The al-Qaida network has been severely destabilized but not destroyed by the war on terror and still represents a "very motivated and very dangerous" threat, the head of France's domestic intelligence agency said Friday. At the same time, French intelligence has over the past 18 months monitored "a surge in strength" by terror cells that have no organizational links with al-Qaida but which "exist all over Europe," Pierre de Bousquet de Florian said in an interview with The Associated Press.
| They're component parts. A part of them, I'd guess, is allied with or controlled by al-Tawhid and possibly (Dan's opinion) out of Chechnya. Another large part is made up of Takfiri, who just want to kill infidels. |
One such cell was dismantled in France over the past year, with the latest arrests coming this month. France says the cell planned chemical attacks against Russian targets. Generally, the threat of terrorism for France "is real and of a high level," he said.
| You've only got to miss one of those cells... |
The 49-year-old former aide to President Jacques Chirac heads the Directorate for Territorial Surveillance, known by its French initials DST. Created in 1944 to fight espionage, the DST has evolved to take a lead in French efforts to combat terrorism. It still handles counterespionage and other security threats, including weapons proliferation. Bousquet de Florian said that because France opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, it appeared to have become less of an immediate target for Islamic terrorists. But he said that was not why France opposed the military campaign and he indicated that this unsought-for benefit would likely be short-lived. Bousquet de Florian said France has no indication that Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida had links. But he said France has evidence that Saddam's regime financed another group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, which the United States and the European Union have branded a terrorist organization.
| Also the PLF and Ansar al-Islam... |
France cracked down on the Mujahedeen Khalq's French operations last June, raiding over a dozen sites including its walled headquarters in Auvers-Sur-Oise, north of Paris. More than 150 people were detained. The Mujahedeen Khalq is an Iranian opposition group which for years fought Iran's Islamic leadership from Iraq with the backing of Saddam's regime. It was disarmed by U.S. forces in Iraq soon after major hostilities ended in May.
| I still haven't quite figured that. Once the U.S. had defanged them, they ceased to be a real threat. But I may have done the same thing. Certainly I'd do the same with Hamas or IJ... |
As for al-Qaida, Bousquet de Florian said it "has been destabilized to a large extent" but "retains a capacity to carry out operations."
| I think we've hit it hard, but the best thing we can do is stop if from finding a new home. Somewhere, in the hinterlands of someplace nobody pays attention to, there should soon be another little independent enclave like Ansar had in Kurdistan springing up. |
"Very apparently," November's suicide bombings in Istanbul, Turkey, were, if not ordered by al-Qaida, then "validated by the heads of al-Qaida or by Osama bin Laden himself," he said. Despite losing leaders, fighters, training camps and financing to the war on terror, al-Qaida "remains a structure that is very motivated and very dangerous," said Bousquet de Florian. |