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Recent Appearances...

Europe

Islamist gunman behind failed 2015 Thalys train attack jailed for life by French court

2020-12-18

[RT] An Islamist Death Eater who opened fire on a train bound for La Belle France during a thwarted terrorist attack in 2015 has been given a life sentence by a French court.

Since they don’t do death sentences over there, “life”, which as I recall is actually around a quarter century, is the next best thing. After all, had he succeeded, there were 150 passengers on the train he could have killed.

The attacker was jumped by three Americans who helped foil his raid.

Moroccan citizen Ayoub El-Khazzani,

...the Moroccan ISIS man who originally claimed he was just a homeless guy who’d found the guns, including a Kalashnikov, under a bush in a park. Queerly enough, he had residency papers from Spain dated 2007, where he was known for making fiery speeches in the local mosque. He ran out for a quick Syrian visit before returning for the events in question...

31, was convicted of attempted murder with the intent to commit terrorism after he fired gunshots on the high-speed Thalys service as it crossed the La Belle France-Belgium border, heading for Gay Paree, on August 21, 2015.

Three other men were handed sentences of between seven and 27 years for helping El-Khazzani plot his attack, which involved him boarding the train while heavily armed and wounding two passengers, before he was overpowered by three US servicemen and some other passengers.

After foiling the attack, the American trio — Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler

...a Zoomie, a Doggy, and some guy they knew...

— later starred as themselves in a Clint Eastwood-directed movie, ’The 15:17 to Gay Paree’.

In his testimony, El-Khazzani said he had been ordered to carry out the attack by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Belgian terrorist of Moroccan origin who allegedly plotted the Gay Paree massacres of November 2015 which killed 130 people.

Mr Abaaoud fought for IS in Syria, then was promoted to criminal mastermind of a large Francophone network in Europe which committed a series of attacks in France and Belgium in 2015-16, even after he was killed in shootout with French police following the November 13, 2015 Paris massacre. In addition to the November Paris attack, his projects included the Vervier, Belgium cell plot foiled in January, 2015, Ayoub El-Khazzani’s attempted August Thalys train attack, and the March 22, 2016 attack on Zaventem airport in Brussels that had over 200 casualties.

El-Khazzani was with Abaaoud in Syria and traveled with him back to Brussels. The judge called him "a puppet" controlled by Abaaoud, who was killed by French special forces after the Gay Paree attacks.

During his trial, El-Khazzani told the court that his victims were to have included Americans and members of the European Commission.

Thursday’s ruling comes a day after 14 people were found guilty of being accomplices to the button men behind the Gay Paree attacks that killed 17 people in January 2015.

The defendants were found to have provided financial and logistical support to a trio of attackers who murdered 12 people in the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo
...

A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe...
, plus a policewoman and four other people at a Jewish supermarket.

The Times of Israel points out:

Unlike Khazzani, who was immediately apprehended, all the gunmen in the Charlie Hebdo assault were killed in the aftermath of the massacres, leaving only their accomplices to go on trial.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Portland protests drive powerful Dem's Oregon district toward young Republican rival

2020-10-19

Another race to watch.

[FoxNews] In the regularly blue state of Oregon, voters in a purple district near the city of Portland are turning away from long-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Peter DeFazio in favor of a young Republican challenger.

Army veteran Alek Skarlatos, 27, gained international fame for halting an turban attack aboard a Gay Paree-bound train in 2015.

His adventures, along with two friends, are described here. There was also an Englishman and a Frenchman or two who courageously involved themselves, as reported in subsequent articles on the subject. Genuine WoT heroes, all.

He's also one of House Republicans' best recruits this year, outraising DeFazio by $1.2 million and outspending him by over $900,000 in the most recent quarter.

Link

Europe

Thalys attack: Lawyer criticises Clint Eastwood film

2018-02-09

[BBC]A lawyer representing a man accused of a foiled French terror attack has spoken out against a film by Clint Eastwood depicting the incident.

