French police tracked Toulouse killer through his IP address

[Ponders]

\link{http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2118052/Dramatic-siege-Toulouse-suburb-armed-police-surround-house-Al-Qaeda-Mujahideen-suspected-serial-killer.html\he emailed the first soldier who he shot on 11 March} - shame they didn't find him sooner, before he could attack the school

How long does it take to track an IP address?

God, now the lives of many more Moslem French people will become unpleasant.

And also the lives of Jewish School children who will be afraid of their school gates

Hopefully it will cause disgust and revulsion on those who are sitting on the fence or refuse to condone violence.

It is a shame that those hell bent on causing death and violence don't do us all a favour and turn their gun to their own heads before taking another life.

his mother is Algerian apparently. They have an uneasy relationship with the rest of the French anyway I think

I do hope it doesn't have repercussions for Muslims in France in general

And lets hope that there are not more copycat attacks on schools

I wonder if his father is too? It will have repercussions for anyone who is 'a little dark'.

They actually tracked him because the motorbike dealer he went to went to the police

The page I linked to says:

'The alleged killer was traced through his brother's computer's IP address after using it to set up a meeting with his first alleged victim, Imad Ibn Ziaten.
The 30-year-old parachutist was in plain clothes and standing by his motorbike when he was gunned down on Sunday, March 11.
'Killer and victim had exchanged emails, with the killer using a false account,' said an investigating source.
Police were also able to trace the gunman through his own bike - a Yamaha T-Max 530 scooter.
They found out where it had been sold, and learnt that the killer had asked how to underdo the tracking system of the vehicle - meaning it could not be traced.'

Which certainly implies that the IP address was the main thing

Isn't this still going on though? No guarantee that they will be able to capture him alive unfortunately.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17456541
BBC 6 O'clock news and link thereof

He hasn't given himself up yet though has he?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/17455224
live updates

Apparently the IP address led them to his brother. Both the gunman and his brother were connected to violent Islamist organizations and were under surveillance for years

IIRC police had to ask one company for IP address and then another for some other number (sorry, hopeless at IT stuff)- in any case it didn't seem very complicated, tbh.

Surely in 2012 it doesn't take 10 days to track the IP address, does it?

I think French police/security services fucked up, one in not having a clue about the gunman stocking up on weapoons etc and two, not getting to the bottom of this before Monday.

And yes, from procurator's speech it seems that the IP address was the thing that led the police to the gunman.

Thanks, puddlejumper

The guy who racially abused Stan Collymore via Twitter (& the Fabrice Muamba one) were both picked up in a day or so - would those have been via their IP addresses? Am very confused about how this stuff works.

Maybe the police didn't know about the March 11 email right away...

ah, winnybella, thanks - yours wasn't there when I started replying

yes, that's what I thought - they fucked up

Otoh I'm not seeing journalists asking those questions, but then I'm on Le Monde live feed at the mo. I'll have a look at other websites in a sec.

Le Figaro says that his name popped out from 576 connections that have been made to the ad site ie they got IP addresses of of those people and then it was actually his mum's name that got their attention.

So nothing to do with the email, then. I would have thought that as he had to contact him somehow to schedule the meeting, they would have email on the soldier's computer or a trace of a phone call.

The article says that they have realised the political aspect of the killings only after the other soldiers wer killed so they only had 4 days...but still, it seems they should have been able to get that done before Monday.

I don't think that in obvious cases of terrorism/mass murder etc it takes a long time to get a warrant.

sorry, to his ad page, not site

Also, apparently he asked his neighbour's teenage brother to come to his flat and then showed him videos of Al-Quaida's decapitations etc. When the girl ie the neighbour confonted him about it he beat her up and she spent few days in hospital. He aslo allegedly then came under their windows dressed in military attire with a sword and was saying that he belongs to Al-Queida. Complaint was made, nothing happened. WTAF (if it's true, neighbour or relative of the girl was talking about it to journalists)

I doubt even the well-informed French newspapers will have accurate information about methods used in pursuit of potential terrorists.

I do wonder why it took quite so long to identify, locate and contain but perhaps this will become clear at trial or any subsequent public inquiry (does France have these?) - I hope so; else there will always be the nagging uneasy possibility that had the death of soldiers been pursued with more vigour, the death of children might have been averted.

I had a conversation with a total starnger about this yesterday , not the IP bit just the whole situation. He was an older very much yorkshire gentleman , he was watching DS2 being two and said ' its a shame he has to grow up in the world as it is today ' and then went on about the madman who had murdered the little children in Toulouse . He seemed really down about it all . I said ' do you want to murder innocent children ?' and he looked at me funny and said 'no of course not' and i said 'neither do i , so that makes it two against one already , and i have to say your wife doesnt look like a fundamentalist either , so im guessing thats three against one then ' . He smiled at me and said ' yes , three against one arn't bad odds are they ' and went on his way .