Professional commandos carried out Paris attacks: Historian

The deadly Paris attacks were likely carried out by professional commandos, not by a group of ragtag Takfiri fighters, American researcher and historian Dr. Randy Short says.

Dr. Short made the remarks in phone interview with Press TV on Tuesday after bombers and gunmen launched coordinated attacks in and around the French capital on Friday night, killing at least 129 people and injuring more than 350 others.

Daesh (ISIL) terrorists, who control parts of Syria and Iraq, have claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks, but independent analysts have questioned the credibility of their assertion.

“This looks like a commando operation from professionals,” Dr. Short said. “Who knows more about the assassination teams and commando squads than the French, British and the Americans and the Israelis?” 

CIA Director John Brennan said on Monday the spy agency “knew” Daesh terrorists were planning to attack “Europe in particular.”

The CIA chief said the Paris massacre was “not a surprise” as "we knew that plans or plotting by ISIL was underway looking at Europe in particular as a venue for carrying out these attacks."

Dr. Short called Brennan’s announcement not “surprising” at all.

“Daesh, or ISIS or ISIL, whatever new name they are gonna come up for this group, is basically a bastard stepchild of al-Qaeda and other foreign intrigues by the secret services of the Israelis, the British, French, Turks and others,” he said.

“I want to remind anyone who is listening that there is a thing called Operation Gladio that ran from the late 1940s all the way into the ‘80s until it was exposed where the United States and NATO partners had deliberately covert operations to kill, terrorize, maim and frighten the citizens of the central west, northern and southern Europe into being willing to vote away their rights in order to be protected from communist or nationalistic terrorism,” he stated.

The analyst said the Paris incident “is very reminiscent of attacks made on airports in Italy and other places [during the Operation Gladio].”

Dr. Short said he faces difficulty in “believing that France [that] has such an effective secret service along with the other countries of Europe that they can’t tract these people.”

“They know the specific number of French nationals that are fighting, either stationed in Turkey, or in Syria. Why these people be readmitted into the country, were allowed to come in with weapons and arms and training. I don’t buy it,” he stated.

“I do not know believe that these rag tag, new to the battle field, who are misguided in this false CIA/Mossad/MI6 version of perverted Islam, know anything to do these kinds of coordinated attacks,” Dr. Short observed. 

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