Authorities have confirmed the suspect’s identity: it is Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old from Texas, who shortly before the terror attack published an anti-immigrant manifesto online. The text speaks of an alleged “Hispanic invasion of Texas” and details a plan to separate the United States into territories according to race, The New York Times reports.

Federal authorities have said they are considering to put the terror attack also under hate crime and gun charges, which could lead to a death penalty. El Paso District attorney, Jaime Esparza, announced he will be seeking the death penalty.

Donald Trump has described the attack as “an act of cowardice” and said that “there are no reasons or excuses that will ever justify killing innocent people.”

The firefighters of El Paso have indicated to those who are looking for relatives and loved ones, to go personally to the Family Reunification Center at 8101 Whitus Dr. “You must be physically present, NO data is given over the phone”, they have indicated in Twitter

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has described the massacre as “one of the deadliest days in the history of Texas.”

Dayton shooting

In less than 24 hours another shooting has taken place in the United States. The second was in Dayton (Ohio) and has left 9 dead victims and several injured. The reasons are still unknown.

Police shot the attacker, who has died. He was identified as Connor Betts, a 24-year-old neighbour of the outskirts of the city. His sister Megan (22) was under the victims who lost their lifes. He also killed eight other people, six of whom where black and two others, white. Police do not believe there was a racist motive behind this attack.

There have been three shootings in only a week in the US.

La entrada 20 people killed in a terror attack by a white supremacist in El Paso se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

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“Thousands of civilians were killed or injured in the US-led Coalition’s offensive to rid Raqqa of ISIS, whose snipers and mines had turned the city into a death trap,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International (AI) adviser said in a statement. “Many of the air bombardments were inaccurate and tens of thousands of artillery strikes were indiscriminate, so it is no surprise they killed and injured many hundreds of civilians.” Rovera assures as well that, on the ground, she discovered that the coalition was providing “little or no protection to civilians trapped in the city.”

The United States, France and the United Kingdom supported the advance of Kurdish forces on the ground with an air offensive. The “unguided artillery” have a margin of error of more than 100 meters, which makes their use “indiscriminate” in an urban context with civilians present, according to Amnesty.

“Many of the aerial bombings were inaccurate, and tens of thousands of artillery attacks were indiscriminate”

– Donatella Rovera, AI

The Syrian city of Raqqa was governed for almost four years by the terrorists until in 2017 they were defeated by the military coalition led by the United States. “ISIS had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity and tortured and killed whoever dared to oppose them,” Amnesty International recalls. The NGO has previously documented how terrorists used “civilians as human shields, mined exit routes, set up checkpoints to restrict movement and fired at those who tried to flee.”

In their attempt to free the citizens of Raqqa from Daesh and undermine their territorial power in what was considered their “capital”, “thousands” of American, British and French air strikes and dozens of US artillery attacks were carried out between June and October 2017. Amnesty International says its data show that hundreds of civilians died as a “direct result”of that military operation.

The human rights organization research teams spent about two months in Raqqa when the battle was still ongoing. It visited more than 200 strike locations and interviewed more than 400 witnesses and survivors.

In addition, more than 3,000 activists from 124 different countries analyzed more than two million frames of satellite images. Amnesty notes that the organization’s digital verification body, based in six universities around the world, analyzed and authenticated the video images taken during the battle.

In collaboration with Airwars organization, they analyzed open source data in real time and after the battle – including “thousands” of social media and other materials – to create a database of more than 1,600 civilians who, according to the investigation, died due to the coalition attacks. Both organizations have compiled the names of more than a thousand victims; Amnesty International has verified 641 of these directly on the ground, in Raqqa, and claims to have “convincing information from multiple sources about the rest”.

“The coalition has to investigate what went wrong in Raqqa and learn the lesson so as to not inflict such tremendous suffering on civilians trapped in future military operations”

– Chris Woods, Airwars

The NGO regrets that the international coalition has only admitted to the deaths of 159 civilians for their attacks and claims that they do not investigate on the ground or talk to the victims.

