[ad_1]
The SRI published, for the first time, a lengthy message about the terrorist attack that took place on Monday night in Vienna. “The attack in Vienna, committed in a Central European country, also protected from major terrorist attacks in recent history, is a warning that any state in Europe can be the target of terrorists,” reads the message from the Romanian Intelligence Service. .
“In a space (Europe) of free movement and individual freedoms, terrorists take advantage of these advantages to commit terrorist attacks. Even under the conditions of restricted freedom of movement amid the Covid-19 pandemic, there are still enough communication and travel tools that even countries like Romania, which have not faced terrorist attacks in the recent past, cannot be considered. . protected from such risks, “says the Romanian Intelligence Service.
“In Romania, the terrorist alert level remains Blue-Caution, and the Romanian Intelligence Service permanently cooperates both with internal institutional partners within the National System to Prevent and Combat Terrorism (SNPCT) and with external ones, to prevent the materialization of any terrorist threat in the national territory ”, announces the SRI, and affirms that it has developed guidelines for self-protection and advice to report potentially terrorist situations, which citizens can report.
The National Security Institution explains the radicalization mechanism and the terrorists’ new mode of operation: small-scale attacks with easy-to-acquire weapons:
“The recent terrorist attacks in Europe, in France (Paris, Nice, Avignon) in October and Austria (Vienna), on 02.11.2020, confirm the topicality of the terrorist threat to Europe, even under the conditions in which the continent is faces a profound health crisis, on an upward trend.
Terrorism has maintained its pattern in recent years: small-scale attacks, with easily obtained weapons (knives or firearms), organized by people with a jihadist ideological affiliation, but without proven links with terrorist organizations.
Unlike most recent attacks, the one in Vienna recalls, albeit on a smaller scale, the attacks in Paris (Bataclan) – 11/13/2015 and the problem of terrorists’ access to firearms, in particular. a Europe where national arms control policies are very strict.
Sensitive subjects, such as the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, have once again proven to be the trigger for a series of attacks, but their true motivation is jihadist-terrorist, based on the ideology of global jihad, in which the West / Christianity are considered enemies of the Muslim world.
Terrorists are very often people who have no clear ties to terrorist organizations, but express their support for structures that promote and support jihadist ideology.
In the case of the Vienna bombing, Austrian authorities prevented him from joining the Daesh-led jihad in Syria and sentenced him to prison in 2019 for his intentions to travel for terrorist purposes.
In general, these people, defined in the media as “lone actors”, are very difficult to identify by the security and intelligence structures, in the absence of concrete links with a terrorist organization and of indications that they could carry out an attack. terrorist.
Terrorists know very well how to speculate on technological developments to spread their ideology on the Internet, communicate through encrypted applications without fear of being intercepted, seek in an online environment or through organized crime structures what is necessary to commit a terrorist attack. .
The process of radicalization, through which apparently normal people, newcomers to European territory or second or even third generation European citizens, are transformed into potential terrorists, is very difficult to detect and counteract. Radicalization is unleashed and maintained through systematic propaganda, initially generated by Daesh or Al Qaeda, but later cascading through mechanisms such as “like” or “share” on social networks.
This propaganda, which at first called for the support of the jihad by moving to the Syria-Iraq region to fight in the Islamic caliphate, today has as its main message the insistent call on its followers to carry out attacks anywhere and by any means . by hand: vehicles, knives or firearms, arson, etc ”.
Also read Terrorist attack in Vienna. The moments of horror, described by witnesses: “He did not shoot at random. He killed in cold blood. “Who are the victims
Editor: Adriana Duțulescu
