“It is frightful to imagine what he may have done with such sensitive information.”
Yes. But will the French authorities now do anything effective to make sure this doesn’t happen again? Of course not. That would be “Islamophobic.” Mickaël Harpon is likely to be the first of many, because any attempt to question Muslim officials or deny them top security clearance if that questioning turned up anything suspicious would immediately be denounced as “racist” and “bigoted.” The fear of charges of “Islamophobia” is a suicide pill.
“Paris police attacker had top secret security clearance,” by Lara Marlowe, Irish Times, October 7, 2019:
Mickaël Harpon, who stabbed three police officers and a woman civil servant to death before he was killed at Paris police headquarters on October 3rd, was a radical Islamist with a top secret security clearance and access to all computers in the police prefecture’s directorate of intelligence, known as the DRPP.
The DRPP is responsible for the surveillance of suspected radical Islamists. Yet Harpon continued to work there, even as he showed signs of radicalisation. This mind-boggling fact has shaken President Emmanuel Macron’s administration. Interior minister Christophe Castaner admitted the state “dysfunctioned” but denied there was a “state scandal”.
“The Paris attack showed the poison of radical Islam has penetrated the heart of the state apparatus,” said Le Figaro’s front-page editorial, which concluded the state is in denial.
Harpon, a West Indian, aged 45, was a deaf mute computer technician. Mr Castaner initially described him as an employee with no behavioural problems. Now the right and far right are clamouring for Mr Castaner’s resignation. The minister defended himself on Monday, saying he told “the truth as it was known” in the hours after the attack.
It is not known whether Harpon divulged secrets to fellow Islamists, Mr Castaner told France Inter radio. “I cannot guarantee he did not use his access to give information. For the time being, nothing indicates that he did.”
Senator Christian Cambon, head of the parliamentary committee on intelligence which will question Mr Castaner on Tuesday, said Harpon had access to the names and home addresses of all police agents. “It is frightful to imagine what he may have done with such sensitive information,” Mr Cambon said.
Police found USB sticks with data on dozens of police officers, as well as Islamic State propaganda videos, in Harpon’s apartment, France 2 television reported on Monday night.
Harpon attended prayers at the mosque in Gonesse, the banlieue north of Paris where he lived. He had recently begun wearing Muslim robes to the mosque and frequented Salafists, Muslims who interpet [sic] the Koran literally and want to return to the time of the Prophet. His mobile phone showed contact with a radical preacher who is under police surveillance, Le Figaro reported…