TERRORISM: The last attack was thwarted last week in Saint-Ouen with the arrest of a person who wanted to tackle the police …
Eleven attacks have been foiled since the beginning of the year in France, Interior Minister Gérard Collomb said on Friday when the new Director General of Internal Security (DGSI) was installed.
According to a source close to the file, the last project was foiled with the arrest last week in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis) of a person wishing to tackle the forces of law and order. The Minister of the Interior made the announcement during the installation of the new director of the DGSI , the French intelligence services , Laurent Nunez.
“Eleven attacks have been foiled since the beginning of the year and obviously tomorrow will happen in France what happened in Barcelona,” said the minister, referring to the attack on the van that made 16 deaths on the 17th August. “We see the importance of the threat and the balance that must be struck between security and freedom,” he added, while opponents of the anti-terrorism bill, who see it as ” ‘a state of permanent emergency’, call for demonstrations on Sunday.
Strengthening “the DGSI as the main coordinator of the fight against Islamic terrorism”
In this bill, intended to take over on 1st November the exceptional regime of the state of emergency established after the jihadist attacks of 13th November 2015 in Paris, notably includes “strengthening the position of the DGSI as the main coordinator of the fight against Islamist terrorism “. The minister said that he wanted to see “soon come” the reflections in progress on the evolution of the internal coordination mechanism in the Ministry of the Interior with the merger of Uclat (the unit of coordination of the fight against terrorism) and the Operational Staff for the Prevention of Terrorism (Emopt).
“In the context of a significant increase in resources, it will be up to you to continue to adapt the profile of your agents and to ensure the constant evolution of your technological means”, added the Minister to Laurent Nuñez, stressing that the number of staff in 2008 is 1,200, reaching 4,368 in 2018. “If the fight against Islamist terrorism is obviously our main priority, the DGSI will have to remain active to deal with other forms of threats,” added Gombard, including espionage or cyber attacks. “We are fully mobilized alongside the prefects,” Laurent Nuñez said, recognizing “the efforts that will have to be put in place in terms of management, real estate, training and acculturation of our teams”
