Coming Soon to a Mall Near You ...

In case you have not already internalized it for yourself, you need to do it now. I am actually shocked it has not happened already on a large scale. Right after 9/11 I talked about it with some folks, and over the years - though I don't think I have yet here - it comes up now and then. It is coming here sooner or later. It is just too tempting of a target not to.

What? Well, a Mall of America version of what you were reading about over the weekend.

Authorities in Kenya appeared close to ending a deadly siege early Monday at an upscale Nairobi mall, where attackers have killed at least 68 people, injured 175, and were believed to be holding about 30 people hostage.

"All efforts are underway to bring this matter to a speedy conclusion," the Kenyan military announced on Twitter.
It said that "most of the hostages have been rescued and security forces have taken control of most parts of the building."
Earlier, police had tweeted that a "MAJOR assault" by security forces was ongoing.

The developments come two days after Al-Shabaab militants first stormed the shopping center, spraying bullets and unleashing chaos.
There are believed to be between 10-15 gunmen involved in the attack, according to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Combined with the red-hat PSYOPS lessons-learned from attack on Boston & the Navy Yard, we have to expect that Islamic Terrorists have this CONOPS ready to go. All they need to do is to put it together with the right team.

That would be easier than you think.

The same group that claimed responsibility for an attack on a Kenyan mall this weekend that has claimed at least 68 lives has previously recruited dozens of Americans to join their cause.

U.S. officials estimate that as many as 50 Americans have traveled to training camps in Somalia, the home of the al Qaeda-linked terror group al-Shabaab, over the last six years.

Just last month, al-Shabaab released a video showing three young men claiming to be from Minneapolis who the terror group said later died as martyrs.

"This is the best place to be honestly," one of the men says. "I can only tell you from my experience being here, that you have the best of dreams, you eat the best of food, and you're with the best of the brothers and sisters who came here for the sake of Allah. If you guys only knew how much fun we have over here. This is the real Disneyland, you need to come here and join us and take pleasure in this fun."

American citizens who happen to be terrorists will use our freedoms, from speech, to religion, to association, to travel, to own firearms against us. They will challenge us to throw away what makes us Americans, which will be easy to do, instead of continuing to bring the war to them.

Sure, the usual suspects will go after guns, and then there will be increased surveillance, etc, etc, etc ... none of which will do anything but turn us towards less of a free nation.

Not only would such a strike get huge publicity and shock the core of the placid American citizenry, it will immediately cause Americans to turn on each other more than externalizing a response. Though examples are legion - the push to gun control after the Navy Yard was a perfect example, and that was an attack by a mad man.

What can we do? Well, for one - if your local mall is a "gun free zone" - then stay out of it. If they attack a sporting event? Union Station at rush hour? Heck, I don't know. There are plenty of security personnel in most of those places that would make it a hard target. These people are not looking for hard targets, they are looking for soft targets.

Malls like in Kenya. Schools like in Russia. That is what they are thinking about. It is, sadly, just part of our world now. From building a surveillance state to disarming citizens, plan now to stand up to the proto-authoritarians like Sen. Feinstein (D-CA), they are waiting, once again, for things to be "ripe."