In France, a new type of lone wolf threat
Editor's note: Raffaello Pantucci is an associate fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization (ICSR) and the author of the forthcoming "We Love Death As You Love Life: Britain's Suburban Mujahedeen" (Hurst/Columbia University Press).
Analysis from Raffaello Pantucci, Special to CNN
Mohammed Merah's death has done little to clarify what motivated him to carry out his terrorist act.
The assassination of a series of North African French soldiers, followed by the cold-blooded shooting of Jewish children as they went to school, all show evidence of a mind twisted by hate that was motivated by Islamist ideas: The soldiers had the audacity to be members of an army fighting against Islam while the children had the misfortune of being born into the wrong religious family.
But what is most disquieting about this is that it is unclear that anyone told him to carry out his specific act. While it now seems clear that he was living within a radical milieu and had tried to go and fight jihad abroad, he seems to have chosen to carry out his act by himself. This is the action of a terrorist operating by himself, a lone wolf; one who has so firmly imbued his ideology that he no longer feels the need to receive orders to act upon, but is able to self-activate. Screaming about being linked to al Qaeda as he battled police, Merah clearly thought of himself as a mujahedeen for their cause.
What we do know of Merah so far is that he was in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region twice. Which group he sought out specifically is unclear.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed to have trained numerous Frenchmen, while Jund-al-Khalifah, a primarily Kazakh terror group, made a somewhat dubious claim of responsibility. He had possibly also fought in Iraq - at least one family member was involved in running a network sending fighters to the country. Back in France, he appears to have visited other radicals in prison and existed on the fringes of French radical group Forsane Alizza. But it is not clear that any of these organizations actively directed him into action.
This is not the first time that we have seen individuals of this sort on the European jihadist scene. Back in the early morning of January 1, 2010, Mohamed Geele came crashing through the front door of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard's house in Aarhus, Denmark. He had shaved and perfumed himself in the manner of a fighter expecting to die in the course of his action and used Google Earth to find the cartoonist's home. Westergaard was able to hide before Geele got to him, and Danish police swiftly arrived and apprehended him after a brief shootout.
He was later identified as being a key member of a Scandinavian support network that was helping send money and fighters to Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab ("the youth") and was spotted alongside another Somali-Dane who blew himself up in Mogadishu. A few months before carrying out his attack, Geele had been repatriated after he was apprehended by Kenyan police on suspicion of being part of a plot to attack visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.
But while Geele was clearly connected to the group, there is no particular evidence that it told him to act. When subsequently asked about the attack, Al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mahmud Raage said, "We appreciate the incident in which a Muslim Somali boy attacked the devil who abused our prophet" before going on to seemingly admit they knew of Geele, saying, "there could be some people who might say that boy was related to Shabaab." From information released during his trial, it seemed as though Geele was a radicalized young man who, once back in Denmark, fell back into his old ideologies and decided that it was his duty to punish the cartoonist.
While the whole story about Merah has not yet been told, there is a pattern like Geele's that is possible to identify: Young men enraptured by the lure of jihad become involved in international terrorism, and then find themselves adrift and decide to act by themselves, following the outlines of what they considered to be a correct targeting package. Like Geele, Merah seems to have been known within a community of radicals and was a known entity to local intelligence agencies. Unlike Geele (who in court claimed it would be easy for him to get a gun), Merah seems to have been able to accumulate quite an arsenal. And also unlike his Danish predecessor, he was able to carry out grim killings before he was caught. He was also planning on broadcasting his act posthumously, having created a video that he had sent to news organizations - though it is unclear whether Merah or someone else sent it.
Merah is also clearly quite distinct from some others who have been called lone wolf Islamist terrorists recently. He is different from British student Roshonara Choudhry, who tried to stab an member of Parliament for his support of the Iraq War. He is also different from Arid Uka, the 21-year-old Kosovar living in Germany who shot two American servicemen as they waited at Frankfurt Airport in revenge for what he believed American soldiers were doing in Afghanistan. In both of those cases, the individuals involved were not particularly connected to any radical group (except through the Internet), but chose to carry out their acts of political violence by themselves, aiming at targets they thought would be justified.
