Thread: Islamic Terror strikes again in France

Originally Posted by Bower

I made no implication towards any religion

The title of the thread is about "Islamic terrorists", if your post wasn't referring to the title why did you post it. Nobody is bothered about your PC attitude.

It seems the leader was directing the attack by phone.

Paris massacre directed by phone?

New information suggests Paris ringleader directed Bataclan attackers
Abdelhamid Abaaoud was seen yelling into his phone by witness a few blocks from the scene
(CNN)The ringleader of the Paris attacks last month appears to have directed the three terrorists inside the Bataclan theater by phone from a few blocks away, according to a French terrorism expert. And, a witness has told French investigators that they saw Abdelhamid Abaaoud standing in a doorway yelling into his phone for about an hour.

That night, the witness had several times gone to a car parked nearby, and Abaaoud had been there every time. They described the man as very agitated. When the witness later walked past him, they were able to see his face. Abaaoud's head was shaved and he was wearing layers of loose clothing, but when photographs were later published in the media the witness immediately recognized him and alerted the authorities.

Ringleader was planning more attacks

The witness account was disclosed by French terrorism analyst Jean Charles Brisard in the latest edition of the Combating Terrorism Center's journal Sentinel.

Brisard writes that "the presence of Abaaoud in the immediate vicinity of the attacks provides an indication of his degree of implication in the supervision and control of the plot, and suggests he was giving direct orders and instructions to his team inside the Bataclan."

Earlier in the evening, according to the Paris prosecutor Abaaoud's phone records show he was communicating with Bilal Hadfi, one of the stadium bombers, right until the moment the three suicide bombers at the Stade de France started blowing themselves up.

Earlier that same evening -- November 13 -- Abaaoud was detected on surveillance cameras at a metro station just a few hundred yards away from where one of the terrorists' cars had been abandoned. He then appears to have returned to the scene of the attacks, according to the Paris prosecutor, after analysis of his cell phone signal.

Paris terror attacks fast facts

The prosecutor, Francois Molins, told a news conference on November 24 that Abaaoud's phone was geo-located in the vicinity of the attacks between 10:28pm and 12:28am that night, inlcuding in proximity to the Bataclan before the attack was over.

Abaaoud had previously appeared in videos produced by ISIS, and the group claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks the day after they occurred.

He was killed five days later when police raided an apartment in the Paris district of St. Denis, along with a female cousin and a man who has not been identified. According to French investigators, Abaaoud was planning another wave of attacks in the business district of Paris known as La Defense and had also talked about attacks on public transportation, schools and "Jewish targets."

The ISIS "French contingent"
The investigation into the Paris attacks has uncovered that at least eight of those involved in the plot were French nationals who had been to Syria -- a worrying sign for European intelligence services. Several had been based in Molenbeek -- a suburb of Brussels that has been the base for previous jihadist plots. Abaaoud himself was Belgian and had grown up in the Molenbeek area.

According to Brisard, most of those involved in the plot re-entered Europe in August.

Salah Abdeslam, who drove three of the suicide bombers to the Stade de France, is still being sought. There has been no sighting of him since hours after the attacks, when he was stopped on the Belgium border, but let go because investigators had not yet connected him to the attacks.

According to Brisard, Abdeslam and Abaaoud are believed to have planned and co-ordinated the attacks. Abdeslam had made several trips between the French and Belgian capitals in September and October, and he had also traveled to Italy, Hungary and Austria.

Paris attacks: 'I would have killed him,' Bataclan bomber's father says

Brisard reports that investigators have established that the weapons used in the attacks were bought online or through criminal networks, Brisard says.

The Paris attacks have focused attention on the substantial French contingent within ISIS. The statement claiming responsibility was read by one of them -- Fabien Clain -- who is now thought to be a senior figure within ISIS according to Brisard. The terrorism expert writes that Clain's name "had been associated with a 2009 plot against the Bataclan" theater.

Clain was also a friend of the family of Mohammed Merah who carried out a series of gun attacks in the Toulouse area in 2012.

Other individuals of interest to French investigators are Salim Benghalem and Boubaker el-Hakim, who are both believed to be senior ISIS operatives based in Syria.

