France's parliament called to reform the security services


07/05/2016

Today, the French parliamentary commission, responsible for investigating the terrorist attacks in Paris, presented results of their work. The MPs concluded that weak interaction of various special services had become one of the main causes of the tragedy. The officials called for a radical reform of the security services by increasing interaction between them and creating a single anti-terrorist center.



Head of a special committee of Parliament Georges Fenech noted that main purpose of the investigation is not to find someone to blame, but to prevent repetition of the tragedies in the future. During the investigation, Parliament examined data from the French secret services, and read reports of their representatives. It turned out that the authorities were informed about potential terrorists. However, low level of communication between different departments has led to the fact that these individuals managed to freely prepare for terrorist attacks and to commit them.

For example, terrorists staged the November shooting at Bataclan, which had long been under surveillance by the security services. However, just before the terrorist attacked, they managed to escape from under supervision of the authorities. One of them, Sami Amimour, was able not only go to Syria in 2013 but also slip back to France, despite the undertaking not to leave. Another terrorist, Amedi Coulibaly, the kosher store’s attacker, was released from prison not long before this, and was kept under surveillance by the police. The parliamentarians also noted weak interaction of security forces during terrorist attacks. For example, it is reported that when shooting in Bataclan began, the police appealed a military patrol located nearby with a request to use their army weapons to eliminate terrorists. However, the latter said nay.

Currently, there are six different departments engaged in counter-terrorism in France. For example, not only the military, the national police and gendarmerie, but also at the Paris police have their own anti-terrorist agencies. According to the parliamentary committee, the interaction between them is poor.

The Commission considered that the French intelligence services and anti-terrorist agencies must urgently undertake fundamental reform and create a single focal point for counter-terrorism. "Two high-ranking representative of the security services recognized at the parliamentary hearings that the attacks in 2015 have become a huge failure," - said one of the commission’s members, MP from the Socialist Party Sébastien Pietrasanta.

"In the face of the growing threat of international terrorism, we need to act decisively - summed up the commission’s Head of the Georges Fenesh. - Our country was not ready for such attacks. Now we have to change that. "

As The Daily Telegraph previously found out, the European border guards are checking only one EU passports in a hundred on anti-terrorism databases. Following the principles of free movement of citizens, border guards are trying to put up as little obstacles to the holders of European citizenship as possible. Eventually, it allows jihadists to freely go to Syria, and then just as easily return back to Europe.

source: lefigaro.fr