White House’s own terrorism list torpedoes the case for travel ban, CNN.com

White House's own terrorism list torpedoes the case for travel ban Peter Bergen By Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst Updated 8:33 AM ET, Thu February 9, 2017 Peter Bergen: The White House's list of 78 terror attacks is devoid of evidence for President Trump's immigration order Few who made attacks came from those countries; French, US citizens were responsible for more attacks, list shows Peter Bergen is CNN's national security analyst, a vice president at New America and a professor of practice at Arizona State University. He is the author of "United States of Jihad: Investigating America's Homegrown Terrorists." (CNN)The White House's list of 78 "major terrorist attacks targeting the West" is strikingly devoid of evidence to support President Trump's halt to immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations. Conspicuous by their absence on the White House list of terrorists carrying out major attacks against Western targets were Iraqis, Libyans, Somalis, Sudanese and Yemenis, who are from five of the seven Muslim countries that the Trump administration is seeking to suspend travel from. Instead, the incidents listed on the White House terrorism list identified France, the United States and Belgium as the countries supplying the most anti-Western terrorists. With great fanfare on Monday the White House released a list of 78 terrorist attacks since September 2014. A White House official described them as "major terrorist attacks targeting the West." The list was released after President Trump's claim that the media is under-covering terrorist attacks, a contention that is not borne out by the evidence. The White House's own terrorism list underlines the arbitrary nature of the travel ban because, by the White House's own account, the countries that are generating the most significant number of terrorists threatening the West are from the West. The list also underlines the fact that it is American citizens who largely foment terrorism in the United States. This is also the case in countries such as France and Belgium, where it is French and Belgian citizens who are often the ones conducting significant acts of terrorism. Of the total of 90 terrorists on the White House list, only four are from travel ban countries. Indeed, 50 of the terrorists — more than half -- are from Christian-majority countries in the West. On the list, which includes the identities of attackers where they are known, France leads the way with 16 French terrorists, followed by the United States with 13 American terrorists, 11 of whom are US citizens and two of whom are legal permanent residents. Of these 29 American and French terrorists, only two even have family origins in travel ban countries and they are both from Somalia. Belgium comes in third place with seven terrorists. In descending order after that are: --Tunisians (6), --Libyans and Bengalis are tied with 5, --Saudis (4), --Syrians, Algerians and Indonesians are tied with 3 each; --Afghans, Australians, Bosnians, Canadians, Danes, Germans, Russians and Turks are tied with two each and --One each from Chad, Egypt, the Emirates, Iran, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Pakistan, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. These findings may cause a problem for the White House as it makes the argument that citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen are particularly likely to foment anti-Western terrorism, when the White House's own terrorism list demonstrates that this is not the case. For example, an unspecified number of Filipinos participated in a botched attempt to blow up a bomb outside the US embassy in Manila last year. In 15 of the 78 attacks the perpetrators have not been identified. I took the White House terrorism list and grouped it by nationalities below. The countries with the largest number of identified terrorists are at the beginning, while attacks where the perpetrator was not identified are listed at the end. The wording added by me is in boldface. FRENCH TOURS, FRANCE December, 2014 TARGET: Three police officers wounded in knife attack ATTACKER: Bertrand Nzohabonayo (French citizen, convert from Burundi) PARIS, FRANCE January, 2015 TARGET: One police officer and four hostages