<http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2006070 710160001&Take=1> http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=20060707 10160001&Take=1 French Counter-terrorism Head Warns On Muslim Recruiters Dow Jones Newswires, 7 July 2006
PARIS (AP) - Recruiters for hard-line Islamist groups can turn Muslim youths with little interest in religion into extremists in a matter of weeks, the head of France's counterterrorism agency said in an interview published Friday. A year after suicide bombers launched attacks on London's transit system, Pierre de Bousquet de Florian told the daily Le Parisien he could "not rule out" the possibility of a terrorist attack in France. The fact that there have not been any attacks in Europe since last year's bombings on the London transit system "does not mean there haven't been any plans," he said. "We have - like our British and Italian colleagues - neutralized groups that could have taken action," Bousquet de Florian said, adding authorities dismantled "several groups" in the Paris region and in the south of France in late 2005 and earlier this year. Bousquet de Florian said one potential threat comes from volunteers who pass through Syria to fight in Iraq but are returned to Europe "to carry out the jihad according to one of the strategies developed by (Abu Mussab) al-Zarqawi," the head of al-Qaida in Iraq who was killed in June. "The model is evolving," the DST official said, adding this was in part due to an increase of Iraqis taking part in the fight against U.S.-led forces, leading to a reduced need for young, untrained volunteers unless they volunteered as suicide bombers. However, another significant change is the shortening time span needed to transform a young Muslim into a radical ready to take action. "We have noticed a shortening in the time between recruitment and the radicalization of these volunteers," Bousquet de Florian was quoted as saying. "Young people who are indifferent to religion fall in a matter of weeks into the toughest kind of Islam and, almost without any transition, into the most worrisome kind of activism," he said. The official said that, thus far, nine French nationals who joined up with insurgents in Iraq have died there, and about 10 are believed to be in combat zones. Two others have been detained and held in Iraq, he said. With about 5 million Muslims, France has western Europe's largest Muslim population. Some 5,000 embrace extremist Islam, according to a report last year by police intelligence. Of those radicals, 400 have converted to Islam. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
