A nation must think before it acts.
Senior Fellow Lorenzo Vidino Appeared on PBS News Hour to Discuss New York Terror Attacks
Lorenzo Vidino:
Well, we obviously don’t know details about this individual.
I would say that, prima facie, it’s very similar to the dynamics that we have seen in many European countries over the last couple of years, the Barcelona attack back in August, Stockholm, the Berlin Christmas market attack, a couple events in London, where individuals have rented trucks or stole trucks, used them in pedestrian areas, tried to kill as many people as possible, and then, in this case, as, for example, in London or Barcelona, getting out of the truck, and then trying to attack, in some cases with shooting, in some cases stabbing, other pedestrians.
In many cases, these individuals who carried out the attacks were not linked operationally to ISIS. These were people who had obviously received inspiration from the group. They might have been in contact with people within the organization online, but it was acts carried out without any kind of structural support.