The film - The 15:17 to Paris - is based on events on board a Thalys express train when a gunman tried to attack passengers in August 2015.

The film, starring the men who stopped the attacker, opened on Wednesday.

A lawyer for suspect Ayoub El-Khazzani

...the Moroccan ISIS man who originally claimed he was just a homeless guy who’d found the guns under a bush in a park...

has asked for showings to be suspended while a judge reviews evidence.

Sarah Mauger-Poliak said the film was a violation of her client's rights because it presents a "fictionalised" and "one-sided" view to the public as fact.

"I am aware that my client is not an angel but let justice do its work," she said.

Mr Khazzani, from Morocco, was found with a range of weapons including a Kalashnikov assault rifle on board the Amsterdam-to-Paris train. He is alleged to have links to radical Islam.

He was eventually subdued by some of the passengers after opening fire, including three American friends who star as themselves in the Clint Eastwood-directed re-creation.

Off-duty military servicemen, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos, and their friend Anthony Sadler, were backpacking through Europe on holiday at the time of the attack.

They were hailed as heroes after the foiled attack - they and three other passengers, including a British businessman, were awarded with France's top honour.

Ms Mauger-Poliak said she had not ruled out taking legal action against Warner Brothers to get the film suspended during the judge's instruction period - where he decides if there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial.

"That Hollywood has delivered its 'truth' before the judges is at the very least worrying," Ms Mauger-Poliak told radio station France Inter.

Mr Eastwood's film is the latest in a series of movies he has made about real-life people in extraordinary situations.

Link

-Short Attention Span Theater-

Intense trailer released for Clint Eastwood's new film on the 2015 French train attack - starring the REAL American heroes who helped take down ISIS gunman

2017-12-17

[DailyMail]

Warner Bros released the trailer and poster for the new film The 15:17 to Paris

The Clint Eastwood-directed film covers the 2015 ISIS attack on a train travelling from Amsterdam to Paris

Three Americans were recognized for helping take down Ayoub El Khazzani
...the very connected Moroccan lone wolf who took a couple of guns onto a high speed train to kill a bunch of trapped unbelievers for the glory of Allah and ISIS, only discover that there were sheep dogs among the sheeple. That was not quite the plan when he was ordered to join the Muslim flood into Europe...
Heroes Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone play themselves
...a Zoomie, a Doggy, and some guy they knew.
The new film is based on a book the three childhood friends wrote about the attack, with the help of writer Jeffrey E. Stern

The new film also features Jenna Fischer and Judy Greer and is due out in theaters on February 9.

Update on 18. Oct. 2020: The Daily Mail’s direct video link originally posted no longer works, but the trailer can be seen on the article page or on IMDB here.

Link

Europe

Four Held in Belgium over 2015 Thalys Train Attack

2017-10-31

[AnNahar] Belgian police held four people Monday over the 2015 attack on a high-speed Thalys train to Gay Paree in which an Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
murderous Moslem shot and seriously maimed a passenger before being overpowered.

The French interrogators must have gotten useful information from the two miscreants they arrested on October 11th. Well done, O perceptive interrogators!

Police raided six properties around Brussels and "four people were taken in for questioning", Belgian prosecutors said in a statement.

An investigating judge will decide later what further action to take against the detainees.

A bloodbath was only narrowly averted on the train from Amsterdam to Gay Paree when quick-thinking passengers including two off-duty US servicemen subdued gunman Ayoub El Khazzani -- who was armed with a Kalashnikov, a pistol and a box-cutter knife -- as he opened fire.

More specifically, U.S. Airman Spencer Stone, Oregon National Guard soldier Alek Skarlatos, just back from Afghanistan, and their college friend Anthony Sadler, who with the help of Brit Chris Norman, 62, pounded the miscreant with his own gun until he surrendered because he was unconscious.

