Home » Why did the French fail to monitor the Charlie Hebdo terrorists?

Comments

Why did the French fail to monitor the Charlie Hebdo terrorists? — 26 Comments

  1. It’s surprising that the French penal system has morphed into a sort of revolving door of non-punishment. Based on the Napoleonic Code, the system used to be absolutely horrific. Under the Napoleonic Code you were deemed guilty until proven innocent – just the opposite of our system. Also, once you were confined, the state was not responsible for your health or comfort. If someone outside didn’t pay for your food, too bad – no food for you. Those with money could bribe the guards for better conditions, but those without money were out of luck. A prison sentence of more than five years was a possible death sentence. Don’t know when they went soft, but it’s obvious from Dalrymple’s descriptions they have. C’est la vie.

  2. ISIS?

    One simple question to you

    Why Youtub, Other internet sources keep the material belong to terrorist been there in first place?

  3. And well over a hundred years before Dalrymple, a Frenchman:
    “Je demande, au nom de l’humanité, é  ce qu’on broie la Pierre-Noire, pour en jeter les cendres au vent, é  ce qu’on détruise La Mecque, et que l’on souille la tombe de Mahomet. Ce serait le moyen de démoraliser le Fanatisme.”
    (Gustave Flaubert / 1821-1880 / Lettre é  Madame Roger des Genettes / 12 ou 19 janvier 1878)
    Not exactly ??? but:
    “I ask, on behalf of humanity, the Black Stone be crushed, the ashes thrown to the wind, Mecca be destroyed, and the tomb of Mohammed defiled. It would be a way of demoralizing fanaticism.”

    Qu’est-ce, en enfer, arrivé é  la frané§aise?

    And speaking of fanaticism:

    Of fanaticism – ”the only form of willpower to which the weak and irresolute can rise”
    — F. Nietzsche

    And speaking of Nietzsche:
    ”I call an animal, a species, an individual, corrupt, when it loses its instincts, when it prefers what is injurious to it.”
    – F. Nietzsche, The Antichrist

    And speaking of corrupt (French criminal justice system) :
    ”Eventually, under very peaceful conditions, there is less and less occasion or need to educate one’s feelings in severity and sternness; and now every kind of severity, even severity in justice, begins to trouble the conscience; a stern and lofty nobility and self-responsibility is received almost as an offense and awakens mistrust, “the lamb,” even more “the sheep,” is held in higher and higher respect. There comes a point of morbid mellowing and over-tenderness in the history of society at which it takes the side even of him who harms it, the criminal, and does so honestly and wholeheartedly.”
    – F. Nietzsche, Beyond Good And Evil

    Six degrees of separation indeed.

    Sacré bleu!

  4. It all boils down to a willful refusal to embrace the truth that Western Civilization is the only bright light in the course of human history and must not be diluted but instead defended.

  5. Unless a society is proud of the heritage of Western Civilization, and willing to deal harshly with ‘extremists’ and those who enable them; it can not protect itself from a barbaric, ruthless enemy. Erect spinal columns and true grit are in short supply in the West. Darkness comparable to 1939 approaches, sharpen blades and kill the slouching beast.

  6. The French government most likely invited the invasion in intentionally, in order to get rid of local French people that were still nationalistic.

    No one should underestimate the danger that this failure poses, not only for France but also for the world.

    This reminds me of one way to look at Hussein Obola’s policies, that they are failing to get the good result intended vs they are succeeding in getting the disaster they intended. Now the disaster may be more than they expected and hard to damage control, but that’s a different issue.

    The problem itself, depending on how you look at it, requires different ways to deal with it. If it’s a failure of policy, that’s one thing. If it is policy that succeeded at creating this situation… that’s a different issue.

  7. Dalrymple has been a voice crying in the wilderness with regards to the underclass for years. It isn’t just terrorism that presents dire consequences for the western world when it comes to this issue.

  8. According to a senior French security and intelligence expert, the failure in Paris was at least partly structural:

    “Our problem…is in the structural reform of our security services.”

    The expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that in 2008, the domestic security service DST merged with the intelligence units of regional police departments, known as RG. The merger created a new body known as DCRI, later in 2014 to be renamed DGSI.

    Until the merger, DST was focused on the “big issues” of counterintelligence and catching foreign spies, and on “great” terrorism, big groups such as al-Qaida. The RG, on the other hand, was doing the leg work of sending undercover agents to mosques, listening to imams and mapping the terrain of radical Islamists in the neighborhoods.

    But according to the French expert, “what happened after the merger is that the mentality of the DST — which considered itself a noble, aristocratic counterintelligence service — its state of mind has contaminated the entire DGSI and after the merger fewer resources were devoted to the methodical and patient intelligence collection that RG was doing before.” In other words, it is ironic that as the radical Islamist threat has grown, its intelligence coverage has been weakened by structural malfunction.

