French Government Knew That a Terror Attack Was Imminent

Every major historical event has a host of mysteries surrounding it, and each one begins to unravel in the aftermath, albeit at different speeds. Most of the basic facts are revealed within days or even hours, while others may take decades to surface. It would suffice to say that the coordinated terrorist attack that occurred in Paris last Friday won’t be any different.

We probably won’t know everything about this incident until many years from now, but the facts that are coming out now already suggest that we aren’t being told the whole story. Over the past couple of days, multiple sources have suggested that the French government was actually given several warnings of a potential terror attack, one of which came from Iraqi officials. According to AP:

Senior Iraqi intelligence officials warned coalition countries of imminent assaults by the Islamic State group just one day before last week’s deadly attacks in Paris killed 129 people, The Associated Press has learned.

Iraqi intelligence sent a dispatch saying the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had ordered an attack on coalition countries fighting against them in Iraq and Syria, as well as on Iran and Russia, “through bombings or assassinations or hostage taking in the coming days.”

The dispatch said the Iraqis had no specific details on when or where the attack would take place, and a senior French security official told the AP that French intelligence gets this kind of communication “all the time” and “every day.”

As you’ll see in a moment though, that excuse doesn’t really wash because in the weeks leading up to the bombings, they were acting like an attack was imminent. One can only assume that some of this intel was taken seriously. But first, let’s take a look at some of the warnings that Turkish officials gave about one of the attackers.

The official said Mostefai entered Turkey in 2013, and that there was no record of him ever leaving.

In October 2014, France asked for information from Turkish intelligence about four “terror suspects”, the official said, adding that during their investigation, Turkish authorities identified Mostefai as a fifth suspect.

Turkish authorities “notified their French counterparts twice – in December 2014 and June 2015 [about Mostefai],” the official said.

“We have, however, not heard back from France on the matter. It was only after the Paris attacks that the Turkish authorities received an information request about Omar Ismail Mostefai from Turkey.”

At first glance, this may look like a typical intel oversight. The French probably receive numerous threats “all the time” and “every day,” and they don’t always communicate very well with other intelligence agencies. It’s easy for a few terrorist to slip through the cracks. However, that may not be the case here, because the French government was clearly bracing for another attack. At least, that’s what Damien Regnard, an elected delegate to the French government, told the press.

As a member of the Security Commission of the Assembly of French Citizens Abroad, Regnard told WWL-TV he had warnings from France that ISIS or other terror groups were on the verge of a major attack.

He got the warning while holding meetings in Paris last month with high-level security officials, he said.

“They were very concerned,” Regnard said. “I’ve been following and talking to different people, whether it’s judges or police or intel people in France, and they were extremely on high alert right now.”

The French government hasn’t officially admitted it, but it’s abundantly clear that they were warned by multiple intelligence agencies, and they knew that something was going to happen. It’s impossible to tell how much the French government knew about these terrorists, or when and where they would strike, but we do know this: They were aware that something was coming, and they don’t want the public to understand that. They still refuse to comment on these warnings, or their apparent foreknowledge.

For now it’s probably too early to draw any conclusions, but something definitely smells rotten in the state of France.