Europe in the eye of the storm

By Olivier Guitta

While the terror scare in a Paris large department store yesterday got a lot of coverage, first elements of the investigation are pointing towards a very amateurish operation. No Islamist terror group warns in advance of an attack and leaves five old sticks of dynamite.
Anyway what has been much more worrisome than this event has been the arrests made in the past few weeks in France, Italy and Belgium connected to alleged jihadists.
In light of this, I wrote an article in the Middle East Times on the current situation in Europe.
You can read the full article here.

Here is an excerpt:
Europe is one of al-Qaida's highest priorities. If anyone needed any proof, events from last week were another wake-up call. Indeed, on Dec. 11 Belgium dismantled what authorities called "the Belgian branch of al-Qaida."

Two hundred and forty-two Belgian police officers took part in an operation that netted the arrests of 14 suspects, while French police also arrested two suspects tied to that network. One of the suspects is believed by authorities to be a likely suicide bomber who may have had plans to target an EU summit that was taking place in Brussels on Dec. 11.

The United States provided Belgian authorities with valuable intelligence that showed that the alleged suicide bomber was given the green light to carry out the operation. He also left a martyrdom video and apparently bid farewell to his family that was supposedly on the verge of leaving the country.

The intelligence was so damning that Belgian Prime Minister Guy Leterme thought about canceling the EU summit. Instead, law-enforcement agents moved in swiftly to arrest the cell. Knowing al-Qaida's fascination with the 11th of the month - not only Sept. 11, but also Mar. 11 in Madrid, Mar.11, 2007 in Casablanca, and Dec. 11, 2007 in Algiers - it might not be a coincidence that this operation may have been planned for Dec. 11.

These arrests came after a year-long investigation that focused on closely monitoring an Islamist group composed of mainly Belgian and French individuals of North African descent who fought on the Pakistan-Afghan border against the West and returned to Europe.

Four important members of this cell had traveled to the region, via Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, to meet with al-Qaida leaders. The leader is still there but two of the militants came back a few months ago, and more importantly the alleged suicide bomber came back to Belgium on Dec. 4, which triggered alarm bells.

Out of the 14 arrested, six have already been charged with membership of a terrorist group. Some of those charged were of Moroccan origin [for more on this please view my last week's column The Moroccan Terror Connection]. All are Belgian citizens, including two converts to Islam. Among the charged, is cyber jihadist star Malika al-Aroud, whose first husband killed himself when he murdered anti-Taliban fighter Ahmed Massoud on Sept. 9, 2001. Her second husband, Moez Garsalloui, is believed to be the leader of the cell and is reportedly in Afghanistan.

TrackBack