Terror in Paris: What did the Elites Know?

Translated from the German by Gregory Ritter

Original article on Info-Direkt.

Note: The hyperlinks in the original Info-Direkt article were to German-language media. Where possible, these have been replaced by links to English-language articles covering similar material.

Terror in Paris: What did the Elites Know?

Flying blind usually ends in disaster. The disaster in Paris (which was but a prelude) was foreseeable. The political leaders did nothing to stop it. And they will do nothing to stop it in the future.

by Florian Meyer

“How can anyone be shocked?” asked the US-based Gatestone Institute, expressing its skepticism at the way the press covered the public mourning among politicians and the official media. The EU politicians “exhibited an irresponsibility and lack of leadership that is almost infantile.” In reality, politicians and the media were, and are, very well informed about the catastrophic security situation in Europe. They just do not report it, because it seems that their real job is to reassure the masses.

Experts warned of Terror

On Friday, Info-Direkt published a video-interview of retired Austrian army Major Rudolf Moser at Spielfeld on the Slovakian border. Moser covered the situation in the border town from a military point-of-view. According to him, the Austrian government would fail in every respect and would implement no sort of inspections or security checks—the whole situation would inevitably lead to civil war. Then that evening, fewer than 10 terrorists managed to put France under a state of Emergency.

It is also well documented that the decision-makers—like the Austrian interior ministry—have downplayed or ignored warnings. As Info-Direkt reported in September, the alarm was sounded by Gert R. Polli, the former leader of the Austrian state security agency.[1] He specifically predicted attacks in Europe. “We are dealing with a ‘flying blind’ security policy on an unprecedented scale. It is of great concern, that terrorist agents can operate on European soil in independent cells, and remain hidden from the security agencies until the attack. This is exactly the strategy that ISIS is pursuing. So it is very disturbing that reliable evidence of ISIS activity has eluded German and Austrian security agencies.”

Another ignored warning: migrants’ cell phones have been found with videos unambiguously depicting ISIS atrocities. The only conclusion to be drawn from these videos is that some terrorists would turn up among the refugees. There were also reports of 4,000 ISIS-terrorists, who were sent into Europe disguised as refugees.

Now, after the attacks in Paris, voices such as Moser’s and Polli’s are making themselves heard in the mainstream. The current director of the Austrian state security agency, Peter Gridling, expects there are about 250 people committed to waging Jihad in Austria. “We cannot watch all suspects around the clock,” priority goes to the most dangerous.[2]

The attacks were not a surprise for political scientist Thomas Schmidinger of the University of Vienna. An expert on Islamic extremism, his research focuses on the Middle East and political Islam. All the same, he assumes that, “this will not have been the last terrorist act of ISIS in Europe.” Europe stands “at the beginning of what is likely to be a long war.” Schmidinger considers ISIS attacks on Austria “definitely possible.”

And for security expert Wilmont Franta, this attack was not the last: “The events in Paris, which will probably bring about enormous social changes, are nevertheless only the ‘overture to the operetta.’ A few terrorists were enough to bring disaster to a city of millions, an entire country, even all Europe. But already thousands of ISIS fighters have seeped in.”

Terrorists entered the country as “Refugees”

Several of the Paris attackers may have entered Europe posing as refugees. In one case, we can be certain. A passport found on one of the attackers belonged to a man who came to the EU through the Greek island of Leros at the beginning of October, as the government in Athens disclosed Saturday evening.

This passport belonged to Paris attacker Ahmad Al-Mohammad. He was registered at the Croatian camp at Opatovac, from where he crossed through Hungary and into Austria, Croatian interior ministry spokeswoman, Helena Biočić, confirmed to several Media outlets. But for Austrian politicians, naturally this is no reason to rethink border-policy: “These are conjectures, which belong to the field of speculation,” said Austrian Interior Ministry Spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundböck.

In intelligence circles, however, it is considered unlikely that a suicide-bomber would go to his death with his passport in his pocket. This brings to mind the attacks on Charlie Hebdo: Then too, the killers had “accidentally” forgotten their passports in their get-away car. It is still unclear who gave the hitmen their orders. Russia’s President Putin asked the obvious question: Who were the masterminds behind the attack? Cui bono?

Despite the dangers caused by unsecured borders, the Austrian government is confident: There will still be no border closings. So again this weekend, thousands were received at the border town of Spielfeld. Enhanced security measures and increased funding are probably only the first step for the political dignitaries. The actual concerns of the elites have shifted, as evidenced by the statements of the German government, whose first reaction to the Paris attacks was to make it known that it would guard refugee centers better “for fear of attacks by right-wing extremists.” The government “fears, that right-wing radicals might, after the attacks in Paris, hunt down the refugees.”

What can be considered certain about the Terror attacks three days later?

• The media and politicians know of the latent danger. Yet they have lied to Europeans on a large scale.
• The measures demanded by the majority of citizens (such as closing the borders or the necessary registrations) are still not being implemented.
• The surveillance of the citizens will be further expanded (legislation on communications via mobile phones, Internet censorship, etc.), terrorism supplies the necessary pretext
• The assertion, that Europe is deliberately being hurled into chaos, is no longer a “conspiracy theory.” The politicians would rebut, that no one wants chaos. But the politicians’ actions and failings do not allow for any other conclusion.
• If the citizen wants security, he must provide it for himself.

[1] The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism. Polli’s prediction can be found in German here.

[2] I have replaced part of Info-Direkt’s paraphrase with the quote from the original article.