I did not believe the official story of Hasna Ait Buolacehn the moment I saw it. The official line was that she was a suicide bomber who blew herself up when the police stormed the apartment in St Denis where the alleged terrorist ringleader was hiding out. But that story seemed to me completely incompatible with the recordings on which she could plainly be heard screaming “He is not my boyfriend! He is not my boyfriend” immediately before the explosion. She sounded like a terrified woman trying to disassociate herself from the alleged terrorist. It was a strange battle cry for someone who believed themselves on the verge of paradise.
Then yesterday the truth emerged from forensics that she was indeed not a suicide bomber. None of the mainstream media appeared to find this in any way troubling. And just in case anybody did, the BBC (and I assume all the French and major international media) then immediately did an interview with an anonymous member of the French Police attacking squad, who stated that Hasna was:
“trying to say she was not linked to the terrorists, that she had nothing to do with them and wanted to surrender”.
But he said that due to prior intelligence, “we knew that she was trying to manipulate us”.
Unfortunately this would have been a very great deal more convincing had it been stated 48 hours earlier, rather than only after the original reports that she was a suicide bomber had been corrected on forensic examination. As it is, it looks very much like a post facto justification, a new story to cover the new facts.
Besides, it is very difficult indeed to see what prior intelligence could explain if someone was genuinely trying to surrender or not. There appears to be no information available to the public that gives the slightest indication that Hasna was an extreme Islamist; what public information there is paints the opposite picture. The best the media have been able to dredge up are quotes from friends saying “if she was, then she must have been drugged or brainwashed”. Google it yourself.
But even were she an extreme Islamist, that does not mean she was not attempting to surrender. All of which is a bit nugatory if she were then killed by an explosion triggered by the terrorists themselves. But the changing story about Hasna makes me less than confident that is what actually happened.
I have no difficulty with the principle that the police should shoot people who are shooting at them. I outraged many friends on the left for example by not joining in the criticism of the police for killing Mr Duggan. People who choose to carry guns in my view run a legitimate risk of being shot by the police, it is as simple as that. Jean Charles De Menezes was a totally different case and his murder by police completely unjustifiable. In Paris it appears plain that the police were in a situation of confrontation with armed suspects.
There are severe intelligence disadvantages to killing people with profound knowledge of terrorist organisations. It also cheats the justice system. Nevertheless I can conceive of situations where simply taking out by an explosion a terrorist cell might be justified. But only if you are quite certain of the situation. The case of Hasna is to me troublingly reminiscent of the case of Jean Charles De Menezes, in that it became obvious in the days after his death that everything the police and establishment had leaked to the media about him (leaping over barriers, running through the tunnels, heavy jacket, wires protruding) was a complete, utter and quite deliberate lie.
The media could help if they were in any way rational and dispassionate, or ever questioned an official narrative. It is an urgent and irrepressible question as to why the BBC journalist did not ask the French policeman “and why did you not say this 48 hours ago when you were content to allow the story to run that she was a suicide bomber?”
Similar media manipulation is at use here by the Guardian in telling us the police stormed a “terrorist apartment”. What is a “terrorist apartment”? Are the walls made of semtex? The intent of course is to assure us everybody inside was a terrorist. It is not just the Guardian. The phrase is all over the media. Again, google it.
I am worried in case Hollande’s Rambo impersonation is steamrollering justice. It may well be that Hasna was a dreadful and bloodthirsty terrorist. I do not know. It may well be she was killed by the terrorists not the police. All we know at the moment is she was in an apartment with people who allegedly were terrorists, and died in the “battle”. But I do not trust the changing stories of the authorities.
Great post Craig. In my view BBC should concentrate on news, investigate journalism, historical and current affairs, culture, sport, open university and world service. It can cut and keep cutting management and let the journalists run the show.
Rolling 24 hr news seems too often to repeat the same shallow analysis and sound bites. Surely 24 hrs news is a gift not to be wasted. News online should allow the BBC to really develop layers of a developing story. WSJ and Bloomberg have scoops. The BBC should be leading and for eg investigating who is buying oil off ISIS.
