One attacker survived the deadly Paris terrorist attacks of November 2015. His name is Salah Abdeslam and he remains in custody after fleeing rather than committing suicide as part of his mission. Of the group that committed those horrendous crimes, only Abdeslam was not lionized afterwards by the Islamic State. The other nine men were praised and publicly held up as heroes and martyrs to the cause by the terrorist group, which ignored the surviving — and captured — Abdeslam.
New York Times reporter Rukmini Callimachi, who investigated the aftermath of the Paris attacks, says the same Islamic State strategy probably explains why the Islamic State hasn’t claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks in New York by Sayfullo Saipov this week. Saipov, who has reportedly said he planned the attack for a year and who had dozens of Islamic State videos on his phone, survived. Similar surviving terrorists like NJ bomb-planter Ahmad Khan Rahimi and the murderous truck driver in Stockholm were also ignored, rather than claimed, by the Islamic State. The Times notes that the Islamic State usually claims responsibility — when it does — within a day of an attack. There are two general theories why the Islamic State ignores captured terrorists, even those who themselves claim association with the group. One theory is that the apprehended terrorists are a disappointment to the ranks for having failed to achieve death in their missions. The other says the Islamic State doesn’t claim responsibility in order to protect those who are captured from being identified definitively as an Islamic State actor, which could increase their problems in custody.
