A fingerprint and pizza what done it
A rather detailed explanation of this week's operation in Belguim and the capture of the only Paris attacker still alive:http://www.politico.eu/article/hunt-...paris-attacks/
I am aware that the details of the operation being public has been criticised. According to one Tweet the locals stoned the police last night in Molenbeek.
Interesting that the prisoner was within 500m of his former home.
The BBC earlier today reported:
Quote:
Abdeslam will fight extradition to France but has been co-operating with police, his lawyer says
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35852159
A View of ISIS’s Evolution in New Details of Paris Attacks
A View of ISIS’s Evolution in New Details of Paris Attacks
Entry Excerpt:
--------
Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.
How the French learned to love their police
Questions without answers
Professor John Schindler wonders who was behind the Paris attacks; here is a paragraph:
Quote:
Such oddities lead to nagging questions about who really attacked Paris last November and murdered 130 innocent people. While none can doubt that operatives linked with ISIS—some of them tightly so—executed that atrocity, who was in control of the plot is considered an open question by several Western intelligence services. To anybody versed in counterintelligence, key matters—Who designed the rather complex plot? Who paid for it and arranged the multinational logistics? Who provided training and related clandestine support?—remain unexplained to date. Yet such questions deserve real answers, given the atrocity visited on Paris.
Link:http://observer.com/2016/05/the-worl...last-november/
Sadly this is not the first time Paris has suffered from a "false flag" attack; as he explains it was the Algerian government last time.
Simple and complicated: two sides of the CT "coin"
David Wells, a CT SME with Australian-UK experience, has three articles examining European terrorism after Paris.
In the first one assumption I think John Schindler makes about the attackers use of phones and OPSEC is undermined:
Quote:
. It appears that the group’s communications — at least during the operational phase of the attack — were unencrypted. Instead, the attackers used a communications strategy first popularised in HBO’s The Wire – burner phones.
He does wonder why several times.
Link:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...-windfall.aspx
His second article ponders if Australia is prepared and refers to the AFP's approach being:
Quote:
raid early and raid often
Link:http://www.theage.com.au/comment/ter...23-gnpn80.html
Third and IMHO a very unlikely prospect he asks is this time for a European intelligence agency:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...ce-agency.aspx
France Tests “Tough Love” De-radicalisation Approach
Thanks to ICSR @ Kings. So the French have bitten the "Prevent" "bullet", setting up centres to de-radicalize and a senior official stated:
Quote:
...they are not intended for people returning from Syria/Iraq, but for “weak-willed volunteers”, largely youngsters already monitored as vulnerable to radicalisation.
...the centres will first deconstruct and counter jihadism’s ideological discourse, a task that will be “largely outsourced” to specialized associations which “are themselves still struggling a little, as has to be admitted”. Once they have successfully countered the ideology, they will enter a “therapeutic phase” that deals with any grave problems they have, including dropping-out of school/work, and those suffering from mental illness will be referred to a psychiatric clinic.....those who do not comply will face the wrath of the state.
Link:http://icsr.info/2016/06/france-test...tion-approach/
Intelligence: an army of soldiers wearing lead boots
A commission has concluded, using the title and sub-title of one UK report:
Quote:
Paris attacks inquiry finds multiple failings by French intelligence agencies; Commission calls for creation of national counter-terrorism agency and says Bataclan attack could have been prevented
Link:https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...gence-agencies
The BBC report is different:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36711604
Merah: The ‘Untold Story’ of a French Jihadist Icon
A short, fascinating and grim article on Mohammed Merah, who terrorised France for a few days in March 2012:http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/a...-jihadist-icon
It is based on a new book:
Quote:
In light of the remarkable upsurge of homegrown Islamic terror in France, a new exposé on Mohamed Merah by French journalist Alex Jordanov could hardly be more timely. Jordanov’s book is titled Merah, l’itinéraire secret—roughly, “Merah: The Untold Story”—and it lives up to its name.
The book is only available in French.
The author has been able to obtain access to the contents of the police case file on Merah, including numerous documents that have never before been made public: intelligence reports, interrogations of both Merah and suspected accomplices, wiretapped phone conversations, private e-mails, letters to family members, etc. He has supplemented his documentary research with interviews of people who knew or crossed paths with Merah. He also had the opportunity to view the video from Merah’s GoPro.
From the article:
Quote:
Jordanov’s research provides a unique window onto Merah’s life and crimes, offering important insight into his motives and the unflinching brutality of the ideology to which he subscribed. But it also reveals mind-boggling failings on the part of French counterterrorism. The story of Mohamed Merah is, in effect, that of a train wreck waiting to happen or, to paraphrase his brother Abdelghani, a ticking time bomb waiting to explode—while French intelligence looked on.