"Please! Please! I’ll tell you anything you want, just let me watch the Hitler vs Darth Vader Epic Rap Battle of History! "
“Good luck storming the castle!”
Pretty much this. It’s a free ride for terrorists to come back home and start stirring up trouble.
The rule for their return should be: no more religion for you. Period. No Islam, no Catholicism, no Judaism, nothing. 20 meters near a church, yer goin’ back to live with your old animal IS friends with no brains or self respect for anything.
Wether you think religion is good or bad, these idiots clearly can’t handle it. Also: When sent back, they will wear big Old Navy Sweatshirts and an Obama backpack. 
I can’t believe ISIL would just let them leave. There’s more to this. I wonder if it’s an attempt to get members back into France to carry out attacks.
I would imagine that, if France decides to let some of those people back, they would be subject to screening not unlike the one that supposed defectors from the USSR were subjected to, back in the day, to make sure they were not KGB plants.
Not to mention that it would be common sense to keep the returnees under strict surveillance for an extended period of time, in order to catch them preparing for mischief if they happen to actually be plants.
I think that it could be useful to let them back as long as the authorities take the necessary precautions. At the absolute very least it might be possible to obtain some intel out of them, even if they ended up lying through their teeth (it is possible to deduce useful information even in those circumstances), and in the best-case scenario you can use them as cautionary example to show would-be jihadists how things really are.
Why bother with strict surveillance when all they have to do is not let them back in the first place?
Those guys want back for their creature comforts and not because they have seen the error of their ways, they would be massive risks for causing trouble at some point in the future.
Fuck 'em. They can’t be trusted. Let them die out there.
I’m surprised too, but since 100 already came back, it seems ISIL let them leave.
You can’t prevent a French citizen from coming back to France.
No. But you CAN escort them to La Prison for the rest of their lives. It’s treason. (Isn’t it?)
Plus, is there any real way of finding out if these returners killed people, which people, how many, etc.?
And now, a round of Djinn and Tonix for all!
Apparently not. Looks like France has quite recently outlawed its citizens serving as paid mercenaries ( Foreign Legion does not count as mercenaries in this context ), but not as volunteers.
France pays foreigners to serve in its Foreign Legion, but forbids its citizens to do the same abroad? How do they rationalize that?
It doesn’t consider the Foreign Legion mercenaries, exactly. And they have half a point - they’re contracted exclusively for a term of service with the French military and French citizens are allowed to join as well. Basically it is like a branch of the regular army that allows recruits from anywhere. They’re under French officers and direct government control, rather than an autonomous condottieri hired as a private contractor like Blackwater/Xe/Academi would be.
But yes, it is a bit of a thin line.
So you consider the foreigners serving in the US Armed Forces as mercenaries? The ones with actual US Armed Forces training, grades and so forth, but not actual US nationality or citizenship?
nm
If you’re asking me, no not necessarily, much like the Foreign Legion. The difference is they serve under the direct oversight of American officers and are considered regulars. Though I’ll note that foreigners in the American military are rare and only recruited under very specific and restrictive circumstances.
But like I said it is a thin line. Even early modern European armies relied heavily on foreign recruitment in the days before mass conscription. The distinction kind of came down to whether they were hired as already formed units under their own commanders ( a la the ‘Hessians’ serving during the American Revolutionary Wars ) or were hired as individuals and trained in the national military as just another soldier.
However folks like the aforementioned Academi that contract with the likes of the CIA as private security? Absolutely they are mercenaries.
One of the traditional definitions of “mercenary” was: a person serving in the armed forces of a country of which they were not a citizen. It did not necessarily have any negative connotations.
By that standard, the French Foreign Legion and foreign soldiers in the U.S. forces are certainly mercenaries. The question is whether Blackwater and Academi are professional enough to qualify for the title.
The relevant penal code articles (there are others also about treason, but they aren’t relevant) :
[QUOTE=French penal code]
ARTICLE 411-4 (Ordinance no. 2000-916 of 19 September 2000 Article 3 Official Journal of 22 September 2000 in force 1 January 2002) Intelligence with a foreign power, a foreign undertaking or organisation or an enterprise or organisation under foreign control, or their agents, with a view to fomenting hostilities or acts of aggression against France, is punished by thirty years’ criminal detention and a fine of €450,000. The same penalties apply to furnishing a foreign power, a foreign undertaking or organisation, or an undertaking or organisation under foreign control, or their agents, with the means to start hostilities or commit acts of aggression against France.
ARTICLE 411-5 (Ordinance no. 2000-916 of 19 September 2000 Article 3 Official Journal of 22 September 2000 in force 1 January 2002) Intelligence with a foreign power, with a foreign undertaking or organisation or an undertaking or organisation under foreign control, or with their agents where it is liable to prejudice the fundamental interests of the nation, is punished by ten years’ imprisonment and a fine of €150,000.
[/QUOTE]
But I’m not sure you can say that ISIL is “a foreign power” or “an organisation under foreign control” . Plus you’d have to prove that they provided “means to commit acts of aggression against France” or endangered “the fundamental interests of the nation”.
Currently, these returning fighters are prosecuted for involvment in a terrorist organization, not for treason.
It has to be difficult. And you can’t sentence them because, maybe, they could have killed people. Besides, I’m not sure whether killing people in a fight (as opposed to say, beheading them) would be a crime.