Filed under: Jamestown Foundation | Tags: AQIM, Europe, France, nuclear, radicalization, terrorism
More for Jamestown Foundation on the case of Adelene Hicheur, the French-Algerian chap who worked on the infamous Large Hadyron Collider and was apparently in contact with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. A strange case in which all the details are not clear, and will unlikely be clear any time soon, though it remains unclear that this was really part of some kind of nuclear powered Al Qaeda plot.
http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=35673
Al Qaeda’s Nuclear Scientist? The Case of Adlene Hicheur
Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 32
October 30, 2009 09:02 AM Age: 1 days
Category: Terrorism Monitor, Global Terrorism Analysis, Home Page, Terrorism, Europe, Featured
Amidst much furor, French anti-terrorism judge Christophe Tessier announced that year-old Algerian-French scientist Dr. Adlene Hicheur had been brought up on charges of “association with terrorists” on October 12. Allegedly in contact with al-Qaeda’s North African affiliate, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Dr. Hicheur was arrested with his 25-year old brother (later released) in Vienne, France on October 8 after an 18-month investigation headed by France’s internal security service, the Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur (Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence – DCRI) (Le Monde, October 14).
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Filed under: Free Rad!cals | Tags: Europe, Italy, lone wolves, radicalization, terrorism
Well, for those of you who are avid followers, good news! I will now be producing more regularly over at the FreeRad!cals website run by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (tidily abbreviated to ICSR) – in fact, I have now already gotten started, here is a brief bio/introductory piece and below is my first article. I am hoping to regularly cross post between the two, and welcome any thoughts on either site.
(One final comment, I am hoping that Lone Wolf Pack will become part of the canon of radicalization-speak – anyone see it anywhere else, please give me a heads-up!)
http://icsr.info/blog/Lone-Wolves-Pack-stalks-Milan
Lone Wolves Pack stalks Milan
View more articles by Raff Pantucci
Filed under: Europe, Radicalisation
A couple of weeks have passed since 35-year old Libyan Mohamed Game attempted, in an alleged revenge for Italian involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, to carry out a suicide attack on the Santa Barbara army barracks in Milan, where forces going to Afghanistan are based.
Using a fertilizer-based explosive concealed in a tool box, Game detonated his bomb in the morning of October 12, apparently as a reference to 12 November 2003 when a suicide bomber blew up an Italian military police base in Iraq killing 19 Italians. The bomb failed to completely explode, mutilating Game (his hand was amputated, he was blinded by shrapnel and remains on life support), while only injuring one guard at the base.
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This article makes a similar point to my earlier one in EU Observer (http://raffaellopantucci.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/europes-threat-from-pakistan/), but is instead in more direct response to one in the current Europe’s World journal by (http://www.europesworld.org/NewFrancais/Accueil/Article/tabid/190/ArticleType/ArticleView/ArticleID/21416/BlueprintforanEUroleinObamasAfPakstrategy.aspx) – apologies again for all the links, but unfortunately, am still having trouble posting properly.
Anyway, these piece have also attracted some media interest including this piece: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/european-union/090615/eu-pakistan-summit – which is an interesting news outlet that I would commend to any readers.
http://www.europesworld.org/NewEnglish/Home/Article/tabid/191/ArticleType/ArticleView/ArticleID/21456/EuropesrealAfPakproblemisthatourpoliticianshavenotconvincedpublicopinion.aspx
Europe’s real AfPak problem is that our politicians have not convinced public opinion
Summer 2009
by Raffaello Pantucci
Shada Islam presents a sensible, if perhaps overly optimistic, view of European objectives on “AfPak”. It is hard to disagree with many of her fundamental points, in particular that greater coordination on Central-South Asia would be a boon to European and American interests in the region.
Unfortunately, the reality is that such coordination is still lacking and we are unlikely to see a greater push under an EU banner. More European involvement in any sort of “civilian surge” would be welcome, but will be unrealistic until the security situation is stabilised.
Filed under: EU Observer | Tags: counter-radicalization, Europe, Pakistan, terrorism
This is a long article for an op-ed, I have actually been circulating the idea for a while but finally found a good home for it. Some mention of the recent Europol report (1) or the upcoming EU-Pakistan Summit (2) would have probably been worthwhile, but no matter. My main point is that continental European government’s need to be a little clearer about what they are trying to achieve in AfPak as otherwise they might face sudden shocks. As if to reinforce my point, I see that the Italian police have just arrested a couple of alleged terrorists in Bari for plotting, radicalizing and organizing to help people travel to fight jihad (3).
1: http://www.europol.europa.eu/publications/EU_Terrorism_Situation_and_Trend_Report_TE-SAT/TESAT2009.pdf
2: http://euobserver.com/9/28104
3: http://www.corriere.it/cronache/09_maggio_12/al_qaeda_terroristi_arrestati_bari_f81b144c-3eb3-11de-914a-00144f02aabc.shtml
And here is the actual article, sorry for these links, I have been having probs hyperlinking where I am.
http://euobserver.com/?aid=28103
[Comment] Europe’s threat from Pakistan
RAFFAELLO PANTUCCI
11.05.2009 @ 18:21 CET
EUOBSERVER / COMMENT – During a recent visit to Pakistan, Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated that a third of terror plots in the UK have connections to that beleaguered country.
