In a book entitled Erreurs Fatales [Fatal Errors], published by Fayard, an independent journalist Vincent Nouzille recounts how France drew up nominative lists of terrorists to be eliminated, subject to the approval of the President of the Republic.
Nouzille has been exploring the gray areas of the secret services for years. In his book, he plunges the depths of the French anti-terrorist struggle and reveals how, after a long investigation, the authorities have failed to prevent serious attacks while exploring extra-judicial avenues.
Le Monde has published excerpts, also of the extrajudicial executions ordered by the president.
“Since his election in May 2012, Francois Hollande intended to embody a more martial policy than his predecessors, even if there was a price to pay in abandoning the strict framework of legality. Thus, it was decided to reply in a systematic way to the hostage taking and the attacks that affect the French in the world. In the case of journalists Gérard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, he admitted to ordering this kind of revenge: “The army, the DGSE have a list of people who can be thought to have been responsible for taking hostages or acts against our interests. I was questioned. I said: “If you apprehend them, of course …” This confirms what we wrote at the beginning of 2015, namely that France draws up nominative lists of persons to be eliminated, submitted by the president.
But in an interview on France’s Europe1 on Thursday morning, he said despite Hollande’s kill list, the different security agencies still function without mutual consultation: “There is no real coordination.”
Nouzille told journalist Mohamed Kaci on Monday that the French secret services had already killed 40 jihadists from the kill list.
He said some of the targets were hit by American drones after the French had communicated the names of the jihadists to the US, but could not give an exact number.
Nouzille also revealed that France had paid ransom money to Islamist kidnappers that could have aided the jihadist effort. The French government disbursed at least 90 million euros in that way, he said.
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