Soldier “Beheaded” in Woolwich (South East London) by Two Attackers: Video of Alleged Attacker

There is a furious online debate about the media’s characterization of the attackers in the opening minutes of this event. There are also charges of racism, actual racism, and the usual debates over immigration and the definition of terrorism. Expect the gun control debate to start at any minute – No, wait. It started immediately.

It’s all sort of exhausting really.

Somehow though, somebody had the guts to stand there and point a camera at an angry man drenched in blood and wielding a very large knife. Is this heroic or stupidity of the highest order (or perhaps something else)? I’m not sure really. Still, it is immensely helpful in understanding what happened and perhaps, to some extent, why. Call this attack whatever you like. I think it speaks for itself.

I’ll continue to update on Twitter.

ThreatStream: Monitoring Security Preparations for the 2012 London Olympics

londonolympicsts ThreatStream: Monitoring Security Preparations for the 2012 London Olympics

The opening ceremony occurs on Friday, July 27th but preparations to secure the games have been underway for years. This monitor aggregates media reports and public discussion (which is quite robust this time around) about the measures taken to secure the games and the city.

ThreatStream: Tracking French Shooting Suspect Mohammed Merah – al-Qaeda – Forsane Alizza in France

merah1 ThreatStream: Tracking French Shooting Suspect Mohammed Merah al Qaeda Forsane Alizza in France

The latest from the BBC:

Mohammed Merah, the man believed to be the gunman on a scooter who killed seven people in south-western France, is a 23-year-old French citizen of Algerian extraction.

Before the shootings in Toulouse and Montauban, he was brought to French attention because of visits he made to Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he reportedly escaped from prison while serving a sentence for carrying bomb-making equipment.

He was also known to the French authorities because he had a criminal record for non-terrorist crimes.

Police surrounded him at a block of flats in Toulouse after the shootings, in which three French soldiers and a rabbi and three Jewish children were killed.

According to the French authorities, he said he had sought to avenge Palestinian children and to attack the French army because of its foreign interventions.

I have created a Mohammed Merah ThreatStream to track this developing story from three angles:

  • Mohammed Merah – Tweets and news stories about the suspect.
  • al-Qaeda in France – Content referencing the shooter’s alleged connections or sympathies.
  • Forsane Alizza – The shooter is reportedly a member of this radical group. More on them here.

You may find the Terrorism and al-Qaeda focused ThreatStreams useful as well.