‘We did not know about an active plot,’ U.S. ambassador to France tells Yahoo News
French police enter the Eglise Neuve church after smashing the door as they secure the area during an operation in Saint-Denis, near Paris, on Nov. 18. (Photo: Jacky Naegelen/Reuters)
U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley said she was not alerted to any intelligence that a terrorist plot might be in the works before Islamic State terrorists launched brutal attacks in Paris on Friday night, killing 129 people, including one American.
Hartley also confirmed in an interview with Yahoo News that a team of FBI agents has arrived in Paris to assist with the unfolding investigation that led this morning to a raid by French police in which two suspected terrorists were killed and seven arrested.
“We did not know about an active plot,” said Hartley, describing how she had been out to dinner with her husband at a Paris restaurant Friday evening when the attacks were launched. “We here did not know of an imminent threat.”
Hartley’s comments came two days after CIA director John Brennan said that U.S. intelligence had “strategic warning” that Islamic State terrorists might be plotting attacks in Europe prior to Friday’s attacks.
Iraqi intelligence officials also said this week that the day before the attacks they sent warnings to European partners, including the French, that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had ordered attacks “through bombings or assassinations or hostage taking in the coming days.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks on Nov. 16 during a ceremony lighting the U.S. Embassy in Paris in French tricolor as a sign of solidarity, as U.S. Ambassador to France Jane Hartley looks on. (Photo: U.S. Dept. of State/EPA)
But how those warnings were communicated to U.S. and French officials, if at all, remains unclear. U.S. officials have said they have received multiple intelligence reports about potential Islamic State threats over the past year but that they invariably lack enough specifics about timing or place to allow law enforcement officials to take active measures to thwart them.
That seems to have been the case Friday night: Hartley said she was out dining with her husband, New York investment banker Ralph Schlosstein, at a small Japanese restaurant when she received an initial text from the U.S. Embassy about the attacks.
She was quickly whisked away by her security guards and spent the night at the ambassador’s residence monitoring events.
In the days since, Hartley, a former fundraiser for President Obama, has been helping to coordinate the U.S. response. The U.S. Embassy has issued warnings to American citizens in Paris to exercise “extreme caution,” she said.
In addition to this week’s visit to Paris by Secretary of State John Kerry, Hartley said there has been increased military and intelligence cooperation by the U.S., including regular contact with French authorities by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Lisa Monaco, President Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser.
Slideshow: Deadly raid in Saint Denis on Paris attack suspects >>>
One American was killed in the attacks, Hartley said, and an additional four U.S. citizens were injured — one at a restaurant and three others at the Bataclan concert hall. But none of the injuries were critical, she said. (A U.S. official said later that the injuries were serious and that some of the injured Americans are still hospitalized, although expected to recover.)
Hartley, who was sworn in as ambassador in fall 2014 and arrived in time for the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, also has spoken out in recent days about the need for the United States to accept more Syrian refugees — a plan that has drawn opposition from Republican governors.
“I would remind Americans we are a country of immigrants,” she said. “Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian immigrant. When we go down on this path, we have to be very careful.”
