Lessons point in four directions

All terrorist outrages are followed by soul-searching and blame seeking. Last week’s terrible events in France have followed the inevitable trajectory.

While the French Republic’s security manhunt for the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo and Jewish supermarket killings involved an impressive and vast mobilization of forces, and while French society’s response to the attacks was awe-inspiring in its public show of support for free speech and unity, questions have begun to emerge about the performance of French intelligence in failing to prevent the attacks.

The French prime minister, Manuel Valls, has already stated that there was a “clear failing…when 17 people die, it means there were cracks.”

 Wesley Wark: Intelligence lessons from France