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Heavy Duty Trucking / July 15, 2016 The massacre by truck that killed at least 84 persons, including two Americans, and wounded over 200 others in France on July 14 raises anew the question of what can be done to prevent low-tech but devastating truck-ramming assaults of people alongside a roadway. The attack came out of nowhere as revelers were gathered on the seaside Promenade des Anglais in the famed resort city of Nice to view Bastille Day fireworks. The medium-duty cabover had been rented by the perpetrator, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year old Tunisian immigrant. several days before. At about 10:45 pm on July 14, Bouhlel drove the truck onto the thoroughfare and began plowing through the crowd. He kept driving and swerving into people for over a mile and began firing on police officers from the cab. The police returned fire, killing Bouhlel while he was still behind the wheel. Found in the cab was a small arsenal, including an automatic pistol, a cartridge clip, several cartridges, and a Kalashnikov and an M­16 rifle. On this side of the Atlantic, the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, was quick to react, issuing a statement early the next day that outlined immediate steps that were being taken to guard against any such assault, especially in New York City. Cuomo ordered state law enforcement officials to “step up security at high-profile locations” around the state, including airports, bridges, tunnels and mass transit systems. “The Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services’ Office of Emergency Management Watch Center will be on heightened alert, monitoring world events,” the governor said in a statement. “DHSES regional staff have all been notified to maintain a heightened state of awareness at mass gathering events.” He added that the New York State Police and Joint Task Force Empire Shield (which conducts Homeland Security operations) have deployed additional troops in the New York metropolitan region. New York City is no stranger to attack by truck. The first attempt by terrorists to destroy the World Trade Center, back in 1983, also used a rented truck. In it was placed a homemade 1,500-pound urea-nitrate bomb. The truck was parked in an underground garage and when the bomb exploded, it blew a hole five stories deep and half-a-football field wide. Six persons were killed and another thousand were injured by the blast. The other infamous truck bombings perpetuated against Americans were the assault on the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 and the 1995 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that left 168 persons dead. However, explosives in vehicles can be detected and vehicular proximity to buildings can be controlled. But preventing a truck, or a car, for that matter, from being unleashed as a lethal battering ram anywhere people are gathered is a far more difficult feat. Indeed, the thought of it imparts new, and more ghastly, meaning to the words “soft target.” Yet the threat of vehicular ramming is not new. The Department of Homeland Security addressed it as far back as 2010 in a public document released to law enforcement and first-responder personnel. “Terrorists overseas have suggested conducting vehicle ramming attacks— using modified or unmodified vehicles— against crowds, buildings, and other vehicles,” advised DHS. “Such attacks could be used to target locations where large numbers of people congregate, including sporting events, entertainment venues, or shopping centers.” Chillingly prescient, the agency went on to say that “Vehicle ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct a Homeland attack with minimal prior training or experience.” The document details several examples of vehicle-ramming incidents, not all of which were deemed acts of terrorism. The most severe one cited was a front-loader launched against a crowd of people in Israel that killed several and wounded dozens more in 2008. DHS also discussed “indicators” to be aware of that might point to an imminent vehicle-ramming attack. “Although a single indicator may not be suspicious, one or more might indicate a ramming attack is being developed, based on the specific facts or circumstances.” The agency soberly noted that “a ramming attack can be conducted with little to no warning.” Here are the indicators cited by DHS: Unusual modifications to commercial motor vehicles, heavy equipment, passenger cars, and sports utility vehicles (SUVs), such as homemade attempts to reinforce the front of the vehicle with metal plates The purchase, rental, or theft of large or heavy-duty vehicles or equipment, such as SUVs, trucks, or commercial motor vehicles, if accompanied by typical indicators such as nervousness during the purchase, paying in cash, or lack of familiarity with the vehicle’s operations Commercial motor vehicles or heavy equipment being operated erratically, at unusual times, or in unusual locations, particularly in heavy pedestrian areas Attempts to infiltrate closed areas where traffic usually moves, but where crowds are gathered, such as for street festivals or farmers’ markets A vehicle operator’s apparent unfamiliarity with commercial motor vehicle or heavy equipment operation (unable to back up; trouble with shifting; poor lane tracking; unfamiliarity with basic vehicle mechanics such as air brake operations, slack adjusters, fifth wheel operations, Jake brakes, engine type, or location of fire extinguishers and other emergency equipment) Clearly, the attack at Nice has signaled that everyone from police officers to motorists to pedestrians must keep foremost in mind that the next lone-wolf terrorist attack may well come from behind the wheel of the nearest vehicle. It's also obvious that the means of preventing such an assault are extremely limited. "Absent intelligence, the same way you can't stop someone from shooting into a crowd, there isn't a magic way to stop someone from driving into a crowd," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller, per a New York Daily News report. "What we seek to do is minimize that threat in pedestrian malls like Times Square, where you have the largest crowds."

