How three major intelligence failures may have let the killers get through
VITAL clues were missed that could have averted the Paris atrocities, it was feared last night as it was revealed that:
A heavily armed suspect was stopped on his way to the French capital more than a week ago but German police who uncovered an arsenal of weapons in his car did not tell anti-terror chiefs.
At least one of the terrorists was a Parisian who had been on a terror watch list for five years, but was not being monitored closely enough to be stopped before he took part in the murderous attack.
Greek authorities believe that one of the gunmen sneaked into Europe posing as a refugee from Syria – heightening fears that not enough security checks are being carried out on migrants.
As details of the killers’ identities began to emerge yesterday, Corinne Narassiguin, spokeswoman for France’s ruling Socialist Party, admitted: ‘Obviously there was a failure of intelligence.’
She said the French government had recently voted through new measures to improve surveillance of terror suspects, with 2,000 new posts being created, but added: ‘Unfortunately all these measures are not yet fully operational.’
French intelligence and security services had been reorganised in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacres, which left 16 dead in January. It emerged that the brothers behind the killings, Cherif and Said Kouachi, were well known to the authorities and were being watched – but surveillance was called off just six months before they launched their attack.
Since then counter-terrorist forces say they have thwarted several plots and in August passengers overpowered a gunman who opened fire on a high-speed train bound for Paris.
But it is feared there was a fatal breakdown in communication between European law enforcement agencies earlier this month. During a routine check of a VW Golf on the Salzburg to Munich autobahn on November 5, police discovered a ‘professionally built’ secret compartment crammed with weaponry and munitions.
‘An inspection of the glove compartment revealed a revolver,’ said a security source. ‘The compartment itself was damaged and behind it could be seen something sticking out – it was the barrel of an AK-47 hidden in the engine compartment.’
Eventually discovered in the hideaway built into the car bodywork and welded over were a further seven AK-47 assault rifles of the type used in the Parisian bloodbath, complete with full magazines. Five pistols, seven hand grenades, fuses, detonators and a revolver completed the mini arsenal. The destination programmed into the driver’s satnav was Paris. The 51-year-old driver, a Muslim from Montenegro, was arrested and held in custody but has refused to talk.
The country has long been a recruiting ground for Islamic State (IS) terrorists in the Balkans and some 300 individuals there are believed to be under surveillance. But although the arrest by Bavarian police was reported to Interpol, details were not given to anti-terror specialists in Berlin who may have been able to join up the dots with their French counterparts and so prevent the Paris massacre.
‘There will be hell to pay about this in the coming days,’ said an intelligence source.
Bavaria’s state premier Horst Seehofer said on Saturday: ‘We have an arrest where there is reasonable expectation that it may be to do with the things that happened in Paris.’
Meanwhile, French at least one of the terrorists who struck on Friday night had been on ‘Fiche S’, a watch list of known extremists.
One of the gunmen who stormed the Bataclan concert hall was identified by his fingerprints as a 29-year-old named only as a Mr Ismaël. He had a criminal record, lived in the southern Paris suburb of Courcouronnes, and had been known to the intelligence agencies since 2010, French media said.
The cell responsible for the massacre travelled to IS heartlands for training, while at least one member re-entered Europe last month via a Greek island among refugees fleeing the chaos of Syria.
Three alleged accomplices were arrested in Brussels last night over the plot, but it is likely to be seen by many as too little, too late.