Dozens of people have been detained across western Europe today, though few of them have been charged with anything, following a new round of “anti-terror” sweeps focusing on Islamist communities across the continent.
French Premier Manuel Valis says that the operations were a response to a “terrorist offensive” in the wake of last week’s Paris attacks. Other officials claimed plots were in the offing to attack police in several countries.
A lot of the “imminent” attacks appear to have been highly speculative, with Germany conceding that despite all of the people detained in their operation, there was no evidence any of them were planning attacks inside Germany.
Belgium similarly insisted that the people they arrested only had “intentions” to kill police and were exactly plotting against anyone. The detentions seem to be focused primarily on potential “future” terrorists instead of actual terrorists.
