Newsweek examines the ongoing challenge of Islamic terrorism in Europe in a series of articles. Scary stuff here.
Europe's counter-terrorism forces are falling behind badly, thanks to insufficient resources and pathetic legal frameworks.
While U.S. officials tout their success in disrupting suspected Al Qaeda plots inside the United States, a growing cadre of Islamic militants across Europe is overwhelming the resources of security agencies and raising concerns about the threat of more major attacks on the Continent, European officials tell NEWSWEEK.More than a year after the Madrid railway bombings that killed 191 people, European security agents and counterterrorism experts estimate there may now be more than 1,000 suspected militants with known connections to Islamic fundamentalist groups operating in their territory—and many are not being monitored because of a lack of manpower and legal constraints.
“The situation in Europe is very tense right now,” says Jean-Charles Brisard, a French counterterrorism researcher who tracks militant groups in Europe. “We are seeing more and more of these groups because the war in Iraq and the Madrid bombings gave them a signal.” Brisard puts the numbers of violent extremist groups in Europe at between 1,000 and 1,500.
When terrorists are caught, some are being released by France and Great Britain, "despite frantic warnings from intelligence agencies." The cause? Lack of a legal structure appropriate to the challenge of terrorism, even after an attack.
In fact, Europe has become an ongoing breeding ground for terrorists.
Over the last three years, starting even before the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Jordanian terrorist Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and groups close to him developed a sort of underground railroad to smuggle zealous fighters from Europe through Turkey and Syria into Iraq—and home again, if they survived. Now those recruits have been joined by a stream of young Islamists from Western Europe who are making their own way to the battlefield. Some are looking for Paradise as "martyrs," some just for street cred back home and some for serious combat experience in urban warfare. "Those who don't die and come back will be the future chiefs of Al Qaeda or Zarqawi [groups] in Europe," says French terrorism authority Roland Jacquard.At a conference marking the anniversary of the Madrid atrocity last week, Robert Leiken of Washington's Nixon Center presented a provocative study of 373 radical Muslim terrorists arrested or killed in Europe and the United States from 1993 through 2004. His conclusion: some 87 percent are from immigrant backgrounds, but 41 percent are Western nationals, either naturalized, second generation or converts to Islam. "More French nationals were arrested than nationals of Pakistan and Yemen combined," says Leiken. While homegrown Muslim terrorists have so far been rare in the United States, in Europe they virtually recruit themselves, and Leiken points out that those who have European passports have almost open access to American territory through an ongoing visa-waiver program.
If the Eurocrats don't wise up, the next big strike may hit "over there" instead of here at home. Or they will hit us from their European bases.
Posted by Alan at March 18, 2005 05:38 AM