Terrorism analyst: ‘Soft targets’ are a nightmare to defend

Concerns over coordinated suicide attacks and shootings are nothing new, but following Friday’s massacre in Paris, the fears have shifted from the sky to the “soft targets.”

Three teams of attackers, which included seven suicide bombers, attacked Paris’ national stadium, a concert hall and nearby nightspots, killing 129 and wounding 350 others.

Scott Stewart, vice president of tactical analysis for Stratfor Global Intelligence, a geopolitical intelligence firm, told KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz that simultaneous attacks from terrorists are a nightmare for any police force, and that those issues become compounded when the attacks are “soft targets.”

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“These are the type of targets that you don’t need a tremendous amount of pre-operational surveillance and planning to strike,” he said.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks and France launched air strikes in Syria on Sunday, reportedly destroying a jihadi training camp.

The AP reported that 24 people were involved in the ISIS operation, 19 attackers and five others in charge of logistics and planning.

Unlike 9/11, where planes and prominent buildings were the targets, it is the more casual, social venues that were hit Friday. In response, the NFL increased its security and law enforcement presence at each of its stadiums.

Stewart said these attacks can occur at any time, in any city, anywhere in the world.

“That’s the problem,” he said. “It’s very difficult to stop these simple attacks against soft targets and it’s very easy to conduct them. If you have the will to die and if you have the capability to obtain some weapons, it’s very easy to kill people and that’s just the sad truth. And there are evil people out there that are planning to harm innocents at these soft targets and so it’s very difficult to stop and that’s what they are preying upon.”

While the possibilities are worrisome, Stewart said the ingredients for this type of attack are more combustible in a place like Paris than in major U.S. cities, including Seattle.

“You only need to look at the difference in the Muslim community in France and in the United States,” he said. “In France, there are many Muslims who live in the banlieues &#8212 kind of these Muslim ghettos &#8212 where there’s a lot of resentment, there’s a lot of anger at the authorities, there’s not a lot of job opportunity for them. So you have a lot of unemployed, angry young men with a lot of time on their hands. That’s in pretty stark contrast to the Muslim community in the United States where they are much more integrated. They basically have more opportunity here than they do in a place like France.”