As per recent reports, it has come to light that the French intelligence agencies have averted a major terror scare by effectively thwarting a terror attack inspired by the 9-11 terror attack on the World Trade Centre (WTC) in New York.
One person has been taken into custody over the terror plot. According to a French paper, the suspect taken in custody was looking for a weapon in an attempt to execute a September 11-style plane hijacking and attack.
French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has said that the terror suspect was arrested on September 26 when he was “in the process of planning” the terror attack. Castaner said, “An individual who wanted to draw inspiration from 9/11 and planes that destroyed the towers of the World Trade Centre was stopped by our services.” He added, “It was his project, he was organising himself like this and our services have done the necessary to get him arrested.”
The French security establishment has been battling the menace of Islamist terrorism since 2013. French security establishment launched Operation Sentinelle was launched in January 2015 itself to combat the terror attacks of the Islamic State in France.
As per France’s Interior Minister, 60 terror plots have been foiled since 2013, the 9-11 like terror plot that was foiled being the 60th one. More than 230 lives have been claimed by Islamist terrorism in the country over the last four years.
The Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the deadly terror strikes across the capital city, Paris in November 2015. There was yet another major attack in July 2016. This time in the French city of Nice, when a truck deliberately rammed into a crowd of people celebrating the Bastille Day festivities that resulted in the death of more than 86 people and injured hundreds.
The ISIS commanders had called for a co-ordinated wave of terror strikes across the European countries of UK, Germany and France. France has been the biggest victim of the ISIS-led terror attacks in Europe with hundreds of casualties over the past few years. The issue of terrorism in France has been further aggravated by the issue of unabated illegal immigration.
Earlier, France along with Germany, had advocated the open-door policy without taking into consideration the serious repercussions it has on the country’s resources and its native people. However, the Macron regime is now all set to bring about a departure in this policy. Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron changed his long-drawn stance on immigration when he said that France “cannot host everyone (immigrants)”.
Speaking to French radio Europe 1 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly summit in New York, Macron said, “In order to be able to welcome everyone decently, we shouldn’t be too attractive a country.” He went on to say that “France cannot host everyone if it wants to host people well.”
Even last year, Macron had drawn a distinction between refugees fleeing persecution and economic migrants. He had asserted that the latter should be turned back. Following the terror attacks in France, there was a sharp debate about the immigration policy in the country and now it seems that the current French regime has realised that given the menace of terrorism, the country needs to bring about a sharp shift in its immigration policy.