from former CIA officer John Sipher and former FBI agent Frank Montoya, Jr.

"Will a 'war room' for combatting Russia probe fallout help the White House?" PBS NewsHour 5/29/2017

IMHO:  These uncoordinated clowns couldn't screw in a light bulb.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  William Brangham talks to Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and Tamara Keith of NPR about the allegations against Jared Kushner over his communications with Russian officials, the White House's handling of the Russia probe and takeaways from President Trump's first foreign trip.

"Clapper: Jared Kushner's alleged secret back channel with Russia 'curious' and unusual" PBS NewsHour 5/30/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  When it comes to the Russia investigations, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper asks: “Why all the cloak-and-dagger secrecy?”  In a wide-ranging interview with Judy Woodruff, Clapper discusses the probe into Jared Kushner's alleged secret back channels with Russia, along with North Korea's nuclear program, and the recent terrorist attack in Manchester.

"Back at the White House, Trump administration fends off questions on Kushner, Germany" PBS NewsHour 5/30/2017

IMHO:  All lies and spin from an Administration with no conscience connection to truth.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Even after two weeks since the last on-camera White House briefing, the main topic was the same; the connection between Russia and the Trump campaign, specifically reports that Jared Kushner sought to set up a direct line to Russia's President Putin outside normal diplomatic channels.  Meanwhile, President Trump tweeted about fake news and criticism of Germany.  John Yang reports.

TERRORISM - Attack on Coptic Christians

"Coptic Christians in route to monastery targeted in a deadly assault" PBS NewsHour 5/26/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Gunmen blasted an isolated bus packed with men, women and children in Egypt, killing at least 28.  The victims were Coptic Christians who were making their way to a monastery along an unpaved desert road.  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports that it was the latest in a series of attacks on the embattled Christian minority since late last year.

GERMANY - Berlin Truck Attack

"Is Berlin truck attack a turning point for Germany?" PBS NewsHour 12/20/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Berlin's normally bustling Christmas market was quiet Tuesday, as investigators searched for clues into a truck attack that killed a dozen people and injured 50.  A suspect who was detained after the attack was released due to insufficient evidence, and the Islamic State later claimed responsibility.  From Berlin, special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility tonight for the Berlin truck attack that killed a dozen people and injured 50.

That word came hours after German police let their main suspect go.

Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from Berlin.

MALCOLM BRABANT, Special correspondent:  This normally bustling Christmas market was eerily quiet today, as investigators searched for clues.

Swathed in fog, and with armed guards sealing off the area, Berlin was coming to terms with its new status as a victim of terrorism, after Paris, Brussels, and Nice.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke at a morning news conference.

ANGELA MERKEL, Chancellor, Germany (through translator):  There is still a lot that we don't know about this act with sufficient certainty, but we must, as things stand, assume it was a terrorist attack.

MALCOLM BRABANT:  Police detained a Pakistani asylum-seeker shortly after the truck rammed into a crowd of people on Monday.  But, today, he was released, due to insufficient evidence.  Prosecutors said he matched a description of the suspected attacker, but he denied any involvement.

The truck, which had been carrying steel beams, was towed away earlier this morning.  The body of a Polish truck driver was found inside the cabin.  He had been stabbed and shot after being hijacked.  The gun used to kill him has yet to be found.

PROF.  PETER NEUMANN, King's College, London:  It was waiting to happen, no?  I'm not, like, totally surprised.

MALCOLM BRABANT:  Berlin is the hometown of terrorism expert Peter Neumann.  He believes German authorities were too complacent about the possibility of an attack and didn't offer sufficient protection to the Christmas markets.

PROF.  PETER NEUMANN:  I think, in Germany, people have been very blessed with the idea that they would be spared this kind of attack.  And so I don't think that German authorities were thinking as systematically about the threat from terrorism as authorities in Britain have or authorities in other countries.

This will have to change.  And there will be a very uncomfortable discussion in Germany about anti-terrorism measures, but also, of course, about the relationship with Muslim communities and with refugees.

"Berlin attack suspect is a ‘nightmare' for authorities" PBS NewsHour 12/21/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The manhunt stemming from Monday's Christmas market massacre in Berlin has spread across Europe, and there's a new suspect.  His name is Anis Amri, and he is a 24-year-old asylum seeker from Tunisia.  Judy Woodruff speaks with special correspondent Malcolm Brabant, who is in Berlin, about the suspect's criminal history, the reward for information about him and increased surveillance in Germany.

