A French author uses the example of Mehdi Nemmouche to discuss the radicalization of “French” fighters in Syria, and the threat they pose when they return to France and other parts of Europe.
Many thanks to Oz-Rita for translating this clip from French TV, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Transcript:
| 00:00 | Samuel Laurent, good evening. | |
| 00:04 | You wrote “Al Qaeda in France”, and to research this book you | |
| 00:08 | took high risks by meeting some members of Al Qaeda | |
| 00:12 | you joined an Islamic brigade in Syria. Firstly, let’s speak of Mehdi Nemmouche. | |
| 00:16 | The route he took: thanks to your network you had | |
| 00:20 | information about it. What can you tell us tonight? | |
| 00:24 | First we believed he wanted to blur his route. | |
| 00:28 | That’s probably wrong . | |
| 00:32 | According to my sources he went to several countries | |
| 00:36 | which are important places for Salafism, e.g. London | |
| 00:40 | I have confirmation that he met Anjem Choudary, one of the great popes of | |
| 00:44 | Islamism in Europe. Then he went to | |
| 00:48 | Libya, to Tripoli. What does one do in Tripoli? | |
| 00:52 | One meets the Éminence Grise of global Salafism, a man named Sheikh Bakri, | |
| 00:56 | who is telling you two things: First, “Jihad in Syria | |
| 01:01 | is an obligation”, and second: “Jihad does not stop in Syria.” | |
| 01:05 | That is, the obligation for a “European” who goes to fight in Syria | |
| 01:09 | when he returns he is to continue his jihad, | |
| 01:13 | that is, the expansion of Islam in | |
| 01:17 | Europe. You mean they will return to Europe “programmed”? | |
| 01:21 | Exactly. They come back with two things: | |
| 01:25 | First, with an extremely worrying level of military experience, | |
| 01:29 | because they will be very combat-toughened. Second: with an ideology | |
| 01:33 | charged with hatred towards the West. | |
| 01:37 | Don’t forget all Salafism is based on a hatred | |
| 01:41 | and will to overthrow all Western values. How come a powerful terrorist organisation | |
| 01:45 | directed by an Emir of Al Qaeda, ready to act, has implanted itself on French soil? | |
| 01:49 | Are these networks in contact with each other | |
| 01:54 | and/or with Mehdi Nemmouche? | |
| 01:58 | And is it all very organised or are they separate electrons? | |
| 02:02 | They are two different things. Some networks have been created via Al Qaeda, | |
| 02:06 | but Nemmouche doesn’t fit their profile at all. It’s the second danger | |
| 02:10 | which is as important, that is, the one we qualified in the past as a “lone wolf”, | |
| 02:14 | who represents the people coming back from Syria | |
| 02:18 | very experienced and with a savage | |
| 02:22 | determination to attack and damage symbolic interests, | |
| 02:26 | such as Jewish targets, | |
| 02:30 | and these people do not fit the profile of Al Qaeda cells, | |
| 02:34 | but represent elements just as extremely dangerous who will arrive in France by the hundreds | |
| 02:38 | when the Jihadists return. By the hundreds? How are they financed? | |
| 02:43 | Have they money? | |
| 02:47 | For example in prison, | |
| 02:51 | someone received transfers, from whom? Today’s Salafists | |
| 02:55 | have created a real network, in prisons | |
| 02:59 | in the cities, of a surprising efficiency. | |
| 03:03 | In the cities they work hand-in-hand with | |
| 03:07 | organised crime, drugs, etc. | |
| 03:11 | Most of the financing for these people, whether for travel to Syria | |
| 03:15 | or charity organisations for radical Islamic groups, | |
| 03:19 | it’s very often money from organised crime | |
| 03:23 | or drugs. Are we equipped to detect them? | |
| 03:28 | Or are the holes in our nets too large? | |
| 03:32 | Our big problem is that, unlike with Afghanistan, we have no more channels | |
| 03:36 | with names we could control when necessary. | |
| 03:40 | Now, Syria is an extremely free Jihad, | |
| 03:44 | a Jihad where each fighter represents his own channel. | |
| 03:48 | He represents a danger all by himself, so we are | |
| 03:52 | completely unable to control | |
| 03:56 | the flux of jihadists who return. You went to Syria, what | |
| 04:00 | have you seen? There are an enormous number of “Frenchmen”. I was in a little village | |
| 04:04 | (Selmac?) a bastion of Al Qaeda. I was invited by the brigade of Al Qaeda | |
| 04:09 | in a little village of | |
| 04:13 | a couple of thousand jihadists; 50 of them were French. | |
| 04:17 | What is taught to them? They are taught to fight, | |
| 04:21 | which they learn very fast on the terrain. | |
| 04:25 | It plays a very minor role, contrary to what is said, whereas the ideological | |
| 04:29 | indoctrination is extremely strong. | |
| 04:33 | They are taught this antagonism between the “infidels” and | |
| 04:37 | the believers, and it’s a fight to the death which cannot end | |
| 04:41 | in Syria. It’s not a local war; they are taught that it is a global conflict | |
| 04:45 | about the perpetual expansion (of Islam). | |
| 04:49 | Samuel Laurent, author of “Al Qaeda en France” on those channels ready to strike. | |
| 04:53 | Thank you very much. |
And who is assisting the arming and training of the global jihad? Any guesses?
Reply to Alex Trebek: Who is newly traded [alleged] traitor Bowe Robert Bergdahl? sarc off