  9. Daniel in Brookline,

    Thanks for that link to the Claire Belinski post. Important facts to be reminded of.

  10. They started talking about a “Patriot Act é  la frané§aise”, although nobody can tell what is that supposed to include, whether it would be at all effective against this sort of enemy from within, and at what cost.

  11. parker Says:

    “It all boils down to a willful refusal to embrace the truth that Western Civilization is the only bright light in the course of human history and must not be diluted but instead defended.”

    Michel Foucault was a leading light in the attack on Western Civilization. Besides his philosophical books (which ought primarily be viewed as careerist moves to leap-frog Sartre) it’s interesting that he wrote a lot of journalism glorifying Ayatollah Khomeini in the ’70s before the Iranian Revolution which toppled the Shah in 1979.

    Much of this hasn’t been translated yet because in retrospect it looks so stupid — but then, given his proclivity for S&M, maybe he just had an out and out mad crush on Khomeini, who was one very charismatic dungeonmaster. If Foucault foresaw any of what would happen to women in Iran it may be safe he didn’t give one flying fuck.

    The French that I knew through my wife sought out and took great pleasure in violent indignation at the evils of America — way out of proportion to anything these alleged sins had to do with their actual petit supine lives.

  12. I would also throw in that it’s worth checking out the novels of Michel Houellebecq and the highly accessible philosophy of Luc Ferry. The latter’s MAN MADE GOD tells a lot about our current situation under the reign of secular humanism. In the case of Houellebecq, one might start with THE ELEMENTARY PARTICLES. Don’t forget that an article about his new novel, SUBMISSION, which imagines France a few years in the future, with an Islamic president, was on the cover of the last issue of Charlie Hebdo. His novels are painfully, painfully funny. Don’t just look at reviews.

  13. We have many friends in France, older people who remember the nzi occupation as young children, and all from areas outside Paris. Places like La Rochelle, the countryside around Agen, and the foothills of the Pyrenees. They, for as long as we have known them, have felt estranged from the supposedly elite of French intellectual class that they hold in contempt. There are many in France, as in the USA, who realize they have been marginalized and have no representatives in the national government, much like here at home.

    It ain’t over until its over. Do not sell short these people in France, the rest of Europe, or in the new world. History can turn on the drop of a euro that hits the ground as a franc

  14. Great piece by former senator Joe Lieberman in the WSJ — excerpt:

    The truth is that the enemy is stronger today in more places than it was on 9/11 and is gaining more ground than ever. It is also true that homeland defenses are significantly better in the U.S. and elsewhere, which has helped thwart many planned terrorist attacks. But wars aren’t won on defense.

    After the three attacks in France, which so touched the hearts and fears of people everywhere, the world must go on the offensive. The radical Islamists long ago declared war on the West, but most of the nations targeted or threatened have not yet declared war against them.

    The spirit that brought millions together in France on Sunday in support of the values of freedom and law should now bring those millions and tens of millions like them in other countries together to support a program like the following:

    First, the civilized nations of the world must acknowledge that we are at war with violent Islamist extremism and that as long as these extremists continue to recruit, attack and expand territorially, the civilized world will continue to lose and the number and frequency of attacks like those in France will increase.

    Second, every nation whose government or people have been attacked or threatened by Islamist terrorists should formally declare war against them. Congress should update the Authorization for Use of Military Force passed in the wake of 9/11 to grant the president broad authority to take action.

    Third, the U.S., along with the world’s other great powers, should form and lead a global alliance against radical Islam. That alliance must include leading Islamic nations–Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, to name a few–because Muslims who do not share the extremist views of the terrorists constitute the largest number of its victims.

    Combining military, intelligence, economic and diplomatic assets, the goal of this Alliance Against Islamist Extremism should be nothing less than total destruction of the enemy–beginning with Islamic State, AQAP in Yemen, al-Shabaab in Somalia and Boko Haram in Nigeria. These groups are not interested in accommodation; they will not be diplomatically contained. They must be eliminated. As long as they exist, they will continue to radicalize followers, in person and online. They will provide training for terrorists who will attack us where we live, work and worship. That will stop only when they are destroyed.

    Fourth, we must use our values as a weapon instead of allowing the enemy to exploit and target those values. The world war against Islamist terrorism is as much an ideological conflict as were the world wars against fascism and communism. The rule of law and the freedom of expression and religion that were attacked in France last week should be championed and spread by the alliance because where there is law and freedom, radical Islamists cannot flourish.

