Portugal’s Intelligence evolution in the post-9/11 world

Abstract

[Excerpt] Two events have stepped up efforts by Portuguese authorities to cope with the terrorist threat: the 11 September 2001 (9/11) attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., and, especially, the March 2004 attacks against Madrid. Although terrorism in not a new phenomenon to Portugal—the far-left-wing armed organization, Popular Forces of the 25th of April (Forças Populares do 25 Abril–FP25), carried out a number of attacks between 1980 and 1986—al-Qaeda–inspired transnational Islamist terrorism has provided a potent and more proximate sense of the threat to the security of the state. Portuguese security forces have engaged in a learning process about a phenomenon which previously had a largely remote resonance. Knowledge about this specific kind of terrorism and its cultural and ideological background was very scarce, even in academia, due to the limited presence of Muslims in Portugal. But the 11 March 2004 attacks in Spain further changed Lisbon's perception about the imminent character of the terrorist threat due to Portugal's proximity to Spain, and the fact that the Madrid bombings were the first acknowledged attack on European ground.

Portugal's exposure and vulnerability to Islamist terrorism can be located on two levels: the first is Portugal's proximity to Spain, with easy access and similar languages; the second is the very nature of the Global Jihad campaign, which is based on radical elements who move around easily, are interconnected, and can use local Islamic communities as both platforms and recruiting grounds. [...]