France's prime minister fended off suggestions Friday that anti-terrorism authorities fell down on the job in monitoring a radical Qaeda fighter who gunned down children, paratroopers and a rabbi in a wave of killings that revolted the country. Investigators were questioning Mohamed Merah's brother as they search for possible accomplices in his close-range killings of seven people since March 11. French intelligence services had been aware of Merah's trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan's militant stronghold of Waziristan in recent years, and he had been on a US no-fly list since 2010. Some politicians, French media and Toulouse residents questioned why authorities didn't stop him before March 11, when he committed the first of three deadly shooting attacks. Even French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said there needed to be “clarity” on why he wasn't arrested earlier. The daily Liberation listed seven questions about the case on its front page Friday, including “Why wasn't Merah monitored more?” French Prime Minister Francois Fillon told RTL radio Friday that authorities “at no moment” suspected Merah would be dangerous despite a long criminal record. “The fact of belonging to a Salafist organization is not unto itself a crime. We must not mix religious fundamentalism and terrorism, even if naturally we well know the links that unite the two,” Fillon said. In response to the slayings, Fillon said President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government is working on new anti-terrorism legislation that would be drafted within two weeks. He said the government will consult with leaders of the Senate, which is controlled by the opposition. Families of the victims, meanwhile, were frustrated that Merah was not taken alive. “Imad's parents feel that the justice they were expecting was stolen from them,” said lawyer Mehana Mouhou, lawyer for the family of the first paratrooper killed, Imad Ibn-Ziaten. “His mother wanted an answer to the question, ‘why did he kill my son?'” The lawyer also questioned why hours of negotiations between police and Merah failed Wednesday. Merah repeatedly promised to surrender, then eventually changed his mind. “They could have very well not killed him. There were no hostages. The neighbors were evacuated,” Mouhou said.