  15. I read that surveillance of the known islamic radicals who attacked Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish deli was dropped 6 months ago. This decision is all on Francois Hollande and his administration.

  16. Algeria was reported to have warned France about an impending attack involving these very men the very day before it happened.

    We are living in dark times, at the mercy of our effete and traitorous leaders and the institutions that they have gutted.

  17. Some time ago, I was going around with some history teachers on the question of why, if the accepted ratio of one-third of the American colonists were for independence, one-third loyalists, and one-third just kept their heads down, so many more showed up for independence.
    There were a bunch of dumb answers from the teachers; the loyalists were older (???), the loyalists were high church (???), and so forth.
    Finally, they figured it out. I must be a (spit) patriot. That’s why I’m asking questions they can’t answer.
    Point is, to be in with the Right Sort of People, you have be oppose the national values such as patriotism and asking history teachers tough questions.
    “But, how about slavery?” Slavery is bad but the Right Sort of People don’t mind, say, the Holodomor. What are you, better dead than red?
    It is hard to estimate how many people who barely got through a general studies degree think themselves intellectual giants because the oppose the values of democratic societies. But it’s a hell of a lot.
    AFAICT, whatever the rednecks like, the RSP find it necessary to oppose.
    They can be led around by the left using a worn-out kite string. No problem at all.
    The Chattering Classes and the RSP are one thing.
    But. Three towns in Holland have renamed streets after my Dad’s division (Timberwolfstraat). A relative traveled to Carentan to see where an uncle was killed. Turns out a lot of other guys were killed there as well, around the first week in June, 1944. The locals have a monument and each spring, the school kids come out and they mayor reads off the names of the dead Americans. After each, the kids reply “mort pour la France”. And the town has a road named after the 101st Airborne Division.
    Sure, there was an excess of enthusiasm–the RSP may insist–in the joy of liberation but…the streets haven’t been renamed by the locals.
    There are reports that a large number of Europeans favor the death penalty, but the ‘crats and the RSP are going to see it doesn’t happen. Eventually, somebody or something is going to shift the ‘crats and the RSP.
    The point is, trying to defend the country here, or there, is going to get you shamed and scorned–see Jon Stewart–or prosecuted for “hate speech” of a kind which, if it were directed at, say, Jews by Muslims would be ignored.
    As Wretchard says, though, finding out there’s a preference cascade–finding out almost everybody thinks as you do despite the efforts of the ‘crats and the RSP–is The End for a regime like that.

  18. Nice post Richard. My dad was also a member of the 104th (Timberwolf) infantry division. Did not know about the streets named after them in Holland.

  19. JimBob.
    Surprised you’re not named Terry Allen. My Dad’s first platoon sergeant lost an arm in Holland and was home in time to name his first son. My mom didn’t agree and he wasn’t home.
    There’s a name on the Ionia, MI VN memorial, Terry Allen Towne.
    You wonder.
    See Timberwolf Tracks on Amazon. Worth it.
    And another town named a street Generaal Allen weg.
    Before my Dad passed, we were able to google earth travel those streets. He was pleased.
    The 104th wrote the book on night fighting. When I got to Benning, they started out our block on night fighting with a long lessons-learned from the 104th. During a break I told the instructor I didn’t need to be sold;, I’d learned it at my father’s knee. “There’s always one,” he said.
    My father was Richard Aubrey H Co 2/415.

  20. Richard, you inspired me to dig out dad’s 104th memorabilia which consists of a mimeographed letter from Terry Allen addressed “To All Timberwolves” describing the six months of combat they had just been through and a division map that located their major operations.
    My father was Donald Skelding C Co 2/414.
    Interesting that you mention Ionia MI. His side of the family is from that general area of the state and one of my uncles lived there for many years.

  21. JimBob
    My father had “Timberwolf Tracks” around as long as I can remember.
    It’s a division history consisting of official reports, correspondents’ columns and personal recollections. Puts you right there. There are technical tables in the back such as organization and equipment, names of the dead, etc.
    Still available at Amazon, as is the biography of Terry Allen (Terrible Terry Allen)–reviewed by me–who is the only two-star divisional commander ever biographied, as far as I know. The Marines may have one or two, but the jarheads are big on publicity.
    You know the TO&E of the old Marine rifle squad included two guys to carry the extra flashbulbs?
    Ionia is a nice town. I used to pass through there frequently, although a teacher I know said that some of the local prisoners’ families relocate there and something about apples and trees.

  22. When we were in France, back in 1971, my wife and I toured Normandy and Brittany. There was quite a difference between the attitudes of people there and the Parisians about Americans.

    Of course, my dad told me that the Parisians that he met complained about how the German soldiers behaved “more correctly” than the American GIs.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>