Thread: Terrorist use truck to kill 30 people, injure many

Terrorist Attack in Nice, France, Leaves 84 Dead and 202 Injured

New York Times - 20 minutes ago

Terrorist behind Nice attack a creepy loner; not overtly religious, say neighbors

Published July 15, 2016 FoxNews.com


The monster behind the wheel of a box truck that plowed into Bastille Day revelers in Nice late Thursday - killing at least 84 - was a creepy Tunisian loner sometimes prone to violence, but not seen by police or neighbors as a religious fanatic, according to French reports.

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove a delivery truck for a living, but rented the 19-ton Renault that he turned into a killing machine on the seaside promenade where French citizens and tourists had just watched a fireworks show. Scores more were injured by what authorities called an act of terror that only ended when police shot and killed Bouhlel.

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This ID, purportedly of the Nice terrorist who killed at least 84 people Thursday night, was found at the scene by police.


French media reported that Bouhlel, 31, was arrested in March after causing an accident when he fell asleep at the wheel of his truck. Divorced, he wore his hair like George Clooney and lived alone in an apartment in Nice’s Abattoirs neighborhood, according to French television station BFM TV.

No terror groups have taken credit for the attack, although ISIS-linked social media accounts have praised it. Al Qaeda has previously called on sympathizers to use trucks and cars to kill innocent civilians.

Bouhlel reportedly rented the truck earlier this week. While the promenade is typically closed to traffic, Bouhlel reportedly told police he was delivering ice cream to the festive crowd, then gunned the motor once past a checkpoint.

Citing Tunisian security sources, the Telegraph reported that Bouhlel was originally from that North African nation’s town of Msaken, near the coastal city of Sousse, where 38 people were gunned down by terrorists in June 2015.

Neighbors told BFM Bouhlel was not overtly religious, but had been depressed – and even aggressive - over his divorce and financial problems.

"He (didn't) pray and liked girls and Salsa," BFM's crime correspondent reported.

A neighbor the channel identified as Jasmine said Bouhlel was "rude and a bit weird” and had his hair cut like the famous actor.

"He kept to himself but would always rant about his wife,” she said. “He had marital problems and would tell people in the local cafe. He scared my children though."

Other neighbors told the channel Bouhlel was handsome, but creepy.

He had a police record that included assault with a weapon, domestic violence, threats and robbery but had no previous convictions for terrorism, the Telegraph reported.

Police raided several locations in and around Nice Friday. After the attack, they found a handgun, rifle and a number of fake weapons and grenades in the truck.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/07/15/terrorist-behind-nice-attack-creepy-loner-not-overtly-religious-say-neighbors.html

BREAKING NEWS
10 children among 84 dead in truck terror attack in France

• Live blog

• Truck hits crowd
• Photos
• The victims
• Survivor was in Dallas last week
• Bergen: Trucks as terror tool
• Why France again?
• Town's touching movement
• Amanpour: Totalitarian war

MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS
2 Americans — dad and son from Texas — and 10 kids among 84 killed when terrorist plows truck into Bastille Day crowd in Nice; driver ID'd as Tunisian French national

• DRIVER IDENTIFIED: Creepy loner; not overtly religious, say neighbors
• VIDEO: Ex-wife of France terror suspect held by police
• 'HEARTBROKEN AND IN SHOCK': Father and son killed in Nice terror attack mourned by Texas community
• WARNING, GRAPHIC VIDEO: Aftermath of attack in Nice, France
• WARNING, GRAPHIC PHOTOS: Deadly truck attack in Nice, France
• LIVE BLOG: Fox News coverage of the truck attack in Nice, France
• VIDEOS: Death toll rises in Nice truck attack | ISIS social media accounts celebrate attack
• VIDEO: Survivors recount the gruesome scene in Nice | VIDEO: Officials say Nice attack is 'in line with ISIS'
• VIDEO: Footage captures truck accelerating into crowd in Nice, France

Terrorism by truck has long been feared by law enforcement

2 new arrests in Nice truck attack, as ISIS claim studied

Published July 17, 2016 Associated Press

• A teddy bear is laid with flowers and candles to honor the victims of an attack, on the Promenade des Anglais, near the area where a truck mowed through revelers in Nice, southern France, Saturday, July 16, 2016. A large truck mowed through revelers gathered for Bastille Day fireworks in Nice, killing scores of people and sending people fleeing into the sea as it bore down for more than a mile along the Riviera city's famed waterfront promenade. (AP Photo/Claude Paris) (The Associated Press)

PARIS – French authorities detained two more people Sunday in the investigation into the Bastille Day truck attack on the Mediterranean city of Nice that killed at least 84 people, as authorities try to determine whether the slain attacker was a committed religious extremist or just a very angry man.