Merah is clearly a more dangerous proposition; not only since he was more successful, but also because to some degree he seems to have been able to operate using effective operational security. Clearly, French intelligence will have some explaining to do about how someone it was attentive to was able to accumulate such an arsenal, and also about how he was able to stay on the loose. Whether this is the product of a more trained or a more dedicated mind is unclear, but what it does show is that intelligence services need to be more attentive to people who they may have considered peripheral figures on terrorist networks. Previously, they would have been able to focus on the core, and leave the more fragmentary elements of the network on a looser leash. But with the growing instance of individuals like Merah and Geele, and their increasing lethality, it will have to be reconsidered which individuals are of concern.
The question becomes how such individuals can be effectively focused on and how intelligence services can distinguish them from the large community of individuals that exist on the periphery of known terrorist networks but who never move into action. While much has been made of the French tendency toward human rather than electronic intelligence as a potential reason why Merah was able to seemingly accumulate his armory and was able to stay below the radar for so long, it is unclear that greater electronic information would have necessarily uncovered him.
Within the United States, where electronic intelligence is the foundation of counter-terrorism work, individuals have managed to proceed quite far staying beneath the eyes of electronic watchers. Whatever the case, the key lesson is that it is increasingly becoming the norm that individuals less central to terrorist networks are going to move to the heart of terrorist operations. Figuring out how to distinguish them from the noise surrounding them is going to be a challenge for the next few years.
@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
https://tinyurl.com/ygf5dlfv
https://tinyurl.com/yzfqfh9g
https://bit.ly/3evnavY
https://bit.ly/3ci8ei0
https://bit.ly/38sjozP
https://bit.ly/3cmoIWr
https://bit.ly/3cvjxUk
https://tinyurl.com/yjumjfnk
https://tinyurl.com/yz5cerau
https://bit.ly/3rQg6Oq
1298346836
448656315
965519239
191774015
332531406
433176952
958867478
980994845
614571436
393672612
qEgAklt
UcbvCJf
MlnuqeF
AZhtOZa
MaTpJNi
ILAVjTu
NxjvoWg
eIeAWaA
eHUjBqI
rPveIco
https://bit.ly/3vmCtNA
https://bit.ly/3vgIFGZ
https://bit.ly/3rQpOjV
https://bit.ly/3t9pg93
https://cutt.ly/PxYCTXd
https://bit.ly/2OQA78Y
https://bit.ly/2ONVFmO
https://bit.ly/38Afp48
https://bit.ly/2P11vRA
https://tinyurl.com/y9afw576
1243223571
883961601
945734388
683002612
219405102
227626238
1273557453
623777742
178497264
403211114
aQotjEa
wucVuIC
MNgvPAN
KOjmyMm
qmDkNGj
ZMCgDZl
SEqVlao
nqKWHIg
hIoAXYm
hEdKrCt
https://tinyurl.com/yhyjpbnk
https://tinyurl.com/yf8r4jfs
https://tinyurl.com/yd8pvlzw
https://bit.ly/3bIHWXe
https://tinyurl.com/yemfusmh
https://tinyurl.com/yjf4q6kq
https://cutt.ly/uxagd73
https://bit.ly/3enLGiJ
https://tinyurl.com/ygp89ubh
https://bit.ly/3qVy6WB
981430102
599175552
191080270
608122931
1398107448
1343559895
984936277
1153714498
1105823294
952089472
zXKmNul
xqZReFz
QyvyMbU
WEuvqkl
kxPxcAe
dndCsUm
xBSlWbg
miSMQwS
ThKQlvP
EGYyNFt
https://tinyurl.com/y9huur3w
https://bit.ly/3qJliT6