"Why German surveillance failed to stop the Berlin attack suspect" PBS NewsHour 12/22/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The man suspected of carrying out an attack on a Christmas market was well known to German authorities.  Anis Amri was under surveillance for six months and slated for deportation, but his home country refused to accept him.  Hari Sreenivasan speaks with Peter Neumann of King's College about how German authorities could have missed the signals.

FRANCE - Paris One Year Later

"A visit to Paris one year after devastating terror attacks" PBS NewsHour 11/11/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Sunday will mark a grim anniversary in Paris -- the series of coordinated terror attacks throughout the city that killed 130 and injured nearly 400 on November 13, 2015.  The bloodiest site, Bataclan Music Club, where 89 people were murdered, will reopen Saturday with a concert by Sting.  Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant visited Paris to report on how the city is faring, one year later.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Paris will mark a grim anniversary Sunday, one year after a series of coordinated attacks across the city on Friday the 13th, 2015.

The Bataclan music club, where 89 people were murdered during a concert, is due to reopen tomorrow with a concert by Sting.  Gunmen and suicide bombers allied to ISIS murdered 130 people in total, wounding nearly 400.

Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant has been back to Paris to see how the French capital is coping one year on.

MALCOLM BRABANT, Special correspondent:  Paris has returned to a version of normality, but for those caught up in the worst attack on the French capital since the Second World War, nothing will ever be the same again.

In a discreet corner of this cafe is Caroline Langlade, a survivor of the Bataclan.  Along with several others, she hid in a tiny room for over three hours.  They barricaded the door with a sofa and mini-fridge.  The terrorists tried to get in, failed and resumed the massacre they began while the band was on stage.

(GUNFIRE)

CAROLINE LANGLADE, President, Life for Paris (through translator):  I have a really hard time going to closed-up places or dark rooms, movies, concerts, but also restaurants where there's too many people at night.  It makes me quite jumpy.  I tend to panic.

MALCOLM BRABANT:  During the interview, sirens wailed nearby, and Caroline became uncomfortable.  The film director has found it difficult to concentrate on work and instead devotes her energies running Life for Paris, an organization for survivors and families of those murdered on Friday the 13th.

CAROLINE LANGLADE (through translator):  I'm no longer afraid of death.  I have seen it up close, and I almost died several times that night.  I'm no longer afraid of death, but my fear changed.

And, today, what frightens me most is suffering, physical suffering, human suffering.  I had to face a gigantic amount of it that evening, and I think that I have lived through all the suffering I could have had for a lifetime.

IRAQ - Kirkuk Attack

"Why the Islamic State tried an audacious attack on Kirkuk" PBS NewsHour 11/10/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In October, the Islamic State launched an offensive on the city of Kirkuk, Iraq.  The attack was ultimately suppressed by Kurdish military forces, but it also diverted other anti-ISIS efforts and possibly escalated ethnic tensions in the culturally diverse city.  Special correspondent Christopher Livesay reports from Kirkuk.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  One of the challenges overseas that the new administration will inherit is the war in Iraq.

It's been almost a month since the operation to retake the ISIS-held city of Mosul began.  Early on, the extremists sought to divert Kurdish forces from the fight by attacking Kirkuk, the oil capital of Northern Iraq that's been held by the Kurds for more than two years.

Special correspondent Christopher Livesay recently visited the multi-ethnic city to see how it withstood the attack.

CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY, Special correspondent:  Kirkuk is over 100 miles southeast of the ISIS-held city of Mosul.

But, on October 21, no one could tell the difference.  It was just four days into the Iraqi-led offensive to recapture Mosul, but, as Kirkuk residents slept, a unit of ISIS fighters launched an attack on multiple locations throughout the city.  The assault would last more than two days.

When it was over, 116 people were dead, including police, military, and civilians, and more than 80 of the ISIS fighters were killed.  Among the dead and injured, guests at the neighboring Dar al Salam and Snobar hotels in the city center.

Mustafa Mohammed owns both.

This is the aftermath of an RPG right here?

MUSTAFA MOHAMMED, Hotel Owner:  That's right.  Yes.  And they went on the second floor and third floor and the fourth floor.

CHRISTOPHER LIVESAY:  You can still see the bullet holes that riddle the walls.  Out this window here, you can see what looks like a bulletproof vest spread open.  You have got a pot full of food, bottles of waters, ammunition belts and clothing strewn about.

Once inside the hotel, the militants had a commanding view of government areas.  The hotel is just across the street from the compound of Najmaldin Karim, the governor of Kirkuk.

