The attack unfolding Friday
at the Radisson Blu in Mali shows that terrorists are particularly
interested in striking targets with prominent American brand names that
cater to Westerners.
Hotels are
in the hospitality business and can't turn themselves into fortresses,
while hotels that house Westerners are, of course, prime targets for
ISIS as well as for al Qaeda and its affiliates. These two factors make
hotels a particularly attractive target for jihadist terrorists.
The
scourge of these attacks on American brand-name hotels and hotels
catering to Westerners in the Muslim world is, unfortunately, likely to
continue because of the relative ease of access to many of these hotels
that terrorists can achieve. The symbolism for jihadist terrorists is
high given the fact that they can potentially kill Westerners and, as is
the case with Friday's attack at the Radisson Blu in Mali, they also
are attacking a major international hotel company with an American brand
name.
In 2003, suicide attackers
bombed the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing 12 and
they attacked it again six years later, while simultaneously attacking
the Ritz Carlton hotel in the Indonesian capital, killing seven.
Similarly, a Marriott was bombed in Islamabad, Pakistan, in 2008,
resulting in the deaths of 54 people.
In
2002, a group of a dozen French defense contractors were killed as they
left a Sheraton hotel in Karachi, Pakistan, which was heavily damaged.
In October 2004 in Taba in Sinai, Egypt, jihadists attacked a Hilton
Hotel, killing 31.
In
Amman, Jordan, in November 2005, al Qaeda in Iraq attacked three hotels
with well-known American names -- the Grand Hyatt, Radisson and Days
Inn -- and 60 people died.
Beyond
American brand-name hotels, hotels that cater to Westerners have also
been a perennial target for jihadists: the Taj and Oberoi hotels during
the attacks in Mumbai, India, in 2008 in which 166 were killed in
locations across the city; the Serena in Kabul, Afghanistan, the same
year; and the Pearl Continental in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 2009.
On
January 27, 2015, ISIS gunmen attacked the upscale Corinthia Hotel in
the Libyan capital, Tripoli, killing 10. Five victims were foreigners;
one was an American.
Hotels that are in
countries where jihadist terrorists may strike can do a number of
things to prevent the kind of attacks we are seeing in Mali.
First, they must have effective armed security guards who can fight off terrorists.
Second, they must install airport-type metal detectors for all guests and also screen hotel workers carefully.
Third,
as new hotels are built, hotel companies should consider the extent to
which they might be targeted not only by terrorists wielding automatic
weapons, but also by car and truck bombs.
If
that is a real concern, hotels should be built well-back from the
street and should also create a perimeter around them where all cars
going into the hotel vicinity are checked by bomb sniffing dogs and
guards using bomb detection devices. Without these measures, hotels that
service guest in countries where jihadist groups have a real presence,
as is the case in Mali, may simply go out of business because hotel
patrons need assurances that they will be safe.
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