killed in shooting at a kosher supermarket ATTACKER: Amedy Coulibaly (French citizen born in France, family from Mali) NICE, FRANCE February, 2015 TARGET: Two French soldiers wounded in knife attack outside a Jewish community center ATTACKER: Moussa Coulibaly (French originally from Mali) LYON, FRANCE June, 2015 TARGET: One civilian killed in beheading and explosion at a chemical plant ATTACKER: Yasin Salhi (French of Moroccan-Algerian descent) MAGNANVILLE, FRANCE June, 2016 TARGET: One police officer and one civilian killed in knife attack ATTACKER: Larossi Abballa (French, born in France, family origin not clear) NORMANDY, FRANCE July, 2016 TARGET: One priest killed in knife attack ATTACKERS: Adel Kermiche (French-Algerian) and Abdel Malik Nabil Petitjean (French, from eastern France) PARIS, FRANCE September, 2016 TARGET: One police officer wounded in raid after VBIED failed to detonate at Notre Dame Cathedral ATTACKERS: Sarah Hervouet, Ines Madani, and Amel Sakaou (French, family origins French or unclear. ) QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA August, 2016 TARGET: Two killed and one wounded in knife attack at a hostel frequented by Westerners ATTACKER: Smail Ayad (French, family origin unclear) PARIS, FRANCE November, 2015 TARGET: At least 129 killed and approximately 400 wounded in series of shootings and IED attacks ATTACKERS: Brahim Abdelslam, (French, Moroccan-Algerian family) Saleh Abdeslam, (French, Moroccan descent) Ismail Mostefai, (French, family origin not clear) Bilal Hadfi, (French, Moroccan descent) Samy Amimour, (French, Algerian descent) Foued Mohamed Aggad, (French, Algerian-Moroccan descent) AMERICANS NEW YORK CITY, NY, USA October, 2014 TARGET: Two police officers wounded in knife attack ATTACKER: US person (American citizen, African-American) GARLAND, TX, USA May, 2015 TARGET: One security guard wounded in shooting at the Prophet Muhammad cartoon event ATTACKERS: Two US persons (Americans, one had a father from Pakistan, the other was African-American) BOSTON, MA, USA June, 2015 TARGET: No casualties; one police officer attacked with knife ATTACKER: US person (American, African-American) MERCED, CA, US November, 2015 TARGET: Four wounded in knife attack on a college campus ATTACKER: US person (American, family originally from Pakistan) SAN BERNARDINO, CA December, 2015 TARGET: 14 killed and 21 wounded in coordinated firearms attack ATTACKERS: Two US persons (American citizen whose family emigrated from Pakistan and legal permanent resident, originally from Pakistan.) PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA January, 2016 TARGET: One police officer wounded in shooting ATTACKER: US person (American, African-American) COLUMBUS, OH, US February, 2016 TARGET: Four civilians wounded in machete attack at a restaurant ATTACKER: US person (American, originally from Guinea) ORLANDO, FL, US June, 2016 TARGET: 49 killed and 53 wounded in shooting at a nightclub ATTACKER: US person (American, family originally from Afghanistan.) ST. CLOUD, MN, US September, 2016 TARGET: 10 wounded in knife attack in a mall ATTACKER: Dahir Ahmed Adan (American, family originally from Somalia.) NEW YORK, NY; SEASIDE PARK AND ELIZABETH, NJ, US September, 2016 TARGET: 31 wounded in bombing in New York City; several explosive devices found in New York and New Jersey; one exploded without casualty at race in New Jersey; one police officer wounded in shootout ATTACKER: Ahmad Khan Rahami (American citizen, born in Afghanistan.) COLUMBUS, OH, US November, 2016 TARGET: 14 wounded by individuals who drove a vehicle into a group of pedestrians and attacked them with a knife ATTACKER: US person (American legal resident, originally from Somalia.) BELGIANS These Belgians were both involved in the Paris attacks in November 2015 Chakib Ahrouh, (Belgian-Moroccan) and Abdelhamid Abaaoud (Belgian-Moroccan) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM March, 2016 TARGET: At least 31 killed and 270 wounded in coordinated bombings at Zaventem Airport and on a subway train ATTACKERS: Khalid el-Bakraoui, (Belgian) Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, (Belgian) Najim Laachraoui (Belgian-Moroccan), Mohammed Abrini (Belgian) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM October, 2016 TARGET: Two police officers wounded in stabbing ATTACKER