Another terrorist attack in France, and another opportunity for moral signaling on social media and more self-righteous bloviating for the media operatives at CNN. But before everyone gets ahead of themselves and dives head first into the pre-fabricated media narratives and the trendy, therapeutic social media #hashtags and Facebook profile picture filters, now is a good time to stop for a few moments and take a serious look at some of the news items surrounding the the Paris terrorist attacks that probably won’t get prime time on Anderson Cooper 360.
By now many of us will have already heard that the passport of one of the alleged attackers has been magically recovered [1], but what other chestnuts are waiting to be discovered behind the shifting, incoherent mainstream narrative?
The appearance of a certain Dr. Patrick Pelloux on the scene certainly should peak our curiosity. Pelloux is now an old hat when it comes to terrorist attacks in France, having previously been a “survivor” of the Charlie Hebdo shootings earlier this year. This time around Dr. Pelloux, already dubbed a hero by the media, was on the scene of the attacks to supposedly acting in his medical capacity as a ‘first responder’.
Now, his appearance may not be all that interesting in and of itself, but the comments he gave to the French media certainly are. Though a self-described leftist, Pelloux gave some vague statements that seemed to indicate his desire to see the French national security state expanded, with presumably more powers being granted to the police and the intelligence services to surveil and detain suspects.
The fact that these ever more expansive state powers never seem to stop the threats they’re supposed to seems lost on Mr. Pelloux. But even more interesting are comments Pelloux made on France Info radio, admitting that a “multi-site attack exercise” (i.e. a drill) was already ongoing prior to the attacks.
[correction; the multi-site terrorist drill was undertaken under the auspices of the Ile de France emergency services (SAMU) involving medical personnel, first responders, fireman, police. it was not a military exercise, GR editor]
This is the same scenario on display during the London 7/7 bombings which transpired on the same day and hit the exact same targets as those being ‘practiced’ in that government-sanctioned terrorism drill. Who knew?
Listen to Patrick Pelloux’s incredible slip here:
Sadly, we cannot expect the crack journalists at CNN, MSNBC, BBC, The Guardian, or France 24 to follow up on the claim made by Mr. Pelloux.
The continuous presence of drills along side terrorist attacks and mass shootings is as interesting to the mainstream media as the tuna sandwich you ate for lunch yesterday.
But moving on from that, the details surrounding the alleged suspects is something that can also shed some light on the nature of this event. If you guessed that those fingered for the attack (all now conveniently dead) were known to French and other European domestic intelligence agencies then you would be right.
According to news reports, one of the identified suspects was a 30-year-old French national that was “known to police” for his links to radical Islamic circles. What exactly did police know and what steps did they take, or fail to take, based on their knowledge of the suspects’ radical activities? Answers are not likely to be forthcoming. But it’s important to note, that in all too many previous attacks or attempted attacks involving radical Muslims – from the staged spectacle at Garland, Texas last spring, to the Charlie Hebdo shootings last January, the suspects were well known to domestic intelligence agencies and police, a telltale sign of a false flag operation according to writer Jay Dyer.
Finally, it should be noted that approximately two weeks before last Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, CIA director John Brennan met with France’s security chief Bernard Bajolet, alongside former ranking spooks from Britain and Israel, for a forum discussing cyber and “homeland” security. It may very well be a coincidence in timing, but it would certainly be interesting to know what conversation went on between the two men in private.
Now the significance of any one of the items mentioned here is certainly up for debate, and certainly as new details come out over the few days and weeks we may be able to get a better idea of what transpired last Friday. But a critical debate is exactly what we won’t get, at least not from the mainstream media and political establishment, which will be more interested in peddling cynical narratives that serve their particular agendas relating to domestic surveillance and theirforeign policy shenanigans toward Syria.
[1] Greek authorities are reporting that the Syrian passport allegedly found at one of the attack sites was used by a Syrian refugee who passed through Greece on his way into Western Europe. If one of the Paris suspects is identified as having come with the recent and highly politicized ‘Migrant Crisis’ wave of Middle Eastern refugees and migrants into Europe this will have a serious political impact on countries like Germany and Sweden where leaders have enacted increasingly unpopular policies of resettling large numbers of migrants in their countries. Poland’s incoming president as already cited the Paris attacks as justification to refuse EU-quotas for refugee resettlement.
