A SYMPTOM, NOT ONLY FOR SPAIN BUT FOR MANY CENTRAL
EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
By Soeren Kern
An investigation initiated by the American CIA and FBI in
2009 revealed that at least 100 Islamic extremists had infiltrated the U.S.
military, and that some of these individuals had been in touch with Islamic
radicals who had infiltrated military units in Spain, as well as Britain,
France and Germany.
The military is an attractive employment option for many
young Muslims born in Spain, where the unemployment rate is stuck at 27%, and
the jobless rate for individuals under 25 exceeds 60%. Often, a stint in the
military opens doors for civilian jobs with national or local police or other
security-related occupations.
The Spanish military is quietly monitoring its Muslim
soldiers in an effort to prevent the spread of Islamic radicalism within its
ranks, according to a classified Defense Ministry document that has been leaked
to the Spanish media.
The Spanish Army has also been systematically replacing its
Muslim soldiers with new recruits from Latin America in an effort to reduce the
potential for trouble in areas of Spain that have a large Muslim population.
Spain abolished the draft and transitioned to a professional
military in 2002, but has been unable to find enough native Spanish volunteer
soldiers to fill the ranks—due to a mix of apathy, pacifism and declining
birth rates (Spain has a fertility
rate of just 1.36 (2011), one of the lowest in the European Union).
RECRUITMENT OF MUSLIMS
IS A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD
Like other European countries facing a similar dilemma,
the Spanish Defense Ministry, in a desperate search for soldiers, is
increasingly relying on Muslim recruits. But the push to boost Muslim
enlistment has been a double-edged sword: while Spain needs the extra manpower,
it also worries that some Muslim soldiers harbor extremist ideologies.
The leaked document was issued by the Deputy Chief of Staff
of the Spanish Army, Lieutenant General Jesús Carlos Fernández Asensio, in October
2013.
The document—classified as "confidential" and
published by the Madrid-based newspaper El
País on November 19—states that the Spanish Army has detected
within its ranks "the existence of personnel with clear indications of
radicalism (ideological, religious or criminal)…in their private and social
lives." The document continues:
"The conduct of these individuals constitutes a
vulnerability for the institution of the Army and poses a potential threat to
national security. In an effort to neutralize or at least reduce this risk, the
Army has instituted a series of measures that will be applied by unit
commanders on suspected military personnel to be determined at any given
moment."
The measures include revoking the security clearances of any
soldiers suspected of radicalism, and preventing such individuals from holding
any job position where they might pose a security risk in any form or may have
access to sensitive information.
The document lists more than a dozen jobs or locations that
should be off limits to suspected radicals:
"Military police and other security-related units; the
general staff headquarters; any premises where classified documents are
handled; armories, arsenals and weapons depots; communications centers and
locations housing information systems; job positions involving drivers, escorts
and bodyguards, as well as those involving sharpshooters or the deactivation of
explosives; or any other location determined by the unit commander."
Military units are also charged with monitoring
"everything related to a suspect's proselytizing activities or actions,
their level of radicalism and their public activities (social media, Internet
surfing, types of newspapers being read, etc.)."
Units are, additionally, responsible for keeping track of
any civilian lawsuits or criminal proceedings that may involve a suspected
soldier "outside the scope of the Armed Forces," as well as "any
notices of plans by a suspect to travel abroad."
The Defense Ministry recommends the "application, as
far as possible, of staff regulations relating to psycho-physical fitness
requirements, anti-drug enforcement policies, as well as the disciplinary
regulations of the Military Penal Code." Such procedures would apparently
provide the legal basis for suspected radicals to be discharged from the
Spanish military.
The document also proposes the "development of an
extraordinary rating system" for any soldier who displays a "significant
change in professional conduct." A negative performance evaluation would
be grounds for such a soldier to be discharged.
Although the document does not specifically define what is
meant by the term "radicalism," it almost certainly refers to Salafist
Islam and the Spanish Defense Ministry's concern about the increasing number of
Muslim recruits within the ranks of the military.
The military is an attractive employment option for many
young Muslims born in Spain, where the unemployment
rate is stuck at 27%, and the jobless rate for individuals under 25
exceeds 60%. Often, a stint in the military opens the door to civilian jobs
with national or local police or other security-related occupations.
There are no official statistics as to how many Muslims are
serving in the Spanish armed forces, which currently has 140,000 active duty
service members and 5,000 reservists.
But the issue of Muslim troops serving in the Spanish
military is especially acute in the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on
the northern coast of Morocco, which has long demanded that Madrid cede
sovereignty of the territories over to Rabat.
Muslims constitute approximately 30% of the Spanish troops
stationed in Ceuta and Melilla, where the real
unemployment rate tops 40%.
In July 2012 it emerged that the Spain's National
Intelligence Center (CNI) was investigating a tip it received from the American
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that al-Qaeda
operatives had infiltrated Spanish military unitsbased both in Ceuta and
Melilla, territories the Algeria-based Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)
has long threatened to "reconquer"
for Islam.
The alert resulted from an investigation initiated by the
CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in November 2009, after the
U.S. Army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an al-Qaeda sympathizer, fatally
shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others at Fort Hood in Texas. The
investigation found that at least 100
Islamic extremists had infiltrated the US military, and that some of these
individuals had been in contact with Islamic radicals who had infiltrated
military units in Spain, as well as in Britain, France and Germany.
According to Spanish media
reports, CNI investigators began searching for Muslim soldiers with a
"non-classic" profile: individuals who show no special identification
with Islamic culture and even appear to be "Westernized," who drink
alcohol, smoke and eat without respecting the restrictions imposed by the
Koran, and who do not participate in religious services of the local Muslim
community.
As a result of the investigation, the Spanish military has
replaced dozens of Muslim soldiers with recruits from Latin America. The mass
discharges—due to "lack of trust or dubious loyalty"—have only
increased tensions with the local Muslim community, who have distributed
thousands of leaflets denouncing the "persecution
of Spanish soldiers of the Muslim faith."
Worries over possible infiltration of radical Salafism in
the Spanish military has dated back to at least December 2006, when a police
investigation named Operation Dune (Operación Duna) dismantled a Salafi cell
that allegedly planned to carry out attacks using explosives stolen by Muslim
soldiers in Ceuta. The raid,
which involved more than 300 police, resulted in the arrest of 11 Salafists,
including ten Spanish nationals, at least three of whom were serving in the
Spanish Army.
Since then, Spanish police have conducted more than 20 other raids across
Spain in an effort to dismantle Salafist cells.
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