Buildup of European plots "alarming"
There are more French citizens and residents among foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq than of any other European nation according to Brisard.

"More than 2,000 French citizens and residents are involved in Syrian and Iraqi jihadi networks. Among them, 600 are believed to be fighting alongside terrorist organizations abroad and 250 are believed to have returned," he says.

Abaaoud was focused on using this contingent -- and Belgian jihadists who had returned -- to hit European targets. A plot similar to the Paris attacks was foiled in January in Verviers, in eastern Belgium, when authorities raided a safe house, setting off a gun-fight in which two alleged terrorists were killed. Abaaoud had been in contact with that group by cell phone from Greece, according to investigators.

In August a returning French foreign fighter told investigators he had attended a training camp for a week in Raqqa, ISIS' headquarters in Syria, before being told by Abaaoud to launch an attack. The chosen target was a concert hall. "Abaaoud had provided him a USB stick containing encryption software and 2,000 euros," writes Brisard.

The accumulation of ISIS-directed European plots this year is alarming for European governments, Brisard says. He writes that the Paris attacks "demonstrated major failures in European border control policy and the exchange of information between European Union member states."

"The fact that most of the perpetrators and facilitators of the attacks were able to travel and slip undetected into the heart of Europe, and then travel back and forth between Belgium and France to prepare the attacks raises significant concerns" about European security agencies' abilities to detect plots, Brisard adds.

Paris ringleader directed killers in Bataclan theater - CNN.com

French authorities now firmly believe that Paris attack ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian-Moroccan ISIS operative, was on the Greek island of Leros some weeks before the terror attack, a source close to the investigation told CNN. Authorities had previously disclosed that two of the stadium attackers, who have yet to be identified, transited on October 3 through the island, where they used fake Syrian passports to be processed as asylum-seekers.
The source said authorities were investigating whether Abaaoud also took advantage of the refugee processing system to cross back into Europe via Leros, but this was not yet known.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud



Abaaoud was killed in a raid on an apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis six days after the November 13 Paris attacks.
The source also revealed new details about the attack inside the Bataclan concert hall. There were three attackers inside the hall. After one of the attackers was killed by French police in the initial response, the remaining two gunmen took turns firing at the concertgoers. While one fired, the other reloaded in a systematic way, the source said.
The source told CNN that investigators now believe that fireworks detonators bought by Salah Abdeslam in the outskirts of Paris in October were not used in suicide vests. The source said authorities had not yet identified two of the stadium attackers or the other man killed in the Saint-Denis residence in addition to Abaaoud, but identification efforts were still underway.
Salah Abdeslam



Earlier this week, CNN reported that based on DNA evidence, investigators had concluded that Abdeslam wore the discarded suicide belt found in a Paris suburb 10 days after the attacks.
He remains at large.
Given that Abaaoud had been one of Europe's most wanted men since January for his suspected role in coordinating a terrorist plot thwarted that month in Verviers, Belgium, it would have been difficult for him to return to Europe legally without being arrested.
Abaaoud had been in touch with the Verviers plotters in January by phone from Greece, a senior Belgian counterterrorism official told CNN previously.
ISIS claimed he returned to Syria after evading an international dragnet in the days that followed a raid on a terrorist safe house in Verviers.
The French newspaper Le Parisien was the first to report that French investigators had reason to suspect Abaaoud had passed through Leros.
The source also added that no evidence has so far come to light that the attackers used drugs.


Source: Abdelhamid Abaaoud was on Greek island of Leros - CNN.com

Originally Posted by OhOh

As he was conveniently killed will we will never know the truth?

Are these legal grounds for attacking a foreign country?

Disneyland Paris Terror Arrest? Armed Man In Custody Amid Islamic State Fears In France


UPDATE: 1:07 p.m. EST -- The girlfriend of an armed man who was arrested Thursday at Disneyland Paris has also been arrested, BBC reported. She was not armed, and her role in the episode was not immediately clear.
UPDATE: 12 p.m. EST -- French police are reportedly searching for a woman who might have been accompanying an armed man arrested earlier Thursday at Disneyland Paris, according to a tweet from BBC.


