Jihadis 'may be in Calais camp', ex police terror chief claims

7 minutes ago

by Natalie de Vallieres, Selina O'Grady, and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Calais/London

• From the section England

Image caption Kevin Hurley said it was not possible for refugees to be subjected to detailed checks

The so-called jungle camp in Calais may be a refuge for returning jihadis to "hide in plain sight" before "smuggling themselves" into the UK, a former head of police counter-terrorism has said.

During a visit to inspect the area Kevin Hurley said he was concerned the camp was "completely un-policed".
But the head of a charity working at the camp called his claim "ridiculous".
The camp, on the outskirts of Calais, has grown in recent months and is now home to thousands of migrants.

Image caption The camp has grown in the past few months and is now home to thousands of migrants.

Mr Hurley, the former lead on counter-terrorism at the City of London Police and current police and crime commissioner for Surrey, spent several hours in the camp with BBC London's Inside Out team.

He said he was worried the camp was "a potential hiding space" and that people there could be being exploited by organised criminals.
"If I were a returning jihadi, I would smuggle myself in amongst this group; you would easily get lost," he said.
Speaking to migrants at the camp, Mr Hurley was told that there were dangerous people staying in the "jungle".

Image caption Claire Moseley, the founder of charity that works in the camp, dismissed Kevin Hurley's claims as "ridiculous"

One migrant said there were people at the camp who were "working for way of Daesh", although they were not part of the jihadist group.
Daesh is an acronym of the initial letters of the so-called Islamic State (IS) group's previous name in Arabic - "al-Dawla al-Islamiya fil Iraq wa al-Sham".
Another migrant from Afghanistan also told the BBC team there had been a murder in the area on the previous night.
A former Scotland Yard counter-terrorist investigator told the Inside Out team he had similar worries about the "jungle".
David Videcette said the "biggest risk" from the camp was UK nationals "who are trying to avoid detection by police... are now attempting to re-enter the country claiming to be asylum seekers".
However, the founder of Care4Calais, a UK charity set up to help migrants staying in the camp, dismissed the claims as "the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard".
Clare Moseley said: "You would have to be the world's stupidest terrorist to try and enter Britain as a refugee, because when you come as a refugee you are subject to detailed background checks."
Home Secretary Theresa May has previously told MPs all refugees coming to Britain will be subject to rigorous security checks to make sure IS militants are not among them.
Nevertheless, Mr Hurley insisted that it was not possible to carry out such detailed checks.
"You can't check a person with no passport coming from a fractured country", he said.
You can watch Inside Out on BBC One at 7.30pm on Monday 11 January and on the iPlayer for seven days afterwards.

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‘No quick victory over IS group’ French army chief warns

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© AFP / Stephane De Sakutin | Chief of the Defence Staff General Pierre de Villiers (R) and French Defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian arrive at the Elysee Palace in Paris for a security meeting on November 14, 2015

by Natalie de Vallieres, Isabelle Roussel, and Biodun Iginla, France24 Political News Analysts, Paris         

Latest update : 2015-11-22

There will be no short-term military victory in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group, France’s army chief of staff warned on Sunday, as Paris intensifies its strikes on targets in Syria following the deadly attacks in the French capital.

President François Hollande has called for a grand coalition, including the United States and Russia, to eradicate the IS group in Syria and is due to meet with Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin next week.
The IS group, also known as Daesh, claimed responsibility for the worst violence in France since World War Two, in which 130 people were killed in bombings and shootings across Paris last Friday. The group said the assaults were in retaliation for France’s involvement in the US-backed air strikes in Iraq and Syria.
“There will be no military victory against Daesh in the short term,” Pierre de Villiers, chief of staff of armed forces, told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche in an interview published on Sunday.
“In the military, we are used to the long term but people ... want fast results. In Syria and Iraq, we are in the heart of that paradox. Everybody knows that in the end this conflict will be resolved through diplomatic and political channels.”
Hollande will travel to Washington to speak with Obama on Tuesday and then head to Moscow to meet with Putin to discuss how their countries’ militaries might work together.
‘No coordination with Russia’
Russia and Western countries are divided over Syria. Moscow is supporting President Bashar al-Assad while the West says he should leave power to end Syria’s civil war.
But in the wake of the Paris attacks as well as the downing of a Russian airliner over Egypt claimed by an affiliate of the IS group, Moscow has also signalled it wants closer cooperation with Western nations in Syria.
Putin ordered his Mediterranean warships last week to make “direct contact” with the French aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle, which is en route to the waters off Syria to assist in French airstrikes.
During a meeting devoted to military operations in Syria, President Putin told the head of the Russian Army that it was “imperative” to work with the French navy “as allies”.
However, De Villiers said he had spoken to his Russian counterpart by phone to discuss their countries’ ships with regard to Syria and that France had not “at this stage any coordination of strikes or identification of targets in consultation with the Russians, even if we have the same enemy in Daesh”.
Since the November 13 Paris bombings and shootings, French war planes have launched their biggest raids in Syria to date, including hitting the IS group's stronghold in Raqqa.
In the space of three days, some 60 bombs were dropped as training camps or command centres were targeted last week, de Villiers said.
“I honestly think that we seriously hurt them,” he said.
De Villiers added that France currently has some 34,000 soldiers deployed in France and abroad. On Monday, Hollande said he would avoid cuts to defence spending before 2019.