re: #129 Targetpractice

It will be the same as it’s always been: The immediate question will be “Who did this?,” but the question that always follows is “Who let this happen?” The people at the bottom will point up the chain, saying they sounded the alarms and their superiors ignored them. And the people at the top will be desperate to find a scapegoat to excuse their interest in their own looting of the state. Eventually they’ll find some middle-manager who profited off the inattention of those above him and exploited those below him to line his pockets, drag him into a dimly-lit room to put his nuts in a vice, and tighten until eventually he “confesses” and begs Comrade Putin for leniency. If he’s lucky, he’ll just be forced to retire in disgrace and lose his cushy life. If he’s not, he’ll end up in a government prison for a very long time. Either way, the people will be satisfied that the person “responsible” has been punished and that the state is now “safe” again.

In some fairness, over the past weeks, the FSB have announced like five or six counterterrorism operations arresting or killing ISIS operatives inside Russia. For instance, this here: reuters.com

They absolutely knew about the threat and were doing what they could to prevent it (in their own hamfisted way) but in this case, they were obviously unsuccessful.

And as the saying goes, intel/security agencies have to get lucky every single time to prevent some massacre or another. Terrorists only need to get lucky once.