Posted on 03/19/2004 8:30:59 PM PST by MegaSilver
PARIS, March 18 (AFP) - French rail traffic was severely disrupted Thursday after police received a threatening phone call, but an oxygen bottle found on the tracks north of Paris turned out to be empty, police said.
"AZF, don't touch", read a message written on the gas container, referring to the shadowy group that in recent weeks has threatened to set off explosive devices on the rails unless Paris paid it more than USD 5 million.
Police said they had received an anonymous call from a phone booth at about 2:20 pm (1320 GMT), telling them to "look between the rails" in the area near Villiers and Garges-les-Gonesse, two towns northeast of the capital.
Police immediately evacuated the station in Garges-les-Gonesse, and both high-speed and suburban rail traffic was cut off from the Gare du Nord in Paris for nearly three hours, regional officials said.
But the suspension in service caused massive delays throughout the evening rush hour on all lines running north of the capital.
Bomb defusal experts rushed to the scene and uncovered the empty oxygen bottle about 500 meters (yards) from the Garges-les-Gonesse station.
Several bomb alerts have occurred in the area over the past week since the devastating train bombings in Madrid that left 201 people dead.
AZF issued a new threat last weekend, saying it would strike targets along France's extensive railways, as well as at "three symbolic sites outside the railways", if it were not paid, sources close to the investigation said.AZF has "increased its ransom amount" in its new demands, the sources told AFP, declining to give a figure.
The earlier demand - USD 4 million and EUR 1 million - was relatively small, drawing suspicion that AZF comprised only a few members.
The blackmail has both fascinated and terrified France, after revelations earlier this month that the government had been communicating with AZF through letters and personal advertisements posted in national newspapers.
To show the seriousness of its claims, AZF tipped off French police last month to the location of a bomb, considered by police to be "sophisticated, worthy of an explosives expert."
I know I shouldn't, and I'm somewhat ashamed to admit this, but inside I'm seriously hoping that this is an Islamic Jihad group or a branch of al Qaeda... it would prove once and for all that appeasement is the path to annihilation.
Yeah, we wouldn't be human if a part of us weren't hoping for the worst for our adversaries. Just as long as we keep that feeling on the right side of our brains, and use the left side (that is, the side that hates terrorists a whole lot more than the supercilious Europeans) to make our political decisions, I think we can be excused.
There's a real scary if minimally likely possibility about that particular choice of initials in conjunction with a group disposed toward the possible use of suicide bombers, though.
Aside from muslums eager for the 72 virgin/Valhalla payoff, there is one other subgroup of people for whom a sudden death in a blinding flash might be an attractive possibility. And those three initials are indeed associated with that group.
-archy-/-
islamofascists target the non-warrior. they are impotent cowards who fear the trained soldiers.
You do great disservice to Valhalla
Not at all. They believe that they're deserving, though I think it very unlikely that any warrior-Dieety would smile on the acts they view themselves as having covered them in glory pleasing to Allah. It's because of that delusion that they're particularly dangerous, and something involving pigs awaits them instead.
I certainly concur that it seems unlikely that they'll find a seat at Valhalla's tables, but they think otherwise. But those who cut them down before they can harm innocents in their error may be more favoured.
-archy-/-
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.