“The Coalition needs to fully investigate what went wrong at Raqqa and learn from those lessons, to prevent inflicting such tremendous suffering on civilians caught in future military operations,” said Chris Woods, director of Airwars.

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La entrada Amnesty International claims the US led coalition killed 1,600 civilians in Raqqa during the battle against ISIS se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

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Husna Ahmed was a teacher in one of the mosques. She ran to help keep safe the children and other women who had come to pray last Friday. They managed to escape the shooting, but when she came back to help her husband, she did not survive. Farid did. He has said he forgives the terrorist, and he is sure that his wife would too. Now he will be a father and a mother for his 15-year-old daughter.

“I was asked ‘how do you feel about the person who killed your wife?’ and I said ‘I love that person because he is a human, a brother of mine“, Farid Ahmed told the New Zealand Herald newspaper. “I do not support what he did (…). I have forgiven him and I am sure, if my wife was alive, she would have done the same thing. I hold no grudge.” He avoids using the word “terrorist”.

“I forgive him and I am sure, if my wife was alive, she would have done the same thing. I hold no grudge. I wish I could give him a hug”

He says that at night, when he was thinking about his loss and everything that happened, the terrorist also came to his mind. And his reaction was to embrace him and his whole family.

“I was trying to grieve and it came to me then that I wish I could give him a hug. I wish I could meet his mother and give her a hug and say ‘you are my aunty’. I wish if he had a sister I could hug her and say ‘you are no different than my sisters'”, he explains. He recognizes that some people will call him crazy, but he assures that he speaks from his heart. And he insists: “I f I got an opportunity, I would hug him.”

Last Friday, when the terrorist entered Al Noor mosque to which they had come to pray, his wife, Husna, ran to a side door of the temple with other women and children to save them, the newspaper explains. Having achieved this, Husna came back to help her husband, in a wheelchair for 6 years now due to an accident. But she got shot before being able to get to him.

>>> You may also read: Attacks against mosques are more usual than you might think<<<

Farid was in a room next to the main one and did not see what was happening. At one point, he decided to try to get out alone. He made it and took refuge next to his car, parked just outside the mosque. He recalls that when he thought the attack had finished, he went back inside with another man in search of his wife and the other women, in case they had not managed to flee. Farid is a senior member of the mosque and had given sermons in the temple for almost three years, so he knew most people, explains the New Zealand Herald.

Later, the policemen told him that it was “stupid” to have gone back inside the temple. Farid acknowledges that “it was probably stupid to do it, but I could not think otherwise at that time.”

The worst thing for him was having to tell the news to his 15-year-old daughter, Shifa. He breaks into tears when he remembers that she asked him: “Are you telling me I don’t have any mother?” He replied that from now on he would be his father and mother and that they would face it.

“Husna gave her life to save other people, and it was her last job”

Farid is very proud of his wife: “She gave her life to save other people and that was her last work- (…). She took so many of them to safety and then she was coming for me … I would describe her as somebody who was prepared to give her life for others.”

The terrorist – presumably Brenton Tarrant, the only one accused of the attack – killed 50 people and wounded 50 more. There are also several children among the victims, as small as a survivor of two years or Mucad Ibrahim, who is believed to be the youngest deceased and who was only three years old.

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La entrada New Zealand attack survivor: “I forgive the person who killed my wife. I wish I could give him a hug” se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

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Muslims in the United Kingdom have suffered two attacks on mosques in London in recent years. In both cases they were abuses or attempts of abuse at the exit of the sentence. The 48-year-old British terrorist Darren Osborne was sentenced to life imprisonment for his attack on June 19, 2017 outside the Finsbury Park mosque in London. He killed one person and left another 12 injured. He has to serve at least 43 years in jail.

Martin Stokes, 25, also tried to run over citizens with his car when they were outside another London mosque in Cricklewood on September 19 last year. He left three people injured. Barely a week ago, on March 6, he was sentenced to 5 years. Stokes admitted dangerous driving, the BBC reported. He had parked with some friends in a private area and they were bothering him, so they were asked to leave. He responded by ramming the car to the people who were there while he uttered Islamophobic and racist insults against them, witnesses said.

