Toulouse ...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France... killer had been under surveillance since late 2009; security services deemed his behavior 'worrying'
French security services had watched Toulouse shooter Mohamed Merah since the end of 2009 and judged his behavior "worrying" in late 2011, according to declassified documents.
As part of a probe into his killings, La Belle France's DCRI domestic intelligence agency has released documents relating to the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist who killed seven people in March.'
French intelligence has been criticized since it emerged that it was known Merah had travelled to Pakistain and Afghanistan before he went on his killing spree.
Both Merah and his older brother Abdelkader had been under surveillance by the DCRI since 2009, according to the documents, in particular after the two travelled in 2010 to Egypt, where Merah went to learn Arabic.
Identified in 2010 as a "new recruit" in radical Islamist circles in Toulouse, Merah was questioned by the DCRI late last year after a trip to Pakistain.
In a document written in December, the service warned of Merah's "worrying behavior" and said he was a "privileged target" for further surveillance.
Merah rubbed out three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers before being killed himself on March 22 following a 32-hour police siege of his flat in the southern city of Toulouse.
Lawyers for families of the victims have said the documents declassified so far are insufficient to know the truth and are calling for DGSE foreign spy agency files to also be released.
Continued on Page 47
[Ynet] While probe into Bulgaria terror attack not making headway, Israeli official tells New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... intelligence services intercepted large volume of phone calls between resort city, Leb in days leading to kaboom. German official: EU needs more concrete evidence
In the two months leading to the terror attack in Bulgaria, Israel's intelligence services intercepted many phone calls between Burgas and Leb, an Israeli official was quoted as saying to the New York Times on Thursday.
The official further noted that the volume of phone calls increased significantly three days prior to the airport bombing that killed five Israelis.
Jerusalem has thus far held off on releasing information on counterintelligence work tying Iran and Hezbollah to the suicide kaboom at the resort city. "We know the sources in Leb," the official told the New York Time, adding that they did not have information on the identity of those acting in Bulgaria. "They shouldn't know that we know the numbers in Leb," he said.
The probe into the terror attack has been progressing slowly, as the Bulgarians have yet to identify the terrorist killed in the blast or his accomplices. Local Sherlocks have been cautious to point the finger at Hezbollah, which is not considered a terrorist organization in the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... A German official told the newspaper that the EU is looking for more concrete evidence than the volume of calls before taking steps against Hezbollah. There is still "some skepticism that it was Hezbollah as an organization itself, and not, for instance, Iran using individuals with some Hezbollah affiliation," he said.
According to the report, the terror attack probe is yet another testimony to the cat-and-mouse games between Israel and Iran in the international arena.
"After the blast in Bulgaria, both Iran and Hezbollah denied involvement almost as quickly as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel pointed the finger at them. American and Bulgarian officials backed the assessment off the record, but would not say so openly. There has been little hard evidence presented to show how or by whom the plots were coordinated," it said.
Continued on Page 47
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
