Paris terror attacks -- who profits?

The Bataclan team featured calm, relatively proficient shooters, but still martyrs. They knew a hostage situation, in France, could only finish with their "martyrdom." Less expendable, but still expendable.

The heart of the matter is the drive-by team. Or "teams." The investigation seems to be clueless about them. The killers at La Belle Equipe arrived on a black Mercedes, according to witnesses. There is no mention of this Mercedes anywhere. The killers were ultra-pro, muscular, methodical -- and white.

These are the non-expendables. The high-priced mercenaries. While the whole media circus spreads from Grenoble and Toulouse to Brussels and even Raqqa, they have simply vanished without a trace. No one knows who they are. No one knows who hired them. Hardly social network jihadi al-Baljiki.

Now take a close look at this meeting in D.C., which took place only a little over two weeks before the Paris tragedy. It features CIA's John Brennan, the director of French DGSE (external security) Bernard Bajolet, former MI6 Chief John Sawers (call him the former "M"), and former Israeli National Security Advisor Yaacov Amidror.

Bajolet tells us that at least 500 French jihadis from "Syraq" might present a threat; compare it with 4,000 in respect to Russia (and that explains Putin's determination to go after all shades of jihadism). Bajolet insists that cooperation between all the services has to be perfect, to "avoid any dead angle"; "dead angles" abounded in the Paris tragedy. And cooperation must be pan-Western. That would include the NSA capturing the whole planetary "chatter."

Brennan predictably speaks CIAnese -- "advance operational security," etc. -- but at least admits a staggering logistical problem to "process, store and disseminate" so much information.

Bajolet, significantly, pre-empts the Paris intel failure, saying the French "disrupted a number of attacks" in September, in cooperation with the CIA and the NSA. So how come the NSA did not capture any "chatter" previous to Paris 11/13? Bajolet once again pre-empts; these attacks are "difficult to detect" when they come "from your own territory." Actually the investigation is leading towards Paris 11/13 being largely conceived in Brussels.

The strategy of fear

So what does Daesh want?

A case can be made whether it makes sense for Daesh to provoke a refugee backlash and have the gates of Fortress Europe hermetically closed. That seems to be the road map ahead. France's borders are closed until further notice. Schengen is already dissolving. The rabid, right-wing anti-immigration political front across Europe cannot but rejoice. Yet at the same time it's the EU establishment who's pre-empting the anti-immigration platform. A "blame the refugees" narrative is insidiously being developed -- personified by the (fake) Syrian passport found at the Stade de France.

Daesh is all about the strategy of fear and chaos. They want key Western capitals -- Paris, London, New York -- living in fear. And they want to lure Western boots on the ground to Syria. That would be a gift from heaven: the "crusaders" are invading us, again. One can imagine Jihad Inc. recruiting going through the roof.

The only feasible way to smash Daesh, slowly but surely, is via close collaboration between the "4+1" -- the SAA and Iranian and Hezbollah fighters with Russian air cover -- the Kurds (PKK, YPG, even Peshmerga) and, if they really mean it this time, responsible members of the US-led Coalition of the Dodgy Opportunists (CDO).

A "comprehensive international coalition" to fight Daesh is fine. But with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar at the table in the Vienna charade, that's a bit rich, coupled with Paris subservient coddling of the Salafi-jihadi enablers, sponsors, financiers and weaponizers in Riyadh and Doha.

The fake "Caliphate" goons warned this is just the "beginning of a storm." To be the riders on the storm against this very small, extremely mobile and "invisible" army, one would need another concept of federal Europe, with a radically different common defense and foreign policy. Not gonna happen, anytime soon.

What's left is the mandatory fight against the "Caliphate" on the spot. Air strikes won't do; only a true, wide-ranging political alliance (this is what Putin tried to impress to Obama in Antalya). How to get Sultan Erdogan and King Salman on board -- there's the rub.

So let's see how long it takes for NATO boots on the ground. THIS is what Daesh is aiming at.