Misreading Jihadis

"As with many attacks in Europe over the last several years the suspect was already known to security and police. He had served a sentence and been convicted of unspecified crimes in both France and Germany, according to reports. In 2016 he was 'flagged by anti-terrorist services', France 24 reported. 'He had been reported by the General Directorate for Internal Security'. The intelligence agency had even visited him in prison and taken account of his 'religious proselytism'. Yet, even with this long rap sheet and being monitored by security forces, he carried out an armed robbery on Tuesday before the attack. During a search of his apartment grenades were found which leads to questions about how a man who was well known for violent proclivities and apparently religious extremism was able to acquire his arsenal."
"The attack took place within one kilometer of the European Parliament, which has taken the attack in stride. Antonio Tajani, the president of the parliament, tweeted the parliament would not be intimidated. 'Let us move on', he wrote. But residents and others may want more answers."
Seth Frantzman, Middle East Forum

Strasbourg shooting: Three dead, several injured in attack at Christmas market

"You create almost by definition a generation of orphans [by separating children of terrorists from their parents]. At the same time, you don't want to create a second generation of terrorists." 
"No country has a perfect solution to this. The reality of the situation is that these people [Muslim Canadians who chose to travel to Syria to answer the Islamic State call to jihad] abandoned the democratic advantages of Canada -- went to another part of the world voluntarily to engage in the most insidious acts of terrorism."
Public Safety Minister, Ralph Goodale, Ottawa

Canadian intelligence services has released its annual report on the terrorist threat to Canada. The report states in essence that the setbacks faced by Islamic State in  Syria and Iraq has not resulted, as generally anticipated, in an influx of Canadian jihadists returning in masses. Many, according to the report, are no longer in possession of valid travel documents, they find themselves on a no-fly list, or they fear on return that they will be arrested in Canada.

No fear there; most who have returned have faced no repercussions and are walking the streets as free of the possibility of arrest as any Canadian returning after a long sojourn abroad to study or to work in another country. That they are terrorists in spirit in law and in fact, hasn't resulted in Canadian intelligence and law agencies sequestering them for the safety of other Canadians whom they may pass on the street. Authorities appear to assume that they've left their volatile, violent jihadist temperament abroad.

The report theorizes further that many among those who left Canada for the more promising fields of exercising jihad may have decided to remain where they are with the attitude that their job has not been fulfilled and Islam enjoins them to remain faithful to jihad and to Islamic State's noble endeavours. Perhaps the vision of 72 nubile virgins awaiting their ascent to Paradise drives them forward. Others still are assumed to have been captured as the scourges to humanity they are, or have died and are happily ensconced on high.

The general public in Canada -- at least the more aware among them -- are restively concerned, querying the government of Justin Trudeau's Liberals what their plan is and how they're engaged in containing any potential threats from those 'foreign fighters' who have returned to Canada. The previous Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper had instituted legislation to remove citizenship of such invidious civilizational threats, but this assaulted the 'progressive' sensibilities of the succeeding Liberal government.

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham march in Raqqah, Syria. (The Associated Press / Militant Website)

Roughly 190 people connected to Canada are thought to have engaged in terrorist actions abroad, with another sixty having returned to Canada. Those involved in various countries engaging in jihad would have been involved in front-line fighting, training, logistical support, fundraising or studying at Islamofascist-influenced schools. What a swaggering swath they would cut in the Canadian Muslim community where imams regularly urge the pious in Friday mosque prayers to jihad.

"A relatively small number" of those 60 people have returned from Turkey, Iraq or Syria, according to the report, otherwise short on details. Sixty people can do a lot of damage if they put their acquired skills, faith in jihad and mind on Paradise to it. The opposition Conservatives in Parliament press the government for a response on ensuring the safety of Canadians, stressing their concern with the Liberals seemingly welcoming returnees with open arms, at the very least no burden of suspicion much less accounting for their terrorism.

Canadians are assured by Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale that the nation's security and intelligence forces are hard at work negotiating with their international counterparts to investigate those Canadians who travelled abroad on a pledge to join Islamist terrorists; the priority he stresses, is to investigate their actions, collect evidence, then prosecute them under Canadian law. Canada must be sharing operational procedures with France, and from the above one can see just how effective they've been. 

ISIS fighter Muhammad Ali wanted to return to his Toronto home.  Canadian ISIS jihadi Muhammad Ali, 28, has been captured.TWITTER

"You’ll never kill the desire, nor the love the believers have for jihad and fighting to raise the word of Allah the highest."
"And that is why you will fail time and time again."
Mohammed Ali tweets about jihad. After he shared pictures of militants holding severed heads, Twitter suspended his account. (Abu Turaab / Twitter)

 
According to Families Against Violent Extremism, Kurdish authorities have detained Canadian terrorists in Syrian territory; nine families in all with over ten children among them. Some children who had been taken to Syria by their mothers, and others who were born there. The idea being to return the children to Canada, leaving their Islamofascist parents behind, a prospect that Minister Goodale shudders at. The deliberate orphaning of children to ensure the mould they've been fashioned in is broken.

It's obvious that Canadian authorities under this Liberal government feel confident that jihadi returnees can bear no evil intent in Canada, only in France, where their intelligence completely botches recognition of the obvious at the cost of three deaths and a dozen additionally injured with a resulting hunt on for an Islamist murderer who may take delight in eluding law enforcers whose modus operandi leaves much to be desired.

"French authorities have not released a motive behind the Strasbourg attack although counter-terrorism prosecutors have opened an investigation. They had also not released the suspect’s name or a photo by Wednesday morning, despite there being a major manhunt. The French deputy interior minister was quoted in Reuters saying it was not clear if the suspect was still in France. This will lead to many questions about how the man was able to obtain weapons and why he was able to elude police throughout the day Tuesday before the attack, despite being wanted for another crime."

"The problem for security services in many European countries still appears to be the gap between surveillance of members of the criminal-terrorist extremist nexus, and prosecuting perpetrators for crimes such as acquiring illegal firearms. In almost every incident the perpetrators are known and some have been involved in numerous serious crimes. Yet they have received short sentences and usually been able to go on to commit new crimes while acquiring weapons. There also appears to be a continuing issue involving coordinating between countries. If the suspect in Strasbourg was able to get to Germany, despite clashes with security forces, that will lead to questions about how quickly the Germans were alerted. The suspect in the Berlin Christmas market attack also was able to cross numerous borders before being tracked down in Italy. Why police did not release the photo, description or details about the perpetrator more than 12 hours after the incident was also unclear. Eventually these details will be explained, but the incident shows that despite deploying soldiers as part of the wide-ranging Sintinelle operation, there are issues relating to response time and when to interdict suspects during the process of monitoring them."

Seth Frantzman, Middle East Forum