France: Revealing shocking terrorist plans

(Baonghean.vn) – On July 6, Le Figaro newspaper revealed assassination plans and failed attacks targeting shopping malls, theaters and even a nuclear power plant. It is known that these plans were presented to the French National Assembly's Investigation Committee.

Military reinforcements at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on December 24, 2015. Photo: AFP

On May 18, before the Commission of Inquiry, national intelligence coordinator Didier Le Bret presented a report summarizing the attacks that were prevented or failed to target France. Accordingly, dozens of failed attacks have been detailed over the past year.

There have been cases that have been reported in the media, such as the attack targeting the military base in Port Vendres in July 2015, the case of three jihadists who wanted to behead a senior officer, or the attack on the military base in Toulon in October 2015.

On December 15 and 16, 2015, the DGSI arrested Rodrigue D and Karim K, two terrorist suspects “planning to attack military and police bases in Orleans”.

Karim K later admitted to “wanting to assassinate the head of Loiret and attack a nuclear plant”. He also said that “Anthony D – a French jihadist in the ranks of IS who came to Syria at the end of 2014 – had a role in financial support”.

The report said that on March 16, 2016, “four women, including three minors… were arrested in Roubaix, Lion and Brie-Comte-Robert” as “they were planning to attack a music hall, two cafes and a shopping centre in Paris.”

Eight days later, the Directorate General for Internal Security (DGSI), the intelligence agency of the French Interior Ministry, discovered in Argenteuil a cache of weapons of war and explosives suspected of being used to carry out an attack on behalf of IS.

In Tours, the DGSI arrested Issa Khassiev, a Russian of Chechen origin, on suspicion of “traveling to Syria in 2013” ​​and “planning to carry out terrorist acts in France before returning to the Iraq-Syria region to commit martyrdom.” Several other cases have not been disclosed.

However, these successes still cannot deny the failure of security forces to prevent and detect the attacks that took place in January and November 2015. This once again proves that “terrorists do not follow any logic”.

Mr. Bernard Bajolet, Director General of Foreign Security, said that the difficulties that French security forces are facing are that terrorists are operating very carefully and sophisticatedly.

Their means of communication include disposable phones and encrypted communications that police cannot always decipher.

And the explosion of electronic communications with stronger encryption algorithms is helping terrorists operate stealthily under the radar of investigators.

Chu Thanh

(according to Le Figaro)