On Friday’s Today, NBC terror analyst Michael Leiter partly blamed France for Thursday’s terrorist attack in the resort town of Nice: “The French really do have a disenfranchised Muslim population...which has become extremely isolated. And even France’s efforts to allow for the free expression of religion has, I think arguably in some cases, produced more isolation and more radicalization.”
In the 2 p.m. ET hour of CNN Newsroom, anchor Brooke Baldwin teed up senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir to make an identical argument: “Make your point again for people who are just joining us. The notion is, we covered the terror attacks in Paris last November and we've talked about the disenfranchised Muslim community in that part of the country.”
Elbagir declared: “...even as we stand here [in Nice], we're not very far from the disenfranchisement and marginalization....As extraordinary as it is to imagine standing here in the middle of all this opulence and all this represents. That is why ISIS has been able to find a foothold here.”
Here are transcripts of the two July 15 exchanges:
Today
7:10 AM ET(...)
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: And I think so many people wake up, they see that this has happened again and they ask themselves, “What is a solution here?” You are talking about an ideology that’s like a cancer that’s spreading and how are you supposed to rectify that now? Now that, that cat is out of the bag?
MICHAEL LEITER: Well, Savannah, your analogy to cancer I think is an apt one. Regrettably, cancer continues to kill people, we don’t give up. So the first thing we can't do is despair and say we stop it. It requires really targeted treatment in some cases, and that means offense, whether it's overseas or in French neighborhoods. It requires defense, better security at events like this. And it requires really good education and engagement. And that's something the French have struggled with much more so than even the British or certainly here in the U.S. The French really do have a disenfranchised Muslim population – largely from North Africa, Morocco, Tunisia – which has become extremely isolated. And even France’s efforts to allow for the free expression of religion has, I think arguably in some cases, produced more isolation and more radicalization. So we in the U.S. have tried to learn from that, but the French face a very uphill battle right now.
(...)
CNN Newsroom
2:21 PM ET(...)
BROOKE BALDWIN: Make your point again for people who are just joining us. The notion is, we covered the terror attacks in Paris last November and we've talked about the disenfranchised Muslim community in that part of the country. But here it is beautiful French Riviera. Why Nice? What was the connection with ISIS?
NIMA ELBAGIR: I think there are two issues here. One, that you have to remember, even as we stand here, we're not very far from the disenfranchisement and marginalization. The [indiscernible] are not very far. As extraordinary as it is to imagine standing here in the middle of all this opulence and all this represents. That is why ISIS has been able to find a foothold here. Nice has been at the epicenter of ISIS' recruiting in France and their [?indiscernible] propaganda is one of the most successful propogandas in ISIS. A man that’s referred to as a super jihadist at one point because of the sheer numbers of French foreign fighters that join ISIS. He comes from Nice. And so that's what so many investigators --
BALDWIN: I don't think people realize that at all.
ELBAGIR: That's what they're going to try to unpick, how much of this was an inspiration of what Nice now represents within the jihadi community.
(...)
