Source: Terror sleeper cells 'activated' in France
Sat January 10, 2015
French law enforcement officers have been told to erase their social media presence and to carry their weapons at all times because terror sleeper cells have been activated over the last 24 hours in the country, a French police source who attended a briefing Saturday told CNN terror analyst Samuel Laurent.
It was one of a flurry of developments Saturday, including reporting in a French-language magazine that brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi had been under watch by the French, but despite red flags, authorities there lost interest in them.
L'Express national security reporter Eric Pelletier shared with CNN details of his story, for which he talked to multiple French officials.
Tipped off by U.S. intelligence agencies that Said Kouachi may have traveled to Yemen in July, France placed him under surveillance in November 2011 but terminated the scrutiny in June 2014 when French security services deemed him no longer dangerous, officials told Pelletier.
The surveillance of his brother Cherif terminated at the end of 2013 when his phone calls suggested he had disengaged with violent extremism and was focused on counterfeiting clothing and shoes.
A U.S. official told CNN's Barbara Starr that Said Kouachi's 2011 travel lasted three or more months and that he is believed to have trained with al Qaeda in Yemen during that period.
French intelligence officials believe there is a strong probability Cherif Kouachi also traveled to Yemen for a short trip in 2011, separately from his brother, Pelletier's sources told him.
A Yemeni journalist and researcher, Mohammed al-Kibsi, told CNN that he had met and spoken with Said Kouachi in Yemen in 2011 and 2012.
But al-Kibsi, who said he met the man twice, said Said Kouachi was in Yemen most of 2011. Kouachi first went there in 2009 and stayed until mid-2010 before leaving briefly and returning at the end of that year, according to al-Kibsi.
Kouachi entered Yemen multiple times with an officially issued visa, a senior Yemeni national security official told CNN.
"Said was not being watched during the duration of his stay in Yemen because he was not on the watch list," said the official, adding that, at the time, Yemen's Western allies had not raised concerns about Kouachi. The official did not specify when the visits took place.
Kouachi, who was studying Arabic grammar, and underwear bomber Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab previously were roommates for one to two weeks in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, living in the same small apartment, al-Kibsi said. AbdulMutallab is serving a life sentence for trying to bring down a Northwest airlines flight over Detroit on Christmas in 2009 with an underwear bomb.
Kouachi's residence was very near to the famous Al-Tabari School and he and AbdulMutallab used to pray together there, said al-Kibsi by telephone Saturday. It wasn't clear when they were roommates, but AbdulMutallab was arrested after the 2009 bombing attempt.
There has been no official confirmation of the claim that he and AbdulMutallab were associates.
The Kouachi brothers, who authorities say carried out Wednesday's deadly attack in the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, were killed Friday in a shootout with French security forces outside of Paris.
France, meanwhile, continues to cope with three days of terror that left 17 people dead. Thousands gathered on the streets for vigils Saturday and hundreds of thousands were expected at massive rallies Sunday, along with heads of state and other dignitaries.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/10/europe/charlie-hebdo-paris-shooting/