Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Terror at the Mall? (American shopping malls to be the next major terrorist targets?)
American Thinker ^ | 01/24/2009 | J.R. Dunn

Posted on 01/24/2010 1:04:48 PM PST by SeekAndFind

The shopping malls of America will be among the next major terrorist targets.

Malls make such obvious high-value targets that it's difficult to grasp why they haven't been hit up until now. Shopping malls are America's marketplaces, constantly packed with people, with uncontrolled entry, and openly vulnerable to any given form of attack. We need only consider the darkest days of the Iraqi terror campaign of 2006-2007 to grasp how the jihadis view marketplaces. Scarcely a week went by without another Iraqi marketplace bombing, with casualties largely consisting of women and children, mounting from the dozens to the hundreds. We need only add the fact that the mall in many ways symbolizes the United States to people across the world, acting as kind of American Horn of Plenty, to see the inevitability of the threat. Such attacks will come, and they will be ugly.

It's not as if the jihadis haven't tried. In late 2003, Nuradin Abdi, a Somali native, was arrested in Louisville, Kentucky while in the midst of plans to attack a mall in Columbus, Ohio. Abdi was closely associated with al-Qaeda member Iyman Faris, arrested for planning a bombing of the Brooklyn Bridge. (A personal side note: Two weeks after 9/11, I was in Columbus itself, speaking to acquaintances about what I'd seen in lower Manhattan. "Well, at least they'll never attack us here," one of them said. "I wouldn't be too sure of that," I told him. "If I were an educated terrorist, I'd be very interested in hitting a town called Columbus.")

Late last year, Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury, Massachusetts was arrested for, among other things, conspiring with Ahmad Abousamra and Daniel Maldonado to attack unidentified malls with automatic weapons. (Abousamra and Maldonado, who had received training in al-Qaeda camps, were evidently already in custody).

On at least two occasions in 2004 and 2007, the FBI circulated warnings of potential mall attacks during the holiday season, when they would present what is known as a "target-rich environment." The 2004 warning involved a mall in central Los Angeles, while the later incident involved malls in both L.A. and Chicago. While no attacks occurred, it remains unknown how far jihadi plans were actually taken.

In Europe, the action has been even hotter. Last week, a Palestinian named Wissam Freijeh was sentenced to ten years for shooting up a Danish mall on December 31, 2008. Freijeh's target was a kiosk selling Israeli products. Two people were injured.

So malls have definitely been on the jihadis' minds. Why no more than one-off attacks? If malls were such an obvious target, wouldn't they have been hit before this? Counter-terror specialists are convinced (as was ably expressed here by Bruce Hoffman) that after a lengthy hiatus recovering from the losses sustained during the Bush years, the jihadis have emerged with a new strategy. This could be called the "wasp" strategy, a method well-known to guerrilla fighters and special-operations forces. Rather than concentrate on massive operations of the 9/11 type, Islamist terrorists will instead carry out endless pinprick attacks, much as a swarm of wasps might harry an elephant (so okay, we'll make it a rhino), maddening the beast to a point where it finally plunges off a cliff. The Fort Hood attack, the Underwear Kid, and the Afghanistan CIA bombing act as evidence of just such a strategy. And there we might well have our answer: the jihadis may have put the malls aside to wait for a moment such as this, when a series of attacks would pay off the most.

How would such attacks occur? As with all Islamist efforts, the goal will be to account for the highest number of casualties in the most horrific manner possible. With this in mind, the first scenario that arises is the truck bomb. With their broad parking lots, enabling a vehicle to build up a high terminal velocity, and their wide glass entrances, malls almost appear to have been designed for this style of attack. The truck payload could be conventional explosives, or in the case of a stolen tanker truck, a supernapalm mixture. (Some readers have understandably protested over my providing the actual formula for supernapalm the last time I dealt with the topic, so we'll elide that this time.) In either case, the casualty level would be appalling, the images horrifying, and the impact impossible to negate. While some malls and shopping complexes have blocked their entrances with concrete barriers or planters, many others have ignored this cheap and simple safeguard. All such establishments should be encouraged to emplace such obstacles as soon as possible.

A secondary threat is the bomb vest, which we most recently saw deployed against a CIA unit in Afghanistan. While not as destructive as the vehicle bomb, the bomb vest has probably claimed more victims overall. It was a favored weapon for striking the markets of Iraq, and as the CIA assassination clearly reveals, it remains extremely effective. Countermeasures could be difficult. In Iraq, the jihadis showed no hesitation in utilizing small children, the retarded, and even animals in carrying out bomb attacks. A coatroom in which heavy coats and other items could be checked could aid in curtailing such attacks. But this leaves us with the problem of large handbags, baby carriages, and packages. Eventually, it may be necessary to adopt the Israeli practice of bag searches and metal detectors.