A man and a woman were detained Sunday morning in Nice, according to an official with the Paris prosecutor's office, which oversees national terrorism investigations. The official provided no details on their identities, and said five people detained previously remain in custody. Neighbors told The Associated Press that the attacker's estranged wife was among them.

Investigators are hunting for possible accomplices to truck driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian who had lived in Nice for years. He was killed by police after ramming his truck through crowds on Nice's famed seafront after a holiday fireworks display Thursday night.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but it's unclear whether Bouhlel had concrete links to the group. The IS statement said he was following their calls to target citizens of countries fighting the extremists.

French officials did not dispute the claim but they have not provided concrete evidence of a connection.

Neighbors described the attacker as volatile, prone to drinking and womanizing, and in the process of getting a divorce. His father, in Tunisia, said his son did not pray or fast for Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.

But he may have had a swift, recent change toward a more extremist worldview. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told reporters Saturday that "it seems he was radicalized very quickly."

Nice's Promenade des Anglais is gradually reopening and becoming a shrine to the dead, with memorials set up on the westbound lane of the road in spots where victims were felled, some still identifiable by bloodstains. Joggers, bikers and sunbathers populated the pedestrian walkway along the glistening Mediterranean Sea, where well-wishers placed flowers, French flags, stuffed animals and candles.

The site is also becoming a platform for anger at the attacker. Pained and outraged epitaphs are now written in blue maker on stones placed where police shot him dead.

A woman with a potted plant asked if she could put flowers there, unaware of the significance of the spot. A man standing nearby said "Never here." An argument ensued, with other passers-by saying that his family deserved respect.

"Are you defending him?" the man said, incredulously.

With scores still hospitalized, including many children, France's health minister was visiting Nice on Sunday.

Many families are angry that they couldn't find information about missing loved ones, and many are angry at police for not preventing the deadly attack despite France being under a state of emergency imposed after Islamic State attacks last year in Paris.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/07/17...cers-down.html

July 20, 2016

MSM Spreads ISIS Propaganda: France Responsible for Being Terrorized

By Raymond Ibrahim

After the Nice, France terror attack – where approximately 84 people were killed and hundreds injured – Western "mainstream media" is again in full damage control mode trying to rescue "the narrative" – namely, that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism.

Take one Reuters report by Tom Heneghan, titled "Foreign and domestic policies make France 'most threatened country.'" Its very first opening sentence cites terrorist propaganda:

After two militant attacks in Paris killed 17 people in January last year, Islamic State's French-language magazine Dar al-Islam appeared with the Eiffel Tower on the cover and the headline "May Allah curse France[.]"

Why Muslims would call on Allah's wrath against France is the theme of the entire report, and here Heneghan leaves no stone unturned – even managing to invoke the Crusades – in his attempt to portray France as "aggrieving" Muslims:

The reasons that make France a prime target for radical Islamist groups range from its present-day military operations all the way to – at least in Islamic State's propaganda – the Crusades from the 11th to 15th centuries when Christians battled Muslims in the Middle East.

Regarding France's foreign policies, Heneghan writes:

After the Paris attacks, Islamic State said France and other countries fighting alongside it would remain threatened as long as they pursued "their crusader campaign" in Syria and Iraq[.] ...

"France is gripped by an irrational and deaf hatred against Islam and Muslims that pushed it to the head of the coalition against the caliphate," Dar al-Islam wrote last year, referring to the territory controlled by Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Aside from the fact that Heneghan almost entirely relies on and spreads ISIS and Islamic propaganda, the purpose of all this is that Muslims are angry with France because France is warring against ISIS. Here we encounter the first conundrum: if, as we are repeatedly told by mainstream media, ISIS – that terrorist organization that beheads, enslaves, rapes, crucifies, and burns people alive – has "nothing to do with Islam," why are Muslims angry at France's efforts against ISIS to the point of launching terrorist attacks against its civilians?

