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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2015 ANALYSIS THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF ESTABLISHED 1961 Founder and Publisher YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN Editor-in-Chief ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN EDITORIAL : 24833199-24833358-24833432 ADVERTISING : 24835616/7 FAX : 24835620/1 CIRCULATION : 24833199 Extn. 163 ACCOUNTS : 24835619 COMMERCIAL : 24835618 P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait. E MAIL :[email protected] Website: www.kuwaittimes.net Focus New York, Paris: United by trauma 14 years apart By Brigitte Dusseau nited by the trauma of terrorism, 14 years apart, New York and Paris have exhibited the same fortitude and Udetermination to overcome the tears and fears with love, life and laughter. Experts say this is the best possible response to such horrors. Psychologists who have studied the effects of the 9/11 attacks on New York say that most people, including those directly exposed, will be ok and few experience prolonged symptoms of trauma. But in the very short term, the vast majority of people “directly exposed to this kind of event will show consider- able distress,” said George Bonanno, clinical psychology pro- fessor at Teachers College, Columbia University who heads the Loss, Trauma and Emotion Lab. The co-author of a study on the psychological effects of the 2001 attacks over a Europe missed many ‘red flags’ decade, he said this first response is healthy and natural. “It means that your stress response is working,” he told AFP. Trouble sleeping, bursting into tears, anxiety, feeling low and being sensitive to particular noises and memories are By John Irish, Robert-Jan Bartunek Charles Michel defended his country’s After a raid in January in the Belgian returned to Europe by an unknown lum in Serbia, counter-intelligence typical symptoms. “The stress response is wonderfully and Orhan Coskun security services and praised them for town of Verviers, police suspected the route and evaded police even though and security sources said. adapted, it is conserved by evolution,” said Bonanno, doing “a difficult and tough job.” 28-year-old of plotting to kidnap a the Belgian Justice Ministry said The French prosecutor has con- explaining that it allows people to move onto the second here were multiple chances to French President Francois Hollande police officer and kill him. In February, microphones had been placed at the firmed that fingerprints taken on stage of recovery and adapting to a new reality. “It doesn’t stop the men who attacked also praised his country’s security serv- Abaaoud said in an interview with an house where he was thought to be arrival in Greece showed that man mean the person has gone crazy or even has a disorder or TParis. In January, Turkish authori- ices, who hunted down and shot dead Islamic State magazine that he had staying. travelled with a second man, who also has PTSD,” said Douglas Mennin of Hunter College. ties detained one of the suicide the man they identified as the ring- returned to Syria after the raid in Then there’s the case of Sami blew himself up near the Stade de Trauma normally dissipates in a couple of weeks or bombers at Turkey’s border and leader, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, five Verviers. By this time, he knew he was Amimour. French authorities had France. The pair may have reached months. For only a small percentage of people - fewer than deported him to Belgium. Brahim days after the attacks. being sought. launched an official investigation into Paris relatively easily because, at the 10 percent - difficulties are more serious and last longer. On Abdeslam, Turkish authorities told Europol, the European Union’s If it is true that he returned to Syria Amimour’s possible terrorism-related height of the migration crisis in the bright, pristine morning of September 11, 2001, some Belgian police at the time, had been police agency, says it has been feeding from Verviers, Abaaoud made his way activity in Oct 2012. Prosecutors sus- Europe this year, asylum seekers were 2,700 people were killed when Al-Qaeda hijackers flew two “radicalised” and was suspected of information to the Belgian and French back into Europe at some point after pected him of planning to join mili- rushed across some national borders passenger jets into the Twin Towers in Manhattan, destroy- wanting to join Islamic State in Syria, a authorities but acknowledges that January. French authorities did not tants in Yemen. Amimour was a bus without checks. ing the buildings. Hundreds more were killed when planes Turkish security source told Reuters. some member states are better at know this until they were tipped off driver who had been radicalised in a It is unclear whether the passport were hijacked and crashed at the