FRANCE IDENTIFIES JIHADI
A global manhunt was under way this week after authorities in Paris identified one of the jihadis who appeared in an Islamic State (IS) video that showed the beheadings of an American aid worker and 18 Syrian soldiers.
The French IS fighter was named as 22-yearold Maxime Hauchard, who converted to Islam at the age of 17.
The Guardian reported that a second Frenchman, who like Hauchard converted to Islam and left France in August last year for Syria, may also have carried out beheadings.
Both men are being investigated for murder with an organised gang and associating with terrorists.
The number of French nationals who have gone to Syria or Iraq to join IS had reached an “unprecedented level”, according to French try commits the resources it deems necessary to tracking real and potential jihadists among its citizens.
In Britain — which has seen an estimated 500 young men go off to Syria and has a wider group in the Muslim community who at least understand their reasons, if not feel sympathy for them — this is a major problem, with appropriate resources spent monitoring the comings and goings of jihadists. Portugal might have no more than a handful of potential recruits to Islamic State (IS) and so gives tracking them fewer resources.
The German Interior Minister’s call authorities. A total of 1,132 people are suspected of joining terrorist organisations.
Hauchard, who comes from a village in Normandy, has been known to French intelligence services since 2011.
He travelled to Syria via Turkey where he claimed to be a humanitarian worker. Once in Syria, he took on the nom de guerre Abu Abdallah el Faransi. to rewrite Schengen has not found much support in Brussels. Pieter Cleppe, head of the Open Europe think tank, said there had not been much criticism of Schengen following the shootings from Brussels security chiefs. “The far right, obviously, is against it,” he points out. “But if you close borders you will annoy, honest, hardworking people. Besides, the criminals would find a way to cross anyway.”
Both men point to the lack of coordination among the security services of the EU member states as being the main problem in dealing with the