The only way to accept that regular Muslims – such as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the non-ISIS affiliated perpetrator of the Nice attack – are aggrieved at France's war on ISIS is by first accepting that such Muslims identity and support the worst human rights-abusing state of the 21st-century (as several polls indicate).

On France's domestic front, Heneghan finds a number of other factors and policies to aggrieve Muslims:

The country, which has Europe's largest Muslim minority, also has a steadfastly secular culture that sidelines religion in public life, typified by a ban on Islamic face veils in public and headscarves in state schools and the civil service.

Supporters say this encourages a common French identity but critics say it alienates non-Christian minorities, who see many vestiges of France's traditional Catholicism – such as official holidays for Christmas and Easter – but little leeway for them.

This is a misrepresentation of facts. All religious symbols – not just Muslim ones like the hijab – are banned to the same extent in France. And although there are many more Christians than Muslims in France, they do not commit terrorist acts (perhaps because Christianity, unlike Islam, comports well with secular rule).

At any rate, by claiming that France "alienates non-Christian minorities" – when indigenous Christians face the same restrictions – Heneghan continues disseminating Islamic propaganda:

Some in the five-million-strong Muslim community, about 8 percent of the population, complain of discrimination and many Muslims live in poorer neighborhoods in the large cities.

They feel France is unfairly tough on their religion[.]

The poor babies… If it's so bad, why do they go there? Why do they stay there? Why don't they feel aggrieved at and hold responsible their own corrupt Muslim countries of origin – and terrorize them instead?

Whatever one makes of the claims of this report, the facts remain: "Terrorism ... is a threat that weighs heavily on France and will continue doing so for a long time," Prime Minister Manuel Valls said after the Nice attack. "Today, France is clearly the most threatened country," the head of the General Directorate for Internal Security also declared. "The question about the threat is not to know 'if' but 'when' and 'where.'"

The reasons for this have little to do with Western-sponsored Islamic propaganda and everything to do with Islam's presence in France, a non-Muslim "infidel" nation.

Consider: if Muslims are terrorizing France due to social and political "grievances," why are they also terrorizing and slaughtering other non-Muslim minorities who have no political power to "aggrieve" anyone? For example, a 2016 statistical report found that Muslims – not ISIS, just regular Muslims – are responsible for persecuting Christians in 41 of the 50 worst nations to be Christian in.

In these nations, Muslim governments openly discriminate against Christians – churches are banned from being built – while Muslim mobs openly persecute, abduct, extort, enslave, and rape them with impunity. And they all justify their persecution by citing Islamic doctrines that are unequivocally hostile to non-Muslims.

Yet here are Muslims who are allowed to build mosques and granted equality before the law complaining because "[t]hey feel France is unfairly tough on their religion," and they are upset because they "see many vestiges of France's traditional Catholicism – such as official holidays for Christmas and Easter," to quote Reuters.

Unlike the disparity between the indigenous Europeans and their Muslim guests, the Christians being persecuted by Muslims are often identical to their persecutors in race, ethnicity, national identity, culture, and language. There is no political dispute, no land dispute. Most significantly, these disempowered Christian minorities certainly have no political power – meaning there are no Muslim "grievances," either.

So why are they hated and hounded? Because they are Christians – infidels – and that's the ultimate reason the French are being terrorized.

The French and all Western people – indeed, all non-Islamic people – would do well to remember what James Lorimer, a theoretician of legal jurisprudence, wrote back in 1884 in his Institutes of the Law of Nations:

So long as Islam endures, the reconciliation of its adherents, even with Jews and Christians ["People of the Book"], and still more with the rest of mankind, must continue to be an insoluble problem[.] ... For an indefinite future, however reluctantly, we must confine our political recognition to the professors of those religions which ... preach the doctrine of "live and let live."

In this light, a much simpler factor explains why France has been repeatedly exposed to terrorist attacks – a factor casually alluded to in Reuter's otherwise pro-Islamic propaganda piece: "Europe's largest Muslim minority" resides in France; there is a "five-million-strong Muslim community, about 8 percent of the population."

