Posted on 12/30/2002 6:48:08 AM PST by jimbo123
A baggage handler at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris was arrested with an arsenal of weapons and explosives and had a bomb that was "ready to use," sources close to the inquiry told AFP.
Abderazak Besseghir, a 27-year-old French citizen of Algerian descent, was apprehended by police at the airport late Saturday after a tip-off from a member of the public who spotted a weapon in his vehicle. They said Monday he had no previous record.
The man's job as baggage handler gave him clearance to several zones at Charles de Gaulle, one of Europe's busiest airports and the point of departure late last year for confessed "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.
The sources said Besseghir had five bars of plastic explosives and two detonators in the trunk of his car that were ready to use as a bomb, along with an automatic pistol and a submachine gun.
Police searched his apartment in the northeastern Paris suburb of Bondy and arrested his father, two brothers and a family friend, they said. All five men were still in custody early Monday and were being questioned by anti-terrorist officials.
Investigators also searched the home of one of Besseghir's friends in the Paris region.
Sources said investigators had not yet established a motive but were "seriously considering" Besseghir was about to launch a terrorist attack, although they had yet to identify an intended target.
Other theories, including that of a more general criminal scheme such as gun smuggling or banditry, have not been ruled out, the sources said.
Besseghir has remained nearly silent since his arrest, telling police only that he did not understand why he had been detained. Police said statements by the other four men had not helped shed light on Besseghir's possible motive.
The suspect is not known to be close to any Islamic group, but along with the weapons stash, police uncovered "documents that could be of an Islamist nature" in Besseghir's possession.
Authorities here have stepped up their investigation of suspected Islamic militants in France, arresting since mid-December nine alleged militants who have been accused of planning to attack the Russian embassy in Paris.
Security measures have been stepped up at Charles de Gaulle, located north of Paris, in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, in the United States and Reid's alleged attempt to blow up an airliner on December 22 last year.
Reid, 29, pleaded guilty in October in a US court to trying to blow up a Paris-to-Miami American Airlines flight. His attempt was thwarted when a flight attendant spotted him trying to ignite a small amount of explosives hidden in the hollowed-out heel of his shoes.
One French inquiry revealed serious security deficiencies at the airport, including lapses over the use of security passes.
Immigration police at the airport have checked the validity of 80,000 such badges this year.
In November, an employee at one of the airport's two control towers had his access badge for restricted areas removed after he was found to have ties to Islamic extremist groups.
Ah....ha!
A "hyphenated" Frog.... er....I mean Frenchman.
And here I thought that was strictly an American disease.
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