In Quebec (Canada), Alexander Bissonnette was also just recently sentenced for his attack on a mosque, where he shot six people dead in January 2017. The 29-year-old has been sentenced to 40 years without parole.

“The attack in New Zealand is the best example that all extremist ideologies are more similar than you might think,” said OIET director Carlos Igualada, through on his Twitter feed. At the same time, he pointed out that the terrorist groups like Daesh or Al Qaeda will soon use the attacks of this Friday in Christchurch in their own benefit and as an excuse to make propaganda in favor hitting back. They will not remind their followers that they usually kill Muslim people.

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La entrada Attacks against mosques are more usual than you might think: they are committed by anti-Muslim terrorists and also by groups like ISIS se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

La entrada Two terror attacks against mosques in New Zealand leave 49 dead se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Donald Trump as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions prefer to speak about “political violence” or “despicable acts” instead of “terrorism”, when referring to the bomb mailings presumably sent by Sayoc. New York governor Andrew Cuomo did talk about “terrorism” from the beginning. Sessions left the door open to broaden up the five current charges against Sayoc as the investigations unfold. For now, they include illegal mailing of explosives and threats against former presidents.

Regarding the shooting of Robert Bowers in the Tree of Life sinagogue in Pittsburgh which resulted in 11 deaths, the public safety director of the city Wendell Hissrich confirmed in a press conference the massacre “falls under hate crime” (which in Pittsburgh can lead to a death penalty, The New York Times said). The Antidefamation League (ADL) itself -an organization founded to fight antisemitism which now fighst as well against other sorts of hatred- called on authorities “to investigate (the attack) as a hate crime”.

>>> You may also read: Fox News says George Soros is “subject of many unfounded conspiracy theories” from the right<<<

So, what is the right way to call these attacks? One of the major researchers on terrorism in the US and a leading expert worldwide is Bruce Hoffman, a professor at Georgetown University and director of the Center for Security Studies. He said to Salam Plan: “Hate crimes and terrorism are not mutually exclusive. They are the same and it baffles me why such distinctions are made. Certainly, the mail bombs and Pittsburgh shooting, according to my definition, are acts of terrorism.”*

“The mail bombs and Pittsburgh shooting are acts of terrorism”

— Bruce Hoffman, Georgetown professor

Let’s see how he comes to that conclusion, which is not only his at all. Experts from around the world have been trying to get a straight answer to the meaning of “terrorism” for decades and there is still no final consensus. But they agree on basic common characteristics and an essential aspect that differentiates the terrorist attack from what is not.

Hoffman recognizes there are many different visions. In his book Inside Terrorism (Ed. Columbia University Press), he devotes up to the first 44 pages to, literally, “defining terrorism”, the very title of the first chapter. A historical review of the phenomenon, which emerged with the anarchist movement at the end of the 19th century, demonstrates the changing meaning of the word and the way it is carried out. But at the same time it confers clarity on characteristics which have remained over time.

Political or ideological motivation is essential

Hoffman concludes that for an act to be described as a terrorist attack nowadays, the following aspects must converge:

• “ineluctably” political in aims and motivations, it is “propaganda by deed”;
• violent or with threat of violence;
• planned to achieve “far-reaching” psychological repercussions beyond the immediate victim or target;
• carried out by an organization “with an identifiable chain of command or a conspiratorial cell structure” or by individuals or a small group of them inspired by a terrorist group;
• perpetrated by a “subnational” group or a non-state entity.

Hoffman also cites a detailed study carried out in the 1980s by Alex P. Schmid in which that researcher compared more than 100 definitions of “terrorism” in an attempt to come up with the final definition. He did not succeed, but he did draw up a list of the concepts that appeared most often as part of those definitions. The three most mentioned and coinciding were in the following order:

• violence or force (83.5%)
• political (65%)
• fear or emphasis on terror (51%).

