Dramatic headline but short on details and script. The main theme seems to be that Macron and his toy soldiers are worried that many of their paid mercenaries in Syria will be headed back to France, since Trump started pulling Troops out? Now, might be a good opportunity to address some of the MAJOR concerns and complaints "of the protesting Police Force" and start negotiations with the Firemen?
France says foiled September 11-inspired attack
FILE PHOTO: French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner speaks during a joint news conference with Ivory Coast Security Minister Sidiki Diakite in Abidjan, Ivory Coast May 20, 2019. REUTERS/Luc Gnago
October 17, 2019 - PARIS - France’s interior minister said on Thursday that intelligence services had arrested a man for planning an attack inspired by plane attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in Sept. 2001.
France has for several years grappled with how to respond to both homegrown jihadists and foreign militants following a series of attacks across the country. French officials say the threat of attacks remains very high.
On Oct. 3, an IT specialist with suspected Islamist sympathies, who had a security clearance, killed three officers and one civilian employee before he was shot dead by another police officer.
“Just before (that attack) there was a 60th attempted attack since 2013,” Christophe Castaner told France 2 television.
“An individual, who was inspired by the events of Sept. 11 and the planes which destroyed the World Trade Center towers, was arrested by our intelligence services.”
France has seen more than 230 people killed in the last four years on its territory from Islamist militant attacks, notably in Nov. 2015 after coordinated strikes across the capital.
The attacks were claimed by Islamic State in Syria, and were carried out in part by French-born fighters.
Officials now fear dozens of their nationals held in Kurdish-controlled camps in prisons could escape and return home following a Turkish offensive in northern Syria that is targeting Kurdish militias guarding them.
France's Le Drian to go to Iraq to discuss trials for jihadists from Syria
PARIS Oct. 16, 2019 - France’s foreign minister will travel to Iraq on Wednesday to discuss a judicial framework that would enable jihadists being held in Syria to face trial in Iraq, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said.
European states are trying to fast-track a plan to move thousands of foreign Islamic State militants out of Syrian prison camps and into Iraq, after the outbreak of fresh conflict in Syria raised the risk of jihadists escaping
or returning home, diplomats and officials have told Reuters.
Foreign Minister Jean-Ives Le Drian will discuss with the Iraqi government “measures to be set up and possible support that could be put in place, particularly in the field of judicial cooperation,” Philippe told French Senators in a weekly question and answer session.
“A number of those who are detained in Syria by the Kurds have committed crimes in Iraq and may therefore, if necessary, be judicially tried on the spot,” he said.
Europe does not want to try its Islamic State nationals at home, fearing a public backlash, difficulties in collating evidence against them, and risks of renewed attacks from militants on European soil.
Several European nations have been working on a framework since June and holding talks with the Iraqi government, which is also seeking millions of dollars in financial compensation for taking European fighters.
“The subject with the Iraqi authorities is to find a judicial system that could try all these fighters, including the French ones,”
Le Drian told BFM television on Wednesday, referring to Islamic State militants held in Kurdish-controlled camps in northeastern Syria.
Iraq saw some of the bloodiest battles against Islamic State and its government is already conducting trials of thousands of suspected Islamic State insurgents.
Le Drian said nine French women had escaped on Sunday from the Ain Issa camp in northwestern Syria. Kurdish officials have said almost 800 people fled that camp after the Turkish offensive into northern Syria targeted the area.
Le Drian said women who had joined Islamic State should also face justice in the region, although Paris would look to bring back children.
“The French women who went to this region in 2015 knew what they were doing. They aren’t tourists. They are fighters against France and must face trial (in Iraq) if possible,” he said.
