This is from CNN today:
It appears Bouhlel also had serious mental health challenges. His father said he suffered from nervous breakdowns in which he "broke eveything," and that he believed his son's mental health deteriorated after his son separated from his wife.
By all accounts Bouhlel had a volatile personality. In March he was given a six-month suspended prison sentence after throwing a wooden pallet at a driver after a traffic accident. According to reports in the French media, a neighbor said that Bouhlel was so angered when his wife left him that he "defecated all over the place" and shredded his daughter's teddy bear.
But Bouhlel does not appear to have launched the attack in a sudden fit of anger. The fact he rented the truck three days before the attack suggests it was premeditated, as does the symbolic date chosen: July 14, the French national day, when thousands were gathered on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice to witness the fireworks.
A source close to the investigation tells CNN that local associates of the Nice attacker detained for questioning have told interrogators that Mohammed Bouhlel started speaking supportively of ISIS just days before the attack. Four of his associates were arrested late Friday and early Saturday in Nice.
The Nice attacker appears to fit a pattern. In the last two years there have been multiple terrorist attacks in the West in which there has been a blend of radicalization and mental health factors, a category of terrorist some analysts like Max Abrahms have termed "loon-wolves."
Terrorism analysts are still grappling with the reasons behind the spate of such attacks, but there is some consensus that psychological disorders can narrow the pathway between radical thought and radical action.
One such case was Man Haron Monis, who carried out a hostage attack in Sydney in December 2014 after pledging alleigance to ISIS. At the inquest into the attacks, he was described as unpredictable and a "dangerous pscychopath" suffering from narcissistic personality disorder.
Another case in point was Mohammad Abdulazeez, a naturalized American who shot dead four U.S. Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on July 16, 2015. Investigators established Abulazeez was radicalized online, but according to his family he also suffered from bipolar disorder and depression, which were significantly aggravated three months before the attack because of his arrest for a DUI.
Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, who claimed his attack was on behalf of ISIS, was described by his ex-wife as "mentally unstable and mentally ill.
It is not clear the degree to which the Nice attacker Bouhlel moved in radical circles. Acquaintances have suggested that in the past he had been contemptuous of religion and was not known to go to mosques.
...
But after the attack, investigators ascertained that Bouhlel's phone number had cropped up in a previous counterterrorism investigation, a source close to the investigation told CNN. The prior investigation focused on a radical associate of Omar Diaby, a 41 year old Senegalese jihadi who lived in Nice before traveling to Syria.
...
Investigators are looking into the nature of the links between Bouhlel and Diaby's associate and have not discounted they were simply part of same social circle.
It appears Bouhlel also had serious mental health challenges. His father said he suffered from nervous breakdowns in which he "broke eveything," and that he believed his son's mental health deteriorated after his son separated from his wife.
By all accounts Bouhlel had a volatile personality. In March he was given a six-month suspended prison sentence after throwing a wooden pallet at a driver after a traffic accident. According to reports in the French media, a neighbor said that Bouhlel was so angered when his wife left him that he "defecated all over the place" and shredded his daughter's teddy bear.
But Bouhlel does not appear to have launched the attack in a sudden fit of anger. The fact he rented the truck three days before the attack suggests it was premeditated, as does the symbolic date chosen: July 14, the French national day, when thousands were gathered on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice to witness the fireworks.
A source close to the investigation tells CNN that local associates of the Nice attacker detained for questioning have told interrogators that Mohammed Bouhlel started speaking supportively of ISIS just days before the attack. Four of his associates were arrested late Friday and early Saturday in Nice.
The Nice attacker appears to fit a pattern. In the last two years there have been multiple terrorist attacks in the West in which there has been a blend of radicalization and mental health factors, a category of terrorist some analysts like Max Abrahms have termed "loon-wolves."
Terrorism analysts are still grappling with the reasons behind the spate of such attacks, but there is some consensus that psychological disorders can narrow the pathway between radical thought and radical action.
One such case was Man Haron Monis, who carried out a hostage attack in Sydney in December 2014 after pledging alleigance to ISIS. At the inquest into the attacks, he was described as unpredictable and a "dangerous pscychopath" suffering from narcissistic personality disorder.
Another case in point was Mohammad Abdulazeez, a naturalized American who shot dead four U.S. Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on July 16, 2015. Investigators established Abulazeez was radicalized online, but according to his family he also suffered from bipolar disorder and depression, which were significantly aggravated three months before the attack because of his arrest for a DUI.
Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, who claimed his attack was on behalf of ISIS, was described by his ex-wife as "mentally unstable and mentally ill.
It is not clear the degree to which the Nice attacker Bouhlel moved in radical circles. Acquaintances have suggested that in the past he had been contemptuous of religion and was not known to go to mosques.
...
But after the attack, investigators ascertained that Bouhlel's phone number had cropped up in a previous counterterrorism investigation, a source close to the investigation told CNN. The prior investigation focused on a radical associate of Omar Diaby, a 41 year old Senegalese jihadi who lived in Nice before traveling to Syria.
...
Investigators are looking into the nature of the links between Bouhlel and Diaby's associate and have not discounted they were simply part of same social circle.
