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| Shock and mourning after Nice attack: ‘If he’s a nobody, who do we blame?’ | Shock and mourning after Nice attack: ‘If he’s a nobody, who do we blame?’ |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| It being Saturday, the usual line of faces from the Maghreb and Africa was absent outside the Réception des Étrangers – the foreigners’ reception centre – in Paris when, shortly after first light, a woman police officer climbed a ladder at the entrance to the local police headquarters at Montparnasse and carefully wrapped the tricolore flag in a black ribbon. | It being Saturday, the usual line of faces from the Maghreb and Africa was absent outside the Réception des Étrangers – the foreigners’ reception centre – in Paris when, shortly after first light, a woman police officer climbed a ladder at the entrance to the local police headquarters at Montparnasse and carefully wrapped the tricolore flag in a black ribbon. |
| Only a man called Imad Abdel Amass, from Morocco, came to check opening times. Amass is a “binational”, on whom much attention is now falling, as three days of mourning begin. | Only a man called Imad Abdel Amass, from Morocco, came to check opening times. Amass is a “binational”, on whom much attention is now falling, as three days of mourning begin. |
| The same was happening to flags all over France – reeling from yet further appalling carnage. Words like “shock”, “grief” and “outrage”, “fear” and “anger” are yet again currency of the moment. Beneath cuts a rip-tide: the sense that this is not a breakdown of order, but a new order of things. “We have to prepare ourselves to become habituated to this,” reflected Gérard Etiennez, tying another black ribbon to the little flag on his cutlery and bric-a-brac stall in the market along Boulevard Lefebvre during early morning. | The same was happening to flags all over France – reeling from yet further appalling carnage. Words like “shock”, “grief” and “outrage”, “fear” and “anger” are yet again currency of the moment. Beneath cuts a rip-tide: the sense that this is not a breakdown of order, but a new order of things. “We have to prepare ourselves to become habituated to this,” reflected Gérard Etiennez, tying another black ribbon to the little flag on his cutlery and bric-a-brac stall in the market along Boulevard Lefebvre during early morning. |
| François Hollande on Saturday convened a special “council of security”, planning the next moves beyond an extension of the state of emergency declared after the attacks of 13 November. He did so faced with vitriol from the right wing. “A response without pity”, thundered the front page of Le Figaro. “We’re fighting a war! it is said. What war? We live as though we were in peace! ‘Aux Armes!’ they cry, but our arms are candles, hashtags and the sub-texts of our penal code.” | François Hollande on Saturday convened a special “council of security”, planning the next moves beyond an extension of the state of emergency declared after the attacks of 13 November. He did so faced with vitriol from the right wing. “A response without pity”, thundered the front page of Le Figaro. “We’re fighting a war! it is said. What war? We live as though we were in peace! ‘Aux Armes!’ they cry, but our arms are candles, hashtags and the sub-texts of our penal code.” |
| Republican presidential hopeful Alain Juppé taunted: “If all the measures had been implemented, this drama would have not have occurred.” | Republican presidential hopeful Alain Juppé taunted: “If all the measures had been implemented, this drama would have not have occurred.” |
| The public reacted with some clarity and resolve after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish supermarket, and then the Bataclan theatre and bars last year, but these latest days of mourning began in a state of stupefaction and surreality. | The public reacted with some clarity and resolve after the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish supermarket, and then the Bataclan theatre and bars last year, but these latest days of mourning began in a state of stupefaction and surreality. |
| “It’s surreal” were the first words with which many people in France learned of the slaughter in Nice, transmitted by one of the few journalists – Damien Allemand of Nice-Matin – whose job it had been to report on a family fireworks display by the Mediterranean Sea on Bastille Day. | “It’s surreal” were the first words with which many people in France learned of the slaughter in Nice, transmitted by one of the few journalists – Damien Allemand of Nice-Matin – whose job it had been to report on a family fireworks display by the Mediterranean Sea on Bastille Day. |
| The idea abounds that it would be more unnerving – “surreal” – if the killer were not associated with Islamic State, had never fought in Syria or been “radicalised” at an extremist mosque. The newspaper Libération said: “We therefore hope that those responsible politically who know more than us have the information available to inform us with assurance that it was an Islamist attack signed by this or that organisation.” | The idea abounds that it would be more unnerving – “surreal” – if the killer were not associated with Islamic State, had never fought in Syria or been “radicalised” at an extremist mosque. The newspaper Libération said: “We therefore hope that those responsible politically who know more than us have the information available to inform us with assurance that it was an Islamist attack signed by this or that organisation.” |
| But Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was almost unknown to the authorities. The claim of responsibility by Isis came from the Middle East, with no trace of Bouhlel to match it on the security services’ books. | But Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was almost unknown to the authorities. The claim of responsibility by Isis came from the Middle East, with no trace of Bouhlel to match it on the security services’ books. |