The Washington Post / July 17, 2016 Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that the failed coup in Turkey has created only minor delays in the military campaign against ISIS in Syria and that it will not diminish Turkey’s role in the fight. Kerry, who talked by phone three separate times Saturday with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, said he was assured that the continuing turmoil will not interrupt counterterrorism efforts based in Turkey. Missions against ISIS are flown out of Incirlik Air Base, although air space was closed Saturday after the coup attempt. Kerry said he expected operations would return to normal “very quickly.” “According to our commanders, there may have been a minor delay here or there or something [???], but it has not affected the fundamental direction or commitment to the fight,” Kerry said. Kerry said Turkish officials have assured the United States that they will continue to take part in the campaign against militants in bordering Syria. “They are fully committed to the fight,” Kerry said of the Turks. “But apparently, there was some refueling of some of the aircraft that were flying during the coup that came out of Incirlik, and I think they’re trying to chase that to ground and find out if there were conspiratorialists who were somehow involved in those flights. But they’ve assured us, and to date we don’t see a negative drag on the effort with respect to counter-ISIS.” Kerry expressed concern that the Turkish government, in tracking down coup plotters, would overreach and become more authoritarian. “Obviously, there are coup plotters, and the coup plotters need to be held accountable and they will be,” said Kerry. “But I think we’re all concerned, and we have expressed that concern, that this not fuel a reach well beyond those who engaged in the coup but that they strengthen the democracy of the country, strengthen the process and use it as a moment to unite the nation.” Kerry dismissed allegations that the United States played a role in the attempted coup as “utterly false and harmful to our bilateral relations.” “It’s absurd some of the allegations that are out there, we’ve seen in some of the Turkish media and other media as well,” said U.S. Department of State spokesman Mark Toner. “It’s absurd to think that the United States was complicit or in any way connected to the events of Friday.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- U.S. Bans Commercial and Private Flights To and From Turkey The Wall Street Journal / July 16, 2016 American aviation regulators have issued a notice barring all U.S. commercial and private aircraft from flying to Turkey or flying from that country into the U.S. The unusually broad prohibition, announced by the Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday, reflects Washington’s serious concerns about airport security in that country following this weekend’s failed coup attempt. The FAA didn’t indicate when the ban would be lifted. The agency also barred all Turkish carriers, along with commercial flights from Turkey operated by aircraft of other countries, from flying to the U.S. The move, in effect, severs all aviation links between the U.S. and Turkey. According to the FAA’s notice, the agency banned all “U.S. commercial and private aircraft from operating into or out of any airport in Turkey.” It also prohibited “any aircraft of any registry from departing Turkey for the U.S.” The FAA said it is “monitoring the situation in Turkey in coordination with” the State Department and The Department of Homeland Security, and “will update the restrictions as the situation evolves.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has effectively declared war on the United States, saying: "I don’t believe any country would stand by this man (U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen). Any country that would do that is not a friend to Turkey. Any country that would stand by him is at war with Turkey.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Financial Times / July 17, 2016 The Obama administration lashed out at accusations made by senior Turkish officials that Washington was behind Friday’s attempted military coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling such charges “irresponsible”. The Turkish claims, made by ministers close to Erdogan, centre on the exiled cleric Fetullah Gulen, a one-time ally of the president whom Ankara now insists orchestrated the coup from his compound in rural Pennsylvania. Turkey’s prime minister has demanded that Gulen, a legal permanent US resident, be extradited. Suleyman Soylu, labour minister, said that the Obama administration was behind the coup. “The US is not harbouring anybody; we’re not preventing anything from happening,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday. “We have always said: give us the evidence, show us the evidence. We need a solid legal foundation that meets the standard of extradition in order for our courts to approve such a request.” The dispute over Gulen threatens to upend an already tense relationship that Washington has relied on in its ongoing offensive against ISIS militants in neighbouring Syria and Iraq. Air strikes by US warplanes have been flown from Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, but on Saturday the Turkish government temporarily cut off access to the base, raising questions over whether Ankara was using the facility as a bargaining chip. A Turkish official described the move as cautionary, because the brigadier general in charge of the base appeared to have been involved in the attempted coup. By Sunday morning the Pentagon was saying that “air operations in Turkey have resumed”. Although Ankara has yet to submit a formal extradition request for Gulen, Kerry said he expected to be in touch with Turkey’s justice minister “shortly” and Turkish authorities had promised him “they are assembling the evidence, putting it together in a dossier.” In a rare interview at his central Pennsylvania home, a frail Gulen denied any involvement in the plot. He suggested that Erdogan’s allies may have staged the coup in order to crack down on Gulenists in the government. “I don’t believe that the world takes the accusations made by President Erdogan [against me] seriously,” Gulen said. “There is a possibility that it could be a staged coup [by Erdogan’s AK party] and it could be meant for further accusations.” Although Erdogan has made many calls for his former ally to return to face justice, compiling a case that would persuade a US court could prove challenging. This may explain Ankara’s slowness in submitting a formal extradition request. Long before Friday’s attempted coup, the battle between Erdogan and Gulen was marked by the dismissal or reassignment of thousands of judges, prosecutors and police officers. While Turkish officials say such moves were necessary to rid the bureaucracy of Gulenists plotting against the state, the crackdown has been depicted internationally as subverting the rule of law — a potential complicating factor in any court case outside Turkey itself. Turkey would also have to demonstrate that it has a “smoking gun”, definitively linking Gulen personally to criminal plots. Extradition requests are normally submitted by foreign embassies in Washington to the state department where they are reviewed and then transmitted to the justice department. After legal scrutiny, the issue is farmed out to the appropriate US attorney’s office, which obtains a warrant to apprehend the individual. Kerry said that the US believed that Erdogan had successfully reasserted control after Friday’s brief coup. US officials are urging the hardline president to “strengthen democracy” rather than unleash a wave of reprisals against political opponents not directly linked to the uprising.

RT / July 17, 2016 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plane was in the crosshairs of coup plotters’ fighter jets while en route to Istanbul, Reuters reports. The incident happened as Erdogan was heading back from a holiday resort during the recent attempted military coup. "At least two F-16s harassed Erdogan's plane (Gulfstream IV) while it was in the air and en route to Istanbul. They locked their radars on his plane and on two other F-16s protecting him.” Why they didn’t fire has not been revealed. Coup plotters had bombed places in the coastal town of Marmaris, where Erdogan had been staying, shortly after he left. CNN Turk reported that some 25 soldiers descended from a helicopter in an attempt to capture the Turkish president at a Marmaris hotel. “[Erdogan] evaded death by minutes,” a senior Turkish official said. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim was also directly targeted in Istanbul during the coup attempt but managed to escape.

The Washington Post / July 17, 2016 Three police officers were murdered and three others injured in a shooting ambush Sunday morning in Baton Rouge, when officers responded to reports of a man carrying a rifle in an area filled with grocery stores and other businesses. Col. Michael D. Edmonson of the Louisiana State Police said police had killed the armed attacker. The murderer was identified Sunday afternoon as ex-Marine sergeant 29-year-old Gavin Eugene Long of Kansas City. Under the online alias “Cosmo Setepenra”, Long was actively advocating violent protests on social media, saying that 100 percent of successful revolutions were the result of fighting back "through bloodshed". Two of the officers fatally shot were with the Baton Rouge police force, while the third was part of the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office. Another deputy was in critical condition after the shooting. In the hours after the shooting, police had warned people to stay inside as they said they sought two other potential suspects. Police were contacted about a man “carrying a weapon, carrying a rifle” at about 8:40 a.m. Police at a convenience store in the area saw the man, who was wearing all black, Edmonson said. Shots were reported fired at 8:42 a.m., and at 8:44 a.m., officers were reported down. At 8:45 a.m., more shots were fired. At 8:46, Edmonson said the suspect was reported near a car wash next to a convenience store. At 8:48 a.m., as emergency personnel began staging to treat the wounded, officers engaged the suspect and brought him down. Baton Rouge said that its police force and other local, state and federal authorities were “actively investigating the circumstances surrounding this morning’s shooting.” Agents for the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene in Baton Rouge responding to the shooting. The three dead police officers have also been identified as Montrell Jackson, 32, a new father and ten-year veteran of the force, Matthew Gerald, 41, a former Marine and father-of-two who joined the Baton Rouge police force a year ago, and Brad Garafola, 45, a married father-of-four who had worked for the sheriff's office for 24 years. Nicholas Tullier, 41, an 18-year veteran, is still in hospital in critical condition, while 51-year-old Bruce Simmons, who had been with the department for 23 years, has been treated for non-life-threatening injuries. A third wounded officer, also aged 41, has not been named. All were married with families. As a result of Baton Rouge police killings, cities around the country are on high alert and revising operational policies. The NYPD told personnel today that all officers should patrol in twos, effective immediately and until further notice. "There are to be no solo foot posts citywide," the NYPD said. "All uniform members of service shall arrive and remain on post together. All meals and personal breaks will also be taken in pairs. If the assigned post is considered integral to your command operations and you feel it should not be left unmanned during meal breaks, have that post back-filled. Police Officers on patrol should maintain a heightened level of awareness." The NYPD also said station house security would be mandatory until further notice and all security posts would have two officers at a time. In Boston and Chicago, officers will now patrol in pairs. In Los Angeles, the police chief has ordered security enhancements. It already requires its officers to work in pairs when responding to calls or reports of crimes in progress. New Orleans Police officers were also told to respond to calls with no less than two officers and two police units on the scene until further notice. . .

