Jane's om terrorism i Skandinavien

Jane's Intelligence Review (konto krävs) har publicerat artikeln Safe haven? Radical Islam's Scandinavian links, av Michael Jonsson och Christofer Berglund. Texten är närmast att betrakta som en summering av det senaste året eller de senaste årens utveckling i Danmark, Norge och Sverige när det gäller islamistisk terrorism och länkar därtill.

Det mesta i den långa artikeln som berör Sverige har noterats här på bloggen tidigare, men Jonsson och Berglund ger också inblickar i Säkerhetspolisens arbete och syn på problemens omfattning. Nedan citeras en intressant passage.

Malena Rembe, chief analyst with the counter-terrorism unit at the Swedish Security Service (Säkerhetspolisen: SAPO), told Jane's that intelligence, internet chatter and postings by groups such as AQI are increasingly mentioning Sweden or Swedish interests as a potential target for Islamist terrorism.

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While Sweden may still be low on the jihadist target list, individuals affiliated to various terrorist groups are present in the country. Rembe told Jane's that members of several terrorist organisations are present in Sweden and that they are fairly active in providing logistical support to their organisations. However, as they belong to separate organisations - sympathetic towards but not formally affiliated with the actual terrorist group - it is judicially difficult to act against them. The presence of radical Islamist groups in Sweden is concerning, as sympathisers of these groups travel to conflict areas, gain experience and are encouraged by ideological leaders to attack Western targets. Therefore, if events such as the Prophet Muhammad cartoons trigger an increased wish to carry out attacks in Europe, capacity and outside encouragement to do so tends to be higher.

Martin Wagner, an analyst at the SAPO counter-terrorism unit, told Jane's that contacts between radical Islamists in Scandinavia have been fairly frequent, facilitated by both the ease of travel and sometimes by social ties. However, the high level of trust between the Scandinavian security services makes cross-border co-operation easier than is usually the case.