| By contrast, almost all the perpetrators of last year’s atrocities had come under surveillance as “Fiches S”, cases that had aroused suspicion but done nothing to warrant arrest. That brought calls to control or even round up those with such files. | By contrast, almost all the perpetrators of last year’s atrocities had come under surveillance as “Fiches S”, cases that had aroused suspicion but done nothing to warrant arrest. That brought calls to control or even round up those with such files. |
| But those proposals ring hollow this weekend; Lahouaiej-Bouhlel comes from out of the blue. His only police record is for affray after a traffic incident, although there are reports of domestic violence. An awful truth dawns: this is not some soldier in an Islamic army, just a man with a 19-ton truck who drank and had no interest in religion but was spurred on by what prosecutors call “a trail of telephonic and computer material”. Ominously, this is said to include an exchange with a jihadist jailed in Nice, Omar Diaby. | But those proposals ring hollow this weekend; Lahouaiej-Bouhlel comes from out of the blue. His only police record is for affray after a traffic incident, although there are reports of domestic violence. An awful truth dawns: this is not some soldier in an Islamic army, just a man with a 19-ton truck who drank and had no interest in religion but was spurred on by what prosecutors call “a trail of telephonic and computer material”. Ominously, this is said to include an exchange with a jihadist jailed in Nice, Omar Diaby. |
| “If he’s just a nobody motivated by this hatred, who are we to blame? Who are we to fear?” asked Aymeric Carrey, who keeps a gift shop with a ribbon-draped flag in the window. “No one? Everyone ? If this is Daesh, at least we know. If this is just a binational who hates us, are we supposed to fear them all? That would be preposterous.” | “If he’s just a nobody motivated by this hatred, who are we to blame? Who are we to fear?” asked Aymeric Carrey, who keeps a gift shop with a ribbon-draped flag in the window. “No one? Everyone ? If this is Daesh, at least we know. If this is just a binational who hates us, are we supposed to fear them all? That would be preposterous.” |
| The Grande Mosquée de Paris expressed “consternation” at the attack, as it did after previous attacks – but on those occasions it added a denunciation of Isis. Who to denounce this time? No one? Everyone? Not all France’s Muslims, though many will, unfortunately, do just that. | The Grande Mosquée de Paris expressed “consternation” at the attack, as it did after previous attacks – but on those occasions it added a denunciation of Isis. Who to denounce this time? No one? Everyone? Not all France’s Muslims, though many will, unfortunately, do just that. |
| Marine Le Pen’s Front National will be the obvious political winner. “The war against the scourge of Islamist fundamentalism has not yet started,” she said. “It is time, urgently, to declare it.” | Marine Le Pen’s Front National will be the obvious political winner. “The war against the scourge of Islamist fundamentalism has not yet started,” she said. “It is time, urgently, to declare it.” |
| Nice lies in the FN’s Southern heartland, and has been the scene of many attacks on mosques. Islamists, meanwhile, notably those from the fundamentalist insurgency against secular military Algeria, have long converged and hidden in its Ariane and Saint Roch quarters. | Nice lies in the FN’s Southern heartland, and has been the scene of many attacks on mosques. Islamists, meanwhile, notably those from the fundamentalist insurgency against secular military Algeria, have long converged and hidden in its Ariane and Saint Roch quarters. |
| Patrick Calvar, head of France’s internal security services, said: “This is a war between the extreme right and the Muslim world – not just the Islamists, but the Muslim world.” He reminded the nation of the capture of a French neo-fascist in Ukraine bringing an arsenal of weapons back home, but said: “I fear radicalisation a hundred times more than terrorism. Against terrorism, we can strike a blow, but rampant radicalisation is undermining the deep balances in our society.” | Patrick Calvar, head of France’s internal security services, said: “This is a war between the extreme right and the Muslim world – not just the Islamists, but the Muslim world.” He reminded the nation of the capture of a French neo-fascist in Ukraine bringing an arsenal of weapons back home, but said: “I fear radicalisation a hundred times more than terrorism. Against terrorism, we can strike a blow, but rampant radicalisation is undermining the deep balances in our society.” |
| Louder still were hard lines coming from the republicans likely to rule France next, under Juppé or Nicolas Sarkozy. The national assembly member Jacques Myard called for the expulsion of “all binationals on a radicalised road”, as has been applied to those returning from Syria. The former mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said he was “astonished that the president could have announced the end of the state of emergency” before the attack. | Louder still were hard lines coming from the republicans likely to rule France next, under Juppé or Nicolas Sarkozy. The national assembly member Jacques Myard called for the expulsion of “all binationals on a radicalised road”, as has been applied to those returning from Syria. The former mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, said he was “astonished that the president could have announced the end of the state of emergency” before the attack. |
| Outside the police reception centre for foreigners and binationals like him, Amass decides to return tomorrow, first thing, anxious to register members of his family. “Something is going very wrong, very fast,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what his name is, whether he is Daesh or not Daesh – that man drove a truck over little children, and if that can happen, who is safe?” | Outside the police reception centre for foreigners and binationals like him, Amass decides to return tomorrow, first thing, anxious to register members of his family. “Something is going very wrong, very fast,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what his name is, whether he is Daesh or not Daesh – that man drove a truck over little children, and if that can happen, who is safe?” |