Two of Monday's raids were in the gritty Brussels district of Molenbeek, which has gained notoriety as a hotbed of international jihadists after the Brussels bombings in March 2016 and the Gay Paree attacks in November 2015.

"No explosives nor weapons were found" during Monday's raids, prosecutors said.

Khazzani, a Moroccan who fought for IS in Syria, has told Sherlocks he was acting on the orders of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of the organisers of the November 2015 Gay Paree attacks, whom he met in the war-torn Middle Eastern country.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Spencer Stone, Hero of French Train Terror, Stabbed in Caliphornia

2015-10-08

One of the three heroes who thwarted a terror attack on a French train over the summer has been stabbed and is in critical condition, according to reports.
Prolly one of those Lutherans, again!
Early reports on the stabbing did not identify Stone as the victim. A reporter on the scene said that according to police, a man had been stabbed several times in the torso and was not at first expected to survive. Police reportedly told the reporter that they were prepared to investigate the incident as a homicide before learning the victim was expected to recover.
Must be a tough dude!
Army National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, who was travelling to Paris with Stone when they stopped an attempted attack on their train in August, solicited prayers for his fellow hero and his family on Twitter Thursday.

Skarlatos lives in Roseburg, Oregon, the scene of last week's fatal shooting at Umpqua Community College.
No doubt, a coincidence. Ask the Russian Security Service.

Link

Europe

British grandfather Chris Norman describes how he helped overpower gunman

2015-08-25

[Guardian] Norman noticed three young American friends leap up. "I heard one of the Americans say: 'Go get him Spence.' The other one said: 'No, you don't do that, buddy.'

"I thought great, somebody's actually intervening, let me stand up because we've got much more chance as a team. Let's go!"

Two of the Americans were off-duty soldiers on holiday in Europe. One, Spencer Stone, held the gunman, 25-year-old Moroccan, Ayoub El-Khazzani, in a choke-hold, while the other, Alek Skarlatos, first took away the Kalashnikov, then a pistol that the gunman had pulled on him.

"I just pounced on the gunman's arm so that he couldn't actually use it, and I held his arm to the ground," Norman said. "We all held him until he stopped struggling."

Link

Europe

Francois Hollande awards brave lads the Legion d'Honneur in ceremony.

2015-08-24

[The Telegraph] French President Francois Hollande (C) poses with (LtoR) British businessman Chris Norman and off-duty US servicemen Anthony Sadler, Spencer Stone, and Alek Skarlatos during a reception in their honor at the Elysee Palace in Paris.

Link

Europe

US soldiers speak of the moment they stopped gunman and 'beat him until he was unconscious'