A related method would involve nerve gas, as successfully used by the Aum Shinryko cult to strike the Tokyo subway system in 1995. The Tokyo attacks killed twelve people and wounded several dozen others. A supply of atropine injectors, the standard first aid for nerve-gas poisoning, should be stored in each mall's pharmacy or medical clinic -- no rarity today in malls across the country.

Finally, we reach the trusty firearm, the easiest threat to smuggle in, and in some ways the hardest to deal with. Mall security is almost exclusively unarmed, with little training in dealing with firearm threats. While some large malls feature police substations, most rely on a warning system to call in the police in the event of an emergency. A well-armed jihadi death squad could cause considerable loss of life before local police could respond, and they might conceivably escape to strike elsewhere. Perhaps the most effective tactic would be to come in through one entrance, race through the mall firing at all available targets, and exit through another entrance where a car or van would be waiting with engine running. It's difficult to see how any official countermeasure short of a police tactical squad could handle this type of attack.

What defensive measures have been taken by mall operators? Apart from the previously mentioned entrance barriers, next to nothing. Security experts have suggested a number of cheap countermeasures, such as utilizing transparent trash buckets to prevent use by bombers, but in large part, these have not been taken up. The general response of owners and operators has been a claim that "no credible threat" to malls has been demonstrated, much the same attitude that preceded the 9/11 attack, but with much less in the way of excuse.

No small number of malls have gone out of their way to increase their vulnerability through participation in the "gun-free zone" movement. In 1990, Congress, in what many observers consider to have been an incremental attempt at a national firearms ban, passed a "Gun Free School Zones" act as part of that year's Crime Control bill. The law forbade ownership or possession of a firearm, apart from strictly limited conditions, anywhere within a thousand feet of a school or related institution. The attempt was ill-fated, being overturned by the Supreme Court and then reinstated in a thoroughly unenforceable form.

Congressional meddling triggered a kind of low-key craze among schools and other institutions -- including malls -- in which administrations eagerly adapted the "gun-free" pledge, often ostentatiously announcing it with signs containing menacing threats against anyone caught with a gun.

As a result, school shootings, a rarity prior to the '90s, became a commonplace. "Gun-free zones" served to attract armed loons the way that honey attracts bears. Firearms-affairs specialist John R. Lott, Jr. has gone on record to state that every major recent shooting has occurred in a declared gun-free area. This includes Virginia Tech, where in September 2007 an insane undergraduate murdered over thirty students.

Malls have not been immune. Mall shootings, unheard of before the "gun-free" movement, are today no rarity. They have occurred in recent years at Kingston, N.Y.; Tacoma, Washington; Kansas City, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska; and Salt Lake City, Utah. In each case, the "gun-free" policy was in place and widely advertised.

We can assume that jihadi terrorists are as well-informed as the average American psychotic. "Gun-free" malls are simply informing our enemies where the easiest targets can be found. These malls will be the first ones hit.

As is often the case with the P.C. crowd, the exact opposite action would produce the desired results. In the Salt Lake City incident of February 12, 2007, a gunman entered the mall with the intention of shooting shoppers at random. Fortunately, an off-duty policeman, Keith Hammond, had also disobeyed the anti-gun admonition. The shooter had already shot nine and killed five when Hammond brought him under fire and held him at bay until responding officers ended the attack by killing the gunman.

Salt Lake City reveals the solution to the mall terror problem. It is clear that the best method of negating the threat would be to enlist customers themselves in defending and protecting their malls. Operators and owners should meet with qualified locals -- ex-police officers and soldiers in particular -- to set up an armed patrol system. Local police cooperation would be necessary to assure proper training and liaison. The goal would be to have one or more patrols present at all times during opening hours. A communications system could be established (no real challenge in the age of the cell phone), both to assure regular contact and to alert members of potential threats. Regular mall security would continue handling everyday problems. By such a means we could avoid a terror-related Virginia Tech, Salt Lake City, or, for that matter, Fort Hood.

Another possibility would be to organize and train mall workers who own guns, assuring that their firearms would be available at work in case of an emergency. While many retail franchises and chains have strict rules against interfering with criminal activities (workers are supposed to wait for the cops), certainly this should be set aside in dealing with terror attempts.

There's little hope of such concepts being put into effect under prevailing conditions. Experience teaches us that P.C. notions of the "gun-free" variety are the hardest weeds to dig up once they've taken root. But it is undeniable that the "bureaucratic" strategy of meeting the terror threat -- Homeland Defense, a centralized National Intelligence Directorate, and so forth -- has proven to be an abject failure. The latest attacks over Detroit, at Fort Hood, and in Afghanistan occurred because the oversized bureaucracies had been put in place, creating a system of endless filters to prevent urgent and necessary information from getting where it was needed. The federal government has merely provided a larger rhino to be stung by jihadi attacks.

