'It was a complete failure': France admits intelligence disaster as it is revealed Turkey warned of Paris attack jihadis a YEAR ago

  • Turkish authorities warned France and Belgium about some of the jihadis 
  • Security sources revealed lapses in communication between countries 
  • On some occasions specific warnings about potential risks were ignored
  • On November 13, 130 people were killed and 352 injured in Paris

In January, Turkish authorities detained Brahim at their border and deported him to Belgium

In January, Turkish authorities detained Brahim at their border and deported him to Belgium

Turkish authorities warned France and Belgium a year ago about some of the jihadis involved in the Paris terror attacks.

Security sources have revealed lapses in communication between countries and on some occasions specific warnings were ignored.

'No need to fool ourselves. What we have in front of us is a complete failure,' a French government official told the Wall Street Journal.

On November 13, 130 people were killed and 352 injured when ISIS terrorists launched a series of attacks in the French capital. 

Brahim and Salah Abdeslam killed many people in the November 13 massacre - and the latter is still on the run.

In January, Turkish authorities detained Brahim at their border and deported him to Belgium. 

Turkish authorities told Belgian police at the time, had been 'radicalised' and was suspected of wanting to join Islamic State in Syria, according to a security source.

However, when he was questioned in Belgium he denied any involvement with the terror group and was released.

Brahim blew himself up at Le Comptoir Voltaire bar in Paris, killing himself and wounding one other. 

Salah is also a suspect in the attacks, claimed by the Islamic State, and is now on the run. Reports today said he was spotted in a BMW heading to Germany.

In December last year, Turkish police suspected Bataclan suicide bomber Ismail Omar Mostefai had links to ISIS. 

They wrote to their French counterparts, but the warning went ignored until Paris answered after the attacks last week.

French police sources have said that the French-Algerian was placed on a list, naming him as a potential threat to national security in 2010. 

Mostefai travelled back and forth. Although he had eight convictions as a petty criminal, he had never been in prison, a place French authorities can watch for signs of radicalisation.

Police say they suspected him of being in Syria between late 2013 and early 2014, before returning to France unnoticed.

Turkey raised a second alarm about Mostefai's ISIS links in June 2015 - again it went unnoticed. 

'It seemed there was a connection between this person and Daesh (Islamic State) and we reported it,' the Turkish security source said. 

'We followed all international procedures. But they (the French) didn't display the same level of sensitivity.' 

French officials declined to comment on this, but say that coordination with Turkey over potential French jihadis has improved markedly in the past year. 

Ahmad Al-Mohammed
Bilal Hafdi, from Belgium, also blew himself up at the stadium

Officials in Greece had previously said that a man carrying a Syrian passport with the name Ahmad Al-Mohammad (left). Bilal Hafdi (right), from Belgium, also blew himself up at the Stade de France

Bilal Hadfi, who blew himself up outside the Stade de France, was another of the suicide attackers under surveillance.

After visiting Syria in February, the 20-year-old French national, who was living in Belgium, returned to Europe by an unknown route and evaded police even though the Belgian Justice Ministry said microphones had been placed at the house where he was thought to be staying.

Then there's the case of Sami Amimour, who killed many at the Bataclan theatre. French authorities had launched an official investigation into Amimour's possible terrorism-related activity in October 2012. Prosecutors suspected him of planning to join militants in Yemen.

Amimour was a bus driver who had been radicalized in a mosque near his hometown of Drancy, north of Paris. Because of the investigation, police had ordered Amimour to check in with them every week. He missed four weekly checks in 2013. But it was only after nearly a month that the authorities put out an international arrest warrant.

By then Amimour was already in Syria. His tracks were picked up a year later, in December 2014, when his father gave an interview to French daily Le Monde describing how he had traveled to Syria but failed to convince his son to return.

French authorities had launched an official investigation into Amimour's possible terrorism-related activity in October 2012
Turkish police suspected Bataclan suicide bomber Ismail Omar Mostefai had links to ISIS

French authorities had launched an official investigation into Amimour's (left) possible terrorism-related activity in October 2012. In December last year, Turkish police suspected Bataclan suicide bomber Ismail Omar Mostefai (right) had links to ISIS

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of the Paris terror attacks, pictured, who was staying in a flat in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis

Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of the Paris terror attacks, pictured, who was staying in a flat in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis

The mastermind behind the massacre, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, had been well-known to authorities for several years

The mastermind behind the massacre, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, had been well-known to authorities for several years

The mastermind behind the massacre, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, had been well-known to authorities for several years. 

Fresh details have emerged that Moroccan intelligence provided information to tie Abdelhamid Abaaoud with his cousin Hasna Houlachen, leading to the eventual shootout which left both Abaaouds dead. 

