 |
| click to enlarge |
Brit Dee, Contributing Writer
The man suspected of involvement in a string of murders in France, named as 24-year-old Mohammed Merah, has been on the radar of the intelligence services “for years”, French interior minister Claude Guéant has admitted.
Police are currently surrounding a house in the Cote Pavee district of Toulouse, negotiating with a man they believe was involved in Monday’s murder of four Jews, including three young children, and the earlier killing of three Muslim paratroopers.
AFP reports how Guéant has told journalists that:
France’s domestic intelligence agency had tracked the suspect ‘for years’…He had for several years been tracked by the DCRI and its agents in Toulouse, but there was never anything to suggest that he was preparing a criminal act.
The suspect is said to have spent time on the Afghan/Pakistan border, even being arrested in Kandahar, and has reportedly stated during the standoff with police that “he belongs to al-Qaeda.”
With the suspect still holed up, it is too early to reach any conclusions about the case, but the fact that Merah’s monitoring by the intelligence services has been admitted could later prove to be very important.
How is it possible that they did not know anything about his alleged plans — especially when he had access to several weapons and it has also been reported that unsecured emails were carelessly sent to one victim:
from the suspect’s brother’s IP addess…used to set up an appointment to inspect the bike, an appointment at which the paratrooper was subsequently killed, the source said.
In Sarkozy’s election year, with France, the West and Israel in need of fresh justification for their military involvement in Muslim countries, this is clearly an important story — which Resistance Radio will be following as it develops.
UPDATE: It is being reported that Merah escaped from prison in Afghanistan in 2008 following a mass Taliban breakout.
This article first appeared at Resistance Radio
