Mastermind

Everyone's Private Driver

When I sit on a park bench beneath the shade of a leaf filled tree and look off across the green grass filled with children playing and dogs romping under the blue, cloudless canapé and conjure up the image of a Mastermind in my minds eye Abdelhamid Abaaoud is NOT what I picture. But what do I know? This dude had been on the Homeland Security watchlist for months - they had even predicted the Paris attack and warned the French to be on the lookout. Still, this genius pulled it off in spectacular fashion surprising EVERYONE including his family who had no idea that monsieur Abaaoud was a radicalized jihadist. Totally shocked, really, just gobsmacked. Mohamed Abdeslam, brother of Salah Abdeslam who was an accomplice of The Mastermind explains it for the dense Western mini-mind:

"My brother who participated in this terrorist act must have been psychologically ready to commit such an act. These are not regular people," he said. "You cannot have the slightest doubt that they have been prepared, that they must not leave any trace which would cause suspicion that they might do such things. And even if you saw them every day, their behavior was quite normal."

Got that? Your Uber driver could be a terrorist, your Starbucks barista could be a terrorist, your florist could be a terrorist, a well "vetted" Syrian refugee could be a terrorist because these terrorists are not regular people and they don't do ANYTHING that would cause suspicion - they behave normally until they start shooting AK's, throwing grenades and self detonate. But by that point - the point of no return - it's sort of too late.

Now The Mastermind dead (I think) but if Abdelhamid Abaaoud is the modern model for what it takes to be a Jihadi "mastermind" I feel certain that his shoes will soon be filled by a new mastermind of equal or perhaps superior brain power.