After a raid in January in the Belgian town of Verviers, police suspected the 28-year-old of plotting to kidnap a police officer and kill him.

In February, Abaaoud said in an interview with an Islamic State magazine that he had returned to Syria after the raid in Verviers. By this time, he knew he was being sought.

Abaaoud made his way back into Europe at some point after January. French authorities did not know this until they were tipped off by Morocco after the attacks. He was killed in police raids in Paris last week.

'If Abaaoud was able to go from Syria to Europe, that means there are failings in the entire European system,' French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

The Paris attacks mastermind is thought to have been involved in several foiled attacks, including an intended attack on a church in the Parisian suburb of Villejuif and the Thalys train attack. 

New identity: Salah Abdeslam (left) - alleged to have hired the black VW Polo used the terrorists on Friday - is said to be using a new name and disguising himself using a wig and glasses (right)

New identity: Salah Abdeslam (left) - alleged to have hired the black VW Polo used the terrorists on Friday - is said to be using a new name and disguising himself using a wig and glasses (right)

Police are still looking for Salah Abdeslam, who is known to have survived the attacks.

Until six weeks before November 13, Salah and his brother Brahim were running a bar called Les Beguines on a quiet street in Molenbeek, Brussels.

After the attacks, Salah was stopped on his way back to Belgium, but police waved him on.  

Two men who were arrested later, Mohamed Amri, 27, and 21-year-old Hamza Attou, said they brought Salah back to Brussels after receiving a call from him saying his car had broken down. 

Police checks meant they were pulled over three times, including a last check around 9am, near Cambrai at the Belgian border.

French police circulated a potential new look Salah has put on to disguise himself. It's understood he is also wanted by ISIS for not completing his mission. 

Today, it has been reported that Salah had been spotted on his way to Germany in a BMW. 

On any one of these occasions, police, intelligence and security services had an opportunity to detain at least some of the men who launched the attacks.

That they did not, helps explain how a group of Islamist militants was able to organise even as they moved freely among countries within the open borders of Europe's passport-free Schengen area and beyond.

Security services say the lapses in communication, inability to keep track of suspected militants and failure to act on intelligence, were due to a lack of resources in some countries and a surge in the number of would-be jihadis.

But a close examination suggest it was missed red flags and miscommunications played a major part in France's biggest atrocity since World War Two.

'We're in a situation where the services are overrun. They expect something to happen, but don't know where,' said Nathalie Goulet, who heads up the French Senate's investigation committee into jihadi networks. 

Timeline of events: Eight terrorists carried out the devastating attacks on November 13, leaving 130 people dead and another 352 injured

Timeline of events: Eight terrorists carried out the devastating attacks on November 13, leaving 130 people dead and another 352 injured

Missteps did not just happen in France and Belgium. Fingerprints yesterday revealed that two of the Stade de France suicide bombers had entered Europe through Greece last month. 

Two of the bombers were Ahmed al Mohammad and Hafdi. The third person has not been identified. 

Syrian national al Mohammad arrived in Leros from Turkey, where authorities took his fingerprints on October 3.

He reportedly left in a group of six men after buying ferry tickets to mainland Europe.

He bought a ferry ticket with another man called al Mahmod, according to the BBC. They and the four men were said to have acted like close family or friends and could have posed as refugees.

The French police are now trying to track down the people who came into mainland Europe with al Mohammad and al Mahmod. 

France declared a nationwide state of emergency which will now last three months. 

Police now have the power to conduct searches without obtaining judicial warrants and can hold anyone suspected of posing a threat to security under house arrest for 12 hours a day.

Internet sites deemed to incite or advocate 'acts of terrorism' can be blocked and public demonstrations banned.

A Belgian soldier stands guard at a security perimeter set up in Brussels central square last night

A Belgian soldier stands guard at a security perimeter set up in Brussels central square last night

Belgium has also announced a security crackdown, saying it will spend an extra 400 million euros on security and take measures such as stopping the sale of mobile phone cards to anonymous buyers

Belgium has also announced a security crackdown, saying it will spend an extra 400 million euros on security and take measures such as stopping the sale of mobile phone cards to anonymous buyers

Belgium has also announced a security crackdown, saying it will spend an extra 400 million euros on security and take measures such as stopping the sale of mobile phone cards to anonymous buyers.

Police will be allowed to conduct night searches of homes and it is now easier to ban, convict or expel hate preachers.

Whether such measures will be enough is uncertain. Brussels is on high alert this weekend because of what authorities there called the 'serious and imminent' threat of attack. In a video last week, Islamic State warned it would strike again.

'When a large operation is prepared, they are told to keep a low profile in the months before. As they are no longer on police radars, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack,' said Roland Jacquard, president of the Paris-based International Terrorism Observatory.

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