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The war against ISIS is now being fought on European soil
Hotair ^ | 01/15/2015 | Noah Rothman

Posted on 01/16/2015 9:22:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Overnight, French, German and Belgian authorities executed more anti-terror raids against suspected militants believed to be linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

In France and Germany, 14 people with ties to ISIS were detained while another 13 were arrested in Belgium in a massive anti-terror sweep by European authorities. Some of the suspected militants were Western citizens who had recently returned from Syrian battlefields with what authorities believe were under orders by ISIS commanders to execute attacks on European targets.

“Guns, munitions and explosives, as well as police uniforms and a large amount of money, were seized during the overnight raids, [Belgium] prosecution spokesman Thierry Werts told reporters,” the BBC reported. Some officials believe that those uniforms were to be worn by militants so as to get closer to the police in order for them to kill as many as possible.

This fight against Islamic militants in Europe is only just beginning. “There could be as many as 20 sleeper cells of between 120 and 180 people ready to strike in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, a Western intelligence source has told CNN,” read an exclusive CNN report.

The European counterterrorism official told [CNN reporter Paul] Cruickshank that there were indications that ISIS leadership had directed returnees from Iraq and Syria to launch attacks on European soil in revenge for airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.

“That would be a game changer because ISIS up to this point has not orchestrated any terrorist plots in the West,” Cruickshank said. “There have been some ISIS fighters who have come back, but they have launched plots on their own steam.”

The official cited France, the United Kingdom and Belgium as countries facing a particular threat and said counterterrorism agencies in Germany are also on high alert.

If you thought ISIS was shifting tactics to focus on bringing the fight to Europe because their advances in Syria and Iraq were stalled, you’d be wrong.

“ISIS continues to gain substantial ground in Syria, despite nearly 800 airstrikes in the American-led campaign to break its grip there,” The Daily Beast reported on Thursday. “At least one-third of the country’s territory is now under ISIS influence, with recent gains in rural areas that can serve as a conduit to major cities that the so-called Islamic State hopes to eventually claim as part of its caliphate. Meanwhile, the Islamic extremist group does not appear to have suffered any major ground losses since the strikes began.”

The war in the Iraqi theater is going no better for coalition forces, which routinely come under enemy fire as ISIS continues its offensives. “So passive-aggressive is the president’s war on ISIS that Iraqis are beginning to suggest that ‘ISIS is a U.S. creation,’” The Washington Free Beacon’s Matthew Continetti observed. “One Iraqi told the Wall Street Journal: ‘The international coalition against ISIS is a comedy act. America can destroy ISIS in one day only, but it does not do it.’”

In Belgium, France, Australia, and Canada, Western authorities and jihadist militants are now engaged in gunfights in the streets with police. In America and Britain, Islamist sympathizers have embraced ISIS’s grotesque calling card and are severing heads. This is hardly the image of a war that authorities and the public alike believed was largely won only a handful of years ago.

If American officials remain consumed with frivolous debates over what to call Islamist terror rather than with dismantling their ideological and operational capabilities, how long will it be before American police are caught up in gunfights with Islamist radicals? If the front line of the fight against ISIS and al-Qaeda has already shifted westward to Europe, it will not be long before the front crosses the Atlantic.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: europe; isis; islam

1 posted on 01/16/2015 9:22:54 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

The expression ‘coming home to roost’ takes on a pretty ominous perspective, here.


2 posted on 01/16/2015 9:26:18 AM PST by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
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To: SeekAndFind

That is a lot of lone wolves


3 posted on 01/16/2015 9:28:41 AM PST by GeronL
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To: SeekAndFind

Let ( or, like with obama: bring) millions of islamoNazi terrorists in — and you’ll soon reap the natural consequences. Nothing could be plainer or more obvious. Light a fuse and soon there will be an explosion.


4 posted on 01/16/2015 9:34:56 AM PST by faithhopecharity ((Brilliant, Profound Tag Line Goes Here, just as soon as I can think of one..)
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To: SeekAndFind

The ruling elites of Europe and USA are selling us out.


5 posted on 01/16/2015 9:36:37 AM PST by faithhopecharity ((Brilliant, Profound Tag Line Goes Here, just as soon as I can think of one..)
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To: faithhopecharity

Soon the war will come here! Time to reject the Pointy headed elites who think they know what’s good for us. New leaders—new laws-—Dump the failed policy of PC and Muli-culturalism.


6 posted on 01/16/2015 9:47:36 AM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade
At the very least, the Europeans have decided “enough is enough” and have taken the fight to the enemy while here in America, odumbo golfs. Indeed, ISIS will shift it efforts to the west and we will see them execute their deeds of destruction and again, odumbo will play golf. When will the American people wake up to the fact that the usurper in chief little bastard is an ISIS sympathizer?
7 posted on 01/16/2015 9:55:44 AM PST by DaveA37
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To: SeekAndFind
The war against ISIS is now being fought on European soil

This was our very reasonable explanation for war in Iraq and Afghanistan; fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here.

So, while we fight them over there, we recruit Muslim Brotherhood into every security agency in the government as "area experts" and finally in 2008 elect them into the White House.

And then wonder why from 2008 forward we shift gears and begin to support the very people we fought against.

8 posted on 01/16/2015 10:04:39 AM PST by marron
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To: SeekAndFind

take the gloves off , revoke all passports and lay persona-non-grata on any that go to fight in the jihad . Deport the entire families of those that go into that fight as well


9 posted on 01/16/2015 10:13:55 AM PST by LeoWindhorse
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To: SeekAndFind

Will French, German & Belgians make anti-terror raids on our White House, AG Dept and Homeland Sec.?


10 posted on 01/16/2015 10:30:58 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Will French, German & Belgians make anti-terror raids on our White House, AG Dept and Homeland Sec.?)
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To: SeekAndFind

to be sure, their goals are to bring their style terror to the main street USA - asap.


11 posted on 01/16/2015 11:11:15 AM PST by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: marron

once Communism was outlawed in the USA - maybe it’s time to outlaw Islam in the USA.


12 posted on 01/16/2015 11:13:03 AM PST by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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