CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter September 2015
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CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter September 2015 1 www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter September 2015 Profile Emerges of a Suspect in Attack on Train to France Source: http://www.terrorismwatch.org/2015/08/profile-emerges-of-suspect-in-attack-on.html The young man who emerged from a Thalys France, details that Mr. Cazeneuve, a careful train bathroom on Friday with a Kalashnikov, lawyer, did not mention in his statement. pistol and box cutter is believed to be Ayoub El Belgian authorities opened their own Kahzani, 26, of Moroccan origin, who was antiterrorism investigation on Saturday. The known to the Spanish and French security Belgian newspaper Le Soir reported that ―if his services and is reported to have traveled to identity is confirmed, this man would have been Syria last year. identified by the Belgian services as related to With the man under interrogation by French the terrorist networks recently dismantled in antiterrorism authorities, who can hold him Belgium in the wake of the dismantling of without charge for up to 96 hours, French Verviers network.‖ officials cautioned that many details of his life, On Jan. 15, about a week after the Jan. and even his identity, had yet to be confirmed. 7 killings at the satirical newspaper Charlie But if the outlines of his profile prove correct, in Hebdo in Paris, the Belgian police killed two particular that he had already been identified people and arrested a third during a by officials as a potential threat, the case may counterterrorism operation in Verviers, a town once again underscore the challenges considered a hub for Islamist radicalization. European authorities face as they try to keep Belgian authorities said then that the radicals track of several thousand people in Europe singled out in the operation were ―about to who have circulated to and from Iraq and Syria launch terrorist attacks on a grand scale.‖ to join jihadist groups. But some officials and experts also The French interior minister, Bernard recommended caution about the Thalys train Cazeneuve, said that if the suspect is who he episode, suggesting that the suspect was says, he is a Moroccan citizen who had lived in wrongly equipped to shoot up a narrow train Spain and Belgium, and according to Spanish and appeared to have been poorly trained as officials, also lived in France and may have well, because his Kalashnikov jammed and his 2 traveled to Syria from there. The Spanish pistol was improperly loaded. authorities notified the French intelligence They also questioned the symbolic value of a services in February 2014 that the man had train attack, compared with the carefully joined ―the radical Islamist movement,‖ Mr. chosen symbolism of the attacks at Charlie Cazeneuve said. Spanish officials also notified Hebdo, which was denounced by many Belgium. Muslims for its spoofing depictions of the The French then marked the man down as a Prophet Muhammad, and at a kosher security threat, assigning him an ―S‖ profile, Mr. supermarket in Paris. Altogether, 17 people Cazeneuve said, intended to alert the border were killed. police. The man lived in Spain in 2014 and ―A Thalys train is not Charlie Hebdo,‖ said then this year in Belgium, Mr. Cazeneuve said. François Heisbourg, a defense and security According to Spanish officials, the man lived for analyst at the Foundation for Strategic about one year in Algeciras, a city in southern Research in Paris. ―And I don‘t know what they Spain that is a major transit port between Spain taught him in Syria if he was ever there. You and Morocco, but left the city in March 2014. don‘t want to use an assault rifle in a place you He had been kept under surveillance by the can barely turn around.‖ Spanish police during his time in Algeciras Mr. Heisbourg suggested that if the train and its because of past criminal activities linked to passengers had been the main target, stun drug trafficking; the Spanish police then shared grenades and pistols would have been more that information with their French counterparts, effective weapons. ―It gives the impression that according to a Spanish official involved in the man was acting on the spur of the moment, antiterrorism efforts who spoke on the condition seeing a target of opportunity, perhaps,‖ he of anonymity. said. ―My hunch is that he was Spanish officials told the newspaper El País bringing hardware from Belgium, that the suspect moved to France in 2014 and gun running, and then maybe traveled from there to Syria before returning to decided to do it on the train www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter September 2015 instead of shooting up Gare du Nord,‖ the end Belgium is not only known for its homegrown of the line in Paris. Islamist radicals but for being a distribution But it is also possible, he said, that, like many center for illegal arms for decades, for both foreigners trained by or attracted to Islamist criminal gangs and terrorist groups. The radicalism and jihad, the man was told ―to go weapons used in the Charlie Hebdo killings, for home and do your worst, to act on initiative,‖ instance, were traced to Belgium, where they and perhaps told only where to pick up a gun. could easily be moved to other countries within The suspect in the train attack, like Mohammed the European free-travel zone, and particularly Merah, who shot French Army personnel and to neighboring France, normally without any Jews in Toulouse in 2012, or the Kouachi screening if traveling by train, bus or brothers who were instrumental in the Charlie automobile. Hebdo killings, were all on watch lists kept by The Belgian Prime Minister, Charles Michel, on French security services, which Mr. Heisbourg Saturday called the train episode ―a terrorist called ―a recurring pattern that is very attack‖ and proposed ―an urgent meeting of disturbing.‖ The good news is that the security transport and interior ministers from Belgium, services were following the right people, he France, Germany and the Netherlands to said, but ―the bad news is that this knowledge reinforce antiterrorist measures, notably served little purpose.‖ identity and baggage controls,‖ his office said. France has about 5,000 people on the ―S‖ Attacks like this one, combined with Europe‘s list, according to Agence France-Presse, but it difficulties this summer with a surge of migrants is unclear how many are active or how the list and asylum seekers from Iraq, Syria, Eritrea, may have grown over the years. In 2014, Afghanistan, Libya and other countries, have France reorganized its intelligence and security made some officials question the open borders services, creating the D.G.S.I. — General allowed by the Schengen Agreement, which Directorate for Internal Security— largely allows free movement without border controls separate from the police and the larger across much of the European Union. Even the D.G.S.E. — General Directorate for External German interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, Security — to modernize its internal security has suggested a new examination of that and make it less of a police culture. agreement because of the large flow of 3 While the reorganization was needed, it may migrants to Germany and other northern yet be too early to judge the results, Mr. countries from entry points in Greece, Italy and Heisbourg said, and more resources are likely Hungary. to be needed. EDITOR'S COMMENT: I just love the deep operational knowledge of François Heisbourg, a defense and security analyst at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. Is that a paid job or just volunteer academic? And again is there a specific modus operandi to be followed to be characterized as "terrorist" and "terrorism"? Is airport-style security now needed for train travel? Source: http://www.euronews.com/2015/08/22/is-airport-style-security-now-needed-for-train-travel/ Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has called for urgent talks with other European governments to seek more security on cross-border railway services. The suspected Islamist militant involved in what Michel called a ―terrorist attack‖ on a high-speed train from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday, boarded the service in Brussels. ―The Prime Minister proposes an urgent meeting of transport and interior ministers from Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands to reinforce anti-terrorist measures, notably identity and baggage controls,‖ said Michel‘s office, after a meeting of his security council. Security measures will now be stepped up in Belgium but should full airport-style checks now be put in place across Europe? The question was raised by Michael, a passenger travelling from Brussels Midi Station to Paris. www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter September 2015 ―Will international trains organise a metal detection system as for planes? I don‘t know but I hope that my trip will be okay and for the other passengers too but what can we do? It is not in our hands but there are certainly things to be done.‖ A female passenger in Brussels, also travelling on Saturday, said: ―Well, when we first heard the news, the first reaction is: ‗Oh, I‘m so glad I was not on that train‘ but then I got a little bit nervous because we are coming this way and we were heading over to the UK. ―But at the back of our mind, we have seen so much security that we really didn‘t feel as though we had anything to be very frightened about so we are going to keep travelling.‖ On Eurostar trains between Paris, London and Brussels, passengers‘ luggage is screened and identity checks are made.