Islamist radicals younger, tougher

PARIS, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Islamist terrorists are younger and more malleable than ever before, including converts and women, an antiterrorist judge says.

"Never has radicalization been as strong," said Jean-Louis Bruguiere, a top French antiterrorist judge, in an interview published Wednesday in France's Le Figaro newspaper.

"We're witnessing a change in the cells, with much younger new actors, even minors, who are therefore more malleable."

The growing radicalization, Bruguiere added, is directly linked to the turmoil in Iraq.

The recruits include a growing number of converts to Islam, the judge told Le Figaro, who are "undeniably tougher" than Muslims by birth.

Female converts are particularly interesting targets for Muslim radicals from overseas, looking for ways to get French citizenship through marriage.

The judge's remarks come just two days after French police arrested four people in an antiterrorist sweep. Two of those arrested were women.

Chemical and biological attacks, using poisons like ricin for example, pose a new threat Bruguiere said. Nor can the chance of a "dirty" nuclear bomb be dismissed out of hand, he said, after the 2002 arrest of Jose Padilla.