John Law (11:43)
All right, first up, let's start with what the right is saying. Many on the right say the attacks underscore the need for a broad rethinking of immigration policy. Some criticize the media's coverage of the attacks. Others say modern terror threats increasingly come from inside the US in the Federalist, Brianna Lyman argued this week's terror attacks prove immigration isn't good just because it's legal. On Thursday, an assailant, a Sierra Leone national, opened fire at Virginia's Old Dominion University, killing Brandon Shah. The man came here legally. That same legality didn't stop 41 year old another assailant, a Lebanese national who came to this country in 2011 and was naturalized in 2016 from crashing his car into a Michigan synagogue on Thursday while armed with a rifle, Lyman said. Meanwhile, New Yorkers were spared on Saturday after two radical Islamists whose parents immigrated here from Afghanistan and Turkey allegedly tried to bomb anti Islam protesters outside of New York City, Mayor Zohra Mamdani's official residence. For decades, Washington has operated under the false pretense that immigration is objectively good so long as it is done legally. That assumption has led us to suicidal decisions, lyman wrote. It has also led to the displacing of American workers and students, as well as a disruption of national unity and cohesion. As these terrorist attacks show, legality alone does not make someone American in culture and norms, nor does it ensure that these immigrants share the same political political and religious values that underpin our republic, national Review's editors wrote. The media can't hide the truth about the Gracie Mansion bomb attempt. There is no doubt as to their motivations. Both men spoke freely and unrepentantly to police at the scene, proudly claiming inspiration from ISIS and stating that they had intended their terror atrocity to be bigger than Boston, the editor said. Yet one would know none of this were one to go only by the headlines and framing devices the mainstream media have consistently used to explain this story to American readers who, like it or not, primarily consume their news in headline rather than article form. It is impossible not to notice that all of these headlines, or countless others from similarly situated media outlets, are carefully crafted to avoid stating a politically inconvenient truth. Islamic terrorists came horrifyingly close to detonating bombs in a crowd of protesters. Instead, our attention is directed toward the hateful nature of the rally, the editors wrote. The media are consistently choosing not to report on the attack outside Gracie Mansion honestly, instead employing all of their creative writing skills to craft craven, obfuscatory headlines that aim to deceive by omission and suggestion. In the Wall Street Journal, Kevin Cohen said terrorists are now often made in the usa. Western counterterrorism operated for decades on a simple threats came from somewhere else, they crossed borders, they arrived with suspicious travel histories, fraudulent documents or known affiliations. Stop them there and the interior remains secure. That premise is no longer holding. The days since the Iran war began have seen at least four apparent terrorist attacks in the U.S. cohen wrote. Increasingly, the danger emerges inside societies that still treat admission as the end of the security process rather than the beginning of one. Seen one by one, these incidents look like separate crimes, but they share several lawful presence, few warning signals, online radicalization and attacks carried out without the fingerprints of an organized network, Cohen said. Radicalization rarely follows a single path. For some, ideology comes first. For others, the trigger is grievance, isolation or personal instability, which gradually hardens inside online echo chambers, where resentment circulates freely. Social media has accelerated the process, allowing extremist narratives to spread quickly and widely. Alright, that is it for what the right is saying, which brings us to what the left is saying. Many on the left express concern over the rising number of domestic attacks. Some note the danger posed by terror attacks and anti Muslim bigotry. Others criticize Republicans for their shifting national security policies, The Newsday editorial board said the terrifying Temple Israel Old Dominion attacks bring home danger A pair of terrifying incidents Thursday brought home the fear and uncertainty prevalent on the global stage, leaving Americans rightfully feeling more vulnerable and concerned for what could come next, the board wrote. The ongoing conflict has opened the door to increased radicalization and terrorism and to the potential for more terror to come. Antisemitic violence has intensified, too, with active shooter incidents at three Toronto synagogues, an explosion outside a Belgium synagogue and a security incident outside a Norway synagogue just in the last two weeks. While those threats are real, nothing excuses sweeping racist rhetoric that targets Muslims coming from those like Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, who Thursday posted to social media the enemy is inside the gates, accompanied by a retweet of a photo of New York City Mirror Zohra Mamdani paired with a photo of the September 11th terror attacks. That's unacceptable, the board said. Radicalized individuals don't represent entire religions, just as synagogues and Jewish schools don't represent Israel or its military. In USA Today, Sarah Pequeno argued, don't let the Gracie Mansion bomb scare obscure the far right's danger. The news media has been rightfully focused on the potential harm these IEDs could have caused. Political violence is never the answer, no matter the views being espoused. But the presence of far right Islamophobic protesters in New York City is also deplorable and failing to get the attention it deserves. Regardless of how the protest ended, Begino said. The protest, titled Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City Stop New York City Public Muslim prayer, was organized by far right influencer Jake Lang. Lang roasted a pig in front of Gracie Mansion as part of the protest. Lang presumably lives in Florida. He's running to replace former U.S. senator Marco Rubio there, yet he's traveled north to spew hate in New York, McGino wrote. It's pathetic that someone would come all the way from Florida because they're outraged that New York City has a Muslim mayor. The entire weekend was full of chaos, but that chaos could have been avoided if Lange just stayed in Florida. In the American Prospect, James Barrada wrote, playing politics with national security is a dangerous game. National security experts contend that geopolitical escalations amplify the risk of lone wolf extremism in which self radicalized actors commit violent, ideologically motivated attacks without material support from organized terrorist networks, barrada said. But the ongoing erosion of counterterrorism resources and expertise, recent shift in priorities across U.S. intelligence agencies toward immigration, and historic lack of oversight over the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, which has developed a reputation for wrongfully targeting activists and communities of color, appear to be softening the nation's counterterrorism readiness. Apart from the shift in priorities across US Law enforcement and intelligence agencies, the Trump administration appears to be diminishing the nation's counterterrorism capabilities in other ways, barratta wrote. Days before Trump ordered US Central Command to initiate Operation Epic Fury, FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly fired a dozen Agents, analysts and staff tasked with monitoring threats from Iran due to their involvement in the federal investigation into Trump's alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar A Lago estate. All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take.