Other concepts, such as “threat” or “psychological effects” only appeared in less than half of those definitions, although these two were those which followed in frequency to the ones previously mentioned.

So the concept “political violence” used by Trump and Sessions to refer to the frustrated attacks of Sayoc would directly fit into the common charasteristics of what terrorism is, according to more than 100 definitions. Also the explosive devices were not a hoax, as the FBI director Chris Wray confirmed.

The three most mentioned concepts in more than 100 definitions of “terrorism” are: “violence”, “political” and “fear”. So the concept “political violence” used by Trump and Sessions to refer to the mail bombs of Sayoc would directly fit into it.

Lieutenant-Colonel Manuel González Fernández, analyst professor of geopolitics and the so-called “jihadist” terrorism at the Spanish Gutiérrez Mellado Institute, argues that a terrorist is someone who carries out “acts of indiscriminate violence to modify or change political wills, organizations or societies.” In his opinion it is a concept that is based more on the aims than the actions themselves: “If by attacking a mosque you get people to fear going to the mosque or you provoke the need of a stronger police deployment, you are a terrorist,” he explains in his classes.

González Fernández offers another note that helps understand how terrorists act: “We see a squared chessboard with limitations, while they see a clear board. They can appear on any square of the board.” Thus, he agrees with Hoffman, who also points out the absence of the rules of war in his book, because a conventional war must be produced respecting aspects such as: not killing civilians, respecting countries and neutral actors, not taking enemy hostages, giving a correct treatment to war prisoners… Rules which, by the way, are similarly defined in the Q’ran.

>>> You may also read: The true meaning of ‘jihad’ and how ISIS fails to accomplish it<<<

Georgetown professor Hoffman admits that also in the conventional wars these rules are sometimes breached, but he indicates that those cases qualify as a “war crime”. In the case of terrorists, they violate these basic rules systematically.

“We see a squared chessboard with limitations, while terrorists see a clear board. They can appear on any square of the board”

— Manuel González Fernández, Gutiérrez Mellado Institute

Rafael Calduch is professor of International Public Law and International Relations at the Complutense University of Madrid. International terrorism is among his main research approaches. He defines terrorism through six conditions:

“1. Political relationship strategy based on

2. the use of violence and threats of violence by

3. an organized group, in order to induce a

4. feeling of terror or extreme insecurity in a

5. non-belligerent human collectivity and

6. thus, facilitate the achievement of their demands”.

What about ‘lone wolves’ or ‘lone actors’?

For Calduch, the so-called “lone wolves” commit acts of terror, but they are “fanatics who act at their own risk” and do not consider them terrorists, because he attributes to the latter a strategy, with “planning, tactics and logistics”.

The differentiation between “wolf” (non-terrorist act) and “lone actor” (in a terrorist context) extends among researchers: Hoffman’s definition of terrorism includes precisely the lone actors and avoids the concept of “wolf”.

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Lieutenant González Fernández reminds that Osama bin Laden already incited to the solitary action in 1993. This military professor also redefines the attackers usually called “lone wolves” in the media to “coyotes”. From his point of view, a “coyote” is an actor who is part of an operative cell, because they do not self-finance, they do not use means autonomously, they do not radicalize themselves, but rather with books and the internet.

The researchers on global terrorism of the Elcano Royal Institute, Fernando Reinares and Carola García-Calvo, also prefer to talk about lone actors for similar reasons.

What stays clear after comparing the analyses of all these terrorism experts is that for a violent attack to be described as a “terrorist attack” there must be a political or ideological motivation behind it.

Neo- nazi and ISIS terrorists

So not any massive attack against civilians by a group or a person can be described as a terrorist act, even if Daesh (ISIS name in Arabic) assures that it was carried out in its name. This was the case in Las Vegas attack on October 1st 2017, where the FBI dismissed the vindication of this terrorist organization. Although it is known that its author, Stephen Paddock, planned the attack, the absence of his motivations prevents his classification as a terrorist.