On the other hand, all three failed airliner attacks were prevented by the passengers themselves, with no help from air marshals, anti-terror specialists, or Homeland Security bureaucrats. (We're counting Flight 93 here as a defeat for terror -- the attack was curtailed, even though the heroic passengers lost their lives doing it.) In the end, it's the individuals on the spot who make the difference. Even the hapless Janet Napolitano has admitted that passengers comprise the last line of defense.

To combat a swarm of wasps, you don't call up a herd of rhinos. You gather a lot of people with rolled-up newspapers. At this point, our efforts against terror are reactive -- we may well have to endure a mall attack, with casualties possibly reaching the hundreds, before the federal government is forced to rethink its approach. When the time comes, the alternative strategy must be considered. With the American people, this country has a resource unparalleled across the wide world. It's about time we put it to use.

-- J.R. Dunn is consulting editor of American Thinker.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alqaeda; alqaedastrategy; banglist; fourth100days; husseinobama; jihadinamerica; shoppingmall; shoppingmalls; targets; terrorism; trainingcamps
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-105 next last
To: 6ppc

I hope we are not giving them any ideas they didn’t already have.


81 posted on 01/25/2010 3:59:07 PM PST by Palladin (It's a new day in America. Welcome, Senator Brown.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: Bad Jack Bauer

Do that to a half-dozen schools scattered around the country, and the next day and for the foreseeable future every school in the country would be deserted.

Furthermore, probably half the national workforce would be staying home with them.

THAT would have an adverse effect on commerce.


82 posted on 01/26/2010 11:12:13 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Vinomori
Hint: The reason that Al Qaeda has not hit us with another large scale terrorist attack is that they got what they wanted from the 9/11 attack.

They wanted an large-scale military response from US. This was supposed to provoke pious Muslims into overthrowing the governments of pro-Western countries like Saudi Arabia for tolerating us Evil Crusaders. Then Al Qaeda would re-establish the Caliphate.

They got their massive military response. The rest didn’t go so well.

Al Qaeda will be back after they’ve figured out what went wrong and revised their plans.

And, IMHO, there is nothing that the Department of Homeland Security can do about it (or would do about it if they could - can’t go around offending Muslims can we?).

The other attacks we’ve seen are mostly just cases of “Sudden Jihad Syndrome.”

83 posted on 01/26/2010 11:39:28 AM PST by Little Ray (Madame President sounds really good to me...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

bttt


84 posted on 01/26/2010 10:07:30 PM PST by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: harpseal; TexasCowboy; nunya bidness; AAABEST; Travis McGee; Squantos; Shooter 2.5; wku man; SLB; ..
I don't know who said it (Golda Meir?), but... "When we are all targets, then we are soldiers".

Let's see...

Cellfone? Wallet? Keys? Check.

Sidearm? Check.

Extra mag(s)? Check.

Surefire? Check.

Camera? Check. Gotta get me a newer fone.

Body armor. Nah... I'll risk it today.*

Sure is a lot of stuff to carry. I have to remember to thank someday the bright minds who've brought our nation to this juncture.

Click the Gadsden flag for pro-gun resources!

85 posted on 01/27/2010 5:46:59 AM PST by Joe Brower (Sheep have three speeds: "graze", "stampede" and "cower".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

86 posted on 01/27/2010 5:52:42 AM PST by SJackson (In wine there is wisdom, In beer there is freedom, In water there is bacteria.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Joe Brower
Cellfone? Wallet? Keys? Check. Sidearm? Check.

Dude that's just simply bizarre.

This is the exact (and I mean exact) self-check I do every single time I leave the house. The only thing different is that I also include my Oakleys, because without them, my eyes will explode from the FL sun.

You're either taking the long drive from your 20 to look in my window or, more likely, a friend who thinks like I do.

87 posted on 01/27/2010 6:19:01 AM PST by AAABEST (Et lux in tenebris lucet: et tenebrae eam non comprehenderunt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: JeffChrz

Good read - made a BIG impression on me because I’ve been to the place that was used for the setting of the terrorist attack in the book .....


88 posted on 01/27/2010 6:29:20 AM PST by MissMagnolia (Obad. 1:15: As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
I spent eight years in Europe during a period when the US was a constant target of terrorist groups like the Red Army Faction and the Bader Meinhof Gang. I survived three bombings, so I have some experience.

The terrorists started by bombing our headquarters at Rhein Main. Our defenses were lax and they took advantage of it. A female member of the terrorist group lured a young airman from a bar, slit his throat and stole his ID. They modified the ID by pasting a new picture over his and relaminating it. They then loaded the airman's car with 80 lbs of high explosives, used his modified ID to get on base, and parked the car in front of the headquarters building. It blew up as we were all arriving for work.

