Europol： There are about 5,000 jihadists in the EU.
On August 3, the mayor of London and the police chief announced that 600 armed police officers would be added to strengthen street patrols to cope with possible terrorist attacks. The picture shows the armed police training on the Thames in London that day.
Xinhua news agency
Core reading
"Europe is really getting more and more unsafe!" A friend of Belgium recently sighed to our reporter. On the night of August 3, a gangster attacked Russell Square in central London, England with a knife, killing at least one person and injuring five others.
Recently, Europe has suffered from "lone wolf" terrorist attacks one after another, causing great social unrest. Europol recently released a report that Europe is facing an increasingly serious threat of "lone wolf" terrorist attacks. Some analysts believe that the anti-terrorism department should strengthen the supervision of Internet information.
The increase in "lone wolf" attacks is related to extremist organizations using the Internet to incite.
"The successive terrorist attacks in Europe have made people nervous, but if you read the recent report on the EU security situation released by Europol, it is estimated that many Europeans will involuntarily take a breath and be glad that they are safe." Edwin Barker, an anti-terrorism expert at the School of Public Administration of Leiden University in the Netherlands, told this reporter, "This report tells people with cold data how dangerous Europe is now."
Barker’s report on the EU security situation refers to the Report on the Status and Trends of Terrorism in the EU (2016) issued by Europol, which is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands. According to this report, including the terrorist attacks successfully defeated by the police, there were 211 terrorist attacks in the EU in 2015, which is the year in which the EU suffered the most terrorist attacks since the birth of this report in 2006. Last year, six member States of the European Union suffered terrorist attacks, namely Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Britain. Last year, a total of 1,077 people in the European Union were arrested on suspicion of terrorist attacks, of which 687 were "jihadists". In view of more than 5,000 jihadists in Europe, Europol believes that jihadists and lone wolves are the biggest terrorist threats facing Europe at present.
According to the definition of Europol, "lone wolf" refers to an individual terrorist who plans and launches terrorist attacks alone. The target of the attack is innocent civilians. Although it is sometimes under the banner of a terrorist organization, it has no direct connection with terrorist organizations. German Interior Minister Demaiziere told the media a few days ago that the investigation showed that the suspect in the German train attack was "acting alone", but he was "incited" by the online video released by extremist organizations. Demaiziere believes that the security situation in Europe is very grim, and many European countries, including Germany, are likely to suffer more "lone wolf" terrorist attacks in the future.
In an interview with this reporter, Mathieu Gidanh, a scholar who specializes in studying ideological radicalization at the University of Paris in France, believes that the extremist organization "Islamic State" just wants to brush the sense of existence in response to several recent terrorist attacks in France and Germany. In fact, these terrorist incidents are not directly related to the organization. The perpetrators of the terrorist incidents are neither members of any terrorist organization, nor have they carried out anyone’s instructions. From beginning to end, they are "fighting" alone.
However, many analysts pointed out that although the "lone wolf" attack is an individual behavior, the process of an ordinary person becoming a "lone wolf" is because of being bewitched by extremist organizations. The Europol survey found that the extremist organization "Islamic State" has brainwashed Muslims in western countries through the Internet in recent years, encouraging them to launch "lone wolf" terrorist attacks. It is reported that extremist organizations have issued a "mobilization order" to Syrian refugees in Germany, encouraging them to launch a "lone wolf" terrorist attack on Germany.
Strengthening network supervision is the primary countermeasure to prevent "lone wolf" attack
"Frequent ‘ The lone wolf style ’ Terrorist attacks are a new challenge for European counter-terrorism departments. For a long time, the anti-terrorism departments of European countries have mostly focused on how to deal with organized terrorist attacks. Now we should adjust our anti-terrorism strategies according to the changes in the situation. Lone wolf ’ Terrorism gives more attention. " Barker said that compared with other terrorist activities, "lone wolves" are more difficult to prevent, because they don’t play cards according to the rules, have no organization, and don’t contact others, so it is difficult for the police to get clues in advance. "But there is still a way in ‘ Lone wolf ’ Identify an attack before it is launched. Counter-terrorism departments should strengthen the supervision of Internet information, and find that ‘ Lone wolf ’ The signs. "
Ji Danhe also believes that the "lone wolf" hides itself well in the real world and is not easy to be found, but it will leave a lot of information in the virtual world of the Internet, which is easy to be ignored in the eyes of traditional security departments, but can be interpreted in the eyes of professional and technical personnel. The "lone wolf" is usually a member of the "virtual community" and finds a sense of belonging in it. The Swedish national defense research institute has set up an Internet information monitoring and analysis group to judge whether a person will commit extreme violence by analyzing the online behavior of network users.
In order to find a "coup" to effectively deal with the "lone wolf" terrorism, Gilles de Koch, the general coordinator of the EU counter-terrorism, recently made a special trip to Tel Aviv to ask for advice from the Israeli counter-terrorism department. According to the data released by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, since last September, Israel has suffered more than 300 terrorist attacks, but only 40 Israelis were killed in the terrorist attacks. During the same period, although the number of terrorist attacks in the EU was small, almost every time there were mass casualties, resulting in more than 250 deaths.
Officials from Israel’s counter-terrorism department said that the reason why there were no terrorist attacks in Israel that caused a large number of casualties was mainly due to Israel’s preventive ability. Israel’s counter-terrorism department first manually sets some parameters, such as age, religious belief, socio-economic status, contact with violent organizations, etc., and then tracks these people on social networks and issues warnings when suspicious clues are found. Security personnel should monitor the data every day and modify keywords according to the changes of the situation and the latest needs. All people in Israel are classified as safe. The basic level is black, the items that meet the set parameters are set to gray, which is suspicious, and those that need to be monitored or even arrested by the security department are set to white. Usually, among the 1 million black population, about 20,000 gray targets can be found, while the white population has 10-mdash; 15. Through such hierarchical control, security and intelligence resources are used to the maximum extent.
Some analysts pointed out that before the terrorist attack, the stage of the "lone wolf" was mainly on the Internet, and the radicalization and transformation process of the "lone wolf" was mainly completed through the Internet. Therefore, strengthening the supervision of the Internet is the primary strategy to effectively prevent the "lone wolf" terrorist attack. The EU counter-terrorism department has recognized this and is actively adjusting its counter-terrorism strategy.
(Brussels, August 4 th)