Nidra Poller
Eleven Salafist jihadis were arrested at dawn today in Strasburg,
Paris, Cannes and Cannet. The prime suspect, Jérémie Louis-Sydney was
shot dead after opening fire when the police commandoes burst into his
apartment at 6 AM. His DNA had been found on the grenade used in the
September 19th attack on a kosher grocery story in the
Parisian banlieue of Sarcelles. The media had underplayed the attack and
were apparently ready to underplay the arrests before officials began
releasing information on the case. Though it is extremely rare for
suspects to be killed this way, the first reports that came over the
wires were so laconic that one would have thought they were talking
about some everyday violence in Pakistan! A deadpan voice on France
Culture radio mentioned as if in passing: one dead and 7 arrested in a
raid this morning… One dead? And it wasn’t the policeman, it was the
suspect!
Thirty-three year-old Jérémie Louis-Sydney, a convert to Islam, was
paying a conjugal visit to one of his niqab-clad wives in Strasburg, the
22 year-old mother of a newborn baby. The police knew he was dangerous
but thought they had a “minute of surprise” to overwhelm him, but Sydney
was on his feet, waiting for them. He emptied the barrel of his Magnum
357, aiming at the head and chest of a policeman whose life was saved by
his helmet and bullet-proof vest. His colleagues returned fire,
killing Sydney on the spot. The procureur of Strasburg
explained at a press conference this afternoon that Sydney had shaved
his beard when he got to Strasburg. “It seems,” he said, “it seems that
this means he was ready to become a martyr.”
Information is slowly emerging. All of the arrested Salafists
belonged to a tightknit cell, several of them have been jailed or
arrested for drug dealing. They were radicalized in prison. Among the
items seized from their homes are weapons, ammunition, computers,
€27,000 in cash, al Qaida glorifying literature, and a list of Jewish
targets in and around Paris. (Because the procureur used the quaint term “israélite” for “Jewish” some English language media are reporting that the targets were Israeli.).
The investigation of the attack on the Naouri grocery store in
Sarcelles was turned over from local police to the anti-terrorist unit
just a few days ago. It is not exactly clear how the investigation had
proceeded up to that point. How long did it take to match the DNA with
Sydney who had been under surveillance by the domestic security agency
since last spring, though never called in for questioning?
An expert on terrorism interviewed on BFM TV early this afternoon
emphasized the failure of the media to grasp the importance of the
attack against the kosher grocery store. It wasn’t some random act of
vandalism, he said, it was a terrorist attack. In fact, the media were
doing as usual, making every attack on a Jewish target seem like a
random act of vandalism that wasn’t necessarily anti-Semitic and
certainly not connected to the hundreds of similar attacks perpetrated
since the fall of 2000 when the infamous al Dura blood libel unleashed
what we can now recognize as domestic jihad. The still unenlightened
journalist suggested to the expert that the grocery store attack was not
the same kind of operation as the Merah killings. On the contrary, the
expert replied, visibly shocked, it is the same thing. These are
criminals radicalized in prison and prepared to fight the jihad here.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls, appearing on the TF1 evening news,
was not evasive. These people hate France, hate the Jews, and we are not
going to let them operate in our country. The Hollande government is
determined to show that it can do better than Sarkozy on the law and
order detail. More power to them. Underlining the gravity of the affair,
Valls declared—forgetting Sébastien Sélam and Ilan Halimi-- that Jews
were killed by Merah because they were Jewish, the first time this has
happened in France since the Shoah. This does not take away credit for
his recognition today of the mortal danger that weighs on Jews in
France. And its origin.
The president and the prime minister also made strong statements
about their determination to protect citizens from terrorists. The usual
disclaimer—these criminals should not be confused with the vast
majority of law-abiding Muslims in France—was balanced by a clear
enunciation of the connection between violence against Jews, terrorism,
and Islam.
Jewish community leaders who have worked so hard to obtain
recognition of this connection and convince the government to attack the
evil at the root instead of just holding memorial services for the
victims will find encouragement in today’s resolute action. If, of
course, the courts follow through and don’t release the suspects in a
few days! There will surely be extensive commentary after shabat.
There was much confusion about the weapon used in the kosher grocery
store attack. Misleading English-language reports made it sound as if
there was a big explosion, while misleading French reports talked about a
training grenade or a plaster grenade (used somehow in construction?).
In fact it was a defensive grenade from ex-Yugoslavia that had been
filled with nails and bolts to increase its lethal capacity. CCTV
cameras showed the two assailants in the store dressed in black with
their faces hidden by hoods but when they ran outside a gust of wind
revealed their faces and they were recognized to be Black. Sydney, who
was born in Melun outside of Paris, is of Antillais (West-Indian)
origin. Another suspect was arrested in Torcy (outside Paris) as he came
home from the mosque. He didn’t resist, but was armed with a 22 rifle.
Other suspects are still being tracked. As we can imagine, one Salafist cell will lead to discovery of another, and another…
There has been mention of ties with Syria. A white-haired French
doctor formerly with Médecins sans Frontières who offered his service to
the fighters in Syria has declared recently, with utter calm, that he
came upon quite a few French jihadists in Syria.
The government is going to pass legislation prepared by the previous
government after the Merah killings that will make it possible to arrest
and imprison jihadis before they go into action; systematic
consultation of jihad sites and internet communication with jihadis,
joining jihad training camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. and,
perhaps, drawing up lists of Jewish targets will be criminalized.
Updates will be posted in the coming days.
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