https://tinyurl.com/yb7azgly
https://tinyurl.com/yjyvjk7j
https://tinyurl.com/yf7ek5l2
https://tinyurl.com/yhfqnrzm
https://bit.ly/3llDuAM
https://bit.ly/3qWXDhQ
https://bit.ly/3vrdh8O
https://tinyurl.com/yhagyahd
459051777
1370970377
1062301796
415043551
830781139
8681209
52802301
1205840155
854691722
1092015395
bLmEfVy
lQDWowA
LVoIVqz
mzqUYcO
aCOGYBd
gfjbShL
RiuCvCx
XnRoAXp
CifhLPy
FpHFkfU
https://bit.ly/3ckQzGx
https://bit.ly/2PXvL0f
https://bit.ly/3bDuZ0M
https://tinyurl.com/ydcvkp3c
https://bit.ly/30EPPGQ
https://tinyurl.com/yzgaa5k5
https://bit.ly/3r0tfU4
https://bit.ly/2NgB1uW
https://bit.ly/3qKP3m9
https://tinyurl.com/ydfzppos
345935897
527355343
156046524
400239768
441740603
1157705930
1064458497
336753374
697808207
44781414
szHASoK
HgzWRcV
hoOzniz
dvZeHxP
ywdpwBg
rXMSHQf
kkWcxQq
ZHrVpMQ
JDBHPLp
nyrybZv
https://bit.ly/2OmEl8B
https://tinyurl.com/yfotcyr8
https://tinyurl.com/yzh6o8ml
https://bit.ly/3vgPubH
https://tinyurl.com/yjb8q33e
https://tinyurl.com/yhorugq8
https://bit.ly/30D7yyr
https://cutt.ly/WzHxnIH
https://cutt.ly/4xjuy9r
https://tinyurl.com/ycv2r7do
1187137397
882999774
1337181859
871106783
808805316
394435612
647448307
634410261
1102687617
1291333876
hAjltXZ
bVfgasu
YtkaeNg
LgjvoUt
HOTZMqH
lfNMTDJ
XKhAnDe
BObxyxn
tAocKjt
RGroWIp
67xnl gopnd 68ax
Wow, incredible blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your site is fantastic, as well as the content!
http://www.vreyrolinomit.com/
500000 Scrapebox Blast Live SEO blog Comment Backlinks: https://www.seoclerk.com/Link-Building/842132/500000-Scrapebox-Blast-Live-SEO-blog-Comment-Backlinks
https://www.seoclerk.com/Traffic/833336/I-will-drive-20000-google-organic-visitors-using-targeted-keywords
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing some research on that. And he just bought me lunch as I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thank you for lunch!
https://dr-goz-peter-ugyved.business.site/
What’s Taking place i'm new to this, I stumbled upon this I've discovered It positively helpful and it has helped me out loads. I hope to contribute & assist different customers like its helped me. Good job.
http://www.zortilonrel.com/
Get Our Passive Income System – Step 1: Get our ready made niche websites, Step 2: Setup your Paypal account. Step 3: Run our Unlimited Traffic System from 850 sources of traffic (Approximately 35000 views a day guaranteed). Then just wait and earn your income 100 on autopilot. More info: https://www.k3reviews.com/2020/08/16/monster-mode-700k/
https://bitly.com/2EgbfPr
Best Marketing Services – Cheapest on Market. SMM Supreme is the Top 5 Best Social Media Website in the World. Best Quality-Price Ratio on the market with 714,928 orders until now. – Facebook Fan Page Likes for $4.50/1000 – Instagram Followers for $0.78/1000 – Youtube Views: $1.62/1000 – Twitter followers: $2.10/1000 – Paypal Deposit – Bitcoin Deposit – Fast order processing – 1 Hour Delivery (Click on the link in the profile for more details)
https://bit.ly/3iOPatX
Transfer from bitcoin to paypal very fast and low cost.
https://exchanger24.org/xchange_btc_to_ppusd/
Detectives privados san Sebastián de los reyes
https://www.argadetectives.com/detectives-aviles-asturias.html
It's really a cool and helpful piece of information. I am happy that you shared this useful info with us. Please stay us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.
not hard to figure out.
