Nice Attack Shows 'Little Can Be Done Short of Creating a Police State'

New evidence is finally coming to light about the Nice attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the driver of the truck that killed at least 84 people on Thursday. It was a planned attack and Bouhlel was busy preparing for it, according to local media in Nice.

Police have inspected the attacker's phone and found several text messages that Bouhlel had apparently wrote to his accomplice ahead of the tragedy. One of the texts reads, "I have the equipment."

The attack is considered to be one of terrorism and there are links to Daesh, however that has yet to be confirmed.

With France facing its third terror attack in 18 months, questions are being raised as to whether the government is able to protect its people. The country held a minute's silence on Monday (July 18) in remembrance of the people who died on that fateful day. The crowd, however, openly booed the Prime Minister Manuel Valls as people held up signs calling for President Francois Hollande to resign. 

Dr Steve Hewitt, a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham and an expert in security and terrorism, believes that the wider issue of alienation in France needs to be addressed, but in terms of this attack the difficulty lies in stopping lone individuals.

"In terms of the actual attack, there needs to be recognition that little can be done short of creating a police state — and France is already in a state of emergency — to stop lone individuals or small groups of individuals from carrying out such attacks. This is true in France. It is true in the United States (Orlando). It is true in the UK (Lee Rigby killing). It is true in Norway (Anders Breivik). It is true in Israel (numerous stabbing attacks carried out by individual Palestinians)," Dr Hewitt told Sputnik.

"Security is better at detecting larger plots, although even here there can be failures — such as the 2015 Paris attacks and 7 July 2005 London bombings.

"So there is no foolproof security system and there never will be because terrorism is a form of asymmetrical warfare in which anything (a lorry, a kitchen knife) can be used in an attack," Dr Hewitt added.

When Bouhlel mentioned in his text message that he "now" had the weapons, investigators believe he may have been referring to the rented truck or to a deactivated grenade and a 7.65mm caliber pistol, which he used to shoot at the police during the attack and subsequently, to end his own life with.  

​France-TV reports Bouhlel procured the weapon from two Albanians, who are among six people currently in custody in connection with the case. Investigators also revealed that he had spent two days driving around Nice in a truck he had rented two days prior to the attack, allegedly looking for the best place to carry it out.

Bouhlel had also emptied his bank account, sold his car and then proceed to rent the white refrigerated truck, weighing 19 tons and which he used to carry out the slaughter of 84 people on Bastille Day in Nice.

​Another message the attacker sent at 22:27 local time, just before the attack, asks to "bring more weapons, bring it at 5 to C.," Nice-Matin reports, citing a source close to the investigation. The media claim police have been able to trace the person the messages had been addressed to, but do not reveal any further details.

Investigators working with Bouhlel's phone and computer equipment are still try to understand if the man was linked to radical Islamists. "Some 'interesting' names appeared among his contacts," Le Monde reported, citing sources close to the investigation

"In the short term, there is little that can be done beyond emphasizing resiliency and attempting to contain attacks, so that death tolls are kept down. The latter could be done by, for instance, trying to limit access to firearms and ammunition although obviously such an approach would not have worked in Nice and in the country such as the United States [as] there is a lack of will to curtail access to weaponry. Longer term, and this is a much more difficult task, there has to be an effort to address alienation of the type that leads people from certain communities to kill their fellow citizens," Hewitt told Sputnik.

"Efforts need to be made around addressing racism, economic inequality, perceived double standards in foreign policy etc. The problem is that these will not reduce the threat overnight. In the meantime, governments will talk tough, as the Hollande government has. This, in part, is to reassure the public but it doesn't address so-called root causes."