The fourth rail - The Islamists in Europe
The nations of Europe continue to struggle with the influx of Islamist terrorists. France and Norway sat out of Operation Iraqi Freedom partly due to fears of inciting Islamic terrorists. Spain withdrew from Iraq after the Madrid bombings and the election of Jose-Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, in an attempt to appease Islamists and thwart further attacks. But the spread of jihadi cells within Europe demonstrate that dissociation with the United States or the appeasement of terrorists will not prevent Islamists from establishing networks and planning attacks within European borders.
Spain has recently releases a report on the arrests of terrorists in country. The numbers are not encouraging to the appeasement or law enforcement crowd, as Islamists still operated and planned attacks in Spain after the withdrawal of Spanish forces from Iraq. Over half of those arrested were not related to the Madrid attacks.
Spain arrested 62 people last year in investigations…“Of the 266 people arrested in terrorism probes, 131 had relations with Islamic and foreign groups, up from 34 the previous year,” Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said.
In France, Islamists continue to operate and plan. The latest round of arrests in Lyon uncovered and prevented a plot to conduct a chemical attack against French citizens, and is linked to chemical plots uncovered in Europe in 2002 - prior to the war in Iraq.
An interior ministry official said evidence from Islamist militants arrested in the Lyon area last week made it "very plain" that an attack with the deadly botulism or ricin toxins was being actively prepared… The ministry official, who asked not to be named, confirmed a report in Le Monde that the suspects admitted to the police that Mr Benchellali was a chemicals expert who had been trained in poison-making in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and was actively trying to produce a botulism toxin and ricin.
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Last week's arrests appear to confirm fears expressed by the French intelligence service DST in a hitherto secret note dated November 2002, which referred to an "organised attempt by al-Qaida-linked radical Islamists to manufacture or acquire chemical and biological weapons to be used in attacks". It said the men involved were mainly "veterans of Afghanistan with chemical and biological expertise who have recently returned from fighting Russian forces in Chechnya”.
Norway continues to shelter Mullah Krekar, the founder of Ansar al-Islam, the group believed to be the nucleus of Iraqi terrorist group Ansar al-Sunnah. Krekar operates in safety within Norway, as he cannot be prosecuted due to shortcomings in Norwegian laws.
[T]he Norwegian authorities said there was not enough evidence to charge Mullah Krekar with conspiracy in a plot to murder political rivals in Iraq… But on Tuesday, prosecutor Tor-Aksel Busch released a statement saying there were "no grounds to charge Mullah Krekar on any count". The charge of inciting others to commit crimes was dropped because it is not in itself illegal in Norway. Formal terror charges against the 47-year-old cleric had already been dropped last year because of lack of evidence.
Mullah Krekar’s Ansar al-Islam is now infiltrating members into Europe. Twenty-two member of the organization have been arrested in Germany in a series of nationwide raids. Twenty members of Ansar al-Islam have been arrested in Europe over the course of a year, and it is believed over a hundred exist in Germany alone, with up to an additional thousand members in the whole of Europe. Germany is attempting to preempt attacks with making arrests on insufficient evidence, but there is only so much that can be done if the arrests cannot lead to prosecutions.
"The security agencies are generally acting a bit earlier now, even at the risk of weaker evidence," said Kai Hirschmann, deputy head of the Institute for Terrorism Research in Essen. ``The problem all over Europe is that they can only do something when there's specific evidence of an attack," he said. "If people just sit around and talk about jihad, there's relatively little you can do."... Europe's openness to refugees and civil-rights guarantees often make it hard for authorities to crack down on terror suspects.
In Britain, Sheikh Omar Bakir Muhammed openly calls for Jihad against British “crusaders” and aligns himself with al Qaeda. Due to legal restrictions, the British government can only stand by and watch as he incites British Muslims against their government.
"And I declare we should ourselves join the global Islamic camp against the global crusade camp," he said. What violated the covenant, according to Sheikh Omar, was the anti-terrorist legislation introduced in the United Kingdom after the 9/11 attacks. If the British government would review these policies and release those detained without trial in Belmarsh prison and elsewhere, Muslims could live at peace in Britain. Otherwise, they must prepare themselves to fight.
"The response from the Muslims will be horrendous if the British government continues in the way it treats Muslims," he said, adding that suicide bombings were a possibility. He called on Muslims to form a new coalition united behind al-Qaida with Osama Bin Laden as their leader.
Last may, in Loopholes, I discussed the inherent weaknesses in relying on law enforcement alone to fight terrorism. This post includes other examples of the failures in prosecuting terrorists in a court of law, specifically the cases of Abdel-Ghani Mzoudi, co-conspirator in the 9-11 attacks who was released due to insufficient evidence; acquitted Italian al Qaeda cells; and Muhammad al-Gerbouzi, a conspirator in the Madrid attacks that cannot be extradited from Britain. The terrorist catch-and-release law enforcement policy continues to this day in Europe. European police and intelligence agencies show an excellent ability to uncover Islamists cells, but are restricted in shutting them down via legal means.
Nations such as Belgium, Spain and France thought they could dodge the threat posed by Islamists by sitting it out in Iraq and rely on law enforcement for safety. The ongoing attempts to establish networks and plan attacks within these countries demonstrates this strategy is patently flawed. Appeasing terrorist only emboldens them as they thrive on weakness. Relying on law enforcement alone is a reactive and defensive measure, and does address the wellspring of terrorism – the support for Islamist ideologies and oppressive regimes in the Middle East, South East Asia, Central Asia and Africa. Policing terrorism is an important weapon in the arsenal in fighting terrorism but to reduce the threat and defeat the Islamist ideologies, the fight must be taken to the source.
Written by Bill Roggio
billroggio.com |