NAJMALDIN KARIM, Governor, Kirkuk Province:  We watched them on our monitor and the cameras from outside.  We could see them.  And when they tried to come out, a couple of them came to detonate their belt, and they were killed by our police.

AMERICA'S 9/11 - An Untold Story

"BOATLIFT, An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience"

"The great boatlift of 9/11 became the largest sea evacuation in history.  Larger than the evacuation of Dunkirk in WWII, where 339 thousand British and French solders were rescued over the course of 9 days.  On 9/11 nearly 500 thousand civilians were rescued from Manhattan by boat.  It took less than 9 hours."

TERRORISM - Attack in France

"SCORES KILLED AFTER TRUCK RAMS CROWD" by ALISSA J.  RUBIN, ADAM NOSSITER, CHRISTOPHER MELE; San Diego Union-Tribune 7/15/2015

NOTE:  This is from the on-line version of the paper, therefore no link to article.

Driver plows through revelers watching Bastille Day fireworks in Nice; Hollande calls it terrorist assault

A Bastille Day fireworks celebration was shattered by death and mayhem Thursday night in France’s southern city of Nice when a large truck barreled for more than a mile through an enormous crowd of spectators, crushing dozens in what the president called a terrorist assault.  It came eight months after the Paris attacks that traumatized the nation and all of Europe.

Officials and witnesses in Nice said at least 80 people, including children, were killed by the driver of the rampaging truck, who mowed them down on the sidewalk.  He was shot to death by the police as officers scrambled to respond on what is France’s most important annual holiday.

Graphic television and video images showed the truck accelerating and tearing through the crowd, dozens of victims sprawled in its path, and the bullet- riddled windshield of the vehicle.  Municipal officials and police officers described the truck as full of weapons and grenades.

“The horror, the horror has, once again, hit France,” President François Hollande said in a nationally televised address early today.  He said the “terrorist character” of the assault was undeniable and he described the use of a large truck to deliberately kill people as “a monstrosity.”

“France has been struck on the day of her national holiday,” he said.  “Human rights are denied by fanatics, and France is clearly their target.”  Hollande, who only hours earlier had proclaimed the impending end of a state of national emergency on July 26, said it would be extended by three months and that additional soldiers would be deployed for security.

In Washington, D.C., President Barack Obama released a statement Thursday night condemning “what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack in Nice, France.”  He said he had directed his team to get in touch with French officials to assist with the investigation into the attack.

“We stand in solidarity and partnership with France, our oldest ally, as they respond to and recover from this attack,” the statement said.

French officials quickly came to the conclusion of terrorism as the likely motive, as the scope of the slaughter grew clear.  The use of a large commercial truck as the principal weapon of death raised new questions over how to prevent such attacks.  The officials warned residents to stay indoors and canceled all further scheduled festivities in Nice, a seaside city of 340,000, including a five-day jazz festival and concert tonight by Rihanna.  “There are numerous victims,” said Pierre-Henry Brandet, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, on BFM Television.  “It’s a tragic, exceptional situation.”

Witnesses described scenes of pandemonium, with conflicting accounts on social media, including a false report of hostage-taking in Nice.

“We were enjoying the celebrations when we suddenly saw people running everywhere and tables being pushed down by the movement of panic,” said Daphne Burand, 15, who was at a bar near the beach to watch the fireworks.

“No one explained to us what was happening, and I heard some gunshots not very far away,” she said.  “I waited at the bar for more information because I thought it was a false alert.  But then, people were still running.”

San Diegan Tony Molina told news stations he was vacationing in Nice with his wife and 14-year-old son and had witnessed the attack.

“It was zig-zagging,” he said of the truck in a brief interview aired by CBS News 8 in San Diego.  “I would say it was going about 25 to 30 miles an hour as it did so, and just plummeting through.  It looked like it was hitting several people.  I can tell you right now, even as I look out in front of our area, I see about 10 covered bodies that they haven’t even begun processing yet.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and the identity of the driver was not immediately clear, but the Nice Matin newspaper reported early today that he was a 31-year-old Frenchman of Tunisian origin.

Christian Estrosi, a former mayor of Nice and currently president of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, said in one of a series of Twitter messages that the truck was carrying arms and explosives when it struck the crowd about 10:30 p.m.  local time.

Estrosi told French television channel BFM TV that “the driver fired on the crowd, according to the police who killed him.”

He added that the driver’s behavior appeared to be “completely premeditated.”

The attack amounted to a gut-punch to a nation that was struggling to restore some sense of normalcy and had begun to drop its guard.