As for the investigation on the van strike in Toronto carried out by Alek Minassian on April 23rd 2018, authorities spoke about it as an “incident” at that time. The suspect killed ten people and injured another 13 in what appeared to be a “deliberate” act, according to Toronto Police, but no political or ideological motivations seemed to be behind this tragedy. Therefore, he was charged with counts of murder and attempted murder, not terrorism.

Terrorist attacks were committed by Anders Breivik in Norway -who with neo-Nazi ideology killed 77 people (mostly young people of the Norwegian Socialist Party) in July 2011- or Ali David Sonboly in Munich in 2016, also with neo-Nazi ideology. Those were terrorist attacks just as the ones perpetrated by followers of ISIS terrorist group.

“All the attacks that have taken place lately (in the West) have had two types of reaction: if the author was from a European (non-Muslim) family, a reason for mental illness has been sought, or a rare situation… But name a Muslim as a possible author of an attack, then there is no need to explain more,” professor Emeritus of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Barcelona, ​​Dolors Bramon, complains.

This happened in the case of Breivik (the court which tried him, assessed the possibility of a mental illnessand but ended up dismissing it and he has to serve a prison sentence) and in Sonboly (killed in the attack). For Bramon, this is a sign of the Islamophobia implicit in the West societies which appears after each new attack and she asks to avoid it.

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* This article was first published in Decembre 2017. It has been updated on Octobre 29th of 2018.

La entrada Why some attacks are considered terrorist acts and others not se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

At least ten people died this Saturday after a man entered the Tree of Life Sinagogue in Pittsburg and opened fire. “All Jews must die”, he shouted, according to witnesses, Reuters reports. There are also several people injured, two of them in critical condition. People had gone to the temple to celebrate sabbath, the sacred day for Jewish people.

The suspect has been identified as Robert Bowers (46). He is in custody and has been taken to hospital. He had posted a message on Gab, a similar platform to Twitter according to Reuters, where he attacked the charity work of a Jewish NGO devoted to refugees called Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. He critiziced its work as he considered it “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”

“We believe this is the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States”

— ADL

ADL’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, tweeted the Antidefamation League believes the shooting in Pittsburgh this Saturday is “the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.” In a press statement, the organization called on authorities “to investigate this as a hate crime.”

¿A hate crime or something else?

Pittsburgh public safety director Wendell Hissrich confirmed in a press conference the massacre “falls under hate crime”.

One of the major experts on terrorism analysis in the US and worldwide, Bruce Hoffman, said to Salam Plan: “Hate crimes and terrorism are not mutually exclusive. They are the same and it baffles me why such distinctions are made. Certainly, the mail bombs and Pittsburgh shooting today, according to my definition, are acts of terrorism.”

“The mail bombs and Pittsburgh shooting are acts of terrorism and hate crimes”

— Bruce Hoffman, Georgetown professor

The meaning of “terrorism” is a matter which many experts have been trying to clarify for decades. Hoffman, who is a Georgetown professor and director of the Center for Security Studies at that university, wrote a book called “Inside Terrorism” (Columbia University Press). In it, he describes a variety of studies on the issue and comes to the conclusion that any violent attack with ideological o political motivation is an act of terrorism. Salam Plan explains it HERE.

This attack occurs at a time when ADL has reported a “historic increase” in both anti-Semitic incidents and anti-Semitic online harassment.

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La entrada The massacre in Pittsburgh is the deadliest attack against Jewish citizens in the United States se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Fox defends George Soros against “many unfounded conspiracy theories”.

The billionaire advocates for the rights of migrants and minorities, ranging from LBGTQ to Muslims, through its Open Society Foundations. These aim to “build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens”.

Donald Trump accused him of organizing the demonstration against the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in Washington DC and stated protesters were “paid professionals” who got the money from Soros “and others”.

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After the report of an explosive device in Soros mailbox emerged, Fox News used the opportunity to clarify that he is “subject to many unfounded conspiracy theories”, such as financing the march of migrants from centralamerican Honduras crossing Mexico towards the States. It is a similar accusation to the ones the Hungarian billionaire faces in his country of origin from its prime minister, Viktor Orbán, himself.

