The Wire - Fabruary 12, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z February 12, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: EXPLOSIVE ATTACK STRIKES LOCAL COMMUNITY CENTER IN GRENOBLE. PROTESTERS GREET SECDEF DURING VISIT TO EUROPE. EXPLOSION REPORTED AT BUS DEPOT IN EL PASO.//

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-International Events-

France: This afternoon an explosion was reported at a bar in the southeastern town of Grenoble. As this is a developing incident, few details remain confirmed. However locals on social media stated that an unknown assailant threw a hand grenade into the bar, resulting in the wounding of at least 10x people. AC: This attack took place in the old Olympic Village, which has become very heavily populated with immigrants from various Middle Eastern nations over the years, many of which have established homegrown storefronts in what traditionally would be described as residential buildings. The area that the attack took place in is only accessible by foot, and appears to be one of these improvised storefronts that does not appear on Google Maps. As such, it is possible that what is being described as a "bar" is probably an "internet cafe" that is being run out the ground floor of an apartment building that serves primarily Middle Eastern clientele; Internet cafes being extremely common features in most Arab nations, and thus usually popping up anywhere a largely Muslim diaspora settles. So far, most of the images/video from the scene indicate that at least a few victims were located in the vicinity of the rear exit door of the internet cafe at grid coordinate: 31T GL 14003 04723. This is most sharply evidenced by images of the attack site, and videos of the victims/witnesses speaking mostly Arabic. In any case French authorities have confirmed that the organized crime bureau will be handling this investigation, indicating that this may be less of a case of deliberate terrorism and more of an organized crime incident.

Germany: Brief controversy was reported yesterday as SECDEF Pete Hegseth conducted a visit to American forces stationed in Europe. A small group of military spouses protested Hegseth's arrival at the U.S. Army garrison in Stuttgart. Separately, middle schoolers at the on-base Patch Middle School staged a walkout in response to Hegseth's visit. Both protest actions were carried out on base, and in opposition to the removal of all DEI initiatives across the Department of Defense.

-HomeFront-

California: Earlier this afternoon a US Navy aircraft crashed in San Diego Bay. Both crew members were rescued by a local fishing boat after ejecting from their E/A-18G Growler during a training flight. No word yet has been provided on the cause of the incident.

Texas: Yesterday an explosion was reported at a public transportation maintenance depot at the airport in El Paso. 7x people were injured in the blast, which occurred at the Sun Metro Operations Center in the vicinity of the facilities used to perform maintenance on public buses. AC: At the moment, it's not immediately clear as to what caused the blast, but due to the context of El Paso being a sensitive location for more kinetic activities (due to the border crisis, and the growing conflict that is developing), a more thorough investigation into this incident is expected.

Washington D.C. - Substantial anti-corruption efforts continue as before. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that FEMA was able to halt the transfer of $59 million to NYC, which resulted in the firing of senior FEMA leadership yesterday.

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Analyst Comments: While the protest at Stuttgart was small, and comprising mostly of what appears to be children and military spouses, conducting a political protest on base is a rather bold move. For those unaware of the wholly un-democratic nature of the US military, protesting DoD leadership on base is generally very unauthorized (though this does depend on the guidance set by the local installation commander). As such, it's very likely that investigations are underway to identify the participants of political protests on base, to determine if any violations of policy occurred. At the moment it is not clear as to if the base commander authorized this activity (or even knew about it). More broadly, this on-base protest event must be considered in the larger context of DoD attitudes toward certain social issues. For instance, we must remember the recent scandal involving Fort Bragg and pro-life individuals...for many years, if someone simply had a state-DMV-issued pro-Life license plate, that was enough to flag service members as being potential terrorists. Yet in Stuttgart, military spouses (who benefit from the privilege of base access) are somehow allowed to gain access to sensitive locations to engage in political protest activity.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
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