slight upswing in 2001 just in US alone,,,

The figures on terrorism come from Micah Zenko, who is worth reading. Since terrorists study global terrorist tactics (apparently a copy of Menachem Begin's autobiography was found in a terrorist cell in Afghanistan), Zenko looks at terrorism globally as well, which I think is the right approach to the mindset. Most of Zenko's work appears online in publications behind a paywall, but you can get an idea of it by looking at his Twitter feed and a review of his most recent book in the Washington Post

https://twitter.com/MicahZenko?ref_s...Ctwgr%5Eauthor

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...think-of-them/

Actually, this article by Zenko is apparently not behind a paywall for most people, and it deals directly with definitions of terrorism and the sources of the numbers I posted:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/06/19/...rtment-report/

...and this blog is not behind a paywall, and also has some interesting guest bloggers

http://blogs.cfr.org/zenko/

By the way, I don't think anybody has all the answers, but post these as more data points and differing approaches for people generally interested or politically active

Well, that is certainly an interesting article, and it certainly refutes the notion that US citizens should be worried about terrorism either at home or in Europe.

"Some 63 percent of all attacks occurred in just six countries: Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Syria."

<b>None of these countries is in Europe.</b> While I have visited Pakistan, Syria and India, only India (aside from Kashmir) is currently on the list of countries I would consider visiting, and I expect that most if not all terrorism there, aside from the Mumbai attacks, is directed by local Hindus at local Muslims. My concern about travel to India has to do with rape, not terrorism.

"even with these worsening trends, terrorism still represents only a small fraction of overall violent deaths. ... In other words, less than 7 percent of violent deaths are a result of acts of terrorism ... Citizens of several Central American and Caribbean countries are still more likely to be the victim of homicide than Iraqis or Syrians are from terrorism."

And, specifically for Americans:

"terrorism continues to pose an extremely small threat to the United States and its citizens. The number of Americans killed by international terrorism grew over the past year from 16 to 24. However, this is still fewer than the average number that has tragically been killed each year since 9/11, which is 28. Moreover, not one U.S. citizen died from terrorism within the United States last year. Rather, as has been consistent with previous years, <b>Americans die from terrorism when they travel to war zones, or areas marked by violent instability:</b> Of the 24 deaths last year, 10 were in Afghanistan, 5 in Israel or the Occupied Territories, 3 in Somali, 3 in Syria, and 1 a piece in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates." (Emphasis added.)

I will continue to travel to non-war zones. I still consider Europe a non-war zone.

Someone getting worked up over the risks of travel to Europe (and to US football games - see the OP's other post!) needs to ask themselves why they are so afraid.

I don't disagree overall (although some of us feel a responsibility to change American policies that kill people other than Americans), however I would also point out that an American was killed in Paris.

All international trains to/from Brussels from Germany or Paris are having luggage and persons screened before boarding with airport-like security machines at their station of origin- ICE, TGV and Thalys trains.

Not true. It was just a strange announcement made by Ségolène Royal (who is not even French minister of transportation but instead minister of ecology) regarding the Thalys, who said it would be put in place by December 20th without even consulting the other countries, which have rightfully been outraged by her presumptuousness.

There will continue to be spot checks until further notice.

Since 2 weeks, I've taken some trains

- Bxl -> Lyon, TGV no check
- Lyon -> Paris TGV, : no check
- Paris -> Bxl, Thalys, no check
- Bxl-> Koeln, Thalys, no check
- Bxl-> Frankfurt : ICE, no check
- Frankfurt -> Muenchen, ICE, no check.
- Muenchen, Frankfurt, Bxl : ICE : no check
- Bxl -> Paris, Thalys : no check
- Paris-> Strasbourg, TGV, no check
- Strasbourg -Marne la Vallée, TGV, no check
- Marne la Vallée -> Bruxelles, no check.

I saw cops only in Bxl, but they didn't do anything.

I travelled yesterday from Paris to Munich on TGV & ICE and saw no checks.

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There are some security checks in few countries in Europe. Countries like Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, UK and Austria, you cannot see the security checks. Few years are required to establish those X-Ray machines onto those train stations.

There are checks at the border when traveling by car; on the road to Calais, all traffic is diverted off the motorway, around a roundabout and back on the motorway. I didn't see them actually stopping anyone, just scrutinizing the cars. I wonder if they also check all the small cross-border roads. They probably do, it wouldn't make sense to just check the motorways.
The Channel Tunnel Shuttle had the same security as always.

Those suggesting that airport-style security should be set up at all train stations in Europe cannot have traveled much by train here. It would be practically impossible to do this, and prohibitively expensive.

They were also pointing out that if people have to arrive an hour early to take a train due to security, there wasn't any point in building the TGV network to save time.

@kerouac - so true!