France gets Islamist threat

Reuters | 3/16/04 | Gerard Bon

[kattracks]

PARIS (Reuters) - France has received threats of a possible attack against French interests from an Islamist group apparently named after a Chechen guerrilla killed in a Moscow hostage-taking in 2002, the Interior Ministry says.

The letter, sent to several newspapers on Tuesday, threatened "to plunge France into terror and remorse and spill blood outside its frontiers", Jacques Esperandieu, deputy editor of the daily Le Parisien which received a copy, quoted it as saying.

The ministry confirmed earlier Justice Ministry reports that the threat, which it said was sent "on behalf of the servants of Allah, the powerful and wise", mentioned possible attacks in France and against French interests abroad.

"These are threats articulated in such a way that they are being taken very seriously," a judicial source told Reuters.

The group called itself the Movsar Barayev Commando, an apparent reference to the militant who organised the October 2002 Chechen raid at a Moscow theatre that ended with 129 dead. He died in the special forces raid on the theatre.

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said the government took Islamist threats seriously but warned against panic.

"We have to keep calm. We are in a country which must not be afraid," he told France 2 television.

Commenting on last week's Madrid train bombs that killed 201 people, President Jacques Chirac said on Tuesday France had not received any specific threats but was "not secure from terrorist acts".

France, which in contrast to Spain opposed the Iraq war, has interpreted the bloody attacks on Madrid trains as an attack on all European countries regardless of their positions on Iraq.

France's firm stand against the Iraq war was originally thought to have won it support in the Muslim world, but this evaporated when Paris banned Muslims from wearing headscarves in schools.

Summarising the letter, Esperandieu said: "They're basically saying 'you thought you were safe because of your stand on Iraq, but France is no longer safe at all since February 10."

The National Assembly passed the veil ban on February 10.

SEVERAL REASONS TO TARGET FRANCE

Security experts say France is also a target because of its cooperation with authorities fighting Islamic militants in its former North African colonies Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.

Several members of hardline Algerian Islamic groups are currently being held in French jails.

On Wednesday, France will put on trial David Courtailler, a Frenchman converted to Islam, for links to Muslim extremists. He is said to have met a prime suspect in the Madrid bombings, Jamal Zougam, during a visit to a mosque in the Spanish capital.

The ban on Muslim headscarves in state schools, a step Paris took to stem what it saw as growing Islamist influence among young Muslims, provoked a verbal attack from Ayman al-Zawahri, number two in Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

"This is a new sign of the Crusader hatred which Westerners harbour against Muslims while they boast of freedom, democracy and human rights," he said in a tape broadcast by the Arabic television channel Al Arabiya on February 24.

Stephane Berthomet, a former anti-terrorist police officer, said he had never heard of the group. "I fear these are some of the people who will appear more and more in the next few months," he said. "We will have a slew of threats."

Berthomet said France had already hiked its security precautions up to "red" level, the highest it could do without unleashing draconian measures in the top "scarlet" level.

"Anything is possible. They could just as well hit the Eiffel Tower as the United States embassy," he said.

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

"We have to keep calm. We are in a country which must not be afraid,"

I thought you were in France.

[BMC1]

Have the French raised the white flag yet?

[Betaille]

This is like when Germany invaded Russia in WW2. The bad guys turn on eachother... happens everytime.

[rightwingcrazy]

without unleashing draconian measures in the top "scarlet" level.

That would be a blue-ribbon committee to examine root causes.

[conservativecorner]

Why would anyone attack the frogs when they are in a perfect position to surrender already? The only holdup is that the surrender flags are not ready for every citizen yet. I can already picture the citizens of paris crying in the streets just as they did when Hitler over ran their POS country 60 years ago. Some dumbasses never learn. What can I tell ya?

[Clioman]

Well, this will certainly teach the French not to support the Crusader invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq!!

[MNJohnnie]

Note to Sen. Kerry.

Hmmm, seems a policy of appeasement and isolationism isn't keeping your fans the French safe from the Islamofacists. Perhaps it time for another flip-flop hmmm Senator? Maybe time for a new line to replace the "reckless, arrogant Foreign Policy" line in your standard anti-Bush tirade Hmm Senator?

[MNJohnnie]

Note to Sen. Kerry.

Hmmm, seems a policy of appeasement and isolationism isn't keeping your fans the French safe from the Islamofacists. Perhaps it time for another flip-flop hmmm Senator? Maybe time for a new line to replace the "reckless, arrogant Foreign Policy" line in your standard anti-Bush tirade Hmm Senator?

[Mike Darancette]

Actually France is in Afghanistan. Even reported today that French troops almost nabbed Usama.

[elbucko]

This is like when Germany invaded Russia in WW2. The bad guys turn on each other... happens everytime.

Hitler couldn't trust Stalin, Stalin couldn't trust Hitler. The French can't trust the Muslims, the Muslims hate the French. Europe will have an interesting summer.

[RushLake]

My first reaction to your comment about a lack of surrender flags was that they probably all had white bed sheets or table cloths, then I remembered that they are the French. Those items are probably pi$$ yellow. I'm conjuring a happy image of US troops advancing into defeated Germany at the end of the "biggie" being greated by the sight of joyous bedsheets and table cloths as I write this.

[tkathy]

This is going to be fun to watch. (I am disliking all religious garb more and more, no matter what religion.)

[BMC1]

And Spain wants to align itself with the French. Interesting......

[AM2000]

Aidez-moi, Dieu ! J'urinating dans mon pantalon !

I don't know French.. that's a Babelfish translation. Feel free to hit abuse if it inadvertently means something bad :)

[conservativecorner]

And you can bet that it will be America saving them from themselves once again in the future. How can they have such short memories?

[Sender]

Watch and see; someone in the French government will be screaming to repeal the headscarf ban, quickly! We must give them what they demand!

[RushLake]

"And you can bet that it will be America saving them from themselves once again in the future. How can they have such short memories?"

I think they and other pi$$ant nations in the world are like our own homegrown welfare clients. They want all you can give them all the time, and the more you give them the more in contempt they hold you. They can't save themselves, and they resent the fact that there is someone, some nation, that has the fortitude and courage to rescue them.

[A_Niceguy_in_CA]

I wonder if the French public will surrender as fast as the Spaniards after an AQ sponsored attack on Paris?

The French have more experience at appeasement than the Spaniards, but 100s or 1000s of dead French and further loss of American, Australian and British tourists may actually force the French people to reconsider their opposition to Chirac's reluctance in the war on terror.

[wjcsux]

Attack France, why bother?