Posted on 03/16/2004 2:39:20 PM PST by 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.
The question is, what will the french surrender look like? At least the Spanish were in the war, so getting out of it was surrender...but what will the french do? Get more anti-American in an effort to appease? Become a vassal of Iran?
On this premise, I expect an attack on France to occur the moment the terrorists have the ability to do so. This would be the logical course of action. It is what Hitler did (I know he started in the north, but you get my point, I hope.)
BITS
Bad boys bad boys.. whatcha gonna do when they come fer you...
I guess this moron hasn't figured out that freedom, democracy and human rights apply only to humans, not to raghead apes with beards.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,
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