In short, Islam's Rule of Numbers – which holds that the more Muslims grow in numbers, the more violence against non-Muslims grows with them – is the true reason France has become the "most threatened country."

Articles: MSM Spreads ISIS Propaganda: France Responsible for Being Terrorized

2,200 people shot in Chicago this year, 21 of them kids 13 and under

'Load the truck with 2,000 tonnes of iron... release the brakes my friend and I will watch': Facebook messages reveal Bastille Day killer 'had accomplices for attack which was planned for months'

'Load the truck with 2,000 tonnes of iron... release the brakes my friend and I will watch': Facebook messages reveal Bastille Day killer 'had accomplices for attack which had been planned for months'

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel didn't plan massacre alone, prosecutor says

Phone records show Bouhlel had been studying an attack since 2015

Five suspects are set to appear in court in connection with the massacre

One of the suspects filmed the scene of the crime the day after the carnage

Comes after police find a rifle and ammunition during a raid

They were discovered in the basement of a 22-year-old man

Bouhlel sent text messages to man on the night of the attack

By JENNIFER NEWTON and ANTHONY JOSEPH FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 10:34 GMT, 21 July 2016 | UPDATED: 23:11 GMT, 21 July 2016

An accomplice told the Nice Bastille Day killer to 'load the truck with 2,000 tonnes of iron, release the brakes and I will watch' months before the terror attack which killed 84 people.

The Bastille Day truck attack had been planned for 'several months' and terrorist Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had 'support and accomplices' before he went on the deadly rampage, a prosecutor has revealed.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said five suspects currently in custody are facing preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping Bouhlel, in a judicial inquiry opened on Thursday.

Molins said information from the terrorist's phone showed searches and photos that indicated he had been studying an attack since 2015.

Four men and a woman are accused of being 'involved in the preparation' of the attack. The five suspects were presented to anti-terrorism judges and charged with a number of crimes, including complicity to murder and possessing weapons tied to a terrorist enterprise.
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French police have found a Kalashnikov rifle and a bag of ammunition in the basement of the man
they believed received text messages from the Bastille Day attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, pictured right

'Investigations have not only confirmed the premeditated nature of the attack, but allowed us to establish that (Bouhlel) had support and accomplices in the preparation and execution of his criminal act,' Molins said.

In one chilling turn of events, Molins said that one of the suspects, a Tunisian named Mohamed Oualid G, had filmed the scene of the crime the day after the carnage, as it crawled with paramedics and journalists.

Analysis of Bouhlel's telephone revealed pictures taken at a Bastille Day fireworks display in Nice in 2015, as well as a concert on the Promenade des Anglais on July 17, 2015, at which he had zoomed in on the crowd.

On May 26 last year, he took a photo of an article about the drug Captagon which Molins said was 'used by some jihadists responsible for attacks'.

'It appears... that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel planned and developed his criminal project for several months before taking action,' said Molins.

On April 4, another Tunisian, Chokri C, 37, had sent Bouhlel a Facebook message reading: 'Load the truck with 2,000 tonnes of iron... release the brakes my friend and I will watch'.

More than 400 investigators have been poring over evidence since the July 14 attack in which Bouhlel rammed a truck into crowds on the Nice promenade, leaving 84 dead and over 300 injured.

FRENCH MINISTER ADMITS NO NATIONAL POLICE WERE AT ENTRANCE TO NICE WALKWAY

France's interior minister has acknowledged there was no national police presence at the entrance to a pedestrianised walkway in Nice during the Bastille Day truck attack that killed 84 people.
In what represents a backtracking from his previous claim that there was, Bernard Cazeneuve says local police, who are more lightly armed, were guarding the entrance where Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove his truck.
Cazeneuve defended himself against charges in French newspaper Liberation he lied publicly about there being a national police presence at the entry point - with their cars blocking the road.
In a statement, Cazeneuve accused the paper of conspiracy theories and maintains that several 'heroic' national police - who shot dead the attacker - were stationed further down the promenade.

The news comes after French police found a Kalashnikov rifle and a bag of ammunition in the basement of a man they believe received text messages from the Bastille Day attacker just minutes before the massacre.

