Paris attacks 2015

2016 October 18 Bataclan in Paris, and ranging across as much of Paris as they could reach, attacked by Muslims http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-europe-left-itself-open-to-terrorism/ PBS Frontline and Pro Publica by Sebastian Rotella

European counterterror officials acknowledged that ISIS exploited a litany of longtime security weaknesses that remain largely unaddressed...core contradictions in the European Union, where internal borders have been abolished for travel and commerce but impede police and intelligence work. “I don’t know what we are waiting for,” Bruguiere said. “Do we have to wait for hundreds of deaths?”

Differences in laws and security cultures hamper intelligence-sharing and law enforcement cooperation among nations. There is memory of authoritarian abuses of the Nazis and, later, the Stasi secret police...incomplete databases, and the lack of a universal database of terror suspects. Short prison sentences for terrorism and violent crime that have freed ex-convicts to play prominent roles in the jihad.

...entered Europe illegally, hiring smugglers to sneak them across the borders of Greece. More than a dozen of the suspects in the Paris and Brussels attacks came from Belgium, which served as a staging ground for the accused plotters...criticized Belgium, a linguistically and culturally divided country where French and Flemish-speaking regions often clash about basic government functions. Belgium’s woes are symptomatic of an approach to security that exists in other nations, especially in northern Europe, that emphasizes privacy and individual rights. However well-intentioned, the result has been to constrain law enforcement, critics say. “Since the ’90s, Belgium has been an outpost for terrorists,” said Louis Caprioli...“The difficulty with Belgium is that it is a federal state, with services lacking human and technical resources [underfunding of critical government functions], and which have very restrictive laws regarding wiretaps, the use of cameras.

The threat varied. It was most intense in nations with restive second and third generations of young Muslims.

The Paris Attacks

The group drove with guns and explosives in a convoy to Paris, using a scout car, chase car and other tactics often employed by drug runners.

November 13, 2015 Suicide bombers with vests detonated them outside the stadium. Further into the centre of Paris, gunmen stormed cafes and restaurants...Le Carillon bar...gunman crossed the road...Le Petit Cambodge restaurant.

A few streets south, two gunmen then attacked diners in front of the Cafe Bonne Biere and La Casa Nostra pizzeria...La Bella Equipe bar...a suicide bomber entered a cafe on the nearby Boulevard Voltaire and placed an order before detonating his vest...mass shooting and hostage situation took place at the Bataclan theatre. There were around 1500 audience members in the venue, watching a sold-out concert by Californian rock band Eagles of Death Metal. Around an hour after the concert began, gunmen entered the building and opened fire on the crowd from the mezzanine – which some audience members initially thought was pyrotechnics...100 music fans hostage, and witnesses heard the gunmen mention Syria...security forces entered the hall. The siege came to an end when police shot one gunman, causing his suicide belt to blow up, before the other two attackers detonated theirs.

Seven of the nine perpetrators were killed. The attacks claimed the lives of 130 people, injuring 352 others.