One of the things that became apparent in the attack on the staff of Charlie Hebdo was that the Kouachi brothers who were the key figures in the incident had been identified by intelligence authorities as potential terrorists and tracked for a time before dropping them from active investigation. Western Europe is facing a major problem with citizens who are being recruited by organizations such as Al Queda and ISIS. It is a more extensive occurrence there than it is in the US. It is clearly apparent that these connections are producing terrorist attacks on European soil in addition to the conflicts in the Middle East. After the events in Paris last week law enforcement in several countries appears to be adopting a more aggressive approach in an attempt to stop incipient plots before they can mount attacks.
Terrorism Suspects Are Detained in Police Sweeps Across Europe
European investigators moved on a broad front Friday to sweep up suspected militants, with the police announcing that 13 Belgians had been detained in this country and two in France, a day after two other Belgians believed to be planning an attack on police officers were killed in a shootout.
In an action that the authorities said was unrelated to events in Belgium, investigators in Paris said 12 people had been detained overnight. Investigators said they might have belonged to a previously undetected cell that supported one of the gunmen in the terrorist attacks that left 17 people dead in and near Paris. And in Berlin, investigators said they had seized two suspected militants in a series of raids.
The scope and breadth of the police actions across much of Western Europe dramatized the diffuse challenges facing a region far from the battlefields of Syria, Iraq and elsewhere as it becomes a reluctant front against Islamic militancy.
The problem in dealing with terrorism has always been that it has no single unifying force. Most of the focus has been on terrorism with ties to radical Islamic militant organizations. Clearly such groups exist and provide networks that plan and organize attacks. The incidents associated with 9/11 were probably the most elaborate of such operations. There are of course a variety of other people in any society who pose a potential threat of serious violence. The lines between organized terrorist and lone unaffiliated killers is seldom clear cut. Mentally unstable individuals can be influenced by ideologies without directly participating in an organization.
Yesterday police in Belgium killed two suspects in a shootout and arrested a number of others. The French government arrested two people thought to have been associated with the network in Belgium. No one is very clear on whether this group had any direct connection with the people who organized the attack in Paris.
In Germany, the police have arrested two Turkish men suspected of having links to an organization supporting the militant group Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and other radical groups fighting in Syria. In a statement, prosecutors in Berlin said they had no indication that the men had immediate plans to stage an attack.
It was not immediately clear whether the arrests in Berlin were linked to other investigations in Europe. But the sudden flurry of activity seemed to reflect heightened alarm after last week’s assaults in Paris, where, on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry met with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and then with President François Hollande.
There are multiple layers to the cultural conflicts that permeate Western European societies. In France there is a widespread endemic conflict between
Muslims and Jews. Most of it revolves around anti-Semitic attacks by young Muslim men against French Jews. Some of this represents serious violence but much of it does not. Much of this activity is not linked to the organized terrorist networks, but the people involved in it are potential recruits for the organized groups. It is highly unlikely that there is any sort of conclusive solution to this problem.
Meanwhile political leaders in France and Germany are attempting to discourage attacks on the broader Muslim communities and people who have no involvement with violence. It is a difficult juggling act to balance with a get tough on terrorism campaign.