Episode 22 - Je Suis Charlie and The Crypto-Terror Connection.

Remembering Victims in France, The Crypto-terror connection, and more!  It's Tuesday, the eighth of January, 2019, and this is the Hot Zone.

 

Hi everyone.  Je Suis Charlie - that was the meme going around the internet Four years ago, the day after two Algerian migrants, brothers, blasted their way into the offices of the French satirical magazine called Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Armed with rifles, pistols and even a rocket launcher, they killed 12 people and injured 12 others. The gunmen said they belonged to Al Qaeda in Yemen. After systematically executing most of the magazine's staff inside the offices, the brothers fled, killing a wounded police officer in the street.  They escaped, and it set off a nationwide manhunt which lasted two days, and ended in a nine-hour standoff near Charles de Gaulle airport before the men were finally killed by French Special Operations forces.  

 

Several related attacks also happened in France in those two days, including the a siege at a kosher supermarket a friend of the two terrorists held 19 hostages, and eventually murdered 4 Jews. 

 

But the violence didn't end when these monsters finally assumed room temperature.  The magazine reopened soon after and published a new issue of the magazine which was like a big middle finger to the terrorists, depicting Muhammad holding a sign that says "Je Suis Charlie."  

 

Radical Muslims around the world proved once again that they have no sense of humor or irony as they staged violent demonstrations in muslim garden spots like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Algiers, Khartoum, and Mogadishu.  In Niger, Boko Haram terrorists burned dozens of Christian churches and at least ten people were killed.  In Belgium, police killed several other terrorists who were planning to attack vendors selling the new issue of Charlie Hebdo.  And Iran, keeping it classy, held a Holocaust Cartoon competition.  

 

This event paints a stark picture of the clash of worldviews happening in Europe and in many other places around the world.  I remember on a trip to Jordan years ago talking with some muslim men, who were asking me what it's like to live in a Christian country where you could walk down the street and have sex with any woman you want.  I was like, "what?"  And they explained they watched American television, and saw what our country was like.  I tried to explain that Christians in America are very offended by the rampant immorality displayed on television.  The men's next question really stunned me.  They said, "Well why don't you stop it then?  Why don't you kill those people."

 

How do you explain that in a Western civilized country we don't just murder people who offend us?  This is their culture.  It's what they know.  The mistake Westerners make is thinking that a secular culture which believes strongly in nothing will somehow supplant the kind of religious fervor seen in radical islam.  It won't.  That's why these algerian migrants can live in europe for years before one day picking up a machine gun and executing their neighbors.  

 

The saddest detail about the Charlie Hebdo shootings to me is that one of the office staff killed was the editor in chief, a man they called Charb.  Charb had earlier applied for a firearms permit in France, because he'd received many threats and was on Al Qaeda's hit list.  In fact, the Hebdo offices were firebombed in 2011 by another terrorist,  So they knew they were at risk.  But Charb's gun permit was denied, which left him and his staff completely helpless when those two monsters broke into their offices that terrible day four years ago.  The terrorists didn't have permits for their weapons either, but it's clear yet again that making people more vulnerable never makes them safer.

 

France has suffered some of the worst terror attacks in europe over the past several years.  This summer I was in Paris for Bastille day, which also now marks the anniversary of one of the most horrific ramming attacks ever seen in Europe.

 

Europe is changing fast.  It's hard to overstate just how severe the changes will be as the continent makes a major demographic shift over the next ten to twenty years, by which time it may be a majority muslim region.  That's not racism, it's not alarmism.  It's simple arithmetic.  Muslims in europe breed at a rate that is exponentially higher than Europeans, to say nothing of the millions of muslims flooding in as refugees.  And those two worldviews are not compatible.  For this reason, you can expect to see more violence as these cultures battle for supremacy until one of them supercedes the other.  What that means in practical terms is that if you are going to visit European cities, you need to be increasingly aware of the threat, and stay aware of your surroundings at all times.  That said, it's still extremely unlikely you'll be involved in a terror attack no matter where you go, so don't let the risks keep you at home.

 

Okay, let's move on and talk about Cryptocurrencies.  You have probably heard about bitcoin, and if you are like most people you don't really understand what it is or how it works.  Cryptocurrencies are just a way of creating or storing value that isn't tied to any government or other institution, and it's pretty much impossible to hack because of the way the crypto ledger is distributed on what's called the blockchain.  Lots of money is being made and lost in them, and that will only increase in the next couple of decades.  But one aspect of these new instruments has become a powerful tool for terrorists.  See, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin aren't exactly anonymous, but more like pseudonymous in nature, which means anyone can see the transactions that are being made, but the people behind those transactions are kinda hidden because basically all that is shown is their account number, which doesn't have to be connected to a name or any other personally identifiable information.  

 

Because of this feature, crypto currencies have become the go-to financing option for terror groups around the world.  They  raise money through cyber crime, or extortion, or even just through donations, and take payment in bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency.

 

With the Islamic State's caliphate in Iraq all but lost, the revenue ISIS was reaping from oil and taxes have been taken from them, but cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, Zcash, Monero and others are giving the terror group an alternative  source of funding. Transactions are swift and hard to track, which makes disrupting them difficult. In addition to islamic terror organizations, rogue states like North Korea and Venezuela have begun mining and using cryptocurrency, and even have thousands of hackers working to steal bitcoin from exchanges around the world. combined with encrypted messaging apps like Telegram, this makes it very easy for bad people to skirt international banking regulations and move money around the globe at the click of a mouse.  One report, for example, showed that over 40% of all illicit transactions in europe involve payment in bitcoin.

 

So far the US government has really been unable to do much about this, and it isn't exactly clear WHAT they could do to stop it.  Cryptocurrencies don't lend themselves easily to regulation by governments - that's kind of the point.  But that doesn't stop governments from trying.  And as usual, more regulation just makes it harder for the law abiding to use this technology, and actually does very little to stop criminals.  This is a lesson we see over and over.  The government's hammer is to pass regulations.  And to politicians, just about everything looks like a nail.  But lots of laws just throw sand in the gears of progress.  

 

The blockchain is definitely going to change our lives in ways we haven't even thought of yet.  It already is.  But like any new technology, sometimes it evolves faster than big bureaucracies do, and that leads to some real risks we need to be aware of.  If you are going to invest in crypto, be aware that it is still speculation at this point, and be very careful how and where you store your currency.  

 

Well that's all we have for today, folks.  Please like this podcast and subscribe to our youtube page.  I'm also raising money to take to Syria with me in a couple of weeks, so if you'd like to help some Syrian Christians or people who have lost their homes to the fight against ISIS, I'll bring you their stories directly from the front lines.  It's a great way for you to not just watch the news, but to get involved in making it better.   Just go to Patreon.com/hotzone and subscribe, or donate via paypal at hotzoneholton@gmail.com, that's all one word, Hot Zone H O L T O N at gmail.com.

 

We'll be back here tomorrow, hope you will be too.  I'm Chuck Holton.  Thanks for listening to the Hot Zone.