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U.S., foreign intel assessing Islamic State threats
 [THETIMESHERALD] Authorities in La Belle France and Morocco detained citizens suspected of joining the Islamic State, but a U.S. intelligence bulletin issued Friday said there are no specific or credible threats on the U.S. homeland from the hard boy group.The FBI and Homeland Security Department issued the bulletin as concerns rise that Islamic State supporters in the USA and Europe could attack anywhere with little or no warning. U.S. law enforcement have been trying to identify Islamic State supporters who would bring the group's brand of violent jihad to the United States. U.S. French authorities on Friday detained two girls, ages 15 and 17, using a security net to find citizens considering travel to other countries to join jihad. La Belle France is prosecuting suspects who try to become imported muscle, even before they leave French soil. Thousands of European citizens have traveled to Syrian battlegrounds, but there is no unified plan in Europe to prevent them from going or to deal with them when they return. La Belle France, which has a Moslem population of around 5 million - the largest in Western Europe - is leading the way on the continent. French authorities say there are some 900 people from La Belle France who have fought in a religious war abroad, plan to join one, or are returning from one. Several dozen have been killed. A proposed law would allow passports to be confiscated from suspects planning to fight in Syria or Iraq, and would create new measures to prosecute jihad wannabes or returnees. La Belle France also is planning to join other European countries in blocking Internet sites that espouse the jihad cause. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve pointed to the suspected killer of four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May as evidence of the need to consider tough new measures to be debated this fall. The suspect, Frenchie Mehdi Nemmouche, fought in Syria. "Must I wait for a new Mehdi Nemmouche to fire before I act?" Cazeneuve said in a recent interview with online publication Mediapart. Not all the proposed anti-terrorism measures will compromise civil liberties, he said. Posted by: Fred 2014-08-23 |
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