Al Shabab mall threats

[Jazzy]

Despite memories of Al Shabab's notorious Westgate Mall attack in Kenya, security officials say that the Islamic extremist group's threat to launch similar attacks on Western malls has little significance beyond trying to draw further attention to its agenda.

On Saturday, the Somali group released a video threatening Westgate-style attacks on targets in Britain, Canada, and the United States. In the 2013 Westgate attack, several gunmen stormed the mall and fired indiscriminately at shoppers, killing more than 60 people and wounding scores more. The masked jihadi in the new video called for more such attacks, asking, "Can you imagine what a dedicated mujahideen in the West could do to the American and Jewish-owned shopping centers across the world?”

The masked man specifically named several targets, including Oxford Street and the Westfield shopping centers in Britain, the Mall of America in Minnesota, and Canada’s West Edmonton Mall.

US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Sunday that "Anytime a terrorist organization calls for an attack on a specific place, we've got to take that seriously." He said that the US needed to show "public vigilance, public awareness, and public caution" in this "new phase" of terror threats, presumably referring to the uptick in small-cell and "lone wolf" attacks in the West, including those in Sydney, Ottawa, and Paris.

The Monitor writes that according to a Council on Foreign Relations report, Al Shabab “has successfully recruited members of the Somali-American diaspora” in order to “orchestrate strikes on US soil.” The Monitor also notes that "Dozens of people from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, many of them Somali-Americans, have traveled or attempted to travel overseas to support groups such as Islamic State or Al Shabab since 2007."

But analysts broadly cast doubt on Al Shabab's capacity to follow through.

Source

Do you think they are capable of following through with these mall threats?

 

[Webster]

Do you think they are capable of following through with these mall threats?

Anything's possible in this day and age...then again, many a mall across the country has already seen its' share of violence:

Excerpt....(American Thinker) Forget ISIS and its threat to terrorize American malls. Dozens of shopping areas are already under attack.

Since the Christmas season, at least 25 malls around the country have experienced black mob violence, many connected to movie theaters. With much of the mayhem captured on video. With many of the malls turning into No Go Zones because of the regular racial violence and the muted response to it.

Let’s list these attacks, starting with the latest and working back. Follow along on the video, if you like. The first three are from Valentine’s Day:

At Pittsfield Township, near Ann Arbor, more than 100 black people attacked patrons and police and destroyed property, first at a movie theater, then an arcade, then a restaurant. Two were arrested.

At Ocoee, Florida, near Orlando, 800 to 1000 black people tried to rush into a theater without paying, then created violence in the lobby and the parking lot, where they defied police, destroyed property and assaulted others.

At Conyers, Georgia, 300 black people rioted at a mall movie theater, yelling, screaming, threatening to kill moviegoers. One was arrested. An “irate and hostile” crowd threatened police after one was arrested for drugs and weapons violations. The local media reported theaters are the site of frequent black mob violence because “often, the teens have nowhere else to go,” said the Newton Citizen.

On February 11, seven black people were arrested after a “large brawl” at the Galleria Mall in the suburban Buffalo community of Cheektowaga. Video shows a woman picking up a metal display and repeatedly hitting a person over his head as he lies on the gound. A woman holding a baby was also involved in the melee.

On February 10 at the Crossgates Mall in Albany, New York, a group of 10-20 black people rampaged through the shopping center, fighting and destroying property. On video.

On February 9, police wanted to send a signal to the large black crowds that ran “wild and unsupervised” in the Circle Center Mall in downtown Indianapolis: They are not going to take it anymore. After 400 black people ran amok, 20 were banned from the mall, and five were arrested.

That did not make the black people happy: “Bra, don’t come near me or I swear I am going to go off,” said one “teenager” to a policeman, reported Fox 59 News. “If you touch my phone, or you are going to get hurt. And Bra, if you did not have a badge, it would be on.”

In Salisbury, Maryland on February 7, the first sentence tells part of the story: “Another weekend night, another fight at the Centre at Salisbury mall,” said DelMarVaNow.com. “In the case of Saturday night, there were two separate disturbances, according to the Salisbury Police Department. Neither qualified as a "large fight" like the one two weeks earlier.”

The second part of the story is this: Everyone involved in creating the violence was black. So say local police, local witnesses and some local residents who said ‘yes, everyone was black but it does not matter.’

Pitsfield Township, Mich.
Ocoee, Fla.
Conyers, Ga.
Cheektowaga, N.Y.
Albany, N.Y.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Salisbury, Md.

....somewhere, MLK and other civil rights leaders of his generation are rolling in their graves over the " fundamental transformation" America's undergone thanks to President Obama Al Capone....

 

[DrLeftover]

Agreed.

If we have to "go to the mall", we do so early in the day, usually right after they open.

At night? You've got to be kidding.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Yes I do think they can follow through on these threats. I think they are here and have come through our southern borders some time ago. I think they have cells across America and I think they are going to hit us at multiple places in this country at the same time when they are ready on some holiday when people are filled in these malls. It is coming and when it does American's are going to want the kind of revenge that should make countries in the middle east shutter. And when the people find out these terrorists came right in through our southern border the politicians should be scared to death how the American people will react from that news. It is going to be quite a movement!

 

[identityissues8]

.

 

[Webster]

Sounds like you should get a job with the CIA.

Give the U.S. government enough time, my friend, and we'll all be working for the CIA...

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Sounds like you should get a job with the CIA.

I always thought being a analyst would be a interesting job. But I do not trust our government in it's current state to work for them in any fashion.

 

[identityissues8]

.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Your sarcasm detector isn't too good, I see.

Oh I got the humor just fine and was just responding honestly looking past your humor.

 

[Dee]

If a kid like Jacob Roberts could walk into the Clackamas Town Center here in Oregon and kill three people on his own, then yes, I believe Al Shabab is very capable of walking into a building in Minnesota and carrying out a terrorist attack.