New book ‘traces’ Toulouse killer to al-Qaeda stronghold

Western intelligence “traced” Mohamed Merah, the extremist who shot dead seven people in France, to a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region, back in 2011 but did not inform France until after his killings, a new book says.

“The Merah Case: the Investigation” by journalists Eric Pelletier and Jean-Marie Pontaut, due out on June 14, says: “Western intelligence services” established a link between Merah and “an organization close to al-Qaeda”.

It claims the spy services had detected the activation of “two Internet addresses” linked to Merah in September 2011 in Miranshah, the capital of Pakistan’s Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold of North Waziristan.

It also establishes that Merah was using at the time a telephone number known to be used to contact an extremist group.

The journalists wrote that France’s DCRI domestic intelligence service “recognizes” having received the information, but only “several days after” Merah’s killings in southern France.

Merah, a self-confessed al-Qaeda follower who admitted to having been in Waziristan, was killed in a police siege in Toulouse in March after shooting dead three paratroopers, a trainee Rabbi and three Jewish children, in a spree that shocked France.

Critics have questioned how France’s intelligence services failed to head off Merah’s killing spree given that he was already on their radar as an extremist and was on a U.S. “no-fly” list.

France’s new Interior Minister Manuel Valls this week told Le Parisien newspaper that he had asked the DCRI and national police for a report on “what was dysfunctional” in the Merah case.

“The state didn’t know how or was unable to protect the French,” he said.

A French intelligence agent quizzed Merah in November 2011 upon his return to France from Pakistan, but apparently believed his claims that he was visiting the region as a tourist.

The brother of the motorbike murderer, Abdelkader Merah, known to the police as an Islamic radical was indicted for complicity in the murders and imprisoned late March. He remains the only suspect to be arrested in connection with the attacks.