In a press conference with President Asif Zardari he went on to state that with a set of new proposed measures, he hoped to “break the chain of terror that links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of the UK.”
But while the UK seems to have taken a view that there is a very real threat to Europe that needs to be engaged with in Afghanistan and Pakistan and makes the case regularly to its public, there is remarkably little sensible public discussion on such matters from other European capitals.
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Filed under: HSToday | Tags: counter-radicalization, Europe, guantanamo, legal, terrorism, UK, US foreign policy
This is a slightly older piece that I actually missed when it first ran, which I suppose is quite embarrassing. It was originally meant to run in the monthly magazine I write for Homeland Security today (www.hstoday.us), but in the end it got shunted to the website. It is in essence a counter-terrorism perspective from Europe on Obama’s first 100 days. Some of the information could do with a little updating, but frankly the things I would say probably appear in other things that I have written (or have coming up soon). I would be very grateful for any other thoughts on this one – especially from those who think I have left anything off.
http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/8275/149/
European Views on the First 100 Days
by Raffaello Pantucci
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Europeans view Obama’s change initiatives on counter-terror front with hopefulness, and caveats.
Prior to his election, European expectations of Barack Obama’s presidency were at almost stratospheric levels. Across the continent, European leaders and publics salivated in anticipation of the new president – and nowhere was this more true than in the United Kingdom, where celebrations of the Obama victory resonated on all sides of the political aisle.
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Am finally getting around to posting some old op-eds i wrote – here is one i wrote for the Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/) a while back about not this but the previous Italian election. Not that anything has really changed. sorry this is old, but i had vowed to make this a repository for all my writing. Had a great picture near it on the page….
The Boston Globe
April 14, 2006 Friday
THIRD EDITION
Keeping US, Italy link afloat
FEW AMERICANS will have noticed this week that they have lost another reflexive European ally. Those few who have noted center-left leader Romano Prodi’s extremely narrow and still contested victory in Italy will fear that we are about to watch as the election result in Italy, like Spain before it, equates to a chilling in a previously solid bilateral trans-Atlantic relationship.
This is a very good question i feel, and one that Alexandros and myself have decided to attempt to answer. Not entirely successfully i feel, and anyway the issue still is for those Russkies to decide what game they are playing. But if the EU were to start figuring stuff out, we would be in a good spot. For those who don’t know the EU Observer, it is a respectable website that has remarkable penetration into the Brussels community.
http://euobserver.com/9/26073
[Comment] What does Europe want from Russia?
30.04.2008 – 17:48 CET | By Alexandros Petersen and Raffaello Pantucci
EUOBSERVER / COMMENT – In the aftermath of the divisive NATO summit in Bucharest, there is a growing sense in the European policy community that for the continent to effectively deal with its biggest neighbour, everyone needs to sing from the same song sheet. However, there is little clarity about the words of the song – we know we should be unified on the subject, but we do not seem to know what to do.
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This is a paper i wrote again with my friend Alexandros Petersen, this time looking at the EU’s policy towards Central Asia. This was written during the German Presidency of the EU when there was a sort of push by the European’s – it has since dropped off a touch, but the German’s have always been natural leaders of sort in this field (they have Embassies in all five states, as well as a relationship with the Russians, one of the other big players in the region, etc). The paper was written for the Henry Jackson Society – a smallish think-tank still finding their way, but doing so very optimistically.
This is a longer journal article that i co-wrote with a friend at the American Enterprise Institute for SAIS Review (an academic journal) last year that ran in Vol. XXVII no. 1 Winter-Spring 2007. I was looking at European affairs and transatlantic things back then, and he is an Asia expert, so we plumped looking at the US-EU-China triangular relationship under the heading of “A Treacherous Triangle? China and the Transatlantic Relationship.” This came out a little after the panicked flurry that occured after the European’s announced that they might lift their arms embargo to China (they didn’t in the end, but still say they will sometime in the near future.” The entire article can be found: http://www.iiss.org/EasysiteWeb/getresource.axd?AssetID=2380&type=Full&servicetype=Attachment
I have co-written a couple of pieces for the Moscow Times (http://www.moscowtimes.ru/indexes/01.html) with my friend Alexandros Petersen (whose title has oscilated somewhat). Unfortunately, they charge to see them, so they are reproduced below. Both were also re-treaded in the St Petersburg Times. The most recent was written at around the time of the G8 Summit and chided Russia for fixating on the U.S. when their main issue should be their relations with the EU, and the older one instead examines the EU’s growing role in Eurasia, specifically Central Asia – a pet fixation of mine.
Bypassing Europe is a Mistake
June 6, 2007
