Shirtback

I know some very nice, peaceful Syrian Christians... too.

Shirtback

it ain't rocket science . There was a chap (Chem something) on france24.com last night who explained it all in a scarily rational manner.

I'm stepping away from this thread. Lived through too many threats & near misses in my younger years to be objective.

magnumpi

I think we all know some nice people, but it ain't nice people doing these massacres is it

JonboyE

Thank you. That should be required reading. I think it is important that more people understand that Wahhabi Islam is a bastardisation (word?) of the real religion. As someone (a Muslim) said to me, there are six thousand verses in the Koran. If you take 30 verses out of the book and completely ignore the other 5,970 you end up with ISIS.

I heard an interview a few weeks ago on The Current with a journalist from The Independent. (Unfortunately I cannot remember his name.) He said the key to understanding ISIS is not to focus on their ideology or even their brutality. ISIS is a weapon and to understand them you have to consider who is pointing the weapon, and why.

IMO there has been a low-level war for years over who will control the Middle East: The West, Saudi Arabia, or Iran. This is now being escalated. I think that ISIS is much more interested in surrounding and isolating Iran that they are in fighting us (the West). I believe the best of a bad out for us now is to give up our ambition and seek to mitigate the worst effects of the ensuing conflict.

Shard

Robert Fisk. Presumably it's the Wahhabi clerics pointing the so-called "weapon" but what's the why? Subjugation of Iran's Shia population and/or expansion into Europe and beyond?

JonboyE

Thanks. Yes, to control Iran.

jimf

A pretty fair assessment of the situation - a muslim reformation.

Alan2005

It's stupid really. Iran would have made a much better ally to the west than Saudi Arabia is now. They (the Saudi's) just can't be trusted at all.

paw339

I think the biggest danger is that our politicians are always more worried about being politically correct rather than protecting their own citizens. The security services had long been warning that ISIS and other terrorist groups would use the the flood of migrants to enter Europe without having to pass through any form of security and it looks like at least 2 of the Paris killers were "refugees".

magnumpi

Really? That's a game changer for me, I just got home now, making tea for 1, wife watching Leafs can u post a link for that please (I is feeling lazy and hungry) thanks

BristolUK

I'm only reading that about one and until the finger prints are checked it's as likely that the passport was carried by someone else. That's the official view.

Unofficially and bearing in mind the likelihood of drowning, all the various hold-ups and all the rest of it, it doesn't sound like a very efficient way of getting one of your operatives to a target country beyond the one you "escape" to.

Particularly when one could actually get to France by legal, quicker and cheaper means.

@magnumPI
http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ttacks-killers

paw339

is one link from Greek government

magnumpi

Thanks

Tirytory

The key wording at the moment is "passport holder" .... Syrian passports are apparently hot property and sold on the black market. It has not been ascertained whether the passport actually rightfully belonged to the terrorist or whether he was just using it. Given that the other one is a French National, it's all supposition at the moment as to whether they came through as a "refugee"..

Although I apologise if he has been definitely identified. I was reading about it lunchtime and he hadn't been positively identified as the correct owner of the passport.

Tirytory

From the Guardian's Coverage...


Syrian passport found on Paris attacker's body belonged to refugee who passed through Greece

The holder of a Syrian passport found near the body of one of the gunmen who died in Friday night’s attacks in Paris passed though Greece in October, a Greek minister told Reuters.

“The holder of the passport passed through the island of Leros on 3 October 2015, where he was identified according to EU rules,” said Nikos Toscas, Greece’s deputy minister in charge of policing.

A Greek police source told Reuters that European countries had been asked to check the passport holder to see if they had been registered.

While this heavily implies that one of the gunman came into Europe along with refugees, Syrian passports are known to be valuable currency amongst those trying to enter Europe, and it is not yet confirmed whether the holder of the passport is indeed the perpetrator.