Meanwhile, Hungarian media outlets which favour Orbán -such as Magyar Idök, Magyar Hírlap, Faktor or Origo, had not informed about the bomb package against Soros and Orbán had not said anything either by the time this piece was redacted. Soros has been a target of Orbáns policies in the last years to the extent that his Governments itself speaks about its “Stop Soros” legislative package to tackle migration and refugees.

The European Parliament recently voted in favour of applying sanctions against Orbáns Government as it sees “a clear risk of serious violations” of the European Union’s values, due among other issues, to its media censorship or its treatment to immigrants. The European People’s Party members -to which Orbán’s Fidesz belongs- had freedom to vote and many of them voted against him, included its president, Manfred Weber.

The offices of Soros’s Open Society in Budapest have had to move to Berlin.

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La entrada Fox News says George Soros is “subject of many unfounded conspiracy theories” from the right se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

She already won the Sakharov prize conceded by the European Parliament in 2016 and is good will Ambassador for the United Nations, among other prizes she has been recognized with around the globe.

She was 21 when ISIS appeared in her little village in the north of Iraq on August 15^th 2014. The terrorists killed her mother and six of her brothers, apart from many other women and men. They kidnapped her and sold her as a sex slave. But she managed to escape and not only tell her story, but the story of thousands of Yazidis suffering under ISIS.

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She found strength out of her tragedy and rose as a strong voice for the Yazidi people, because she said to herself she would be “the last girl”, like her book (Tim Duggan Books) says. The testimony of her captivity and her fight against the terrorists has been heared all around the world. Thanks to her, people got to know that there is exists a minority called “Yazidi”, from an ancient monotheist religion from which only about one million worshippers remain, according to Nadia.

The Nobel Peace Prize comes to complete a happy year for her: she got engaged in August to another Yazidi activist. “Yesterday was a special day for Abid Shamdeen and I. We are very thankful and humbled for all the wishes & support from our family & friends. The struggle of our people brought us together & we will continue this path together. Thank you for your support everyone!”, she announced on Twitter.

She has started a new life in Germany, although she travels a lot so that no one forgets. MEP Beatriz Becerra defended her candidacy for the Sakharov Prize and knows her well. “Normally, someone who has gone through something like what she has, would be devoted to reconstructing her life and try to survive”, she said to Salam Plan. But Nadia is not “normal”. And she does not seek revenge, but “democratic justice”, the European politician highlighted.

“She is a sweet person, charming, apparently fragile physically speaking, but nothing stays on her way. No door keeps closed for her”

— Beatriz Becerra, MEP

“She is a sweet person, charming, apparently fragile physically speaking, but nothing stays on her way. No door keeps closed for her”, she added.

Among her allies, Nadia Murad counts on the United Nations, the European Parliament and voices as strong as the human rights barrister Amal Clooney, who also defends her cause and works for the terrorists to pay at the highest courts for the crimes they have committed.

Besides, Nadia Murad has also created Nadia’s Initiative, an organization “aimed at increasing advocacy for women and minorities and assisting to stabilize and redevelop communities in crisis”. Currently, they are focusing on Sinjar region in Iraq, where she comes from. All this work and prizes… and she seemed fragile at first sight. Nadia Murad, Nobel Peace Prize 2018.

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La entrada Nadia Murad, the Nobel Peace Prize who transformed her tragedy into her strength se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

Bosch is head of the Attention and Assessment Unit for People Affected by Terrorism (UAVAT) in Spain, which includes psychologists, psychiatrists and lawyers. Since it its foundation last February, they have treated around 170 people affected by the attacks in Catalonia (Spain), which occurred one year ago. All of them Spanish victims, but there were also many victims of other countries. 16 people died, more than 100 were injured and many more were hurt psychologically, according to Sara Bosch. 90% of victims are survivors and 80% of all the victims still suffer a psychological injury, she says.

On the ‘International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism’ this 19^th of August her advice may be useful to all of the victims of terrorists around the world and people around those who suffer.

