Paris attacks: Call to overhaul French intelligence services

French intelligence services should be overhauled in the wake of last year's terror attacks in Paris, a parliamentary commission of inquiry has recommended.

Various services should be merged into a single agency, the commission said.

Commission president Georges Fenech proposed a body similar to the US National Counter-Terrorism Centre.

The January and November attacks, which killed 147 people in all, prompted criticism of the security response.

"Faced with the threat of international terrorism we need to be much more ambitious... in terms of intelligence," said Mr Fenech.

The commission also criticised the Belgian authorities for being slow to stop the fugitive Salah Abdeslam, who took part in last November's attacks before fleeing to Belgium. He was eventually arrested in Brussels in March.

Meanwhile the continuing state of emergency imposed after the attacks was only having a "limited impact" on security, the commission found.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 soldiers are on duty in France as part of the extra security measures, deployed to protect schools, synagogues, department stores and other sensitive sites.

"I am wondering what real added value they provide in terms of securing the national territory," said socialist MP Sebastian Pietrasanta.

Last January's attack on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the shooting of a policewoman and a siege at a Jewish supermarket killed 17 people.

In November, 130 people died in coordinated gun and bomb attacks on a concert hall, restaurants and the Stade de France, where an international football match was taking place.

Author: 
BBC