Preamble

This is a modification of the news:SMALL HANDBOOK OF COUNTER-TERRORISMThe term "de" is a preposition in Spanish, French and other languages, and it generally translates to "of" or "from" in English. It would help if I had a whole sentence to translate to provide a more accurate translation.This text is already in English. "Ploum" doesn't have a specific translation as it is not recognizable as a word in major languages. It could be a name, a sound, or a random collection of letters. I found it brilliant, but I wanted to make a few modifications to make it more impactful.

This text is a fiction aimed at critiquing current security and media excesses. It is in no way a call to violence, nor an apology for terrorism. This text seeks to stimulate thought, not imitation.

If she is in the political/popularization categoryand not fictionThis is not a mistake on my part. Indeed, I consider this news more of a pamphlet than a fiction.

The news

On Thursday, March 15th, in Evry, Antoine P., aged 17, killed a high school student from his school with 11 stab wounds. Suddenly, the entire country is in turmoil and between two images of mourning, the news programs inundate us with discourse on the psychiatric profile of the attacker. Not to lament the dying state of psychiatry and the mental health of teenagers, victims of the authoritarian policies of our rulers. Not even to further stigmatize the victims of psychiatric disorders. Just to put the viewer's brain in a state of mild fear conducive to the reception of the advertisements that will follow right after. What could be more tempting than a good treat to console oneself in such a dangerous world where any of your neighbors could turn out to be a dangerous madman determined to kill you for no more reason than a sudden, incomprehensible curiosity about the color of your blood.

Some particularly racist commentators will attempt to highlight that the killer was apparently a white man fascinated by Adolph Hitler and that the victim was North African. Fortunately, the immediate indignation that his attempt to differentiate victims by their skin color will cause among other participants will quickly teach them that we are all equal in the face of death. That the blind justice of the republic does not recognize more gradations in the skin color of its children than in its grief when one of them leaves us prematurely.

What a pity that she is also subject to selective amnesia. How else to explain the cruel forgetting of her noble principles into which all her representatives fell when two months later, a Muslim rushed into the crowd that had come to attend a concert organized for the music festival. This time, no one attempted to unearth his psychiatric file, though it was quite extensive. Perhaps the jesters at the head of the news broadcasts were afraid of tiring the audience with a repeat.

Terrorism has always been a political invention of a ruling power. A figment of imagination, a conscientiously maintained terror in order to justify new freedom-restricting laws, that will be used no later than during the next media episode to repress the opponents of the new social regression demanded by the employers to restore the competitiveness of the French workers against hostile countries, or worse, foreign ones, which democratically decided to take the exact same measures a few months earlier in response to the previous measures of social regression, taken a few months earlier by our government. Those who say that war has no winner have never tried social war.

In a vain attempt to awaken the dormant minds of my fellow citizens, a challenge came to mind? A magnificent hoax that would demonstrate even to the most obtuse of my peers the absurdity of the security measures that everyone seems to be clamoring for. Before the end of the year, I would commit the largest series of fake terrorist attacks that this country has never known. Nothing too serious, don't worry. I don't particularly have a taste for blood. Just a few smoke bombs to scare and prove through facts the futility of the measures taken.

At first, I thought the goal would be insurmountable. However, I quickly had to face the facts: a single man can cause far more damage than most recent terrorist attacks. I'll even go further! I claim that, with a few exceptions, the act of acting as a group has undermined terrorists. Their attacks are levelled down, their common stupidity obstructs the slightest glimmer of individual lucidity. So much so that it took me barely a week before taking action.

oOoOoOo

It is true that the signs took me a bit of time and trips back and forth to the hardware store. But I was not unhappy with the result. Thirty movable panels listing anti-terrorism safety instructions: no weapons, no dangerous objects, no liquids. Below, three trash compartments for recycling, which also serve as supports.

In this base, well hidden, a very simple electronic device allowing to generate noise and smoke. Enough to scare without injuring.

Then all I had to do was rent a vaguely official-looking work van to go and drop off, dressed in an orange jumpsuit, my signs in front of the entrances to the stadium and various concert halls in the capital.

Of course, I would have been arrested if I had dropped off poorly wrapped packages in a djellaba. But what do you say to a clean-shaven man, in work clothes, placing informational panels with the city's official logo printed on them? To those who asked questions, I said that I was simply ordered to put them in place. The only security officer who found it a little strange, I showed him a work order signed by the city works councillor. That reassured him. I have to say, I didn't even forge the signature: I used the one published in...A report of the municipal council on the city's website. My color printer did the rest.