It now seems that Turkey's Erdogan is playing poker. He appears to be holding the U.S. Air Force’s 39th Air Base Wing hostage at Incirlik Air Base. That includes over 1,500 American servicemen and our A-10s, F-16s and KC-135 aerial refuelers. Erdogan has shut down the air space, blocked off access and cut the power. To be clear, Turkish authorities are NOT allowing U.S. aircraft to depart Incirlik Air Base, and the facility has been surrounded my forces loyal to Erdogan. The U.S. side is "seeking an explanation" (When being held hostage, the "big stick" Teddy Roosevelt approach sends a strong message). It seems Erdogan is holding our people hostage, in exchange for his arch enemy Fethullah Gulen, sho's been living in Pennsylvania for 16 years. Did I mention that it's estimated that the U.S. currently has from fifty to ninety B61 nuclear bombs stored at Incirlik ? No doubt Erdogan is upset that the US signaled it wouldn't mind a regime change (though the coup appears to have been executed more poorly than the Bay of Pigs invasion). The US has come to fully realize that Islamist Erdogan is no longer part of the solution to the problem, rather, he has become part of the ISIS problem (driven my Erdogan's biggest supporter, Saudi Arabia). Putin has known all along that Erdogan was part of the problem, playing both sides of the fence. Note that the U.S. ordered the families of U.S. diplomats and servicemen out of Turkey at the end of March, even though there was no known threat. The Air Force issued the hollow statement, “All indications at this time are that everyone is safe and secure.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why did coup happen? - Jeremy Bowen, BBC News Middle East Editor The attempted coup happened because Turkey is deeply divided over President Erdogan's project to transform the country and because of the contagion of violence from the war in Syria. President Erdogan and his AK Party have become experts at winning elections, but there have always been doubts about his long-term commitment to democracy. He is a political Islamist who has rejected modern Turkey's secular heritage (i.e. not subject to or bound by religious rule). Mr Erdogan has become increasingly authoritarian and is trying to turn himself into a strong executive president. From the beginning Mr Erdogan's government has been deeply involved in the war in Syria, backing Islamist opposition to President Assad. But violence has spread across the border, helping to reignite the fight with the Kurdish PKK, and making Turkey a target for the jihadists who call themselves Islamic State. That has caused a lot of disquiet. Turkey has faced increasing turmoil and the attempt to overthrow President Erdogan will not be the last of it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turkey's Labour Minister Suleyman Soylu on Saturday said the US had been behind the coup - an allegation that received a strong rebuke from Kerry who described it as "utterly false and harmful to our bilateral relations". "The US is behind the coup attempt. A few journals that are published there [in the US] have been conducting activites for several months. For many months we have sent requests to the US concerning Fethullah Gulen. The US must extradite him," said Soylu. Erdoğan wants to formally centralise power around him as president, rather than the parliament – continuing an autocratic trend that he has led in recent years. Commenting on the situation in the Guardian, Turkish analyst Andrew Finkel said that “many would argue that Turkey was already in the throes of a slow motion coup d’état, not by the military but by Erdoğan himself. For the last three years, he has been moving, and methodically, to take over the nodes of power.” Turkey's Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag says that over 6,000 people have already been arrested in connection with the failed coup, including 2,700 judges. A senior security official told Reuters that 8,000 police officers, including in the capital Ankara and the biggest city Istanbul, had also been removed from their posts on suspicion of links to Friday's coup bid. Thirty regional governors and more than 50 high-ranking civil servants have also been dismissed, CNN Turk said. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said 7,543 people had so far been detained, including 6,038 soldiers. Work was under way to purge the civil service. "We had to condemn the coup in Turkey, this is the least we could do,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. “[But] we want the rule of law to function fully, this is no carte blanche for Erdogan.” The swift rounding up of judges and others after a failed coup in Turkey indicated the government had prepared a list beforehand, the EU commissioner dealing with Turkey’s membership bid, Johannes Hahn, said on Monday. “It looks at least as if something has been prepared. The lists are available, which indicates it was prepared and to be used at a certain stage,” Hahn said. “I’m very concerned. It is exactly what we feared.”

Jerry, is this gauge for a Mack? An R/U/DM? If so, when you contacted Watts Mack (provider of the BMT website) for a 9MT36P2 positive ground fuel gauge, what did they say? The sending unit depends on whether your R/U/DM has a rectangular tank (16MB48P10) or round tank (16MB48P12). 1-888-304-6225 http://www.wattsmack.com/parts-department/

Power to Turkey's Incirlik Air Base in Adana has been cut, the U.S. consulate in Turkey said Saturday. Local authorities are preventing movement onto and off the base, according to the consulate, which warned U.S. citizens to avoid the air base until normal operations are restored. The U.S. Air Force’s 39th Air Base Wing (http://www.incirlik.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets) is based at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base. The base is used by the United States to launch airstrikes against ISIS.

When you contacted Cole-Hersee customer service, what did they say? http://www.littelfuse.com/contactus.aspx http://www.littelfuse.com/about-us/acquired-brands/cole-hersee.aspx

Pretty entertaining, but turn off the sound. .

Associated Press / July 15, 2016 Turkish military launch coup to depose President Recep Erdogan and end his Islamist government The Turkish military says it has taken control and overthrown the government of Recep Erdogan. Turkey's armed forces said on Friday they had taken power in the country to protect the democratic order and to maintain human rights. Soldiers seized strategic locations across Istanbul and Ankara. Erdogan urged his supporters to ignore a military curfew and take to the streets to oppose the attempted takeover, putting there lives at risk, while he has safely fled the country in a private jet. Loud explosions have been heard across Ankara with reports of an explosion occurred at the state-run television building. Turkey's state-run news agency reported military helicopters have also attacked the headquarters of TURKSAT satellite station on the outskirts of Ankara and the Ankara Police headquarters. Dozens of tanks were seen moving toward a palace that is now used by the prime minister and deputy prime ministers. All flights from Istanbul's AtaturkAirport have been canceled. US Secretary of State John Kerry said he hoped the crisis in Turkey would soon be resolved while preserving peace, stability and a respect for 'continuity'. .

It would appear that authorities are not acknowledging that they captured a terrorist alive. .

We were talking about the massacre here..............http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/42652-paris-under-attack/?page=7 Assault trucks...banned.....France ? I'm unaware that the French government has said that.