The raid was reportedly carried out as part of the investigation into the 22-year-old who allegedly discussed weapons with Bouhlel on the night he drove a truck into a crowded promenade in Nice.

Investigators said data found on Bouhel's mobile phone indicate he was also studying several locations where crowds gathered.

One photo shows a fireworks display on August 15, another a race on January 10 along the Promenade des Anglais where the attack took place, while a third shows the opening times of a fan zone during Euro 2016.

However, Jean-Pascal Padovani, the lawyer for the 22-year-old suspect, has denied 'any implication in a terrorist act' by his client.

Among the other suspects appearing in court are another three men and one woman aged between 22 and 40.

They include a 40-year-old whom Bouhlel had known for a long time and a 38-year-old Albanian, detained along with his girlfriend and suspected of providing the attacker with an automatic pistol.

Like Bouhlel, none of those arrested were known to French intelligence prior to the attack.

It comes as the French government is scrambling to reassure a jittery population after the country's third major attack in 18 months.

France's National Assembly and Senate are also set to pass a bill extending the state of emergency - which gives police extra powers to carry out searches and place people under house arrest - for six months.


The massacre on the Promenade des Anglais left 84 people dead after Bouhlel drove a truck into the crowds


The truck that Bouhlel used to mow down the victims who had been watching Bastille Day fireworks in Nice

It is the fourth time the security measures have been extended since Islamic State jihadists struck Paris in November, killing 130 people at restaurants, a concert hall and the national stadium.

On Wednesday, MPs also voted to allow authorities to search luggage and vehicles without prior approval from a prosecutor and to allow the police to seize data from computers and mobile phones.

The legislation also makes it easier for authorities to shut down places of worship where calls for violence and hate are made.


ISIS posted a video apparently shot in Iraq, where they holds swathes of territory, showing two
French-speaking jihadists threatening more attacks against France

ISIS has said the Tunisian driver was one of its 'soldiers' but investigators say that while he showed a recent interest in jihadist activity, there was no evidence he acted on behalf of the extremist group.

The group posted a video apparently shot in Iraq, where ISIS holds swathes of territory, showing two French-speaking jihadists threatening more attacks against France.

French Prime Minster Manuel Valls had warned earlier in the week that the country will face more attacks as its struggles to handle extremists returning from jihad in the Middle East and those radicalised at home by devouring propaganda on the internet.

Police ask Nice to delete surveillance images of attack

Published July 22, 2016 Associated Press

PARIS – Authorities in Nice are protesting against a request from French anti-terror police to delete surveillance camera images of last week's deadly truck attack, amid growing questions over the scale of the police presence at the time.

The city received a letter this week from the SDAT anti-terrorism agency, obtained by The Associated Press, saying images of the July 14 attack should be destroyed.

An official with the national police said the request was motivated by concern that the images could leak and be used for jihadi propaganda. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.

A lawyer for the city submitted a protest letter Friday saying Nice officials would not comply for legal, administrative and technical reasons. But the lawyer also notes that the images are scheduled to be automatically deleted anyway on Sunday, according to Nice City Hall practice of deleting CCTV images after 10 days. Investigators will keep copies of the images.

The dispute comes as the government faces growing criticism over security measures the night of the attack, and the cameras could show where and how police were deployed.

Top regional official Christian Estrosi, of the conservative opposition Republicans party, had argued for tougher security for Nice's Bastille Day fireworks celebrations.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve acknowledged Thursday that only lightly armed local police were guarding the entrance to a pedestrian zone on the Nice beachfront when driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel sped past a barricade and ran over people, killing 84. Cazeneuve had previously said national police were guarding the closed-off boulevard.

An internal police investigation into the security measures has been launched, and President Francois Hollande is holding a special security meeting Friday.

Five people were handed preliminary terrorism charges late Thursday night in the case. The Paris prosecutor says Bouhlel had accomplices and appears to have been plotting his attack for months, citing text messages, more than 1,000 phone calls and video of the attack scene on the phone of one of the suspects.

Nice City Hall has put up the names of all 84 people killed in the attack on two black banners. The victims were of several nationalities, as were the more than 300 people wounded in the attack.
___
Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

Police ask Nice to delete surveillance images of attack - Fox News