In general, no one is suspicious if you take nothing. I bring equipment that costs money. So I couldn't have made this up by myself.

My thirty panels set up, I moved on to the second phase of my plan which required a slightly tighter timing. I had carefully chosen my day due to an important international match at the stadium and several large-scale concerts.

If I had known... Even today, I regret not having done it a little earlier. Or later. Why at the same time?

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Having changed, I went to the railway station. My duly purchased Thalys ticket in hand, I took my seat and, greeting my aisle neighbour, I put my heavy briefcase in the luggage rack. I also slipped my newspaper into the net in front of me. Checking my watch, I noted aloud that there were a few minutes left before departure. With an innocent air, I asked where the bar car was. I got up and, after going through two carriages, I got off the train.

There is nothing more suspicious than an abandoned piece of luggage. But if its owner is well-groomed, wearing a tie, shows no signs of nervousness, and leaves his jacket on the seat, the luggage is no longer abandoned. It is momentarily left behind. It's as simple as that!

For the beauty of the act, I had calculated the ideal location to place my detonator and bought my ticket accordingly. I added a touch of complexity: a microcomputer with a GPS sensor that would trigger my gadgetry at the right time. It was not strictly necessary, but in a way a tech-savvy cherry on the cake.

I only wanted to scare, just to frighten! The coincidence is unfortunate, but think that I had gone as far as to make sure that my smoke bomb would not produce the slightest detonation that could be interpreted as a gunshot! I wanted to avoid a panic!

Upon leaving the station, I jumped onto the shuttle heading to the airport. I made it a point of honor to complete my work. I arrived just in time. Under the gaze of a security agent, I put plastic bottles which contained my device into the trash can provided for this purpose. It was rush hour, the line was huge.

I have never understood why terrorists try either to get on the plane or to detonate their bomb in the large registration area. The security check is the smallest and most densely populated area because of the long queues. Strengthening the checks only makes the queues longer and makes this area even more prone to an attack. What absurdity!

Paradoxically, it's also the only area where abandoning a relatively large object is not suspicious: it's even normal and encouraged! No container larger than a tenth of a litre! Besides the plastic bottles, I displayed a disheartened expression for my cheap thermos. The controller signaled me to comply. It was on his order that I therefore placed the detonator in the trash, amidst the crisscrossing lines.

oOoOoOo

I learned the news while sipping a coffee near the boarding areas. A series of explosions at the stadium, at the very moment the audience was rushing to get in. My blood froze! Not today! Not at the same time as me!

Social networks were buzzing with rumors. Some talked of explosions in front of concert halls. These facts were first denied by theby the authorities and journalists, partially reassuring me. Until a wave of tweets made me realize that, obsessed with the stadium explosions and several hundred injured, the authorities were simply not aware. There were no more ambulances available. In front of the halls, music lovers with maimed limbs were agonizing in their blood. The telephone network was saturated, the same images were looping endlessly, shared thousands of times by those who could catch a semblance of wifi.

Some testimonials spoke of a massive attack, of armed fighters shouting "Allah Akbar!". Reports spoke of soldiers patrolling the streets and defending themselves bravely. Bodies littered the cobbles, even far from any explosion. According to Twitter, it was total war!

It appears that in reality, only about forty people were affected by the gunfire from the frightened soldiers. And it was only in one place that an armed person, thinking they were under attack, retaliated, killing one of the soldiers and triggering a response that resulted in two deaths and eight injuries. The rest of the deaths and injuries outside of the explosion sites would be due to panic movements.

But the presence of the military has also helped to offset, in some households, the lack of ambulances. They provided first aid and saved lives. Paradoxically, in some cases, they treated people they had just shot at.

It's fortunate that the war weapons they were lugging around were not loaded. A single bullet from a device of this caliber can penetrate multiple people, cars, partitions. The Geneva Convention strictly prohibits their use outside of war zones. They are only used to provide a spectacle and a small income for osteopaths located on the outskirts of barracks. In case of a terrorist attack, the soldiers must first get rid of their cumbersome burden before pulling out their handguns. Which are no less deadly.