Newt Gingrich: Test every Muslim in U.S. to see if they believe in Sharia CNN / July 15, 2015 Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Thursday called for the U.S. to test every person with a Muslim background to see if they believe in Sharia law, and deport those who do. "Let me be as blunt and direct as I can be. Western civilization is in a war. We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background, and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported," said Gingrich. "Sharia is incompatible with Western civilization. Modern Muslims who have given up Sharia, glad to have them as citizens. Perfectly happy to have them next door." Gingrich was asked, "How do we ascertain -- how do you possibly ascertain whether or not that person really wants assimilation, really wants a new life, or whether or not they want to expand that caliphate, which is what we're at war against?" "The first step is you have to ask them the questions," Gingrich responded. "The second step is you have to monitor what they're doing on the Internet. The third step is, let me be very clear, you have to monitor the mosques. I mean, if you're not prepared to monitor the mosques, this whole thing is a joke. Where do you think the primary source of recruitment is? Where do you think the primary place of indoctrination is? You've got to look at the madrassas -- if you're a school which is teaching Sharia, you want to expel it from the country." The comments by Gingrich are similar to ones made by Trump last fall, when he called for surveillance of "certain mosques" to counter terrorist threats. Gingrich also said Thursday that calling Islam a "religion of peace" is "bologna." "It's not that Islamists are necessarily evil, but they're not necessarily a religion of peace," Gingrich said. Gingrich then turned his focus to President Barack Obama, citing many leading Democrats' argument for stricter gun regulation laws after the Orlando terror attack, where 49 individuals where shot and killed inside a nightclub. "I fully expect by tomorrow morning that President Obama will have rediscovered his left-wing roots and will give a press conference in which he'll explain that the problem is too many trucks," Gingrich said. "If only we had truck regulation, then we wouldn't have problems like Nice because it is trucks that are dangerous. I mean that's the exact analog to Orlando and just tells you how nuts the left wing in America is." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ . U.S. States Shun Syrian Refugees (i.e. economic migrants) CNN / November 16, 2015 The governors of 31 (was 24) states have announced they will not accept Syrian refugees. All but one have Republican governors. The announcements came after authorities revealed that at least one of the suspects believed to be involved in the Paris terrorist attacks entered Europe among the current wave of Syrian refugees. He had falsely identified himself as a Syrian named Ahmad al Muhammad and was allowed to enter Greece in early October. Some leaders say they either oppose taking in any Syrian refugees being relocated as part of a national program or asked that they be particularly scrutinized as potential security threats. Only 1,500 Syrian refugees have been accepted into the United States since 2011, but the Obama administration announced in September that 10,000 Syrians will be allowed entry next year. Authority over admitting refugees to the country, though, rests with the federal government -- not with the states -- though individual states can make the acceptance process much more difficult, experts said. American University law professor Stephen I. Vladeck put it this way: "Legally, states have no authority to do anything because the question of who should be allowed in this country is one that the Constitution commits to the federal government." But Vladeck noted that without the state's participation, the federal government would have a much more arduous task. "So a state can't say it is legally objecting, but it can refuse to cooperate, which makes thing much more difficult." Kevin Appleby, director of migration policy at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said one tactic states could use would be to cut their own funding in areas such as resettling refugees. The conference is the largest refugee resettlement organization in the country. But "when push comes to shove, the federal government has both the plenary power and the power of the 1980 Refugee Act to place refugees anywhere in the country," Appleby said. In announcing that his state would not accept any Syrian refugees, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted Monday on his personal account, "I demand the U.S. act similarly," he said. "Security comes first." Texas will not accept any Syrian refugees & I demand the U.S. act similarly. Security comes first. — Greg Abbott In a letter to President Barack Obama, Abbott said "American humanitarian compassion could be exploited to expose Americans to similar deadly danger," referring to Friday's deadly attacks in Paris. In a statement from Georgia's governor, Republican Nathan Deal, he said Georgia will not accept Syrian refugees "until the federal government and Congress conducts a thorough review of current screening procedures and background checks." I've issued an executive order directing state agency heads to prevent the resettlement of Syrian refugees in GA. — Governor Nathan Deal Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley also rejected the possibility of allowing Syrian refugees into his state and connected refugees with potential terror threats. "After full consideration of this weekend's attacks of terror on innocent citizens in Paris, I will oppose any attempt to relocate Syrian refugees to Alabama through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program," Bentley said Sunday in a statement. "As your governor, I will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm's way." I will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm's way. We refuse Syrian refugees. — Gov. Robert Bentley There is currently no credible threat against the state, the governor's office said, and no Syrian refugees have been relocated to Alabama so far. As the list of states blocking refugees grows, at least one state, Delaware, announced that it plans to accept refugees. "It is unfortunate that anyone would use the tragic events in Paris to send a message that we do not understand the plight of these refugees, ignoring the fact that the people we are talking about are fleeing the perpetrators of terror," said Gov. Jack Markell. States whose governors oppose Syrian refugees coming in: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming States whose governors say they will accept refugees: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said the state would "put on hold our efforts to accept new refugees." "Michigan is a welcoming state and we are proud of our rich history of immigration. But our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents," said Snyder. He demanded that the Department of Homeland Security review its security procedures for vetting refugees but avoided blanket suspicion of people from any region. "It's also important to remember that these attacks are the efforts of extremists and do not reflect the peaceful ways of people of Middle Eastern descent here and around the world," Snyder said. And Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson posted on his official Twitter account that he would "oppose Syrian refugees being relocated to Arkansas." Action taken by some states is similar to several European countries who have forcefully opposed accepting refugees. Hungary built a razor-wire fence along its border, and neighboring countries have been following suit. And previously generous countries such as Sweden and Germany that welcomed thousands were already pulling back. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement, "(At) this time, I find the idea of accepting Syrian refugees highly concerning and have no plans to accept them into our state and believe the federal government has an obligation to carry out extensive background checks on everyone seeking to enter the United States." Mississippi, Ohio bristle at taking refugees The governors of Ohio and Mississippi also announced their states would not allow Syrian refugees. Jim Lynch, a spokesman for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, issued this statement: "The governor doesn't believe the U.S. should accept additional Syrian refugees because security and safety issues cannot be adequately addressed. The governor is writing to the President to ask him to stop, and to ask him to stop resettling them in Ohio. We are also looking at what additional steps Ohio can take to stop resettlement of these refugees." Kasich is a Republican presidential candidate. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant wrote on Facebook that he was working with the state's homeland security department to "determine the current status of any Syrian refugees that may be brought to our state in the near future. “We don’t know who these individuals are. Any idea (that) you can do a background check of someone that’s been living in Syria is absolutely ridiculous,” Bryant said. “These are dangerous times, whether people want to admit it or not,” Bryant said. “We want to keep the war out of Mississippi, here on the homefront.” "I will do everything humanly possible to stop any plans from the Obama administration to put Syrian refugees in Mississippi. The policy of bringing these individuals into the country is not only misguided, it is extremely dangerous. I'll be notifying President Obama of my decision today to resist this potential action." Louisiana: 'Kept in the dark' Louisiana governor and GOP presidential candidate Bobby Jindal complained bitterly in an open letter to Obama that the federal government had not informed his government about refugees being relocated to his state last week. "It is irresponsible and severely disconcerting to place individuals, who may have ties to ISIS, in a state without the state's knowledge or involvement," says Jindal. He demanded to know more about the people being placed in Louisiana to avoid a repeat of the Paris attacks and wanted to know whether screening would be intensified for refugees holding Syrian passports. And he suggested Obama hold off on taking in more refugees. "It would be prudent to pause the process of refugees coming to the United States. Authorities need to investigate what happened in Europe before this problem comes to the United States," Jindal said. Republican candidate Donald Trump called accepting Syrian refugees "insane." "We all have heart and we all want people taken care of, but with the problems our country has, to take in 250,000 -- some of whom are going to have problems, big problems -- is just insane. We have to be insane. Terrible." While addressing reporters on Monday, Obama called out Republican candidates who have objected to admitting refugees to the United States. "When I hear a political leader suggesting that there should be a religious test for which a person who is fleeing from a war torn country is admitted... when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that is shameful," the President said. "We don't have religious tests to our compassion." New York: 'Virtually no vetting' A senior White House security official attempted to allay concerns about the vetting of Syrian refugees. On NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said, "We have very extensive screening procedures for all Syrian refugees who have come to the United States. There is a very careful vetting process that includes our intelligence community, our National Counter Terrorism Center, the Department of Homeland Security, so we can make sure that we are carefully screening anybody that comes to the United States." New York Rep. Peter King cast doubt on Rhodes' comments. "What he said about the vetting of the refugees is untrue. There is virtually no vetting cause there are no databases in Syria, there are no government records. We don't know who these people are." On Sunday, investigators said that one of the Paris bombers carried Syrian identification papers -- possibly forged -- and the fear of Syrian refugees grew worse. "It's not that we don't want to -- it's that we can't," said Florida Senator and Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio. "Because there's no way to background check someone that's coming from Syria." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ . Life in a western country, including the United States, is completely different from countries under Islamic Law (Shariah). If one chooses to [legally] immigrate to the United States, then one needs to make a conscious decision about adapting to the American way of life. The U.S. is a global symbol of diversity. However, we have our own norms, which are unlike those of countries under Islamic Law (Shariah). You can’t put a square peg into a round hole. Live in the countries where your beliefs fit in.