Someone posted a link to zerohedge.com the other day, which has many intriguing posts including one on who is buying oil from ISIS. Amongst the comments to that post there is one, which is detailed. Follow the money.Follow the money. Maybe difficult for me but lets hope there are some investigative journalists doing this; you can’t trade refine and transport half billion dollars of physical oil without traces and without hundreds knowing who where when and how.
@Pissed Off
21 Nov, 2015 – 5:53 pm
Stopped being pissed-off and start worrying about what’s going on here.
Tax payer’s money is being used to fund these trolls, trolls who subvert democracy…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3318008/How-Whitehall-spends-289million-cash-propaganda-marketing-just-5-6million-freedom-law-claims-expensive.html
… and of course there’s the psychos at GCHQ…
https://theintercept.com/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation
… who in the wake of the Paris attacks have been pledged a huge increase in their funding; this against the backdrop of massive cuts to police budgets and other frontline services.
Come on trolls, black is white, down is up, and we’re all going down the rabbit hole with Alice…
Fuck je suis Paris.
This is 1789.
See? The ‘nuance’ can be translated into Spanish and Italian but if your comprehension can’t step up then learning is impossible. It’s a black and white flat-earth for y’all.
One has to contemplate, why France and Belgium have gone in hard, in regions of their countries where the ethinicity isn’t predominantly French or Belgian, terrorist activities cover a whole host of agendas, in my book.
In my opinion the ghettoesque areas are home to mainly immigrants from French and Belgian colonies, in Central and West Africa, who probably speak out about prior and present events carried out in their homelands by French and Belgian forces.
Both have form on that matter, Belgium in particular committing a holocaust in the Belgian Congo under king Leopold II.
France fairs no better, some may not know this but France’s refusal to leave Vietnam, that ultimately led to US intervention in the country, wasn’t the first time the French faced stiff Vietnamese opposition, as far back as 1858 France established a grip on Vietnam and its people.
Some Africans did stand up to colonial powers, such as Patrice Lumumba, who was brutally murdered by his rivals, backed by Belgian influence and power.
Today many African countries are still gripped in a terrible malaise created by colonial, and Western forces.
Resident Dissident.
Do you now regret arguing for UK military intervention in Libya?
” 4 Points”
“(Also…ever wondered why Marks and Spencer have premises at railway stations in Britain? That scares the shit out of me.)”
________________
Should the rest of us be shit scared as well, I wonder?
Please expand and elucidate in order to help us decide.
Thanks.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/11/shoot-to-kill-and-news-management/
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/11/shoot-to-kill-and-news-management/
How difficult is ‘nuance’ to understand?
John McDonnell “the Media are trying to destroy us”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4roCKvBIxc
Mods; What happened to the ability to link to a blog comment? When you click and copy it just pastes to the headlined posting.
Republicofscotland
“In my opinion the ghettoesque areas are home to mainly immigrants from French and Belgian colonies, in Central and West Africa, who probably speak out about prior and present events carried out in their homelands by French and Belgian forces.”
_________________
Just on a point of information, Rosy, in Belgium there are many times more immigrants from former French possessions (especially Morocco) than from former Belgian colonies.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Today many African countries are still gripped in a terrible malaise created by colonial, and Western forces.”
____________________
There are those who take the opposite view and claim that most African countries have regressed since independence and that they would in fact probably be better off if they were still colonies run by enlightened European powers.
Would you care to critique that point of view?
“How difficult is ‘nuance’ to understand?”
___________________
Extremely difficult when used in your usually peculiarly unpenetrable prose.
Get a dictionary, and a copy of Strunk and White’s for your syntax issues. Learn basic etymology .
Every journey must begin with a first step.
The Mark Duggan case is not “as simple as that”, is it? Because he was not “shooting at them”, was he? In fact he was not in possession of any weapon at the point of being shot and the evidence strongly suggests he may have been in the process of raising his hands in a gesture of surrender, which is almost certainly the case with Mr Menezes.
“.. every human life has value” and that includes both Mr Menezes and Mr Duggan.
