Terrorist Attack on Paris Churches Thwarted

The Associated Press (via the Miami Herald) reports:

An Islamic extremist with an arsenal of loaded guns was prevented from opening fire on churchgoers only because he accidentally shot himself in the leg, French officials said Wednesday.

The 24-year-old computer science student, who was also suspected in the death of a young woman whose body was found on Sunday shortly before his arrest, had been flagged as a risk for intent to travel to Syria but there had been no specific reason to open a judicial investigation, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Wednesday.

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said the suspect – an Algerian who had lived in France for several years – was arrested in Paris Sunday after he apparently shot himself by accident and called for an ambulance.

He was waiting outside his apartment building for first aid when police arrived. They followed a trail of blood to his car, which contained loaded guns, and notes about potential targets.

A search of his apartment in southeastern Paris turned up more weapons including three Kalashnikov assault rifles along with phones and computers that police used to establish that he’d been in communication with someone “who could have been in Syria,” Molins said at a news conference.

This person “explicitly asked him to target a church,” Molins said, declining to answer questions about the investigation into what he termed “an imminent attack.”

So many things spring to mind about this article: how our greatest protection from terrorists is often their stupidity; the ineffectiveness of gun control; the fruits of European immigration policy ... and the last bit of the article (not included above) indicating that European authorities are working with Google and Twitter to increase electronic surveillance.