Jihad in the Suburbs: The Revolt in the Paris Suburbs is Only the Beginning

At the end of last week, the French were notified of a "Red Alert" - the highest level warning, from concern with a wave of al-Qaeda attacks. Christof Shabu, the head of French counter-terrorism, told Yediot Ahronot that the terrorist groups may not have been behind the outburst in the suburbs, but they are going to profit from it. Shabu rejects the argument that France had not been attacked because of its policy on Iraq. He says there are hundreds of terrorists in France and the reason there have been no attacks is because of the French success in thwarting them.

"We have the toughest laws and enforcement policy against terrorism. Last year 120 individuals were stopped who belonged to radical Islamic groups and we thwarted many planned attacks." Shabu reveals that the next objective of global terrorism is a "dirty bomb" containing radiological material. "We are witnessing a constant effort by al-Qaeda and other organizations to obtain fissionable material in Eastern Europe. We know that they have developed certain strains of anthrax, but we are not sure of the extent of their success." Shabu has only praise for the Israeli security services.