2015-08-23

[INDEPENDENT.CO.UK] A US soldier has spoken of the moment he and a childhood friend prevented a gunman from opening fire on a passenger train from Amsterdam to northern La Belle France.
It wasn't precisely the Marines that landed, more a Zoomie, a Doggy, and some guy they knew. It added up to the same thing in the end: A pack, not a herd.
Alek Skarlatos, on holiday in Europe with fellow serviceman Spencer Stone and student Anthony Sadler, said he and his companions heard a gunshot and breaking glass while on their Thalys train at around 3.45pm on Friday.
Gunshot and breaking glass == tipoff unless you're a CNN commentpotater ("But were you sure those sounds were associated with an attack? They could have been caused by something else...")
"I saw a guy entering the carriage with an AK and a handgun, at that point I ducked down and my friend Spencer, next to me, ducked down and I just looked over at Spencer and said: 'Let's go'," Mr Skalatos told Sky News from his hotel room in Arras, northern La Belle France.
"Let's roll." Next month is 14 years.
The 22-year-old National Guardsman from Rosenburg, Oregan, and Mr Stone charged the unidentified 26-year-old man, believed to be of Moroccan origin, down the narrow carriage.
[TRAMPLE!][TRAMPLE!][TRAMPLE!] "Aaaiiieeee!" [TRAMPLE!][TRAMPLE!]
Well, maybe a thundering herd.
"Then I grabbed the AK (assault rifle), which was at his feet, and started muzzle thumping him in the head with it," Mr Skarlatos added.
[WHACK!][WHACK!][WHACK!][THUMP!]
Mr Sadler, a senior at Sacramento State University, told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named of his friends' exploits: "Spencer makes first contact, he tackles the guy, Alek wrestles the gun away from him, and the gunman pulls out a boxcutter and slices Spencer a few times. And the three of us beat him until he was unconscious. The gunman never said a word."
Just ate his knuckle sammitch in peace.
It came as amateur video showing the aftermath of the struggle emerged.
Why was the guy videoing when he could have been thumping?
Another passenger helped the men tie up the assailant while Mr Skalatos -- who recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan -- disabled the gunman's weapons.
"E-e-e-ew! You ever clean this thing?"
"In the aftermath, we saw that a man's throat had been split and he was bleeding profusely," Mr Sadler said.
[Collective chorus: "Oh, dear."]
Airman Mr Stone, who was injured himself in the hand during the tussle, performed first aid on the unidentified passenger.
"Hold this against the wound and don't talk!"
"It hurts!"
"I said don't talk!"
"Okay! Okay!"
Mr Sadler continued: "Spencer, who has some paramedics training, just clogged up his neck so he wouldn't die. This is all in the midst of Spencer bleeding profusely himself."
"Try not to slip and fall in it. You don't even want to have a broken hip set."
"It was just really heroic of him to do something like that."
"Shucks, ma'am! 'Twarn't nuthin'!"
Mr Skarlatos added: "We just did what we had to do. You either run away or fight. We chose to fight and got lucky and didn't die."
Three disciplined men against one dipshit krazed killer? No contest.
The attack has been condemned by French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuv, who called it "an attack of barbaric violence", and expressed his "gratitude and admiration" for the men's actions.
For a moment there I thought he meant the attack on the krazed killer.
A White House spokesperson also praised the men's actions.
"Yeah, yeah. Really."
"The President expressed his profound gratitude for the courage and quick thinking of several passengers, including US service members, who selflessly subdued the attacker, " a statement said. "While the investigation into the attack is in its early stages, it is clear that their heroic actions may have prevented a far worse tragedy."
" 'May have,' mind you."
The three were met off the train, which was travelling through Belgium at the time of the attack, along with around 500 other passengers at the next station in Arras by French authorities.
"Ummm... What's that?"
"It's a guillotine. It's not for you. It's for him!"
"Can we watch?"
"By all means!"
Three people were maimed in the attack, including a French actor who is believed to have hurt himself as he sounded the alarm.
Yeah. We saw the headline on CNN. Bit his tongue, did he?
US authorities confirmed that an American citizen had been injured but that their wounds were not life-threatening.

Link

Europe

Police quiz gunman over French train attack

2015-08-23

[Hurriyet Daily News] French Sherlocks were on Aug. 22 interrogating a man who was overpowered by three young Americans after he opened fire with a Kalashnikov on a train between Amsterdam and Gay Paree.
"A pack, not a herd"
The suspect is thought to be a 26-year-old of Moroccan origin who had lived in Spain, said sources close to the investigation. He was known to the French authorities after being flagged as a potential jihadist by Spanish intelligence services.

Spanish daily El Pais said he moved to La Belle France last year and had visited Syria.

Armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle, an automatic pistol, nine cartridge clips and a box-cutter, the man opened fire on board the TGV train just after it crossed from Belgium into La Belle France on Friday evening.

But the attack was quickly stopped when a group of young Americans on holiday -- two of them off-duty soldiers -- charged the gunman and overpowered him.

"I looked back and saw a guy enter with a Kalashnikov. My friends and I got down and then I said 'Let's get him'," Alek Skarlatos, a 22-year-old member of the National Guard in Oregon, told news hounds.

Spencer Stone, who is reportedly in the US Air Force, was the first to reach the gunman who slashed him in the neck and hand with a box-cutter.