Pentagon just outside Yet during questioning in Belgium, sharing information than others. by Morocco after the attacks. “If mosque near his hometown of issued under the name of Ahmad Al- Washington and in Pennsylvania. Abdeslam denied any involvement Abaaoud was able to go from Syria to Drancy, north of Paris. Because of the Mohammad, a 25-year-old from the with militants and was set free. So was Focus On Fighters Europe, that means there are failings investigation, police had ordered Syrian city of Idlib, was genuine or was No New Psychiatric Cases his brother Salah - a decision that Returning From Syria in the entire European system,” French Amimour to check in with them every stolen from a refugee. Whatever the Afterward, 10,000 people were diagnosed with post- Belgian authorities say was based on The focus of investigators over the Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. week. As reported by Reuters on Nov truth, it has helped fuel rightwing criti- traumatic stress. In the Paris gun and suicide attacks, 130 scant evidence that either man had past few years has been men and 20, he missed four weekly checks in cism in Europe of the number of people were killed and several hundred others wounded. In terrorist intentions. women who have grown up in Warnings 2013. But it was only after nearly a migrants allowed in this year. By the New York, those who lived close to the World Trade Center, On Nov 13, Abdeslam blew himself Europe, have European passports and Mostefai, the Bataclan suicide month that the authorities put out an time the two men were making their the first responders, family members of the victims or those up at Le Comptoir Voltaire bar in Paris, who travel to Syria to train and fight. bomber, also travelled back and forth. international arrest warrant. way up through the Balkans to west- with a good view of the skyscrapers, even at a distance, killing himself and wounding one oth- As the number of those fighters has Although he had eight convictions as By then Amimour was already in ern Europe, France had received more were the worst affected. “That’s where you found higher er. Salah is also a suspect in the increased, authorities have struggled a petty criminal, he had never been in Syria. His tracks were picked up a year evidence an attack was imminent. incidents of depression and anxiety following these events,” attacks, claimed by the Islamic State, to keep up. The French Interior prison, a place French authorities can later, in Dec 2014, when his father French former anti-terrorism judge said Anne Marie Albano, director of Columbia University’s and is now on the run. In France, an “S” Ministry estimated about 500 French watch for signs of radicalisation. Police gave an interview to French daily Le Marc Trevidic says a French Islamist he Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders. (State Security) file for people suspect- nationals had travelled to Syria and say they suspected him of being in Monde describing how he had trav- questioned on his return from Syria in But other than those directly affected and those who ed of being a threat to national securi- August said Islamic State had asked suffered from pre-existing disorders “we didn’t find... new ty had been issued on Ismail Omar him to carry out an attack on a concert cases of psychiatric illness like new cases of depression or Mostefai, who would detonate his venue. “The guy admitted that he was PTSD or anxiety,” she said. “This will be likely the same in explosive vest inside Paris’ Bataclan asked to hit a rock concert. We didn’t Paris.” New York experts praise the resilience of Parisians, the concert hall. Mostefai, a Frenchman of know if it would be Bataclan or anoth- spontaneous vigils and determination to carry on normal Algerian descent, was placed on the er, he didn’t know the exact location life. They also praise the French authorities for keeping them list in 2010, French police sources say. that would be designated. But yes, well informed. “People need clear, accurate information and Turkish police also considered him that’s what they asked him to do,” they need to trust this information,” said Bonanno. Flowers, a terror suspect with links to Islamic Trevidic told Reuters. candles, photographs, memorials and ceremonies “can be State. Ankara wrote to Paris about him Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al- very healing,” said Albano. Bonanno agreed: “People need in Dec 2014 and in June this year, a Jaafari has also said that his country’s each other.” Albano said there were a whole host of initia- senior Turkish government official intelligence services shared informa- tives in New York after Sept 11, including in schools. said. The warning went unheeded. tion indicating that France, as well as Paris answered last week, after the the United States and Iran, was being Returning to Cafes attacks.