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‘Facing threat that is more difficult to spot’: French PM presents new bill to combat Islamist terrorism
28 Apr, 2021 17:43
FILE PHOTO. © Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes
France’s government plans to give its security services “more means” to fight terrorism and make law enforcement “more efficient” at doing so, PM Jean Castex said, promising that “fundamental” rights will still be respected.
“The Republic intends to give itself all the means to fight Islamist terrorism step by step,” Castex said on Wednesday, adding that stronger measures were necessary because the terrorist threat has become increasingly difficult to detect through traditional law enforcement tools.
Under the new plans, security services would be given extensive powers when it comes to monitoring various internet activities.
“The attack in Rambouillet, the assassination of the teacher or a heinous terrorist attack in Nice in November were… acts by isolated individuals, increasingly young and mostly unknown to the intelligence services,” the PM said, referring to the latest high-profile terrorist acts, including last week’s murder of a policewoman in a Paris suburb.
All the perpetrators in these cases were radicalized without necessarily having any direct links to established terrorist networks, Castex said, adding that surveillance should increase particularly on social networks.
Faced with this threat that is more difficult to spot, the State and Justice must equip themselves with strengthened means to detect, monitor and act [on that threat.]
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin echoed those concerns, saying recent attacks could not be detected through regular means and police “continue to be blind [while] monitoring… telephone lines that no one uses anymore.”
Both the murderer of teacher Samuel Paty and those who attacked a church in Nice communicated through encrypted messaging or through Facebook, he said.
The government’s proposed bill would allow security services to collect computer data for two months instead of the one month currently allowed. Authorities could keep the data for up to five years. It is about “applying to the Internet what we apply to the telephone,” Darmanin said.
The new bill would amend the existing 2015 intelligence law and the 2017 law on internal security. Castex insisted it would not infringe upon “fundamental” human rights and is only intended to help make security services “more efficient” while respecting “fundamental legal principles.”
He also maintained that the bill, which was announced less than a week after the incident in Rambouillet, was the result of months of work and was not a hasty reaction to yet another terrorist attack. A final vote is expected on the bill “before the end of July.”
The announcement comes just a day after the government threatened to take punitive measures against former high-ranking military personnel who signed an open letter declaring the country is headed toward "civil war." The retired generals urged President Emmanuel Macron to save the nation from Islamism and the “suburban hordes” of immigrants.
The appeal was signed by around 20 retired generals along with “a hundred senior officers and more than a thousand soldiers,” the conservative ‘Valeurs Actuelles’ news magazine said.
French Defense Minister Florence Parly accused the ex-generals of calling for “insurrection” and creating a “climate of division.”
The debate over Islamist radicalism was reignited in France following a series of high-profile attacks in late 2020 and mostly recently the murder of a policewoman by a Tunisian national, who was living in France and was radicalized by watching jihadist videos.
Spanish police arrest ‘terrorist’ trio suspected of encouraging attacks against France over Charlie Hebdo Mohammed cartoons
29 Apr, 2021 18:55
Spanish National Police officers at Atocha train station, Madrid, Spain October 5, 2020 © REUTERS / Sergio Perez
Police in Spain have arrested three people on suspicion of encouraging terrorist attacks against France after the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in September last year.
The EU’s law enforcement agency Europol said on Thursday it had helped Spanish police smash the so-called “terrorist cell” in the southern city of Granada.
In videos posted to social media, the suspects allegedly threatened to carry out revenge attacks against France and its citizens over the controversial caricatures, Europol said in a statement.
The trio had amassed 19,000 online followers between them, Europol said, which presented a “serious security concern."
A Europol expert assisted Spanish police in raids on homes and collected evidence, which will now be analyzed.
For many Muslims, visual depictions of the Prophet Mohammed are considered blasphemous.
In response to Charlie Hebdo’s initial publication of a series of controversial Mohammed cartoons in 2015, two Islamist gunmen stormed the magazine’s offices, killing 12 people.
The French outlet’s September 2020 republication of the original cartoons coincided with the start of the trial of 14 people believed to have aided the two attackers.
The cartoons’ republication sparked numerous protests across the Muslim world last year, including in Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Bangladesh, and other countries.
In recent weeks, anti-France protests have flared up again in Pakistan, led by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan group, which has called for bans on French products due to French President Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to condemn the cartoons.
Have these countries condemned the attacks on Charlie Hebdo? Or any of the other massacres perpetrated by insane Muslims?
Car bomb kills at least 25, injures dozens in eastern Afghanistan
30 Apr, 2021 18:16
FILE PHOTO: An Afghan police officer keeps watch at a checkpoint. © Reuters / Omar Sobhani
A massive car bomb struck the main city of eastern Afghanistan's Logar province on Friday, killing at least 25 people and injuring scores more, local officials told the media.