Truck Attack in France Shows Limits of Global Hunt for Terrorism The Wall Street Journal / July 14, 2016 The counterterrorism playbook used to fight groups a decade ago has proven ineffective against modern-day sympathizers of radical causes, experts say The U.S. government has launched thousands of airstrikes, bombed oil facilities, redeployed its military, moved satellites, intercepted phone calls, blocked money transfers and made dozens of arrests in a bid to thwart Islamic State. But time after time, the terror group, its affiliates and sympathizers have found ways to break through a global ring fence, launching spectacular attacks that have killed hundreds of people in Europe and the U.S. The motives and perpetrators behind Thursday’s truck massacre in Nice, France, remained uncertain in the hours immediately following the attack. But the action appeared to share the hallmarks of recent attacks carried out, or inspired by, Islamic State: It was a murderous assault on a “soft,” or unprotected, target undertaken by an individual or handful of people. Islamic State has exploited weak or nonexistent governments in Syria, Iraq, and Libya to fortify, recruit and plan attacks. Its leaders have leveraged social media to proselytize and lure new members. And they have, again and again, hammered soft targets full of crowded people. An airport. A holiday party. A concert hall. A nightclub. In many cases, the attacks are being carried out by an individual or small number of people, sometimes without actual ties to the group that inspired them. That presents a daunting problem for intelligence operatives and law enforcement. “The problem is that the numbers of people who have been radicalized, mostly because of social media, are larger than anything we’ve seen before, and we are just behind the curve,” said Bruce Hoffman, director of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University. “We are dealing with a problem of an order of magnitude much larger than in the past.” A truck driver who plowed through crowds and murdered at least 77 people on Bastille Day in Nice, France, joined the ranks of other individuals or small groups of terrorists who have murdered dozens or even hundreds of innocent revelers, travelers and others in the past 18 months. France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor has opened a probe. No one yet has claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack. The attack also comes as voters across the U.S. are beginning to focus more squarely on the presidential election, with national party conventions just days away. Both leading candidates, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, are being pressed to explain how they would rework U.S. counter-terrorism policy to better thwart the resilience of Islamic State. Their counter-terrorism strategies—and teams—will face sharper scrutiny now. Mr. Trump has proposed banning the entry of Muslims into the U.S., ramping up interrogation techniques against accused terrorists to disrupt plots and bombing the “hell out of” the terror group in Iraq and Syria. He wants to keep much of his plan a secret, though, so as not to tip off Islamic State leaders as to how he will defeat them. Mrs. Clinton has pushed for Sunni Muslims and Kurdish forces to play a bigger role in combating Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and she also wants to expand U.S. airstrikes. She has pushed for disrupting Islamic State’s use of the internet and social media, though she hasn’t provided specifics on how she would do this. U.S. officials have hoped that their two-year campaign to combat Islamic State would degrade its ability to carry out terror attacks, but they have found only mixed results. U.S. officials and U.S. allies have been able to dislodge the group from some of the territory it controls in Syria and Iraq, but the group has been able to either direct or inspire attacks in France, Turkey, Belgium, the U.S. and elsewhere. A murderous sweep during the month of Ramadan killed hundreds in Baghdad; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Istanbul; and Orlando, Florida. The attacks have proven very difficult to stop. The counter-terrorism playbook the U.S. and other countries used to thwart the large-scale attacks planned by Al Qaeda more than a decade ago has been less successful against Islamic State. At a congressional hearing earlier Thursday, Nick Rasmussen, the head of the National Counter-terrorism Center, warned of the danger of low-tech terrorist attacks. “While we’ve seen a decrease in the frequency of large-scale, complex efforts that sometimes span several years, we’re seeing a proliferation of more rapidly evolving threats that emerge simply by an individual encouraged to take action, who then quickly gathers the few resources needed and moves,” Mr. Rasmussen said. “The time between when an individual decides to attack and when the attack occurs is extremely compressed and allows little time for traditional law-enforcement and intelligence tools to disrupt or mitigate potential plots.” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Washington Times / July 19, 2016 Two weeks before the massacre in Nice, a French-speaking ISIS fighter went on social media to urge Muslims in France to “go get a truck” and kill infidels. And that’s exactly what Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel did on July 14, taking a rented truck and plowing through a mass of people watching fireworks on Bastille Day on the Riviera. He killed 84 people. ISIS has taken credit for radicalizing Bouhlel in one of its signature-style attacks: convince a “lone wolf” to commit mass killings and become a martyr, as happened in Orlando, Florida. French officials say Bouhlel, by all accounts a misfit and petty criminal, was quickly radicalized. Officials have found no firm ties to ISIS, but know he searched information about ISIS on the Internet. In the June 29 video, the fighter, speaking in French, urges Muslims in France to find weapons on the street from criminal elements. “It is very easy to obtain weapons,” he says. “Just don’t let them know that this is for religious purposes.” “If you cannot find a gun, go get a truck. … In France, you have access to gas tanks and trucks.” The speaker said that, as French Muslims are having difficulty traveling to Turkey for insertion into Syria, it is better to stay and kill innocents at home. “Open the doors of jihad on them, and make them regret it,” he says. “So if you want Islam to be victorious, why would you want to come out of the beast and face its fangs when you can cut out its heart and liver,” he says.

130 human beings murdered in Paris. At least 84 lives ended prematurely in Nice. These numbers are huge. Orlando........49 killed, 53 injured. San Bernardino........14 killed, 22 seriously injured. Until we (the U.S.) change our whole philosophy and strategy, which will require compromising on some our long-time freedoms and values, we are vulnerable. As is, our government, which is mandated to ensure our safety, and "should be" the best means, is in a weak position for doing so. A key reason Europe has witnessed more attacks than the US is because we are much further away. And, it was so easy for them to become alleged refugees (realistically economic migrants) and flow unchecked into the EU. (What was the EU thinking?) Only Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia and Turkey were wise enough to build fences. We know our southern border, for example, his porous. Illegal Latin American immigrants, and 'others", are able to pour in every day. Once in without our knowledge, able to operate off the grid.........well, it's all a scary thought.

