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 |  Subject: Awww, Obama worries about 'lone wolf' attacks  Thu Oct 23, 2014 6:54 pm | |
| After a pair of attacks in Canada this week that officials labeled as terrorism, counterparts in the USA are reacting with offers of cooperation — and a sense of apprehension.
From President Obama on down, U.S. officials have long expressed worry about "lone wolf" attacks motivated by extremist ideology, a lower-level sequel to 9/11.
That concern is heightened after what happened in Canada.
"It emphasizes the degree to which we have to remain vigilant when it comes to dealing with these kinds of acts of senseless violence or terrorism," President Obama said hours after a gunman rampaged through Canada's capital city of Ottawa on Wednesday.
"As we understand better exactly what happened," Obama said, "this obviously is something that we'll make sure to factor in, in the ongoing efforts that we have to counter terrorist attacks in our country."
Canadian authorities are investigating the background of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, 32, the gunman who killed a soldier standing guard at Canada's tomb of the unknown. Zehaf-Bibeau then stormed the nearby Parliament building, where he was shot to death.
Canada has been on high alert in recent weeks over threats made in the wake of the country's decision to back the U.S.-led military operation against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The Islamic State — also known as ISIS or ISIL — may be training foreign fighters to return to their home nations and launch attacks.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who spoke with Obama by phone after Wednesday's attack, called the week's events "a grim reminder that Canada is not immune to the types of terrorist attacks we have seen elsewhere around the world."
Harper included Monday's attack in which an "ISIL-inspired terrorist" ran over two Canadian soldiers in a parking lot, killing one and injuring the other before being shot dead by police.
"We will not be intimidated," Harper said.
The Canada attacks are definitely attracting U.S. interest, said Tom Sanderson, co-director of the Transnational Threats Project with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
"It's a scenario that they have expected here," Sanderson said.
Preventing attacks, particularly by lone assailants, is no easy task. The USA, like Canada, is an open society that offers potential attackers a number of avenues.
"Look," Sanderson said, "guys are getting over the White House fence."
There have been already attacks in the USA, ranging from the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 to a shooting at the U.S. Capitol in 1998 to 9/11 to numerous school shootings to the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013.
Obama administration officials have a number of counterterrorism projects underway. They include beefing up security barriers, improving intelligence gathering, enhancing community police patrols and promoting programs designed to counter the influence of extremists who encourage violence.
"The risk that is posed by a lone-wolf terrorist is something that has been of significant concern to the president for many years now," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
After the Ottawa shooting, Obama cited the work of the military, the CIA and other intelligence agencies, as well as local, state, and federal law enforcement officials.
These and other "really smart, really dedicated, really hardworking people" are busy every day," Obama said, "monitoring risks and making sure that we're doing everything we need to do to protect the American people."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/23/obama-canada-shootings-islamic-state-earnest/17781375/ |
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