Louis Caprioli France Counter Terror Chief 1998 - 2004: “It’s necessary to make choices.”
Narrator: In June 2014, French spy chiefs made a fateful decision. For the last three years they had been monitoring Al-Qaeda veterans of their gang (in Belgium), Cherif Kouachi and his brother Saed. Meanwhile Kouachi’s old associate, Amedy Coulibaly had just been released from prison. French domestic intelligence had decided to stop watching them and shift surveillance to the growing threat from Isis.
Cherif Kouachi
Amedy Coulibaly
For more than three years surveillance and wire tappings had yielded nothing. So it was stopped (mid 2014) which means that for six months the surveillance did not know what the Kouachi brothers were up to, and of the alliance with Amedy Coulibaly who had never been monitored since he stepped out of prison…
12 People were shot dead [by them] in the Charile Hebdo attacks. Within hours the names of the killers surfaced…it became quickly known that it was the Kouachis. ...they declared allegiance to Al Quaida shortly before they were killed in a shootout with French police. That same day Amedy Coulibaly pulled out his part of the plot, shooting four people dead in a Jewish super market; before being killed in a shoot with French police as well, he claimed allegiance to Isis.
How was this relationship between Isis and Al Quaida even possible?
Marc Trevidic, Chief Terror Magistrate France, 2007-15: “It’s just that they knew each other. Personal connections sometimes go beyond group strategy.”..
An Isis cell was working in Belgium at that time too…Abdelhamid Abaaoudwas very active in the recruitment of people ...he trained them and was responsible for sending back to Western Europe. ...people that want to die, who are not afraid to die and not afraid to kill other people while doing so.
Narrator: 130 people had been killed in the attacks. Most of the suspected plotters were already known to the authorities; and multiple opportunities to stop them had been missed. At least six were wanted on international arrest warrants for terrorism. One was under police surveillance with wire taps and a hidden camera; at least seven were on terrorist watch lists; at least twelve were stopped, questioned and arrested (then released) as they traveled around Europe back and forth to Syria to prepare the Paris plot.
An Abaaoud associate was captured in Poland with and partly disclosed the plan to attack a rock concert.
Marc Trevidic: I did not realize how much Abaaoud wanted to hurt us…would do whatever it takes, a huge attack at all costs.
Louis Caprioli, France Counter Terror Chief 1998 - 2004: One of the flaws of the European Union, it has never been able to ensure the protection of our borders…it is completely porous.”
The Paris attacks were staged almost entirely from Belgium, that’s where the bombs were made, where coordinators directed the attacks by phone.
It’s not by chance that the whole network was based in Belgium..
They chose a place that was both the weakest link and where their network had existed for years…they should have been detected.
Narrator: 5 days after the attacks Abaaoud was tracked down to an apartment on the outskirts of Paris…. one of the plotters detonated a suicide vest…Abaaoud’s remains were identified two days later..
There were missed opportunities there and in Greece to capture him.
...but more important people were discovered to be still on the lamb…several in Brussels
Posted by Abdelhamid Abaaoud on Thu, 16 Mar 2017 14:52 | #
Post by Daniels