Hours after Hollande said during Bastille Day festivities in Paris that “we cannot prolong the state of emergency eternally,” the massive white truck came crashing through.

The main strip through Nice was littered with bodies, one after the other.

“Whatever the nature of what happened in Nice, the threat of terrorism is particularly high,” Brandet, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said on the iTele television station.  He added that security forces were on high alert in the area and in cities around France.

Dozens of people were seriously injured and many more were psychologically shocked, Brandet said.  The region has activated a so-called White Plan, put in place during the Nov. 13 Paris terror attacks, to open all emergency rooms to receive victims, he added.

The Islamic State, the militant group that asserted responsibility for the attacks in Paris last November that killed 130 people, did not make any immediate claims for the Nice assault.

It typically takes the Islamic State several hours, and sometimes up to one and even two days, to assert responsibility for attacks in Western countries.  It typically does so through its Amaq channel on the encrypted phone app Telegram, which serves as the group’s news wire.

However, as in the hours immediately after the Paris, Brussels and Orlando attacks, there was a now familiar celebration on channels run by groups that support the Islamic State, as well as on at least one channel affiliated with the group, also known as ISIS and ISIL.  They cheered, and laughed at the carnage.

On a channel created Thursday, called the United Cyber Caliphate, run by a group that has previously attempted to carry out cyberattacks in the Islamic State’s name, a message included a single word — France — followed by a smiley face.

The channel of an Islamic State member, Aswarti Media, which has repeatedly been shut down, was posting the phrase “Allahu Akbar.”  Yet another suspected pro-ISIS channel showed an image of the Eiffel Tower going up in flames.

Several pro-Islamic State forums posted old messages in which the terrorist group urged followers to carry out lone-wolf attacks against France.

Analysts noted that the Islamic State has called on its followers to kill civilians in Western countries by any means possible.

The Nice attack took place just as the Euro 2016 soccer tournament had concluded.  France had hosted the tournament, and the entire country had been on high alert.  There had been reports that suspects linked to the attacks in Paris and the Brussels assault in March had planned an attack during the tournament.

With tens of thousands of people gathered at stadiums and in designated “fan zones” during the games, the police and private security took extraordinary measures to try to secure the sites.

It was difficult to know if the measures were successful or if in fact there were no plans to attack the soccer tournament.

One question people will be asking is whether the security forces, as well as civilians, let their guard down once the tournament was over thinking that the danger had passed.

TERRORISM - Istanbul

"Chaos and carnage — Inside the terror bombing of Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport" PBS NewsHour 6/29/2016

UPDATE:  ISIS has claimed responsibility.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Security cameras caught the moment death was unleashed in Istanbul.  Police shot one of the armed attackers and then he detonated his bomb.  Passengers stampeded for the exits as flying glass and debris cut bodies to shreds.  It was another attack at an international airport and, for Turkey, a direct hit on its economic ambitions.  Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Investigators in Istanbul, Turkey, have spent this day trying to reconstruct the assault that turned Ataturk Airport into a killing field.

Three suicide bombers left widespread carnage, 42 dead, more than 230 wounded, but no claim of responsibility.

Special correspondent Jane Ferguson begins our coverage from Istanbul.

JANE FERGUSON, Special Correspondent:  Operations resumed at Europe’s third busiest airport, amid the stark signs of terror, glass panels riddled with bullet holes, and blood splattered on ceilings.

The attack began last night, shortly before 10:00 p.m. local time.  Security cameras captured one attacker just after being shot by police, and then setting off his bomb.  That touched off a stampede to get outside, and away from danger.

ADAM KEALLY, Witness:  One guy had holes in his back from shrapnel or from glass.

HACER PEKSEN, Airport Worker (through translator):  People were wounded.  People fell down in front of me.  Four people fell in front of me.  They were torn into pieces.

JANE FERGUSON:  In the hours after the attack, Turkish officials pointed to the Islamic State.  The group was blamed for a suicide bombing in January that killed several tourists near the famed Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

And today marked two years since ISIS declared its so-called caliphate in Syria and Iraq.  Moreover, Turkey backs the U.S. bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria, and on Monday, the Turks moved to improve relations with Russia, which carries out its own airstrikes in Syria.

Both Russian President Putin and President Obama called Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today to offer condolences.  Back in Istanbul, the human toll of this latest attack is still being felt by relatives and friends of the wounded.

SERDAR TATLISU, Relative of Victim (through translator):  We are waiting for some kind of solution.  We can hear that people are wailing here.  We cannot cope anymore.  We can’t stand still.