My brother suggested I would possibly like this blog. He was totally right. This put up actually made my day. You can not believe just how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
Great work! This is the kind of info that are meant to be shared across the web. Shame on the seek engines for no longer positioning this put up upper! Come on over and discuss with my site . Thanks =)
This ended the way these should all end. Just shoot these idiots and minimize their ability to ever communicate agagin. Giving them a trial only provides the platform. Just kill them quick.
Muslim clerics are the main instigators of the violence, discrimination and terrorism around the world. These rats transform an ordinary person into an irrational beast capable of committing the worse atrocities. If this Islamic pus can be eliminated, the world would be freer, happier, safer and without discrimination.
Usually I don't learn post on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very compelled me to take a look at and do it! Your writing taste has been surprised me. Thank you, quite great post.
You do understand this attack has everything to do with America. The enemy and ideology is the same in France as it is here in the States.
The main difference is Tactics. The brotherhood in America is quite aware they are getting everything want and more in America, by our own hand. If "by our own hand" does not ring any bells – ask someone.
I am playing devils advocate here.
I,m laughing at you Nickd...people who fly get searched...dont like being searched...welcome to drive your car. I bet Osamas grand ma would like to have flown without being searched...and as for your rabid hatred of the security officer,he was doing his job,being polite and probably trying to make the best out of a bad situation.....while you saw your chance to play the victim.
Maybe if we didnt have a part Muslim by faith wacko idiot for a president that seems to think we can keep in peace with a religion that teaches to KILL Jews .. if we could remove HIM ( Obamma the fake id carrier ) and back stabber , then we might be able to get somewhere , but NO ! he thinks hes john lennon and can create peace in hostile enviroment along with Hiliary Geeesh!
How is America ever suppose to be proud and free from terror when you Welcome and shake hands with and appologize for burning the koran ? yet they are burning the American flag in our Faces !
as they did in 911 dancing and happily as 3000 died that day in planes and jumped to their deaths or burned with the rubble
im sick so sick of this its not a blessed country anymore
it Soddom and Gamorrah , from same sex , to allowing aborted fetus for testing of Pepsi – co products
you tell me
WHERE IS GOD IN ALL THIS THE HAVE TURNED THEIR FACES FROM THEM
AND JUDGMENT WILL FALL on USA for this SIN its SICKENING !!
but then God sent angels to Soddam and Gamorrah to see if just 7 were found in the whole city before he rained FIRE and BRIMSTONE on it !
unless SHE ( america ) turns back to GOD shes headed for things worse than 911
its the silence................ BEFORE THE STORM >>
You do understand this happened in Frace and has nothing to do with America??
Ladies and gentlemen...I give you a Rick Santorum supporter!!!!!!!
Ok that killer is dead he chose his life to murder in cold blood little children and a innocent Rabi
im sick of lookiing at his face !
and so are those who see it at a reminder of what he did !
So get it off the post will you ??
you people are sick !!
let those try and recover and heal .
GOD has taken care of that person
his fate is in hell where he belongs !
i dont have sympathy for him one bit either and either does the rest of us !
great nice sharing. Tanx
Okay we have established that these young Muslim men are willing to be lone wolves. So far it has always been Muslim men. Can we please start searching muslim men at airports for awhile, at least until this group of people quit waging their holy war against the west? Why was my wheelchair bound mother forced to rise from her chair and take three terrifying steps, each possibly being the final step that causes a fall to permanently incapacitate her while young men were allowed to breeze through with barely a glance? I watched this travesty unfold and could barely contain the the rage i felt toward the security officer that smiled in delight at my mothers terror. The trip was supposed to be a joyful anniversary gift.
Little old ladies in wheel chairs, babies and toddlers are not a threat to our airlines. these young men are. It may be inconvenient but until this chapter in world history is past, we have to get realistic about what we are doing to stop these murderers while protecting our freedoms at home.
Every time we force an old woman to stagger forth from her wheel chair to be searched we have humiliated our entire nation. And our enemies guffaw with laughter.