Belgian national TUNISIANS NICE, FRANCE July, 2016 TARGET: 84 civilians killed and 308 wounded by an individual who drove a truck into a crowd ATTACKER: Mohamed Bouhlel (Tunisian) SOUSSE, TUNISIA June, 2015 TARGET: 38 killed and 39 wounded in shooting at a beach frequented by westerners ATTACKERS: Seifeddine Rezgui (Tunisian) PARIS, FRANCE January, 2016 TARGET: No casualties; attacker killed after attempted knife attack on Paris police station ATTACKER: Tarek Belgacem (Tunisian) TUNIS, TUNISIA March, 2015 TARGET: 21 tourists killed, including 16 westerners, and 55 wounded in shooting at the Bardo Museum ATTACKERS: Two ISIL-aligned extremists (Tunisians) BERLIN, GERMANY December, 2016 TARGET: 12 killed and 48 wounded by individual who drove truck into a crowded market ATTACKER: Anis Amri (Tunisian) LIBYANS TRIPOLI, LIBYA January, 2015 TARGET: Ten killed, including one US citizen, and five wounded in bombing and shooting at a hotel frequented by westerners ATTACKERS: As many as five ISIL-Libya members (Libyans) BENGALIS DHAKA, BANGLADESH July, 2016 TARGET: 22 killed, including one American and 50 wounded after hours-long siege using machetes and firearms at holy Artisan Bakery ATTACKERS: Nibras Islam, Rohan Imtiaz, Meer Saameh Mubasheer, Khairul Islam Paye, and Shafiqul Islam Uzzal (Bengalis) SAUDIS RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA November, 2014 TARGET: One Danish citizen wounded in shooting ATTACKERS: Three Saudi Arabia-based ISIL members (Saudis) RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA January, 2015 TARGET: Two US citizens wounded in shooting ATTACKER: Saudi Arabia-based ISIL supporter (Saudi) SYRIANS ANSBACH, GERMANY July, 2016 TARGET: At least 15 wounded in suicide bombing at a music festival ATTACKER: Mohammad Daleel (Syrian) MALMO, SWEDEN October, 2016 TARGET: No casualties; mosque and community center attacked with Molotov cocktail ATTACKER: Syrian national ISTANBUL, TURKEY January, 2016 TARGET: 12 German tourists killed and 15 wounded in suicide bombing ATTACKER: Nabil Fadli (Syrian) ALGERIANS TIZI OUZOU, ALGERIA September, 2014 TARGET: One French citizen beheaded ATTACKER: Jund al-Khilafah in Algeria (Algerian) PARIS, FRANCE April, 2015 TARGET: Catholic churches targeted; one civilian killed in shooting, possibly during an attempted carjacking ATTACKER: Sid Ahmed Ghlam (Algerian immigrant) CHARLEROI, BELGIUM August, 2016 TARGET: Two police officers wounded in machete attack ATTACKER: Khaled Babouri (Algerian) INDONESIANS JAKARTA, INDONESIA January, 2016 TARGET: Four civilians killed and more than 20 wounded in coordinated bombing and firearms attacks near a police station and a Starbucks ATTACKERS: Dian Joni Kurnaiadi, Muhammad Ali, Arif Sunakim, and Ahmad Muhazan bin Saron (Indonesians) AFGHANS MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA September, 2014 TARGET: Two police officers wounded in knife attack ATTACKER: Abdul Numan Haider (Afghan) KABUL, AFGHANISTAN June, 2016 TARGET: 14 killed in suicide attack on a bus carrying Canadian Embassy guards ATTACKER: ISIL-Khorasan operative (Afghan) AUSTRALIANS SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA December, 2014 TARGET: Two Australians killed in hostage taking and shooting ATTACKER: Man Haron Monis (Australian citizen) SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA September, 2016 TARGET: One civilian wounded in knife attack ATTACKER: Ihsas Khan (Australian) CANADIANS QUEBEC, CANADA October, 2014 TARGET: One soldier killed and one wounded in vehicle attack ATTACKER: Martin Couture-Rouleau (Canadian convert) OTTAWA, CANADA October, 2014 TARGET: One soldier killed at war memorial; two wounded in shootings at Parliament building ATTACKER: Michael Zehaf-Bibeau (Libyan Canadian) DANISH COPENHAGEN, DENMARK February, 2015 TARGET: One civilian killed in shooting at a free-speech rally and one security guard killed outside the city's main synagogue ATTACKER: Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein (Danish citizen) COPENHAGEN, DENMAKR September, 2016 TARGET: Two police officers and a civilian wounded in shooting ATTACKER: Mesa Hodzic (Danish) BOSNIANS ZVORNIK, BOSNIA April, 2015 TARGET: One police officer killed and two wounded in shooting ATTACKER: Nerdin Ibric (Bosnian) RAJLOVAC, BOSNIA December, 2015 TARGET: Two Bosnian soldiers killed