The Wall Street Journal / July 14, 2016 More trucking fleets are going out of business, done in by rising diesel prices and a weak freight market. More and larger trucking companies are failing as fuel prices rebound and demand for freight services remains muted, a new report says. In the second quarter, 120 trucking companies with an average fleet size of 17 tractor-trailers halted operations, according to an analysis by researcher Avondale Partners LLC. That’s up from 70 firms with an average fleet size of 14 big rigs in the same quarter a year earlier. There are more than 168,000 interstate motor carriers with more than 2 million trucks in the U.S., according to the American Trucking Associations, an industry group. The failures are mainly the result of rising fuel prices and weak demand, said Avondale Managing Director Donald Broughton. When gas prices are falling, truckers are able to charge shippers a fuel surcharge based on the price of gas from previous weeks, while filling up their tanks at lower prices. But when fuel prices are on the rise, the opposite happens, leading to a cash shortfall. “When conditions are ideal, only the little guys tend to fail. But as conditions start to deteriorate, it tends to affect even larger trucking fleets,” Mr. Broughton said. More trucking companies fail in the first half of the year because of increased costs associated with weather-related accidents, the costs of heating and idling trucks, and renewing truck registrations. Last year, only 310 trucking fleets ceased operations, the lowest number since Avondale started tracking failures in 1986. The average diesel fuel price in 2015 was $2.72 a gallon, its lowest since 2009. Trucking rates began to decline last year amid weakness in the import market and tepid growth in the consumer economy. But the biggest factor, according to many analysts, has been overcapacity. The U.S. Department of Transportation reported this week that demand for freight transportation services fell by 0.3% between May 2015 and May 2016. In June, demand for for-hire trucking rose faster than the supply of trucks, only the fourth time in the last 19 months that the market posted such an improvement. “There aren’t enough loads to fill the trucks that are on the road now,” Mr. Broughton said. “Unless you are one of the ones who failed, you should be cheering [capacity leaving the market]. The industry needs to put capacity and demand back into balance, although 2,000 trucks being removed from the road is not enough.”

Reuters / July 14, 2016 The European Commission will propose limits on CO2 emissions from trucks, following in the footsteps of the United States and Japan, and new fuel efficiency standards for cars and vans after 2020, according to a draft document seen by Reuters. The European Union has introduced a limit of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer (g/km) by 2021 for cars and vans but has so far not done the same for trucks, although they are responsible for around a quarter of road transport emissions and that share of emissions could increase by 2030, according to the Commission. "The Commission will, therefore, speed up analytical work on design options for standards for heavy duty vehicles and will launch a public consultation to prepare the ground for a legislative proposal," the document says. The document contains a list of proposals to lower the CO2 footprint of transport, including a "legislative proposal to set fuel efficiency standards for heavy duty vehicles" and a revision of emissions standards for cars and vans post-2020. Some European nations had called for the EU to introduce limits on the amount of CO2 emitted by trucks, which pump out a large proportion of CO2 emissions but only account for a small fraction of vehicles on the road. The industry, which includes manufacturers Daimler, Renault and Volkswagen, has typically resisted introducing targets for trucks on the grounds that their different shapes and sizes make a "one-size-fits-all" approach to limiting CO2 emissions difficult and fuel efficiency has already helped lower their carbon footprint. Europe has lagged behind other countries such as the United States, China, Japan and Canada which have already introduced fuel efficiency standards for trucks. The U.S. standards on truck emissions could lead to a 33 percent reduction of fuel consumption rates from 2010 levels, according to researchers. To prepare the ground for the new limits the Commission will propose a law on the certification of CO2 emissions and fuel consumption of new trucks - namely a CO2 test procedure - as well as a law on monitoring and reporting lorries' fuel consumption. The fuel efficiency targets will initially only be for engines. "Over time this will be expanded subsequently to all categories based on the full monitoring data," the document says.

Transport Topics / July 14, 2016 Luxembourg-based SAF-Holland SA has offered $495 million (4.2 billion kronor) to buy Sweden-based Haldex AB, a combination of truck-making suppliers that could help match mechanical parts with sensors and electronic components as big rigs increasingly link up to the internet. SAF made a cash bid of about $11.11 for each share of brakes and air suspension systems maker Haldex, a premium of 11% over the closing price before the proposal. Haldex said it is considering the unsolicited offer and has also received a “credible nonbinding proposal” from a third party. “Together, we’ll be able to offer a complete solution for many components,” said Detlef Borghardt, CEO of SAF. Trucking companies want to network big rigs together and use the resulting real-time data to reduce empty runs, better use employees’ time and improve road safety via driver-assistance systems such as convoys. At the same time, commercial vehicle makers’ earnings are under pressure amid fierce price competition in Europe and falling demand in the United States. Haldex said its board will respond to SAF’s offer no later than two weeks before the August 24 end of the acceptance period. Haldex hasn’t received the terms of the other offer, and there’s no certainty one will be made, the company said. SAF’s proposal requires acceptance of 90% of Haldex shareholders.

Heavy Duty Trucking / July 14, 2016 Retail sales of Class 8 natural gas trucks in the U.S. and Canada improved in May, after getting off to a slow start earlier in the year. The majority of natural-gas vehicle sales were attributed to repeat sales as well as purchases made by transit bus and refuse truck operators. The lower price of diesel fuel has stunted the return on investment fleets might have for gained by adopting the alternative fuel, making the turn toward natural gas a less lucrative prospect for fleets. Sales were up 48% over the previous month. But they are down 21% over the past 12 months and 24% year-to-date compared to 2015. “With the fuel price differential continuing to narrow, the ROI to convert from diesel to natural gas is moving in the wrong direction: payback periods remain lengthy,” said market analysts. “This doesn’t mean the adoption of NG fuel has stopped or that there are no new developments supporting a future uptick in NG truck orders.” Infrastructure is another barrier to entry for natural-gas vehicle adoption and while infrastructure continues to be built, it tends to be at a slower pace and at targeted locations. However, natural-gas equipment users have stayed committed to the long-term viability and emissions benefits.

It's shocking that, at a time when fuel efficiency is a priority goal, the full-size pickups have the aerodynamics of.......a brick. And, I don't particularly want to drive a "brick". The second generation 1994-2002 Dodge pickups had a much smaller "nose" than today. It actually looked aerodynamic.....and proportional. But the grilles of today's trucks are absurdly huge, larger than many people's flat screen TVs. Personally, I don't care for it. At the end of the day, my position remains that If one could buy a Ford F-Series pickup with the Dodge's Cummins 6.7L ISB and Chevy/GMC's Allison 1000 transmission, and Dana axles, you'd have a nice truck......a keeper.

The History of the Camaro Convertible https://www.gmheritagecenter.com/featured/Camaro_Convertible.html

