France lacks the means to grapple with terror, Paris expert says
Marc Hecker, a specialist on pro-Palestinian networks in France, says homegrown terrorists not tied with the struggle for Palestine
By Elhanan Miller January 16, 2015, 2:46 pm 4
PARIS — Its famous fighting spirit diminished and the ranks of its security agencies depleted, France is ill-equipped to deal with the threat of terror it faces today, a
French security expert told The Times of Israel.
Marc Hecker of the Security Studies Center at the Paris-based French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), who researched French pro-Palestinian activism in his 2012 book French Intifada? On the Import of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, said the perpetrators of recent terror attacks on French soil were in no way affiliated with the pro-Palestinian movement, which mostly consists of members of the country’s secular left and educated residents of the impoverished immigrant suburbs.
Terrorists like Mohammed Merah, who carried out an attack against a Jewish school in Toulouse in March 2012; Mehdi Nemmouch, who opened fire on visitors at the Jewish museum in Brussels in May 2014; and the Kouachi brothers who attacked the French satirical journal Charlie Hebdo last week were all linked to the Salafi-Jihadist movement in France, but showed no interest in pro-Palestinian activity.
“In the French Jewish community, people often perceive the French pro-Palestinian sphere as homogeneous, as anti-Semitic. They imagine there are many jihadis in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations. But this is simply not true,” Hecker told The Times of Israel at his office in southern Paris.
Following last week’s attacks in Paris, Hecker asked an interior ministry official whether French security had identified any Salafi activists during the huge anti-Israel demonstrations over the summer. The answer he received was that only one such man was spotted.
“There is some link between the anti-Semitic atmosphere created by pro-Palestinian groups in the suburbs, such as the Parti des Indigènes de la République (PIR), and what happened last week. But there is no overlap in terms of membership, and PIR strongly condemned the attacks last week,” he said.
For France’s most devout Muslims, religious adherence trumps political activism, it would seem. A colleague of Hecker’s, researcher Mohamed-Ali Adraoui, interviewed non-violent Salafis, referred to in research as “quietists,” and asked them why they shun pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
“The answer they gave was that ‘these demonstrations are during prayer time,’ or ‘there are women dressed immodestly there.'”
Today, the most significant terror threat in France stems from jihadi networks associated with the war in Syria and northern Iraq, continued Hecker. Approximately 1,200 French citizens are involved in these networks; people who have either made concrete plans to travel to combat zones in the Middle East, or who have already returned from them. French security estimates that 400 citizens are currently in Syria, and approximately 50 have been killed.
“That’s huge for a country like France,” Hecker claimed. “Compared to what we’ve seen in the past — the Iraqi networks in the early 2000s, or the networks related to Afghanistan, Chechnya or Bosnia — this is on a completely different scale. Back then, we had dozens of French citizens involved, now it’s hundreds.”
France’s domestic intelligence agencies are not scaled for this new type of threat, Hecker opined. The DGSI, France’s domestic security agency, employs just 3,500 people, tasked with missions ranging from counterintelligence to threats from far-right and far-left organizations.
A second group of potential terrorists are those who have gone through a process of self-radicalization — young men who watch online videos of the Islamic State or al-Qaeda and decide to act.
“They can’t do something very big. They can run people over with their car or fire at them with an AK-47, but they won’t kill hundreds of people. Still, it’s a threat, and in France even killing two or three people is perceived as strategic.”
In his recent publications, Hecker tried to explain that small-scale terror attacks must not be considered a strategic threat to society
In his recent publications, Hecker tried to explain that small-scale terror attacks must not be considered a strategic threat to society. “It’s not 9/11, where some 3,000 people were killed. But French society has become very sensitive to death. This is even true regarding our soldiers overseas: Every time a soldier is killed there are ceremonies organized, often attended by the minister of defense. During the war in Algeria in the 1950s and early 1960s, we had 10 soldiers killed every day. It was not the same kind of society, it was less sensitive to death,” he said.
“This creates a vulnerability for us and an opportunity for terrorists. We’re not that resilient. With the coming attacks, we won’t have the same strong and lasting unity you have in Israel. It’s just not the same kind of society.”
Another terror threat is tied to members of former jihadi networks, like the Kouachi brothers who carried out the attack on Charlie Hebdo. Despite new anti-terror legislation, Hecker suggested that French law is still too soft on terrorists. In November 2014, the first French citizen returning from jihad in Syria was sentenced to seven years in prison, based on a 1996 law banning association with terror groups.
“If you’re 20, you will be released at 25 or 27. By this time you’ve been radicalized, and you’re still dangerous,” explained Hecker.
Under a new anti-terrorist law passed in November 2014, a person can be sent to prison for seven years for justifying terrorism online. This was the latest addition to France’s anti-terror legislation, which in 2012 allowed French prosecutors to charge citizens for acts perpetrated overseas.
“There are many people to track, and with the means at the disposal of our intelligence agencies, both domestic and external, it’s impossible.”
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has promised this week to deploy 5,000 soldiers to protect Jewish schools across France. But the deployment of so many soldiers is no more than a temporary measure, Hecker asserted.
“The French armed forces, which include 130,000 soldiers, are completely overstretched. Afghanistan, where France deployed as many as 4,000 soldiers, is now over. But soldiers are still deployed to Iraq, Mali, Chad, Libya. We cannot permanently have 10,000 soldiers on the street like there are now because of the high state of alert,” he said.
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