SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

PARIS DRAMA – From CNN:  Paris (CNN) Witnesses have reported gunfire amid a police raid in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis as authorities hunt for two suspects from Friday's deadly terrorist attacks who are believed to be at large.  Police blocked off roads early Wednesday in Saint-Denis, which is home to the Stade de France sports stadium where three suicide bombings took place Friday.  CNN affiliate BFMTV reported that police officers have been wounded by gunfire during a raid seeking one of the suspects in the wave of violence across Paris, which killed at least 129 people and wounded hundreds more.  French police wouldn't comment on whether any officers had been shot in the Saint-Denis operation.  It must be disheartening, in the face of all this action, for the French to hear the president of the United States refer to the attacks last Friday as a "setback" in the war on ISIS.  Imagine if President Roosevelt had appeared before Congress on December 8, 1941, and declared, "Yesterday, December 7, 1941, the United States suffered something of a setback at our mid-level Navy base at Pearl Harbor."   We've come a long way down.

PROBABLE HOAX, BUT MAJOR DISRUPTIONS – Disrupting the international air system has long been a goal of terror groups.  Airlines are jittery following a successful terror attack, like the attack on the Russian airliner several weeks back.  We can expect hoaxes, but we might also have another real attack.  From Reuters:   LOS ANGELES — Two Air France flights en route to Paris from the United States were diverted on Tuesday following anonymous threats, and passengers and crew were safely removed, the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration said.  An Airbus A-380 that departed from Los Angeles landed in Salt Lake City, where passengers and crew were being taken off the plane and escorted into the terminal, an FAA spokesman said.  A separate flight that left Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., was diverted to Halifax International Airport in Nova Scotia, where passengers and crew had disembarked.  In a brief statement, Air France said both flights had been the “subjects of anonymous threats received after their respective take-offs.”  No one is taking anything for granted.

GRIM PREDICTION – We don't want to be alarmist, but a former member of Al Qaeda, appearing on Fox News Tuesday night, predicted that a terrorist attack on the United States might come in the next two weeks.  The prediction has a certain logic.  It's long been believed in intelligence circles that a terrorist group would try to attack the United States during the holiday season.  And you'll recall that the "Christmas day bomber,"
Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, tried to explode a device on a Northwest airliner over Detroit on December 25, 2009.  From the Washington Times:  With another round of holidays fast approaching in the shadows of last Friday’s Paris attacks, FBI officials on the front lines of the war on terrorism see a new round of threats rising and worry they don’t have all the tools to cope, according to interviews with The Washington Times.  Officials familiar with the bureau’s preparations, speaking only on condition of anonymity, said Director James Comey has put a brave public face on the bureau’s fight against ISIS that masks significant tensions behind the scenes with the Obama administration.  How could the FBI not have tensions with a president who just doesn't care, and who has contempt for his own country?

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT? – From Fox:   CHERRY HILL, N.J. – Santa Claus is free again.  A New Jersey mall on Monday eliminated a requirement that parents pay $35 to $50 for a photo or video package for their kids to get into a Santa exhibit.  The decision to charge for an attraction that had been free last year sparked anger from many parents, some who said the fee inherently pushed away low-income families and ran counter to the spirit of the holiday.  "He's locked up in his castle," Elsa Anzideo, a Voorhees mother of two daughters, complained to The Philadelphia Inquirer. "You can't even see Santa."  The mall said it was lifting the fee for Adventure to Santa because it wanted to keep things festive in the spirit of the holiday season.  Whoever dreamed up this scheme should be recruited by the Obama administration.  Same respect for American values.

November 17, 2015