Story of ‘terror twins’ absolute nonsense - expert

No one would want to move to Syria 'in the middle of a five-year civil war', says independent defence and security analyst Helmoed Heitman.

Pretoria - It’s “absolute nonsense” that the 23-year-old twins accused of plotting attacks against US and Israeli interests in South Africa wanted to emigrate to Syria to live in an Islamic country, rather than to join Islamic State (IS).

That's the view of independent defence and security analyst Helmoed Heitman, who said no one would want to move to Syria “in the middle of a five-year civil war”.

The family of Brandon-Lee and Toni-Lee Thulsie claimed the pair did not want to join IS.

They planned instead to live in war-torn Syria because of their Islamic beliefs.

Heitman said: “There are lots of Islamic states they could live in in the Middle East, and if they wanted a serious Islamic state, they could go to Iran, they could go to Turkey.

There are parts of the Philippines, Indonesia and North Africa that are Muslim. Syria is a non-functioning country – you either go there to fight, or if you're a deeply charitable 'do-gooder’ type.”

The brothers stand accused of planning explosions at a mission of the US and Jewish institutions in Johannesburg between last October and July this year, and of attempting to travel to Syria to join IS.

The Hawks also arrested Ebrahim and Fatima Patel for possession of a stun-grenade and 21 bullets.

Heitman commented, however, that “a stun grenade and a few bullets does not a terrorist make”.

He says the twins were possibly “lone wolves” who were radicalised online.

“The Muslim community is small and pretty conservative. They do their business, behave themselves, but of course… youngsters are more vulnerable to radicalisation than adults “

If you look at a lot of the terror groups around the world, most are started and led by teens or people in their early 20stwenties … I don’t know if we have any radical Muslim clerics in the country.

“But there’s so much stuff online. If you’re halfway inclined, you’ll find it,” he said.

Heitman also warned South Africa’s crime and intelligence services to tread carefully with the cases against the accused. “You arrest a couple of young Muslims on terror charges and it’s bull...t, and there’s nothing there.

“All that will do is radicalise young Muslims and offend the entire community.”Jonathan Wood, director of global issues at Control Risks, a global risk and strategic consulting firm, said there was no coherent profile of a potential recruit or radical, beyond the likelihood it would be a male aged 18 to 25.

“Recent events, such as the terrorist attack in Bangladesh, illustrate how wealthy, well-educated and well-integrated individuals are by no means immune to recruitment by extremist groups.

“Having said that, recruitment efforts do often look to exploit minority grievances within communities which they feel are more amenable to radicalisation,” he said.

Extremist groups, Wood said, used three main channels of recruitment – “personal contact with radicalised individuals, typically within the family or community; efforts by foreign fighter brigades to reach out to their networks and produce local-language propaganda within their countries of origin and diaspora communities; and, the most visible to outsiders, wide-reaching online propaganda campaigns”.”

All are aimed at guiding individuals towards extremist ideology and subsequently violent action, whether by means of travelling to a conflict zone or by conducting an attack at home,” he said.

Barnaby Fletcher, another analyst at Control Risks, said while South Africa could be vulnerable to a terror attack, there was not significant intent from groups like IS to launch large-scale attacks here.

But South Africa was vulnerable: “The capabilities of South Africa’s security agencies are limited, extremist groups are present, and it is extremely difficult for any country to fully mitigate the threat of lone wolf attacks.”

Martin Ewi, a senior researcher with the Institute of Security Studies, said there hadn’t been enough empirical research done on home-grown terrorism for experts to pinpoint areas particularly vulnerable to recruiters.

Pretoria News Weekend