Author:
Publication: Dow Jones Newswires
Date: July 7, 2006
URL: http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2006070710160001&Take=1
Recruiters for hard-line Islamist groups can
turn Muslim youths with little interest in religion into extremists in a matter
of weeks, the head of France's counterterrorism agency said in an interview
published Friday.
A year after suicide bombers launched attacks
on London's transit system, Pierre de Bousquet de Florian told the daily Le
Parisien he could "not rule out" the possibility of a terrorist
attack in France.
The fact that there have not been any attacks
in Europe since last year's bombings on the London transit system "does
not mean there haven't been any plans," he said.
"We have - like our British and Italian
colleagues - neutralized groups that could have taken action," Bousquet
de Florian said, adding authorities dismantled "several groups"
in the Paris region and in the south of France in late 2005 and earlier this
year.
Bousquet de Florian said one potential threat
comes from volunteers who pass through Syria to fight in Iraq but are returned
to Europe "to carry out the jihad according to one of the strategies
developed by (Abu Mussab) al-Zarqawi," the head of al-Qaida in Iraq who
was killed in June.
"The model is evolving," the DST
official said, adding this was in part due to an increase of Iraqis taking
part in the fight against U.S.-led forces, leading to a reduced need for young,
untrained volunteers unless they volunteered as suicide bombers.
However, another significant change is the
shortening time span needed to transform a young Muslim into a radical ready
to take action.
"We have noticed a shortening in the
time between recruitment and the radicalization of these volunteers,"
Bousquet de Florian was quoted as saying.
"Young people who are indifferent to
religion fall in a matter of weeks into the toughest kind of Islam and, almost
without any transition, into the most worrisome kind of activism," he
said.
The official said that, thus far, nine French
nationals who joined up with insurgents in Iraq have died there, and about
10 are believed to be in combat zones. Two others have been detained and held
in Iraq, he said.
With about 5 million Muslims, France has western
Europe's largest Muslim population. Some 5,000 embrace extremist Islam, according
to a report last year by police intelligence. Of those radicals, 400 have
converted to Islam.
