Terrorist attack during Olympics would be 'very badly perceived by public opinion worldwide'
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00:00 The French Interior Ministry is speaking of a failing of the psychological profession
00:05 that allowed a radicalized man to carry out a fatal attack in Paris.
00:09 A German tourist, aged 23, was stabbed and killed in the attack on Saturday near the
00:14 Eiffel Tower.
00:15 The man is in police custody.
00:17 The failings could even go deeper, given that the alleged assailant had a criminal record
00:22 and there had been warnings to police from his parents that he had become dangerously
00:27 extreme in his radical views.
00:30 "I reiterate my desire to work with members of parliament on a psychiatric care order
00:38 that could be granted to police prefects in the extremely difficult conditions that we
00:43 have to manage a certain number of people who are involved in radical Islam and suffer
00:47 from mental illness.
00:49 And I think it's about time that parliament gave the government the means to act on this
00:53 issue."
00:54 That's the Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin out in the streets, responding to questions
01:02 from journalists.
01:03 Let's get more analysis of the situation, joined by Jean-Louis Chappelet, an Olympic
01:06 specialist at Lausanne University.
01:08 Jean-Louis, thank you very much for being with us.
01:10 Clearly, this is a tragic incident and our thoughts clearly go to the families of the
01:15 victims concerned.
01:17 It is a tragedy for them.
01:19 There is no other way to put it.
01:21 Nonetheless, this is a man, an assailant, who was in journalistic parlance, known to
01:26 police, known because he had a criminal record, known because of his radical views, and yet
01:31 he's able to commit the crime that he's committed.
01:34 I know you're not a criminologist, but certainly in view of the Olympics, this kind of thing
01:39 can take place in Paris.
01:41 It does raise questions about security.
01:44 Yes, of course, but such things have already happened in other cities around the world,
01:52 and because the Olympics are taking place in Paris, of course, we talk about it a lot.
01:57 But what we can expect in July and August 2024, next year, is that this war between
02:04 Israel and Hamas will be finished, and therefore these incidents will disappear.
02:12 Historically, there has been very few such security incidents at the Olympics.
02:20 One of course was in Munich in 1972, but it was quite 50 years ago, and a bomb at the
02:27 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, but nothing else as far as I remember.
02:34 Indeed, Jean-Luc, as you point out, Munich 1972, 11 Israelis killed as Palestinian terrorists
02:39 at that time of the group Black September struck.
02:42 1996 in Atlanta, a far-right domestic terrorist, that's basically a white terrorist of American
02:49 nationality, detonated a bomb at a fan zone, two people killed.
02:52 We're in a different world now, aren't we, though?
02:55 Those kind of offences possibly would not be allowed to happen.
03:00 The security, I suspect, for Paris will be far stronger.
03:03 Well, certainly it has to be, doesn't it?
03:06 Yeah, thousands of security forces will be in place in Paris.
03:10 I've heard 35,000 between the police, the army, and the different security, private
03:16 security people.
03:18 So of course, for the terrorist, eventual terrorist, it will be very difficult to do
03:25 something.
03:26 But of course, we cannot prevent, we cannot imagine that something would happen.
03:35 This is something that will be checked and will have to be checked by all these security
03:43 people.
03:44 Because the incident that happened on Saturday night in Paris is inside what is going to
03:47 be the sort of the security zone for the Olympics.
03:51 Once again, our sympathies go to the families of all those who were concerned by the incident
03:57 on Saturday.
03:58 Nonetheless, it must raise questions.
04:00 You can't stop one rogue element, one lone wolf, if you like, who wants to carry out
04:07 some kind of an attack.
04:09 It's very difficult, isn't it, to actually stop that kind of person?
04:12 Yeah, it is.
04:14 It is.
04:15 But of course, with having so many security forces on the spot, it will be more difficult.
04:21 And for terrorists or for people who have a goal of terrorism, it might not be such
04:27 a good idea to have a terrorist attack during the Olympics, because the Olympics are a sign
04:32 of goodwill.
04:34 And what happened, for example, after the 1972 attack on the Olympic Village in Munich,
04:41 was considered really bad by public opinion worldwide.
04:46 So it was not a good thing for the Palestinians group who did it.
04:52 It was called the FATA at the time.
04:53 It was not AMAS.
04:54 But they got really a bad name out of this terrorist attack in Munich 50 years ago.
05:01 So we can suppose that a purposeful, organized terrorist attack by the Hamas, for example,
05:09 would be very badly perceived by public opinion worldwide.
05:13 So it wouldn't advance the Hamas cause, for example.
05:17 Okay.
05:18 The security numbers perhaps add up for the Paris Olympics.
05:21 Jean-Luc Chaplet of Lausanne University.
05:24 Thank you very much indeed for giving us your assessment of the situation.
05:27 Pleasure to speak to you.
05:28 And just to remind people, of course, we're discussing the issue of security after the
05:32 attack in Paris in which one German tourist was killed.
05:37 Our sympathies go out, of course, to his family and the other families of the victims of the
05:41 attack on Saturday.
05:43 The legal process will still take its course.
05:46 And the Interior Minister of France has gone on record to say he's concerned that there
05:50 were psychological failings that allowed the man to still be out on the streets.
05:55 We'll bring you more, of course, as it all develops.
05:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]