JANE FERGUSON:  The Turkish government has worked for years to build an international airline and to make Istanbul Airport one of the biggest hubs in the world.  Any attack against this airport is an attack against the economic ambitions of the Turkish government.  They know that.

And so just a day after the attack, the airport is completely reopened and it’s business as usual.  Some travelers at Ataturk today were trying to do the same.  They say the risk of attacks at major airports is now a reality they have come to terms with.

"CIA director says Iran must do more in fight against ISIS" PBS NewsHour 6/29/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  CIA Director John Brennan sat down with Judy Woodruff to discuss the repercussions of the Istanbul attack and whether the U.S. was vulnerable to similar attacks.  He was asked about Secretary of State John Kerry’s comments that Iran has been helpful in the fight against ISIS.  “They need to do more,” he said.  He also weighed in on the Benghazi report and the impact of Brexit on intel gathering.

"Turkey buries its dead amid growing demands to take on ISIS" PBS NewsHour 6/30/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As the Turks went about the sad task of burying the victims of the Istanbul airport terror attack, civilian fears mounted and calls increased for Ankara to act against ISIS.  Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and has been criticized for turning a blind eye to the so-called jihadi highway — the Islamic State’s use of Turkey to get recruits into Syria.  Special correspondent Jane Ferguson reports.

BRUSSELS ATTACKS - Europe's Problem

"Why Europe has a problem of Islamic State terrorism" PBS NewsHour 3/23/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  European nations are boosting their national security efforts in the wake of the recent terrorist bombings in Brussels.  How great a threat is the Islamic State group to Europe?  Gwen Ifill sits down with former State Department official Daniel Benjamin and Joby Warrick of The Washington Post to learn more.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  We return to the attacks in Brussels, and what they said about the growing Islamic State threat in Europe and elsewhere.

Daniel Benjamin was coordinator for counterterrorism at the State Department during the first term of the Obama administration.  He’s now a professor at Dartmouth College.  And Joby Warrick is a national security correspondent at The Washington Post.  He’s also the author of the book “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS.”

Daniel Benjamin, was this a nightmare scenario that could have been foreseen? Yesterday, we heard people saying, this is what we feared.

DANIEL BENJAMIN, Former State Department Official:  I think that people who have been watching terrorism have been fearing this for many years, actually.

The recognition that Europe had a problem with extremism in its midst and the recognition that Europe hadn’t taken security arrangements as seriously as it should have, I think, has been common.  That observation has been common in the security community for many years now.

GWEN IFILL:  Joby Warrick, the Associated Press, among others, have been reporting today that there were as many as 400 people being trained by ISIS to carry out these attacks in Europe.  So did they not leave any footprints or any signs?

ISIS - Southeast Asia

"Explosions and gunfire in Jakarta leave 5 gunmen, 2 civilians dead" by Joshua Barajas, PBS NewsHour 1/14/2016

Several attackers set off a series of explosions that targeted downtown Jakarta on Thursday and exchanged gunfire with Indonesian authorities, leaving at least seven people, including five assailants, dead.

Updated:  The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on its website.

The blasts focused on the Sarinah shopping center in the Indonesian capital with at least one explosion at a Starbucks cafe.  Initial images of the aftermath showed bodies in the streets, as police arrived at the cafe, engaging the suspects in a shootout. More explosions soon followed.

Hours after the first blast, police said five suspects and two civilians were killed and 10 more people were injured.  A Dutch man was among the dead, Indonesia’s security minister Luhut Panjaitan said.  Indonesian President Joko Widodo appeared on national TV to say the situation was “under control” and to call for calm.

“This act is clearly aimed at disturbing public order and spreading terror among people,” he said.  “The state, the nation and the people should not be afraid of, and lose to, such terror acts.”

It’s unclear whether the attackers detonated bombs or grenades.

"How well-organized is ISIS in Southeast Asia?" PBS NewsHour 1/14/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Multiple gunmen and suicide bombers struck the center of Jakarta, targeting a police booth as well as a nearby Starbucks.  Two civilians were killed and five attackers died.  The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility.  Chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports, and Judy Woodruff explores ISIS's expansion into Southeast Asia with Joby Warrick of The Washington Post.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 11/20/2015

"Shields and Brooks on how Paris changed the political debate" PBS NewsHour 11/20/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including the political and psychological aftermath of the Paris attacks, 2016 candidates speak out on the refugee crisis and fighting the Islamic State, plus reassessing President Obama’s strategy in Syria.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  And to the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That’s syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Welcome, gentlemen.