“Syria, 7 million internal refugees (living under Assad protection), 3 million escaping the country. These statistics blow a great big hole in your Assad conspiracy theory.”
I suggest that you look at the facts a little closer – the fact that Assad and IS seem to be in competition to create the greatest number of refugees doesn’t excuse either party. You are living in a dreamland if you think that the majority Sunni population will ever accept Assad as the legitimate leader of Syria.
The world knows it, but the Oligarch Owned Media keep ignoring the actualities and insist on disseminating lies and untruths
RD; perhaps you could speculate why christians are remaining in Syria rather than emigrate?
A point that needs attention
– “4 points” is a dissembling anti semitic shit.
Well Habby, a sayan might provide premises for a terrorist operation – a shop or a paintball stall in a railway station, or a Dead Sea oil stall in a shopping centre, or a mail forwarding service, or whatever.
No ethics required other than crypto-racial. “Scum of the earth” comes to mind.
Think of a sayan a bit like a hasbaranik. Or should that be habbabkanik? All part of the same effort.
Habb.
I have to of course completely disagree with you, that Africa, would be a better place if the colonial powers still ruled.
Here’s why.
Would Africa have been better off with no contact with Europe? This question could only be asked by a person who is wearing blinkers. What colonialism has taken and still takes from Africa is not something that can be measured.
It is not resources, land or political power; it has taken something far more valuable: it disrupted civilisations, cultures and political systems, it changed the course of African history for the worst.
In the words of Aime Cesaire,”out of the colonial expeditions that have been undertaken, out of all the colonial statutes that have been drawn up, out off all the memoranda that have been despatched by all the ministries, there could not come a single human value”
The inability of European powers to admit and accept responsibility for this aggression only points to their continued engagement in the marginalisation of the African continent.
In the words of Aime Cesaire again,”a civilisation that proves incapable of solving the problems it created is a decadent civilisation”.
Colonialism in Africa, has failed miserably and cost an untold amount of lives in the process, not to mention the displacement of millions, sold as slaves.
How can you possibly defend such, abject failure.
Why have 75% of christians remained in Syria? Assad’s protection.
http://www.mintpressnews.com/obama-assad-protected-christians-syria/196480/
Now that’s a revolting development, ain’t it?
Assad the Sunni protecting christians against Sunny ISIS and su frite Saudis. Where the hell are the Shia?
” “4 points” is a dissembling anti semitic shit.”
Is that an endorsement?
Imagine if the guy who’d owned the Bataclan theatre in Paris for 40 years was a strong supporter of Daesh (ISIS).
Imagine if he’d sold it two months ago and emigrated to Daesh-controlled territory in Syria.
Imagine if, during the attacks, he decided to put aside his duty as a Muslim to pray, and had kept his ear glued to his phone to keep up, in real time, on what was happening at the theatre?
Would people think there was anything suspicious in any of that?
Ben Right click on the date and time in blue below the name. Click on ‘copy shortcut’ etc.
Slavery existed in Africa long before Europeans arrived to exploit it and persisted long after they left.
@Ben-Outraged by the Cannabigots – if you could cite any instances of anti-Semitism or dissembling, you would.
“Would people think there was anything suspicious in any of that?”
Nah. We don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories aplenty. We just accept what we given to read and see via the Media and Gubmint pressers. What is Santy Claus bringing you this year?
“Just on a point of information, Rosy, in Belgium there are many times more immigrants from former French possessions (especially Morocco) than from former Belgian colonies.”
_______________
Habb.
No point required, I did cover it by declaring “from Africa” did I not, but I know how pernickety you’ve become in your decrepit old age, so I’ll emphasis French North Africa, which covers Morocco, happy now?
You missed the ‘nuance’ 4 points. 🙂
“You are living in a dreamland if you think that the majority Sunni population will ever accept Assad as the legitimate leader of Syria.”
_______________________
And that, of course, is because he is not the legitimate ruler of Syria.
His only claim to leadership is that Daddy was the (illegitimate) ruler of Syria.
+++++++++++++++++
Say what you like about Israel but it’s grand when a small country like that can give those illegitimate sawdust Caesars like Assad père a good kicking from time to time.