The question dominates everything, after every knife attack, after every attack. Was it a terrorist? A supporter of the militia "Islamic State", a returning fighter from Syria, one of the radicalized Islamists from the many sad suburbs around Paris.
That's how it was when Notre-Dame burned in April. And so it was last Wednesday when an assailant, armed with two kitchen knives he had bought that same day, stabbed his colleagues at the Paris police prefecture.
Despite the four dead, despite the cruelty of the crime - one of the victims cut his throat - it was relieving and relieving to hear early Wednesday afternoon that this time there was no terrorist background for this attack. Even Interior Minister Christophe Castaner explained shortly after the act, it had "not the slightest alarm signal", the offender had shown no conspicuous behavior.
Since the attack on "Charlie Hebdo" the fear in France is always there
As we know today, these were hasty explanations. On Friday, the anti-terrorism unit of the Paris prosecutor's office has taken over the investigation, after the evaluation of the offender cell phone and first interrogations clear links of the 45-year-olds to the Salafist milieu resulted.
No other country in Europe has been hit so hard by Islamist terror in recent years as France:
- The attack on the editorial board of the satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo" in January 2015 killed 12 people;
- in the Paris attacks in November of that year, there were 130.
- On 14 July 2016, an attacker killed 86 people on the waterfront in Nice.
- And twelve days later, two Islamists slit the throat of a Catholic priest near Rouen in his church.
Since then, the fear is always there.
Mickael H., the police prefect assassin shot by a 24-year-old police officer on Wednesday after seven gruesome minutes, has been working in the prefecture for over 15 years. He worked there in the department responsible for the counterterrorism fight. One of his tasks was to observe the French jihadist scene.
Did the authorities blame?
Could one have seen that sometime during this time he himself became a danger, converted to Islam and radicalized himself? Was his case as clear as the opposition parties, which now demand parliamentary commissions of inquiry and the immediate resignation of Interior Minister Castaner, pretend?
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Sunday in an interview with the "Journal du Dimanche" that since October 2017, 300,000 security checks have been carried out within the police force. But in recent years, only 20 officials have given them cause to give up their functions because of their behavior.
Should Mickael H. have to count - the man who in the course of his work took over the ideology, the religion and the thoughts of the opponent? The French National Police has almost 150,000 employees, many of whom are Muslims. But that alone can not and must not make them suspicious. In recent years, police officers have repeatedly complained that belonging to Islam automatically led to security checks.
Mickael H. prayed in a mosque known to the police
Nevertheless, two points in the dossier of Mickael H. could from today's point of view have given rise to further security checks, perhaps must give:
- After the attack on the editorship of Charlie Hebdo he had, so it reported now one of his colleagues, expressed understanding for the assassins. The man passed this statement on to his superior. It should, according to current investigation, then have given a reference to H. Not more.
- The second feature was the neighbors of the police officer and not his colleagues. The assassin has changed in recent months, they now told the investigators. He had suddenly gone to the mosque near his home in Gonesse, north of Paris, in traditional prayer robes.
The mosque "La Fauconnière", which H. visited, has been known to the authorities for years because a radical young imam of Moroccan origin preaches there, according to the daily newspaper "Le Monde" on Saturday. Due to his rebellious statements, the Moroccans should be expelled from the country some time ago.
It remains unclear which motives caused H. to change sides and become the enemy of his own apparatus. Like his 38-year-old wife, the offender was hard of hearing in an advanced degree. This disability is said to have failed, among other things, a further rise in the hierarchy within the police prefecture. But is that why you become an assassin? Hardly likely.
"Allahu Akbar, follow our beloved Prophet Muhammad"
The role of the 45-year-old's wife remains vague. 33 SMS messages are said to have exchanged the two shortly before the attack, more specifically between 11:21 clock and 11:50 clock. These are messages of clearly religious content, ending with the words: "Allahu Akbar, follow our beloved Prophet Muhammad and study the Koran."
In view of these new findings, which the anti-terror prosecutor Jean François Ricard made public on Friday, it is hard to imagine that the wife knew anything about her husband's plans until then. Her police custody was extended another 48 hours on the weekend. This also indicates that the investigators do not consider them innocent.
Next Tuesday, a funeral service will take place in the courtyard of the Paris Police Prefecture for the four victims, three men and one woman, mother of two young children, in the presence of President Emmanuel Macron. The calls of the opposition for a resignation of the interior minister will not be canceled until then.
IAN LANGSDON / EPA-EFE / REX
Interior Minister Castaner is under pressure, the opposition calls for his resignation after the attack
Marine Le Pen, party chairman of the right-wing populist "Rassemblement National" was one of the first to call for an immediate commission of inquiry.
Vulnerabilities in a patchy police force that does not take decisive action against immigrants and Muslims in its own ranks, and thus delivers France to its enemies, fit perfectly into the tale of the great foreign infiltration that has been the party's theme for years.
Minister of the Interior to be interviewed by intelligence committee
Prime Minister Philippe announced on Sunday new measures to detect signs of radicalization among police officers earlier. There will certainly be further action, perhaps resignations within the prefecture.
In the coming days, the Minister of the Interior will be interviewed in a non-public meeting by the Parliament's intelligence committee. He will have to explain why they did not pay attention to the assassin.
A "zero risk", eliminating all dangers, but it could not be, said Prime Minister Edouard Philippe in an interview today.