Are there victims of the attacks in Catalonia one year ago starting to ask you for help now?

Sure! Of course, of course. (When we started contacting last February) all the people who had gone to the emergency services of the attacks, there were people who had not yet received psychological attention. They had been holding themselves, struggling to cope with a psychological situation and waiting for time to heal them. But we are seeing people who still have a lot of psychological affectation, who have not received any treatment yet.

What needs do victims have or what problems do they face?

In the first place, when we think of victims, we all think first of the ones who were murdered, and therefore we quickly connect with the relatives of the deceased. After that, the physical wounded. Later, we began to think that there were many people there who might not have had an impact on the body, but that it is a traumatic experience and it is very likely that these people are emotionally affected.

At the beginning, we also understand that there is a lot of psychological affectation in a large number of people, but that somehow that will later heal on it own. A bit like when we get a punch. The bad thing is that sometimes we don’t recover as expected, and than we start considering: “what if there is something broken in me?”

People who receive that psychological punch, at first cannot sleep, they see the images continuously (on their minds), the sounds of the sirens, they are hypersensitive, they are afraid, have anxiety crises, they cry, they are disconnected from their day to day, they behave very strange … The (initial) psychological affectation is a chemical reaction: there is an explosion of neurotransmitters at the cerebral level, which are the ones that generate those symptoms. Therefore, it is something physical too.

“The initial psychological affectation is a chemical reaction which has to calm down with time, but in a 60% of cases that doesn’t happen and people suffer a psychological injury”

That chemical explosion has to calm down, but there are people where that doesn’t happen. There is a percentage of those people, which can be perfectly 60%, that will break down (, like a sportsman). They are going to suffer some psychological injury, which is when those reactions remain: they cannot sleep -insomnia is very characteristic-, they are still very afraid, they still have a state of anxiety that doesn’t go away, they have not sit down in a terrace again to have a beer, they have not gone back to the cinema, they do not want to enter a supermarket, they have not taken the tube again…

What does the first anniversary of the attack mean to them?

They know that there is a lot of media attention and that there is also a social memory, it is a call to their memory. It is something that they are getting through with the help of professionals, trying not to be harmed more from the outside. But it still means getting through an experience that is very slow and very painful to digest and suddenly there are reminders, images … especially in the media, with that nightmare. They do not remember, they experience it (again).

Therapeutically we are always going to recommend facing that memory, so that it becomes something that can be emotionally tolerated and that instead of reviving it, it may remain a painful memory.

Victims do not remember the attack, they experience it again

There are people who have done that process and are relatively capable of being exposed now to that homage and there are people who are still in a very early process and avoid seeing those images, because it would be an overdose for them. It’s each person the one who chooses.

What practical advice do you give to the victims at this point, bearing in mind that each person and each circumstance is different?

Basically, we make them aware that they can choose, that they do not feel obliged to anything. Sometimes, it’s a bit of giving them permission to do those things that can make them feel better.

Without that permission, do they feel guilty?

Yes, they feel guilty. Especially towards their relatives, because there are many who, when time has passed, don’t understand why you are not feeling well: “nothing happened to you, you were not injured, you are alive” (, they would tell the psychological victims, the survivors). It’s not that they do not want to forget, it’s that they cannot. They feel misunderstood.

Even they themselves do not understand why they are not OK and consider it a sign of weakness, for example. And it is not a sign of weakness, nor is it stubbornness of not wanting to overcome something.

Do not force yourself to feel OK, respect that you are not OK. It has nothing to do with being weak or not wanting to get over it

There is a lot of incomprehension, as much as of the victims towards themselves, as of the relatives, the close friends, the bosses … We tell them: do not force yourself to feel well, understand if you are not OK, respect that you are not OK. This is a slow process. Look for what can make it as easier as possible to feel calm and, above all, if you have not yet started a treatment, go to a professional – basically a psychologist – to help you go through this whole process, because it is a psychological injury. It has nothing to do with being weak or not wanting to get over it.

And what can the people who love them do to stop messing up when they are trying to help?