This sparked a crackdown on base entry procedures. The terrorists then shifted their target to less hardened targets. They blew up the train tracks for the American troop train that went from Hanover to Berlin. They set firebombs in trucks parked at an offbase fuel storage depot. When the US hardened these targets, they went after GIs in bars and on the roads between the off base housing areas and the base.

As we tighten security on the airlines, they're figuring out new ways to kill large amounts of us. Our defenses are reactive, not proactive and they can always figure out a new target. They want mass casualties and big headlines. Any place where they can kill a lot of people or cause a major disruption is a potential target. Sports stadiums, Malls, Tunnels, Power Grids, Train tracks, water treatment facilities, large office buildings, etc. Whenever we concentrate our defenses in one area, they shift to a weaker area.

They're looking at nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, bombs, firearms, poisons, etc.

89 posted on 01/27/2010 6:32:06 AM PST by mbynack (Retired USAF SMSgt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Joe Brower

72 hour E&E kit always at hand - check.


90 posted on 01/27/2010 6:39:59 AM PST by Noumenon ("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Here in S.Florida, they keep building strip malls, and then they sit idle with no tenants.

If they want, they can come here, blow these empty shells up,(and themselves with them!) let them sink back into the Everglades, and become natural again.

Help discharge some of that sexual-jihad frustration and make everybody happier. :-)


91 posted on 01/27/2010 6:42:16 AM PST by left that other site (Your Mi'KMaq Paddy Whacky Bass Playing Biker Buddy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WellyP

Why the limit on the bag?


92 posted on 01/27/2010 8:02:52 AM PST by going hot (Happiness is a Momma Deuce)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Joe Brower

The end of the Victorian era in England was also one of the safest, too. Practically everyone had a small pistol in their pocket for protection. as a result, criminals were extremely careful or extremely dead.


93 posted on 01/27/2010 8:10:37 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (Truth - Reality through the eyes of God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek

What makes it even more scary is that there are a limited number of public access points. The mall cops on their Segways are less then worthless.


94 posted on 01/27/2010 8:13:31 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (Truth - Reality through the eyes of God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: magellan
The 2007 Salt Lake City Trolley Square Mall shooting was perpetrated by a Muslim jihadist, Sulejman Talovic.

Great memory magellan. I had forgotten about that attack.

The mall near my home( about thirty country road miles away) is darned near a hollow shell and the company that owns the place filed bankruptcy earlier this year. I say if they consider us the great satan then maybe Nevada or the casinos would be a better target but the security is very good compared to malls.

Just killing ONE American is one too many. These asshats should be in worse camps than the docile japanese were placed during the 40's..maybe we could trade for Gilead Shalit( improve relations with Israel) and get those three kids/hostages out of Iran...damned terrorists.

Pray for safety and sending all this muslim PC/CAIR/ Islam=religion cult of Peace pieces crud OUT OF AMERICA! Or start having the nasty cultists that have even attempted to kill hanged, drawn and quartered

95 posted on 01/27/2010 8:20:25 AM PST by Karliner ("Things are more like they are now than they ever were before."DDE)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I have often opined that, if I was a terroist, I would blow up bombs at Walmarts or malls or whatever on “Black Friday” after Thanksgiving.

You have crowds and it would destroy the shopping season, devastating the American retail economy that depends on the Christmas season to be profitable.


96 posted on 01/27/2010 8:26:02 AM PST by Jewbacca (The residents of Iroquois territory may not determine whether Jews may live in Jerusalem.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bad Jack Bauer

The primary reason I chose my children’s school was for its orthodox catholicism. I have to say, though, after what happened at Beslan, the fact it was small and not located in an obvious school building was a definite plus.


97 posted on 01/27/2010 8:30:32 AM PST by Eepsy (www.pioacademy.org)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Bad Jack Bauer

I disagree.

Yes, it is an obvious target and quite unguarded, but I think that they know that such an attack would change our war posture in an instant. The retaliation against anything and everyone muslim would be devastating. Even the liberals wouldn’t tolerate attacks on children, after all, everything they do is for the children.


98 posted on 01/27/2010 9:06:47 AM PST by Badray
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Badray
The retaliation against anything and everyone muslim would be devastating.

The fanatical Muslims who would carry out such an attack are not concerned with such things.

99 posted on 01/27/2010 9:45:53 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 98 | View Replies]

To: Joe Brower

Same here.........daily routine now. No thanks to a few decades of silly sh*t from polidiots and their handlers.


100 posted on 01/27/2010 2:33:12 PM PST by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-105 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson