The tone at the top just got tougher.
The terrorist attacks on Paris have become an important political watershed. It has alerted European leaders to the reality of the terrorist threat to their cities. Over the past weekend, Belgian authorities locked down the city of Brussels with information of Paris-style attacks forthcoming.
In both France and Belgium, hundreds of police raids were conducted. One in Paris resulted in the killing of the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks. A raid in Turkey resulted in the arrests of three terrorists, one of them believed to be the one who scouted the targets in Paris attacked by suicide teams.
Hundreds of individuals in both France and Belgium have either been detained or kept under house arrest. The French National Assembly granted President Hollande’s request to extend the state of emergency to three months. This allows the police to arrest and detain suspects without warrants and without going through the niceties of a formal indictment.
Each raid and each interrogation of suspects seems to enlarge the known network of potential terrorists in Europe. It is far larger than European security officials even dared imagining before the Paris attacks.
As the mood turned grim, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced he would visit the French President to discuss a common strategy in addressing the terror threat. French President Francois Hollande, for his part, announced a forthcoming visit to the White House to discuss the problem with Barack Obama and build a united front.
While European leaders were scurrying to shore up their defenses against the terror threat, local affiliates of the ISIS in Mali attacked a western hotel in the capital Bamako. In trademark ISIS fashion, the attackers tried to inflict maximum casualties on the hotel guests.
Moscow finally admitted that the Russian plane filled with tourists was downed over the Sinai by a small bomb. ISIS has claimed authorship of the atrocity.
In our own backyard, the Abu Sayyaf brutally decapitated a Malaysian national they held hostage for months. The ISIS-style execution coincided with the APEC summit held in Manila.
The string of attacks initiated by ISIS and its affiliates creates alarm across the globe on a scale that might even overshadow the wake of the 9/11 attacks on New York 14 years ago. There will be many changes instituted in the aftermath of the Paris attacks.
After the 9/11 attacks, security at airports was tightened. New screening procedures and equipment were introduced. Nearly everywhere – in office buildings, malls and ports – everyone had to undergo intense security checks. The whole world, it seems, turned paranoid.
The security culture that evolved since 9/11 failed, nevertheless, to stop the new, more virulent breed of terrorists. This new breed of terror has its base in the areas of Syria and Iraq occupied by the ISIS.
For years, western leaders were reluctant to dip their hands in the Syrian civil war. The lessons from intervention in Afghanistan and then Iraq dissuaded western leaders from playing a more active role in ending the Syrian civil war. But the civil war, apart from taking down the ancient cities of Syria, also provided a womb for the new terrorist scourge.
The conversation now going on between the American, British and French leaders will likely result in putting boots on the ground in war-torn Syria and Iraq. Although Russia, and now France, escalated air strikes on ISIS targets over the past weeks, sending in troops now appears unavoidable.
We do not know where this will lead us eventually. The terror groups, we have seen the past several years, mutate and become more insanely violent in response to suppressive efforts from the West.
We might very well be, as Pope Francis put it, embarking on World War III – a global but disaggregated conflict with indistinct fronts.
Dilatory
This is an incredible case that should be brought to the attention of Ripley’s Believe it or Not or to the Guinness world records.
Twenty years after being convicted for violation of the Bouncing Checks law, Korean national Kang Tae Sik remains not only a free man but also an undesirable alien the authorities could not deport.
Criminal charges were filed against Kang in 1994 before the Manila Regional Trial Court for issuing two bouncing checks to businessman Peter Sun in the total amount of half a million pesos. He was convicted on both counts by Judge Mario Guarina III on Jan. 16, 1996. The judge ordered Kang to pay the amount owed with a 12 percent interest rate imposed until he does along with underwriting the costs of litigation.
The Korean national, however, resorted to a complex web of dilatory tactics. He filed 14 different appeals, petitions, motions and pleadings with the Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court, the Bureau of Immigration, the Office of the Justice Secretary and even the Office of the President.
The CA 14th Division upheld Kang’s conviction on May 23, 1997. That resolution became final and executor on June 30, 1997. In accordance with the CA resolution, Judge Guarina issued a warrant for Kang’s arrest.
After this, Kang filed before the same CA division a petition for annulment of judgment. He then elevated the case to the Supreme Court. His petitions were denied in both courts.
Kang then went back to the Manila RTC Branch 13, where a new judge now sat, and filed new motions. This resulted in the lifting of the arrest warrant issued against him. After several more new petitions filed, Kang managed to tie up the courts and remain out of jail.