in shooting ATTACKER: Enes Omeragic (Bosnian) GERMANS HANOVER, GERMANY February, 2016 TARGET: One police officer wounded in knife attack ATTACKER: Safia Schmitter (German-Moroccan) WURZBURG, GERMANY July, 2016 TARGET: Four civilians wounded in axe attack on a train ATTACKER: Riaz Khan Ahmadzai (German-Pakistani) RUSSIANS ISTANBUL, TURKEY June, 2016 TARGET: 45 killed and approximately 240 wounded at Ataturk International Airport ATTACKERS: Rakhim Bulgarov, Vadim Osmanov, and an unidentified ISIL operative (Russians) TURKS MARSEILLES, FRANCE January, 2016 TARGET: One Jewish teacher wounded in machete attack ATTACKER: 15 year-old Ethnic Kurd from Turkey (Turk) ISTANBUL, TURKEY March, 2016 TARGET: Four killed and 36 wounded in suicide bombing in the tourist district ATTACKER: Mehmet Ozturk (Turk) EMIRATIS ABU DHABI, UAE DATE: December 2014 TARGET: One American killed in knife attack ATTACKER: Dalal al-Hashimi (Emirati) PAKISTANI KARACHI, PAKISTAN April, 2015 TARGET: One US citizen wounded in knife attack ATTACKERS: Pakistan-based ISIL supporters (Pakistani) MOROCCANS PARIS, FRANCE August, 2015 TARGET: Two civilians and one US soldier wounded with firearms and knife on a passenger train ATTACKER: Ayoub el-Khazzani (Moroccan) PALESTINIANS COPENHAGEN, DENMARK September, 2015 TARGET: One police officer wounded in knife attack ATTACKER: Palestinian national (Palestinian) IRAN-BORN AUSTRALIAN PARRAMATTA, AUSTRALIA October, 2015 TARGET: One police officer killed in shooting ATTACKER: Farhad Jabar (Iranian born Australian) BRITISH LONDON December, 2015 TARGET: Three wounded in knife attack at an underground rail station ATTACKER: Muhyadin Mire (British citizen) EGYPTIAN KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT TARGET: No casualties; vehicle carrying three US soldiers hit by a truck ATTACKER: Ibrahim Sulayman (Egyptian) November, 2016 CHADIAN TARGET: No casualties; attacker arrested after opening fire at entrance of US Embassy ATTACKER: Chadian national (Chad) SWEDISH One of the 2016 Brussels attackers is Osama Krayem (Swedish) UNIDENTIFIED ATTACKERS MANILA, PHILIPPINES November, 2016 TARGET: No casualties; failed IED attempt near US Embassy ATTACKERS: Philippine nationals aligned with the Maute group (Unspecified number of Filipinos) KARAK, JORDAN December, 2016 TARGET: 10 killed and 28 wounded in shooting at a tourist site ATTACKERS: Several gunmen EL GORA (AL JURAH), EGYPT June, 2015 TARGET: No casualties; camp used by Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) troops attacked in shooting and bombing attack ATTACKERS: Unknown number of ISIL-Sinai members HAMBURG, GERMANY October, 2016 TARGET: One killed in knife attack ATTACKER: Unknown LUXOR, EGYPT June, 2015 TARGET: One police officer killed by suicide bomb near the Temple of Karnak ATTACKER: Unidentified HASANAH, EGYPT October, 2015 TARGET: 224 killed in downing of a Russian airliner ATTACKER: Unidentified ISIL-Sinai operatives DINAJPUR, BANGLADESH November, 2015 TARGET: One Italian citizen wounded in shooting ATTACKER: Unidentified CAIRO, EGYPT July, 2015 TARGET: One killed and nine wounded in VBIED attack at Italian Consulate ATTACKER: Unidentified ISIL operatives CAIRO, EGYPT July, 2015 TARGET: One Croatian national kidnapped; beheaded on August 12 at an unknown location ATTACKER: Unidentified ISIL-Sinai operative EL GORA, EGYPT September, 2015 TARGET: Four US and two MFO troops wounded in IED attack ATTACKER: Unidentified DHAKA, BANGLADESH September, 2015 TARGET: One Italian civilian killed in shooting ATTACKER: Unidentified EL GORA, EGYPT October, 2015 TARGET: No casualties; airfield used by MFO attacked with rockets ATTACKER: Unidentified ISIL-Sinai operatives RANGPUR, BANGLADESH October, 2015 TARGET: One Japanese civilian killed in shooting ATTACKER: Unidentified DERBENT, RUSSIA December, 2015 TARGET: One killed and 11 wounded in shooting at UN World Heritage site ATTACKER: Unidentified ISIL-Caucasus operative CAIRO, EGYPT January, 2016 TARGET: Two wounded in drive-by shooting outside a hotel frequented by tourists ATTACKERS: Unidentified ISIL operatives HURGHADA, EGYPT January, 2016 TARGET: One German and one Danish national wounded in knife attack at a tourist resort ATTACKER: Unidentified ESSEN, GERMANY April, 2016 TARGET: Three wounded in bombing at Sikh temple ATTACKERS: Three identified minors