(NEW YORK POST) PARIS — France is tracking hundreds of people believed to belong to possible sleeper cells for terror organizations like al Qaeda or the Islamic State, the country’s top security official said.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve laid out what has become an increasingly urgent question for European intelligence services: How to trace the moment when someone transforms from a disgruntled criminal or disaffected citizen into a terrorist, and how to block those first steps toward radicalization.
“Four hundred targets have been identified by our intelligence services that are more or less sleeper cells, affiliated or in relation with al Qaeda-type organizations, that can strike like the Kouachi brothers,” Cazeneuve said in an interview late Monday.
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