The blast struck near what used to be the residence of the former provincial council leader in Pul-e Alam, but which has been repurposed for public use.
Provincial officials said that the driver of the bomb-laden truck had posed as a worker of an NGO looking to help locals, in order to gain access to the compound.
The explosion was so powerful that it caused the collapse of the building, killing at least 25 people, Hasib Stanekzai, head of Logar's provincial council, said. Around 60 people were injured, he added.
The Interior Ministry said that 30 people were killed or wounded in the attack, warning that the death toll could rise further.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the blast, but violence has been on the rise in Afghanistan in recent weeks, particularly in the wake of US President Joe Biden's announcement that American troops – deployed in the country for two decades – will withdraw from Afghanistan by September 11.
The new date pushes back the May 1 deadline which the administration of Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, had agreed with the Taliban during peace talks in February 2020.
It's curious who would do things that might halt or delay the American withdrawal. It makes no sense for the Taliban, Al Qaeda, or Daesh to take such a risk. The Afghan government, on the other hand, may want to delay the American withdrawal, fearing any one of, or all three of the aforementioned groups. Then, there is always the possibility of Deep State not wanting the Americans to withdraw from any war.
Logar Prov., AFG
Australian intelligence predicts terrorist attack ‘in next 12 months,’ police seek new powers to combat ‘extreme’ ideologies
30 Apr, 2021 18:16
Australian Federal Police officers stand near the check-in counters at the Sydney Airport Domestic terminal in Australia,
July 30, 2017. © REUTERS / David Gray
Australia’s Federal Police are requesting new powers that would make possession of “propaganda” and “terrorist” manifestos illegal to possess and share, as intelligence agencies predict a terrorist attack within 12 months.
Mike Burgess, the director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), told a parliamentary intelligence committee that a terrorist attack in Australia is “probable” and that it’s anticipated to happen “in the next 12 months.” He said it could be either Islamist or nationalist in nature, local media reported.
Burgess also warned the committee that Australia’s youth is “being ensnared in these racist, supremacist and misogynist ideologies,” though concluded that “Sunni-based” extremism is still the intelligence agency’s “major” concern.
In light of Burgess’ warning, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) are now reportedly pushing for a change in law that would allow them to criminally punish Australians in possession of material deemed to be “propaganda” for terrorist organizations and ideologies.
AFP Deputy Commissioner Ian McCartney told the parliamentary committee that “certain aspects of current criminal laws are out of step with the community’s expectations,” and that more should be done to crack down on the radicalization of Australians by prohibiting possession and distribution of ‘terrorist’ materials.
“Outside of legitimate research, public interest reporting and other professional reasons, there are no circumstances where individuals should be accessing or sharing instructional terrorist manuals, propaganda magazines, and graphically violent images, videos and other content produced by terrorists,” McCartney argued.
He said police are currently “limited” in the actions they can take against “radicalized individuals” unless they’re actively planning an attack and also called for the “criminalization of the public display of flags and other extremist insignia.”
Just last year, however, the Law Council of Australia called on Parliament to cut back on some of the country’s anti-terrorism laws – including bans on travel to certain countries – warning they were too “broadly framed” and authoritarian.
Good grief!
Germany charges suspected Islamic State fundraiser who allegedly paid smugglers and helped free jailed fighter
30 Apr, 2021 15:07
A police officer checks commuters in cars arriving from Poland, at the German-Polish border crossing Stadtbruecke
(city bridge) amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, March 22, 2021.
© REUTERS / Hannibal Hanschke
Prosecutors in Germany have charged an Iraqi immigrant who is suspected of being a member of Islamic State and funding the terrorist organization's activities abroad.
The suspect, identified only as Aymen A.-J, is also suspected of the "preparation of a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state," the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement on Friday.
The suspect allegedly sent $12,000 to Syria and Lebanon between September and the end of last year.
Prosecutors said the cash was used to pay for the care of women in Syrian refugee camps, to fund IS smugglers and to free one of the group's fighters from prison.
After entering Germany from Iraq in 2016, he has allegedly been an IS sympathizer since 2018, before trying to join the group abroad early last year.
IS chiefs told him to postpone joining the group and he remained in Germany, where he played a "central role" in fundraising, according to prosecutors.
In January 2021, the suspect was detained at the German-Swiss border as he allegedly made his way to fight for IS in Syria or Africa, and has since been in custody.
On Thursday a federal judge ordered his pre-trial detention. No trial date was released.
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