2016 Chevrolet SS Review: Last of the Down Under Hot Rods Car & Driver / July 14, 2016 Overview: The Chevrolet SS, on the surface, is among the most American of things: a big, comfy, rear-wheel-drive sedan powered by a burly small-block V-8. But it’s actually the latest—and almost certainly the last—in a line of powerful, rebadged imports from General Motors’ Australian subsidiary, Holden, which started with the 2004 Pontiac GTO and continued with the SS’s predecessor, the Pontiac G8. Known as the Holden Commodore in its home market, the SS shares some of its architecture with the previous-generation Chevrolet Camaro and is powered by a 415-hp 6.2-liter LS3 V-8 mated to either a six-speed automatic or a six-speed manual transmission. Although its official purpose is as a low-volume, aspirational car that gives Chevy’s SS NASCAR racer a legitimate connection to the street, the SS is much more than a token gesture to the left-turn crowd. The SS is a true sports sedan imbued with a beautifully balanced chassis, tactile steering, and loads of cornering grip (0.97 g) from its standard Bridgestone Potenza performance tires. Manual-transmission cars like the one we drove for this review incur a $1000 gas-guzzler tax versus the standard automatic’s $1300 penalty; the EPA rates both versions at 14 mpg in the city, but opting for the manual grants the SS a 2-mpg boost on the highway to 22 mpg. Performance figures are similar regardless of transmission choice. The 2015 stick-shift model we tested reached 60 mph in 4.6 seconds and covered the quarter-mile in 13.0 at 111 mph, making it properly quick yet still slower in a straight line than the 485-hp Dodge Charger R/T Scat Pack. Front and rear Brembo brakes and a pleasantly firm brake pedal can arrest the near-two-ton SS from 70 mph in an impressive 159 feet. What’s New: Introduced for 2014 with only the automatic gearbox, the SS possesses drivability and superior reflexes that allowed it to beat the more powerful Dodge Charger SRT8 392 in a comparison test. An update for 2015 added the manual transmission as a no-cost option, as well as standard driver-adjustable adaptive dampers. The SS looks a little less like a previous-generation Chevrolet Malibu on steroids for 2016, thanks to a revised front fascia with LED running lights, functional hood vents, and more tasteful 19-inch aluminum wheels that have dialed back on the bright-chrome look. Also new is the Slipstream Blue Metallic paint on our test car, as well as a dual-mode exhaust system that barks loudly upon startup. The small-block’s lumpy idle and full-throttle roar let anyone within earshot know the SS is not a normal family sedan. Expect only modest trim changes for the 2017 model, which likely will be the SS’s last as Holden shutters its production operations at the end of next year. While the Commodore name should live on in Australia, Holden’s transition to an import-only lineup means it will likely adorn a rebadged version of the front-drive-based Opel Insignia developed in Europe. (Ford is similarly closing its Australian manufacturing facilities). There have been some rumblings that a next-gen SS might be built in America, but GM has offered no indication that there actually will be a rear-drive successor to the current car; if that’s the case, Cadillac’s high-end V models would be the only hot-rod four-doors in the General’s fleet going forward. What We Like: A lot. The Chevy SS is one of the most underappreciated driver’s cars on the market, a lazy-day cruiser in the softest of its three drive modes (Tour, which slots below Sport and Track) yet equally at home on a challenging mountain road in its more aggressive settings. The ride quality can be firm, but the chassis’s overall poise is reminiscent of some of the great BMW M cars from the 1990s and 2000s. Despite some on-center vagueness, the electrically assisted power steering is precise and rich in feedback as the chassis loads up in corners. While the big Chevy is well equipped for the tire-smokin’ muscle-car thing, its understated appearance is welcome in heavy traffic, as are its quiet cabin, comfortable seats, and myriad amenities. Leather upholstery, heated and ventilated front seats, lane-departure warning, and much more are standard; besides transmission choice, the only options are paint color, a power sunroof ($900), and a full-size spare ($500) in place of the standard tire-inflation kit. And with a paltry 2895 sales in the U.S. last year, SS buyers are in an exclusive club. What We Don’t Like: Mainly that GM’s intercontinental gem of a performance sedan will soon be gone forever and that more enthusiasts aren’t swayed by its greatness; numerous still-new 2015 models litter dealer lots. Plus, Chevy has yet to lend us an SS for our annual 10Best Cars event. There’s also too much chrome and bright metal trim, both inside and out, for some tastes. And the price—$48,870 to start—puts the SS out of reach of many potential buyers. Yet, despite the SS’s low-volume status, GM evidently feels some pressure from its lack of popularity: As of this writing, Chevrolet offers a 20 percent discount on 2016 models, which would make our test car a 415-hp steal at $39,096. Our advice? Grab one while you still can. Verdict: The most underrated sports sedan in America. Photo gallery - http://www.caranddriver.com/photo-gallery/2016-chevrolet-ss-quick-take-review

Terrorists slip through profiling gaps The Financial Times / July 13, 2016 The response of the west is being lost in a search for clarity in a sea of contradiction Since Omar Mateen massacred 49 people in an Orlando nightclub, the New York-born son of Afghans has been described as a homophobe who used a gay hook-up app, a jihadi who failed to understand that Isis and Hizbollah are enemies, and a jovial wife-beater who was both relaxed about his religion and furiously devout. Mateen is not the first paradoxical jihadi. Amedy Coulibaly, who murdered customers at a Jewish supermarket in Paris last year, died in the name of strict Islam but left behind a laptop full of child pornography. Samy Amimour was known as a personable bus driver with secular parents before he set off for Syria and returned to unleash mayhem on the Bataclan concert hall in the French capital in November. Among other recent terrorists are immigrants and natives, cradle Muslims and converts, hardened criminals and aspiring dentists. Fifteen years after the September 11 attacks on the US there is still no consensus about what makes a terrorist. Mateen is widely considered a terrorist. Micah Johnson, who said he shot five police officers in Dallas last week because they were white, is not, on account of apparently having no agenda beyond his own actions. Both men resemble in some aspects the mass shooters who have struck American schools, churches and other public venues over the years and whose make-up and motivations are just as diverse as those of the “terrorists”. Recent studies have suggested that a history of depression or domestic violence might be key indicator, or that a society’s attitude to the Islamic veil affects how likely it is to be struck. But psychiatrists, sociologists and others with knowledge of terrorism warn that such analysis often says less about the terrorist than the neuroses of a country searching for an explanation. That has meant gun control in the US, secularity in France and multiculturalism in the UK. More troublingly, they say, the misguided belief that terrorists — today’s jihadis, like nationalists, white supremacists and communists before them — have a single “profile” is distorting the west’s response. “Mateen may have felt like a husband in some situations, a security guard in another, a gay guy in another, an Isis member in others,” says Marc Sageman, a psychiatrist and former CIA officer in Afghanistan. “People don’t have a single social identity that transcends everything else.” Mr Sageman has worked as an expert witness on the defence team in terrorism cases. He has interviewed 30 violent terrorists and is dismissive of “armchair theorists” who do not enjoy such first-hand access. In 2008 he fought a public feud with other terrorism experts over his prediction that “leaderless jihad” would eclipse al-Qaeda’s organised plotting. When attacks happen, Mr Sageman says, “two billion amateur Freuds” rush to extrapolate meaning from scraps of biographical detail. Seeking a pattern is futile, he says, beyond the fact that Islamic terrorists consider themselves members of an ummah — a community of Muslims. “It’s an imagined community; it lives on the internet,” he says. “You can be a punk, you can drink, you can be homosexual — it’s your own identification.” Those who identify with that community perceive it to be under attack from western military campaigns in the Middle East and react to protect it, Mr Sageman says, just as Americans rushed to join the armed forces after 9/11. A Facebook post Mateen wrote during his attack appears to bear this out. “You kill innocent women and children by doing us air strikes,” he wrote, according to Ron Johnson, chairman of the US Senate’s homeland security committee. “Now taste the Islamic State vengeance.” But Isis, as Islamic State is also known, does not appear to have had any contact with Mateen, beyond its propaganda exhorting sympathisers to carry out attacks on their own. And in both Europe and the US, terrorism experts say attempts to predict who is likely to answer that call risk backfiring. “The problem is lots of people might fit a profile but not act, while those who do act don’t fit a pattern,” says Martha Crenshaw, professor at Stanford University. She was among the pioneers of terrorism studies in an era when the focus was on nationalists and extreme leftists at least as much as Islamists. As far back as 1981, she argued that the “limited data we have on individual terrorists … suggest that the outstanding characteristic is normality”. In a newspaper column after Orlando, Ms Crenshaw upbraided Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, for his claim that “thousands upon thousands of people” were coming to the US, “many of whom have the same thought process” as Mateen. When it comes to terrorist motivation, Ms Crenshaw wrote, “the possibilities are endless, from personal grievance to mental illness to social frustration”. In contrast with the “lone wolves” in the US, the authors of the Paris and Brussels attacks belonged to organised jihadi networks with links to Isis’s so-called caliphate. Yet they also fail to conform to a pattern. Farhad Khosrokhavar, a sociologist at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences in Paris, has spent two decades analysing Islam in France. There, as elsewhere in the west, the political response to terrorism, including security measures brought in after November’s Paris attack, have been based on an erroneous faith in profiling, he says. “[Political leaders] are playing this game,” he says. “They need to tell the citizens that there is a type of person we are going to fight against. But we can see at least five or six types of person who will kill.” In the UK, Paul Rogers, a terrorism expert at Bradford university and author of a forthcoming book on Isis, argues that the search for a unique terrorist profile is “a diversion which means we are not paying attention to the wider trends”. Those trends, he says, include the increasing marginalisation of well-educated young men in places such as Tunisia and disruption caused by climate change. “It’s looking for easy answers without facing up to much bigger problems.” Ulrike Meinhof, Red Army Faction German leftwing militant whose Red Army Faction was responsible for a series of bombings, kidnappings and shootings in the 1970s. Meinhof, who lost both parents at a young age to cancer, began to espouse an extreme leftwing cause in postwar West Germany. The mother of twins worked as a journalist before turning to terrorism. Ted Kaczynski, ‘Unabomber’ The anti-technology anarchist carried out a series of mail bombings in the US between 1978-1995, killing three people. The Illinois-born son of Polish-Americans grew angry with industrialised society and moved to a remote cabin from where he carried out his attacks. Some blame treatment for a childhood allergic reaction and participation in university mind-control experiments for Kaczynski’s evolution into the “Unabomber”. Richard Reid, shoebomber The London-born son of an English mother and Jamaican father attempted to blow up transatlantic passenger flight with shoe bomb in 2001. Reid grew up in a leafy London suburb before turning to petty crime. Converted to Islam in prison and travelled widely in the Middle East and Asia before attempting his failed attack weeks after 9/11. Anders Breivik, rightwing fanatic The Norwegian killed 77 in a bomb and gun rampage in Oslo and on the island of Utoya in the summer of 2011. Raised in an affluent part of the Norwegian capital, Breivik spent years preparing for the attacks, including writing a 1,500-page manifesto. Experts disagreed over his mental health but he was found at trial to be sane. Samy Amimour, Paris gunman One of three gunmen, allied to Isis, who killed 89 at the Bataclan club in the French capital in 2015. Born to parents of Algerian roots, the bus driver gradually turned to fundamentalism and spent time in Isis’s “caliphate” in Syria before taking part in the atrocities in the French capital. Omar Mateen, Florida attacker Claiming allegiance to Isis, Mateen killed 49 at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando in June. Born in the US to Afghan parents, Mateen was apparently radicalised online, without direct contact with Isis. He had a hazy understanding of Islamism and was prone to violent outbursts. .