An armed man residing in Paris was arrested Thursday at the entrance of a hotel at Disneyland Paris, BBC reported. In addition to reportedly carrying two handguns, the suspect was also found with a copy of the Quran, according to police sources.
The 28-year-old suspect was not known to security services and did not resist arrest. An official comment from local authorities was not immediately available. Staff notified police after the man’s weapons, reportedly concealed in a bag, were detected as he walked through an X-ray scanner while trying to book a hotel room, Metro reported.
France has remained in a state of emergency following the November terrorist attacks in Paris linked to the Islamic State group that left at least 130 people dead and hundreds more wounded.

Disneyland Paris Terror Arrest? Armed Man In Custody Amid Islamic State Fears In France

carrying 2 guns + ammunition + a copy of the Koran.
He's going to have an uncomfortable few days in custody separated from his
lady who will be questioned also.

This find could well have saved many lives.

One presumes that a persons religion is no bar to owning guns in France. Is it different in your birth country?

Is it a terrorist act to carry a copy of the Quran in France or is there an organisation which leaves copies in every hotel bedroom for free?

Originally Posted by billy the kid

This find could well have saved many lives.

Or it could be the last straw on a camels back!

Don't let the bastards wear you down to a drooling imbecile. Retain some semblance of intelligence.

Well lets see how it pans out. He did try to hide the guns and ammo.

Originally Posted by OhOh

One presumes that a persons religion is no bar to owning guns in France.

That's correct, but (concealed) carry permits are only issued for exceptional risk circumstances.
Unless he could show one -apparently not-, he's in trouble with or without Koran.

Originally Posted by OhOh

One presumes that a persons religion is no bar to owning guns in France. Is it different in your birth country?

Originally Posted by OhOh

Is it a terrorist act to carry a copy of the Quran in France

Despite your numerous religious references I can't find anything to suggest he was arrested because of his faith - please shoe me where this is the case

Originally Posted by panama hat

Despite your numerous religious references I can't find anything to suggest he was arrested because of his faith - please shoe me where this is the case

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

the suspect was also found with a copy of the Quran

Thr religion reference is in the article. I didn't introduce the persons religion. It's the second statement in the report. Why should a persons reading material be of importance?

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

reportedly concealed in a bag

If one has a licence to own a gun, or two or three, how is one, in your home country, where you live or more importantly France, allowed to transport it/them?

Originally Posted by billy the kid

He did try to hide the guns and ammo.

By carrying them allegedly in "a bag", which became visible when he voluntarily passed through an x-ray machine.

This guy may be indeed a terrorist, intent on slaughtering many innocent victims. Not an unusual occurance in many parts of the world these days

However he may not.

Reporting, publishing and article which includes derogatory reference to ones religion is a crime in may countries.

Insinuation, through the use of choice words, is creating an impression in your mind as planned. Strip away the weasel words, check out the laws, regarding guns, in France and reread the article.

Do not assume the weasel words, inserted in the article to mold your opinion, are not used in ignorance.

Originally Posted by OhOh

However he may not.

She may not also.

Maybe on honeymoon and just wanted to see Disneyland.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Reporting, publishing and article which includes derogatory reference to ones religion is a crime in may countries.

It states that he was found with a copy of the Koran.
That's extremely derogatory, the author should be arrested and his journalist license revoked.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Reporting, publishing and article which includes derogatory reference to ones religion is a crime in may countries.

Which countries.

Without being derogatory, may I respectfully state that religion - of all stripes - is a load of stinking horseshit and anybody who can still believe the horseshit in this day and age is a complete moron.

IMHO.

Originally Posted by OhOh

is there an organisation which leaves copies in every hotel bedroom for free?

Yes, they are know as the Gideban, or the Talleons..

Originally Posted by billy the kid

Well lets see how it pans out. He did try to hide the guns and ammo.

Do you think he should have carried them openly?

yea in holsters with the koran under his arm extra bullets in his belt.
dish-cloth on his head.

who'd have noticed.

Originally Posted by FlyFree

Without being derogatory, may I respectfully state that religion - of all stripes - is a load of stinking horseshit and anybody who can still believe the horseshit in this day and age is a complete moron.

IMHO.

You know what they say about opinions...