"At that point I showed up and grabbed the gun from him and basically started beating him in the head until he fell unconscious," said Skarlatos, who recently returned from service in Afghanistan.

The third American, student Anthony Sadler, said the attacker "didn't stand a chance."

"As soon as we saw him, we all ran back there. It all happened really fast," said Sadler.

"He didn't say anything. He was just telling us to give back his gun. 'Give me back my gun! Give me back my gun!'

"But we just carried on beating him up and immobilised him and that was it."

Stone was taken to hospital along with another unnamed American passenger, who was hit in the shoulder with a bullet.

Al Ahram adds:

The man the attacker claims to be lived in Spain during 2014 and in Belgium in 2015, Cazeneuve said.

A source with knowledge of the case, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
, said the gunman had originally given a different identity which was unknown to the security services.

According to Le Voix du Nord, citing security sources, the suspected Islamist murderous Moslem was seen on a plane to ~~The Sick Man of Europe~~ Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
from Germany in May, and was thought to have visited Syria.

The French newspaper said he may have had connections to a group involved in a suspected Islamist shooting in Belgium in January.

Cazeneuve said the struggle started when a Frenchie on his way to the toilet tried to stop the man entering a carriage.

The minister said the second person hurt was of Franco-American nationality, hit by a bullet while seated. Authorities said last night a French actor had also been hurt.

The Times of Israel names names:

The alleged attacker was named as 25-year-old Moroccan national Ayob El Khazzani.

The shooting, which underlined the difficulties faced by intelligence services tracking an unprecedented number of potential jihadists, is expected to lead to tighter security for international train services in mainland Europe.

A French passenger tried to disarm Khazzani as he exited a toilet cubicle, but he got away and fired several shots. Then a Franco-American traveler in his 50s clashed with the man and was shot and wounded. But the attack was quickly stopped when two off-duty US servicemen and their friend charged the gunman and restrained him.

His friend Anthony Sadler, a 23-year-old student at Sacramento State University, and a British business consultant, Chris Norman, then helped keep the man subdued.

Norman, 62, said he thought the suspect’s gun may have jammed, preventing more bloodshed.

“My first reaction was to hide but… my thought was I’m probably going to die anyway, I’d rather die being active, trying to get him down than simply sit in the corner and be shot,” he told reporters. “I don’t feel like a hero. If it wasn’t for Spencer, I think we would all be dead.”

With the man floored, Skarlatos left to search for more gunmen, while Norman helped tie up the attacker with his tie.

Despite his own injuries, Stone then went to help the man who had been shot in the shoulder. Both were hospitalized but are said to be recovering well, and Stone was released later Saturday after surgery on his hand.

French actor Jean-Hugues Anglade, who was slightly injured while pulling the train alarm, has accused the train’s staff for locking themselves in the locomotive, leaving the passengers to fend for themselves. Train company managers have denied the claim.

French President Francois Hollande is to thank the Americans and the Briton in person at the Elysee Palace on Monday, while US President Barack Obama called the three Americans and congratulated them on their “extraordinary bravery.”

A Spanish counter-terrorism source said he had lived in Spain for seven years until last year and had traveled to Syria from France. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve confirmed that Spanish intelligence services had flagged the man to France over his ties to “radical Islamist movements”, without giving details. German security services also flagged Khazzani when he boarded a flight from Berlin to Istanbul in May this year, a French intelligence official told AFP, and in Belgium, Justice Minister Koen Geens confirmed Khazzani was “known” to the country’s intelligence services.

And from another Al Ahram article:

Belgian prosecutors said Saturday they had formally opened an anti-terrorism probe after a gunman opened fire on high-speed train travelling from Amsterdam to Gay Paree.

"We have opened an inquiry under the anti-terrorism law... as the suspect boarded the train in Brussels," said Eric Van der Sypt, front man for the prosecutor's office.

The fog of war, as it were, is clearing.

Link

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