News

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/world/europe/isis-moscow-attack-concert-hall.html

After a period of relative quiet, the Islamic State has been trying to increase its external attacks, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials. Most of those plots in Europe have been thwarted, prompting assessments that the group had diminished capabilities.

“ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years,” frequently criticizing President Vladimir V. Putin in its propaganda, said Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York. “ISIS-K accuses the Kremlin of having Muslim blood in its hands, referencing Moscow’s interventions in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria.”

rolls eyes

Russia has always been... not very tolerant... of Muslims in their borders. Cough cough Chechen genocide ca. late 1700s to 2010s

(Coin slot noise)

“Cowaaaabunga”

Maybe they want to have another go at Afghanistan. Seems to always work out well for whoever tries it.

He has to wait 9 more turns, or else he gets 150 grievances. But he’s been denounced by 180 other players, so what does it matter?

If it helped Putin get something he wanted, he would have just ordered the attack himself.

This is interesting, especially since we haven’t heard much from ISIS in several years and that the US warned Russia about it ahead of time.

Now, I’ll just speculate.

The US was helping Ukraine. Then Iran backed an attack by Hamas on Israel, which gave the US a distraction to deal with from supporting Ukraine. There was speculation that Russia pushed Iran to push Hamas to do the attack for this very reason.

Now, US intelligence could be playing the same game. With this attack, Russia has a hard time selling Ukraine as the biggest threat to Russian people. They’re under attack by ISIS terrorists. Surely, this will take some focus off of the Ukraine war and put pressure on Putin to counter ISIS. Somehow the US did have foreknowledge of the attack…

Of course this is all just speculation, but if we’re trying to think like covert ops and play 4D chess, it could make sense.

ISIS-K, so that probably means troop deployments into central Asia since that's what the K stands for, the "Khorosan Province"

Unfortunately, the casualty numbers in these types of attacks tend to go up from the initial count.

Well over 100 now.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/23/whos-to-blame-for-the-moscow-massacre-isil-ukraine-or-russia-itself

Since some people aren't making the connection, Al Jazeera spells it out.

All bombings, the court ruled, were ordered by Islamist warlords Ibn Al-Khattab and Abu Omar al-Saif, who have been killed. Five other suspects have been killed and six have been convicted by Russian courts on terrorism-related charges.

Now waiting to see who putin will decide to make an "Islamist warlord" instead of having a balcony, windows, or tea accident.

Update: according to the last news I read, putin decided to make the Ukrainians "Islamist warlords". Does not matter if it is at all believable or not now, does it? 🤡

I believe that the last guy who decided that it would be a great idea to concurrently pick fights with all of London, Washington, and Moscow was Adolf Hitler.

Come to think of it, we warned Moscow in advance that time too, and Stalin didn't buy it then either.

Hmm. Moscow was in the process of trying to annex a European country around that time too, Finland.

EDIT: Nah, it sounds like we cleared it up. We do believe that this is Islamic State and we did warn Russia about an attack, but it was a different one. Apparently we didn't have intelligence that this one might happen:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mass-shooting-music-venue-crocus-city-hall-moscow-picnic-concert/

A U.S. official tells CBS News the U.S. has intelligence confirming the Islamic State's claims of responsibility, and that they have no reason to doubt those claims. The U.S. official also confirmed that the U.S. provided intelligence to Russia about a potential attack under the intelligence community's Duty to Warn requirement.

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson confirmed that in a statement provided to CBS News Friday evening.

"Earlier this month, the U.S. government had information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow —potentially targeting large gatherings, to include concerts— which prompted the State Department to issue a public advisory to Americans in Russia," Watson said. "The U.S. government also shared this information with Russian authorities in accordance with its longstanding 'duty to warn' policy."

Asked about the embassy's notice issued on March 7, Kirby referred the question to the State Department, adding: "I don't think that was related to this specific attack."

Responding to a question about whether Washington had any prior information about the assault, Kirby responded: "I'm not aware of any advance knowledge that we had of this terrible attack."

Have they even left yet?