Accompany them in their feeling, the same way we tell the relatives of the deceased that we join with them in their grief. We need to do the same with those who got injured. Therefore, if they prefer not to talk, then we do not speak. If they feel bad, we do not have to tell them anything, hugging them is enough.

“Do not question the victims, do not to judge them and do not give them advice. There is no magic phrase. Simply, be there and hug them”

Let us remind them that we are there, that we are in a safe place, and we do not need any special phrase. And try to be available to what they may need, without asking them how they are all the time. Supporting them with empathy.

Do not question them, do not to judge them, and do not give them advice. It is simply being there, at their disposal, and not looking for the magic phrase, because the advice does not help. They advise themselves.

And the media and politicians, who perhaps are the ones who treat this issue the most in the public sphere? What can we or they do to not make it more painful and help as much as possible?

Media, on the one hand, have the need of giving information and therefore it is true that these images of the van (at the attack in Barcelona) … is a repeated image. But it is true that if we consider respecting the victims or not hurting them, we should not issue them.

There are victims (for whom) talking about their experience (helps them) or they have a message to give us. I would ask media to say the full message of those affected, just as the victim wants to express it. Because what has been happening is that many of them do the interview, (that) has been an extra effort for them but they had the expectation that it would serve something. And when they see it later, they tell you: “They have not said that; I told them it was very important to me.” Then: “They have only put my drama, they have only published the gruesome part.”

I believe that on the one hand it is true that it is very difficult not to give that message that they will see as morbid, but as we talk to the victims, allow them to give another message that they need to tell us.

“I would ask media to say the full message of those affected, just as the victim wants to express it”

And politicians … Errrrr, wow, how much time do we have? In a terrorist attack, unlike other crimes, a message of solidarity is generated with incredible speed and impressive magnitude. They are continuously told by politicians and everyone: “We are with you, for whatever you need …”. That generates both an expectation of support, and when it is not there later, after months, or when they begin to process their needs with the Administration… that solidarity does not disappear, it is directly the opposite: denials, denials.

What type of refusals? Of treatment, or information …?

Yes, right. Denial of treatment, fundamentally, and denial of recognition as a victim. For example, when there is an attack which has the power to grant recognition of victims of terrorism, the Ministry of the Interior in Spain will have a list of people, which will be collected from the wounded and deceased (…). For the Ministry all these people are the victims of the attack, they will be able to see exercised their rights of compensation for injuries, they can go to a psychologist if they need it … there will be no problem.

“Politicians: do not transform your initial solidarity message in denials”

The ones that worry us are those that are not in that list, because many psychological wounded do not go to the doctor. Many go to their homes and after three, four, five or six months those people cannot take it anymore, they break.

What should we never tell a victim of terrorism and what is most likely to help?

When it is about someone who has lost a beloved one, I think you should especially not give them any advice. You have to be there for what they need and offer help in practical things.

Like solving paperwork or buying food, if they do not feel strong enough.

Exactly. And allow them to feel their pain, even if we do not like to see it.

And in the case of psychological victims, the survivors?

Do not remind them that “fortunately nothing has happened” to them. Do not ask them to make efforts, because when a person has a psychological injury she does many more efforts than we think.

“Do not remind survivors that ‘fortunately nothing has happened’ to them. Do not ask them to make efforts, because when a person has a psychological injury she does many more efforts than we think”

Also, you need to understand that they can be very fluctuating. Maybe there are days that are worse than others. Let them know that if one day they are not feeling well, you are there to complement them. And do not try to make them explain how they feel or stop conferring them attributions that hurt them even more: “you are so and so”, “you don’t do whatever”, “don’t take it that way” … Try not to make attributions of that type, because they tend to blame themselves very easily.

Listen to them when they want and do not force them to talk.

I suppose that in the end these tips for people who are psychologically wounded are equally valid for everyone, also the physically wounded.

Sure. And something important as well about people who have a psychological affectation: it is important to help them to get back to a (certain) routine, because many of them can be in a somewhat chaotic state.

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