Terror Attack on Nice: At Least 80 Dead After Grenade-Filled Truck Plows Into Crowd The Financial Times / July 14, 2016 At least 84 people have died in the French city of Nice after a terrorist plowed a truck, which was "loaded with" grenades and other arms, into a large crowd during Bastille Day celebrations Thursday night around 11:00pm local time, according to officials and the French president. The incident left an "apocalyptic" scene, according to eyewitnesses, on the famed Promenade des Anglais, put the city on lockdown and drew swift condemnation from world leaders. "On behalf of the American people, I condemn in the strongest terms what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack in Nice, France, which killed and wounded dozens of innocent citizens," President Obama said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and other loved ones of those killed, and we wish a full recovery for the many wounded." Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. Embassy in Paris was working to account for the welfare of U.S. citizens in Nice. The American consulate in Marseille said it was trying to "determine if any U.S. citizens were injured in the event." The exact nature of the attack was unclear, but the Paris anti-terrorism prosecutor's office was put in charge of the investigation. French President Francois Hollande extended the country's state of emergency for three months and were mobilizing reservists. He said it was unclear if the attacker had any accomplices. Hollande also discussed the threat of "Islamist terrorism." “The terrorist nature of this attack cannot be denied,” he said. "France is horrified by what has just occurred - a monstrous act of using a truck to intentionally kill dozens of people celebrating 14th of July," Hollande said. "France is strong. France will always be stronger than the fanatics who want to strike France today." Christian Estrosi, president of the Nice region, said the truck's driver, now identified as Tunisian-born Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, "fired on the crowd, according to the police who killed him" and said that "the truck was loaded with arms, loaded with grenades." The truck was driven by someone who appeared to have "completely premeditated behavior," Estrosi said, adding that the attacker appears to "have used, while ramming his vehicle, a firearm through the window." According to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazaneuve, 80 people have died, and numerous others were injured, including 18 in critical condition. Jimmy Ghazal, 39, a Lebanese man visiting Nice with his family, told ABC News that after the fireworks concluded, he heard people screaming and heard what sounded like gunshots. He saw people run to shelter. Ghazal said he saw a big truck drive "through all the security.” “The kids thought it was part of the fireworks," he told ABC News. "We just told them it was part of the fireworks.” Kerry said in a statement, "Today's horrendous attack in Nice is an attack against innocent people on a day that celebrates Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. "On behalf of all Americans, and especially the great many with close ties to France, I offer our deepest condolences to the friends and family of those who were killed and our hopes for a speedy recovery to those who were injured. "I was proud to stand alongside French leaders earlier today at Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, and the United States will continue to stand firmly with the French people during this time of tragedy. We will provide whatever support is needed." Earlier Thursday, French President Francois Hollande had said France’s state of emergency -- which has been in place since the Paris terror attacks in November -- would be lifted later this month. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- François Hollande faces crisis as attacks continue The Guardian / July 14, 2016 Hours after the Nice attacks, the French president François Hollande reiterated the war-like stance that he took after the last terrorist attacks that killed 130 in Paris in November. “All of France is under threat from Islamist terrorism,” he said, vowing that France would not give in in its “fight against terrorism”. He said the state of emergency put in place in November — which allows police to conduct house raids and searches without a warrant or judicial oversight, and gives extra powers to officials to place people under house arrest — would be extended by three months. This means the state of emergency will have been in place for almost a year since November. He also said he would boost the military operation, known as Operation Sentinelle, in which 10,000 soldiers keep guard across the country, and reservists would be drafted in to help security forces. Hollande added that he would reinforce air strikes on Iraq and Syria, where it has been fighting Islamic State. The mood could not be more serious for Hollande. The fact that France could be attacked again — leaving at least 80 dead — only eight months after the devastating November attacks on Paris, threatens a crisis for Hollande’s premiership. The fact that several children were among the dead has deepened France’s horror and grief. In the coming days, there is likely to be intense political debate about intelligence and security policy. The 2017 French presidential election is nine months away and security had already been a key voter concern. The interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, in Nice, said: “We’re in a war with terrorists who want to hit us at any cost and in a very violent way”. Hollande had this month been at record low popularity ratings. Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader of the Front National, has been polling high and recent polls showed she was expected to reach the second round run-off of the presidential election, held in April and May, although polls predicted she would not win. Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing Les Républicains party is currently engaged in a primary race to choose its candidate. .