France has all but ceded control of many Muslim enclaves to the immigrants themselves and in the process made preventing attacks like the Paris magazine massacre more difficult, former CIA station chief Gary Berntsen told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner on
Newsmax TV on Friday.
"Europe has allowed massive immigration — and France in particular — from the Middle East and from north Africa," said Berntsen, who served in Afghanistan after 9/11. "There are over 5 million Muslims in France."
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Within France, home to Europe's largest Muslim population, he said, "there are hundreds of no-go zones where police won’t even enter and Islamic councils are sort of leading those people in there."
The country has put itself "at grave risk" as a result, said Berntsen.
The issue is not limited to one EU nation, he added, noting that Sweden, the Netherlands and Great Britain, among others, face similar challenges as documented in books such as
"Menace in Europe" and
"Londonistan."
Berntsen argued that Europe as a whole "lost control of its immigration" and allowed large, unassimilated foreign populations to become recruiting grounds for disaffected people who drift into Islamic radicalism and violence.
"There are thousands and thousands of individuals in Europe that have been trained in terrorist training camps across the Middle East, that have come back [to Europe]," he said, "and today we've witnessed, sadly, additional loss of life of hostages in resolving an incident with these types of terrorists."
The
two siblings implicated in the Charlie Hebdo magazine attack — both reported killed on Friday in a
raid by French police — were born in Paris to Algerian parents. The younger brother, Cherif Kouachi, spent time in prison for his connections to jihadists, and both were on a
U.S. no-fly list.
Berntsen said Muslim assimilation and integration into Western culture has proved more successful in the United States.
By contrast, he said, many Muslims in France and throughout Europe "feel like they're foreigners in that society," and have erupted into episodes of civil unrest, including rioting and arson.
But America's comparative advantage with assimilation does not mean the country is not at risk, he said.
"There are Islamic fundamentalists that are in the United States, that have operated here, that have said that they want [to recruit] fundamentalists, then they disappear and then they’re running major positions within Hamas," he said. "This happens all the time."
"The vast majority of Muslim-Americans are loyal people," said Berntsen. "However, there’s been penetration in the United States, as well. There are militants that are here that are operating."
Berntsen also said it's time for President Barack Obama to call the enemy by its proper name.
"This administration, the Obama administration, can't put the word 'Islamic' and ‘terrorism’ in the same sentence," he said, despite the fact that leaders even in Middle Eastern countries condemn terror attacks in exactly those terms.
"But you got the United States government that can’t say it," said Berntsen. "It’s just shocking. If you can’t define an enemy, you’re not going to fight it.
"The fact is that, the lexicon has been changed by this administration for … reasons of political correctness," he said, adding, "We are in a battle of civilizations. We have to start to act like we’re in this fight, and we have to confront our enemies. If not, they will kill many, many more of us in very bad ways."
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