‘ISIS collaborator’ arrested in Majorca after posing DIRECT THREAT to tourists

From the Express and the Local

The unnamed Moroccan-born suspect is said to have had close links with leaders of the terrorist organisation based in Syria. He was held in a raid early this morning at an undisclosed destination in the holiday island’s capital Palma.

Spanish Interior Ministry officials said the police operation had permitted “the rapid neutralisation of a direct threat” and described the suspect as a “threat to national security.” The operation was coordinated by a judge at Spain’s national criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, in conjunction with state prosecutors.

A statement released by the Interior Ministry, in which it referred to ISIS by its acronym Daesh, said: “The detainee, a Moroccan man resident in Palma, had a close relationship with the terrorist organisation Daesh …

“The investigation has shown that the suspect maintained close links with well-known terrorist leaders currently based in Syria and working for the terror organisation Daesh, whose job it was to facilitate the arrival of new combatants to war zones as well as providing instructions and resources to carry out terror attacks in Spain or other European countries.

“The police operation, which has permitted the rapid neutralisation of a direct threat, remains open.”

In other news the Italian authorities have dismissed a report in the German newspaper Bild that ISIS are planning more attacks on Mediterranean beach resorts. From the Italian edition of The Local

Italy has dismissed a report in a German newspaper warning that terrorists were planning attacks on beaches in Italy, Spain and France.

In a sensational report on Tuesday, the German daily, Bild, said that jihadists were planning to pose as refreshment sellers at beach resorts in the three countries, before detonating suicide vests and bombs planted beneath sun loungers.

A source at Italy’s anti-terrorism department dismissed the report when contacted by The Local.

Meanwhile, a source at the Italian intelligence services was quoted by Ansa as saying the claims were “groundless” and that “there is no specific terror alert on Italian beaches”. Which technically is consistent with the Bild report that the prime targets were the Costa del Sol in Spain and the French Riviera.

Bild claimed the information came from Italian and German secret agents, with the alleged attacks planned at resorts in southern France, Spain’s Costa del Sol, and unnamed Italian beaches.

The newspaper also quoted Seck Pouye, the chief of police in Senegal, who said that the terrorists, from the Boko Haram Islamist group in Nigeria which allies itself with Isis, planned to radicalize regular travellers between Senegal and Europe to carry out the attacks.

Threats of exploding sun loungers and cunningly disguised ice cream salesmen may sound like the stuff of a comedy sketch but I bet the holidaymakers in Tunisia last year thought they were safe.

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3 Responses

  1. I went over to the Daily Mail and read the article in situ. Then I read the Comments, of which there were a very great many. General observation: The majority of people commenting had a pretty good idea who the Enemy is and what motivates him. And they were managing to discuss this subject quite thoroughly by using all manner of clever dodges to circumvent whatever automatic ‘filters’ would otherwise be used to alert the censors…er, ‘moderators’… to the presence of any deemed-dangerously-Islamophobic sentiments. And thus everyone was able to discuss Those Who May Not Be Named, He Who Must Not Be Criticised, That Which Must Not Be Named, You-Know-Who and You-Know-What. One could write an entire essay analysing the comments that thus managed to get by ‘under the radar’. What is even more interesting is that the ‘code’ deployed was commonly understood by just about everyone. *Nobody* expressed any puzzlement when some posters began referring to ‘their book’ or ‘the K’ and ‘chapter nine’ [meaning by that, Surah 9 of the Quran]. Everyone knows who is meant by ‘their’ and ‘Them’ in a phrase like ‘their book’. One clever person had come up with “Ouslamb” as a code-word. Another person referred to “Gheehadis”. another obvious dodge was to break up key words by inserting spaces between the characters. I have seen this sort of thing in scattered instances before, in various newspaper comments forums online, but NEVER to the extent and with the consistency and sheer creativity that I saw when I read this particular DM thread.

  2. A sample of the kind of comment that managed to get past the filters.

    Mr G Myers, London, 1 day ago
    “And to think there are showrooms selling this defective belief system all over the UK with more opening every week! And they banned smoking in public places because its bad for your health………….”.

    gotit, newport, United Kingdom, 1 day ago
    “Dont beat around the bush there are 7 mill ion of them and they are shutting pubs and churches to give the makeovers as Mo sq ue s!”

    Note that the first commenter does not need to explain what he means by ‘this defective belief system’ (I do like his metaphor of ‘show-rooms’) and that the second commenter simply breaks up the keyword with a couple of judiciously placed spaces… And both collected more green arrows than red arrows.

  3. Here’s another sample comment, posted by one “Zatya” (a Pole?) in ‘Dublin, Ireland”.

    “Well we know who they are.
    “It’s not the Hindus, Buddhists, Chinese, Mexicans, Rastafarians or Jedis…
    “No matter where they’re from, they all have one thing in common, that thing we’re not allowed to mention.
    “They have their women in death-eater uniforms mocking us.
    “Don’t mention the mz…”. (And this particular comment had 110 up-votes, and only 4 red arrows.
    Again, note that this poster can post a coded comment and be absolutely sure of being understood.

    It would be interesting, in a month or so, when some other heinous plot is foiled or – which God forbid – succeeds, to read the first DM or other-newspaper thread that permits Comments, and observe developments, in terms of what people are saying, and how they are finding ways to say it.

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