So, this entire week, we have spent looking at what happened in Paris.

My question is, David, has this — what has this done here in the United States?  Are we now in some kind of new normal, as we were after 9/11?

DAVID BROOKS, New York Times:  I think what ISIS has done psychologically is, it’s like a drug, you have to take more of it to get the effect.

And so their malevolence, their viciousness, their violence, they have ratcheted up a level.  And they started doing that from the first moment we became conscious of them, with the beheadings, with setting people on fire, and then this killing.

And while they haven’t achieved the super al-Qaida 9/11, they have created a more menacing atmosphere, I think, in this country, certainly in Europe and around the world, in Nigeria, Boko Haram.  And so I think there is a sense of living with violence.

And so I think about Israel, with, whatever you think of Middle East policy, the citizens there live with violence.  And you adjust in some ways, you develop rituals in some ways, but it preys on the consciousness in a lot of complicated ways.  And I think we’re now more or less in that world.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  How do you feel it has changed things?

MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated columnist:  I don’t think it compares with 9/11; 9/11 was a profound traumatic experience in this nation.

And just in the reaction, I think that there’s — you can see what 14 years of conflict has done, and 14 years of being at war has done, as well as what ISIS has done.  Fourteen years ago, when the United States suffered the greatest infliction of loss of life on its own soil in our history, the President of the United States, George W. Bush, visited a mosque.  He said, Islam are our friends.  These are — the people who do this are traitors to their faith, and we must remind and remember that.

He looked like Abraham Lincoln, compared to the reaction of politicians in this city, and particularly in Lisa Desjardins’ piece tonight, which was small, petty, vengeful, un-American, unserious and irresponsible.

MALI - Radisson Blu Hotel Attack

"Who was behind the Bamako hotel attack?" PBS NewsHour 11/20/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Extremists armed with guns and grenades stormed a luxury hotel in Bamako, Mali, early Friday morning, shooting dozens.  Witnesses said they went room by room, letting guests go if they could recite verses of the Koran.  Malian special forces stormed the hotel, freeing hostages and battling the Islamist attackers into the night.  Judy Woodruff talks to Rudolph Atallah of the Atlantic Council.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  The siege today in the capital city of Mali lasted all day before ending this evening.  Islamist gunmen burst into a hotel and seized up to 170 hostages, many of them foreigners.  In the end, scores of hostages were rescued or escaped, but the estimates of the dead ranged from 19 to at least 27, plus two attackers.

And the State Department said one American was among those killed.

The attack on the Radisson Blu brought security forces on the run early this morning.  Mali’s Defense Ministry said extremists armed with guns and grenades stormed the luxury hotel in Bamako just as guests were beginning their day.

MAN (through interpreter):  At this moment, this morning around 7:30, individuals not yet identified, about three or four, we believe, so far, attacked the Radisson Blu hotel.  Sadly, there are deaths.  People must remain calm.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  By some accounts, the attackers carjacked a diplomatic vehicle, drove up to the hotel, and stormed inside.  Witnesses said they shouted Islamist slogans and went room by room, asking guests if they could recite verses of the Koran.  Those who could were let go.

Early on, the owner of the hotel said the assailants locked in as many as 140 guests and 30 employees.  Hours later, Malian special forces stormed the hotel themselves, freeing hostages one floor at a time.

MAN (through interpreter):  The soldiers were very professional.  They took good care of us.  They came to us.  They knocked.  They said: “It’s the security forces.”  And then I looked.  It was them.  I left the room.  They cleared the whole floor.

MAN (through interpreter):  I heard gunshots very early in the morning.  I thought it was firecrackers and didn’t realize it was a hostage situation.  At one point, the Malian forces came to get us.  They knocked on our doors and evacuated us in small groups.  Thank God we’re safe.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  At least six Americans were evacuated during the operation, with U.S. and French special forces assisting the Malians.

A jihadist group previously affiliated with al-Qaida, al-Murabitun, claimed responsibility for the attack.

In Paris, French President Francois Hollande vowed to help the former French colony.

"The latest on the Mali hotel attack" PBS NewsHour 11/21/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Authorities in the West African nation of Mali say armed Islamic terrorists killed 19 people in Friday’s attack on a Radisson hotel in the capital city of Bamako.  Among the victims were hotel guests from Russia, China, Belgium, Israel -- and one American.  Wall Street Journal reporter Drew Hinshaw joins Megan Thompson via Skype from Ghana with the latest.