I immediately thought of my blog post scheduled to be published and shared on social networks at the time of the last explosion. In it, I explained my approach and my motivations, hoping that people would understand that the inconveniences of smoke bombs were a small price to pay to demonstrate that all infringements on our most fundamental rights, all the surveillances in the world could never stop terrorism. That the only way to avoid terrorism is to give people reasons to love their own lives. That, to prevent radicalization, prison sentences should be replaced with library sentences without television, without Internet, without a smartphone. Incarcerated between Victor Hugo and Amin Maalouf, extremism would quickly give its last breath.

Had my blog post been shared too early due to a programming mistake on my end? Had my ideas been taken up by a real terrorist group that planned to make me take the blame? Were people reading it right now, unaware of the drama unfolding just a few kilometers from them? Or on the contrary, sufficiently informed to point an accusing finger in my direction.

All of this made no sense. Then people began to scream in the airport, throwing themselves flat on their stomachs and crying for mercy. Those who fled collided with those who wanted to help or see the source of the explosion.

oOoOoOo

I do not want to kill. I did not want to kill. All these deaths, these images of horror. The responsibility suffocates me, frightens me.

I would never have felt capable of killing even an animal. But regardless of what your investigation suggests, the evidence is clear. I am the only guilty one, the sole responsible for all these deaths. There are no terrorists, no underground organization, no ideology.

When you think about it, it's particularly amusing. But I'm not sure it suits your interests. Are you really ready to reveal the truth to the general public? To announce that the martial law put in place ultimately only concerned an engineer with the emotional sensitivity of a teaspoon who slightly underestimated the self-control of a population that has undergone several weeks, no, years, of media propaganda.

Good luck explaining all of this to the media and to our irresponsible politicians, Madam Examining Magistrate!

Comment

Here is the original comment from"ploum" cannot be translated into English as it does not have any specific meaning in any known languages. It can be a name or a made-up word. Following the writing of this short story, which is just masterful:

Written in the cabin of a sailboat in the middle of the Aegean Sea, this short story is based on a fantasy. That of being a terrorist myself. Not to kill, I abhor violence. But because the technical challenge is exciting. Maybe because I am a bit psychopathic on the edge. But which writer isn't?

Security specialists unanimously agree on the number of terrorist attacks that draconian security measures in airports have managed to prevent. Exactly zero. However, the military presence on the streets has reduced the overall security of our cities.

Does that seem absurd to you? Wait a second. Do you know why we cannot take containers of more than 100ml on a plane? No? Well, neither does any security expert. There is absolutely no reason. The rare and difficult to manufacture liquid explosives are dangerous from a few milliliters. These rules anyway have exceptions. The security expert Bruce Schneier was able to board a plane with two one-liter bottles filled with a liquid. He had written on the bottle, by hand, "contact lens liquid", which is allowed. When asked by the agent "Why two bottles?", he answered "Because I have two eyes".

Regularly, airport security in the United States is tested by officials who try to board a plane with a weapon and see if they are stopped. Do you know how many succeed? 95%. In all tested airports. Out of twenty attempts to introduce a truly dangerous weapon onto a plane, nineteen are successful! These security measures bother us and therefore are of no use against a truly determined terrorist. As I illustrate in the story, they are even counterproductive by causing us to cluster in places where we throw away everything that security considers dangerous.

Terrorism, overall, causes very few deaths. On average, less than cows or bathrooms. And above all, thousands of times less than tobacco. People who smoke in public spaces are far more deadly than terrorists. So are those who drive while looking at their phone.

If it were truly organized, terrorism could be dramatic. A lone, determined man could wreak havoc. But we have a huge stroke of luck that Bruce Schneier points out: terrorists are very rare. And, above all, they are generally, let's not mince words, stupid and vicious. I dare to believe that as soon as a person gains a certain culture, a certain intelligence, they start to hesitate before the gratuitous destruction of their fellow humans. The wonderful movie "Four Lions" demonstrates this with biting irony.

That's what I wanted to illustrate and denounce in this story. I don't address the fact that humans, even educated and intelligent ones, love to blindly obey a leader, even if he is a psychopath.

Fighting against terrorism therefore involves teaching the love of life, the love of culture, of intelligence and the refusal of arbitrary authority. Certainly not by putting a competing arbitrary authority in power. The trap is traditional...

But if you are reading me, I probably don't teach you anything. Maybe I can just give you a piece of advice, between friends: never blindly follow any leader. And stop funding one of the deadliest terrorist organizations: the tobacco industry. Stop smoking. It will be a small step for your future and a big step for humanity's.