Euro 2016: An Attractive Target for Terrorists

By Mitch Silber

In January 2020, Mitchell D. Silber was named the executive director of the Community Security Initiative, a new position created as part of UJA and JCRC-NY’s $4 million plan to help secure local Jewish institutions in the New York region.  He previously served as Director of Intelligence Analysis at the New York City Police Department where he was the principal advisor to the Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence on counterterrorism policy and analysis.  He has represented the NYPD at the White House, National Security Council, CIA, FBI, and National Counter Terrorism Center and testified before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

There are heightened security concerns in France, as the Euro 2016 football tournament begins today at multiple sites throughout the country.  France is particularly on edge in light of the devastating coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris last November that left 130 dead and hundreds injured. 

In an interview with The Cipher Brief, Mitch Silber, former Director of Analysis for the NYPD, said “France is both the top European target and the most vulnerable European country to terror attacks,” and consequently, “France extended its ‘state of emergency’ so that it would cover the Euro 2016 tournament.” A successfully executed attack could put the “future of the EU as a borderless entity” at stake especially with the upcoming vote in Britain on whether to leave the EU, he says.

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