TRUCK TERROR; BLOG # 2127; FRI. MAR 9, 2018

THE MESSAGE:

There have been at least 12 separate terror attacks around the world involving vehicles attacking pedestrians. The maelstrom seems to have started as a result of the following diatribe: 

In September 2014, ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani called for lone wolf attacks using improvised weaponry, "If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock or slaughter him with a knife or run him over with your car or throw him down from a high place or choke him or poison him."

In July 2016, in Nice, France, 86 people were killed and more than 400 injured after a 31-year-old Tunisian man ploughed a truck into a crowd of people on a promenade. 

On December 19, 2016, 12 people died after a Tunisian man drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin.

On October 31, 2017, 8 people were killed and almost a dozen injured when a 29-year-old man in a rented pickup truck drove down a busy bicycle path near the World Trade Center Tuesday in Manhattan, New York City. The suspect was from Uzbekistan but had been living in the US since 2010. 

On 7 April 2017, in central Stockholm, a hijacked truck was deliberately driven into crowds along Queen Street, the busiest shopping street in the city, and then into a department store. Five people were killed and 14 others were seriously injured.

The truck used in the attack being
removed from the scene

Police considered the attack an act of terrorism. Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old rejected asylum seeker and citizen of Uzbekistan. He was apprehended the same day and Swedish police said he expressed sympathy with extremist organizations to them. Uzbek authorities said he had allegedly joined ISIL before the attack. A homemade bomb was reportedly found in the truck after it was abandoned by the hijacker. “Sweden has been attacked. Everything points to a terrorist act,” the Swedish prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said.  Police became increasingly convinced that the 39-year-old Uzbek they had seized in a northern suburb around midnight was indeed the truck driver behind the carnage. Police sources also said an unexploded bomb had also been found in the cab of the truck.

On 30 January 2018, Rakhmat Akilov was formally charged. According to the head prosecutor, Akilov admitted carrying out the attack at a pre-trial hearing.

THE BLOG:

The Stockholm killings come two months after the US president, Donald Trump, was widely ridiculed for referring to a non-existent terror attack in Sweden. Not only is Trump the smartest man in America. Can he also see into the future?

Trump’s remark prompted a fierce international debate over the consequences of Sweden’s 2015 open-door refugee policy, which led to 163,000 people claiming asylum after fleeing wars in the Middle East, north Africa and Afghanistan.  Early in 2016, Sweden reversed its position and the flow of asylum seekers has drastically fallen.

In the country’s cities, which are highly segregated, Islamist ideas have found a hearing among small numbers of disaffected young people with immigrant backgrounds.  Since 2012, nearly 300 people have travelled from Sweden to join violent Islamist groups, according to Swedish security services, making the country second only to Belgium as the largest contributor of Islamist militants from Europe.

Many of the young Swedish recruits come from vulnerable backgrounds and have low or no incomes, according to Magnus Ranstorp, an extremism expert at the Swedish Defence University in Stockholm. 

Some of the girls joining Isis are merely impressionable and following their boyfriends, while others are groomed online and want to rebel against patriarchal restrictions in their families. 

Sweden’s leaders searched for words that have now become a grimly familiar message of defiance in response to these attacks. “The terrorists can never defeat Sweden. We will not be subjugated,” said the prime minister, Stefan Löfven.

The flow of Isis recruits from Sweden has now ceased, as Isis has lost territory and crossing Turkey’s border with Syria has become much more difficult. But some 110 people have returned to Sweden after going there to fight. Is this where Canadian PM Trudeau gets his ideas?

The Segerstedt Institute in Gothenburg, set up a system intended to serve as a national resource centre against violent ideologies and movements.   It concentrates on looking at individuals who are at risk of becoming radicalized.  While a common factor is poverty and marginalization from mainstream society, experts are also paying close attention to the existence of local influences towards radicalization. 

The centre has been criticized and boycotted by some and declared to be an institution of racism.

Police indicate that there are 12,000 rejected asylum seekers who are in the country and have gone underground. This number includes 3,000 in the Stockholm region.  Carl Bildt, a former prime minister and foreign minister, notes that up to 137 Uzbeks appeared to be “on the run” despite orders for their extradition. Mr. Bildt, a respected voice in European affairs, regards the situation as  “highly problematic.” 

THE QUESTION:

Is Trump over the hump or will he be impeached?

THE LEMON:

Awarded to Rakhmat Akilov, the Uzbek, for his cowardly actions in Sweden. 

THE QUOTE:

"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival." Winston Churchill

THE CLIP:

Marlin Stivani Nivarlain is a 15-year-old Swedish girl. Last year, her boyfriend became obsessed with ISIS, and she followed him to Syria to join the group.