Posted on 01/27/2005 1:43:09 PM PST by areafiftyone
PARIS - French militants who travel to Iraq (news - web sites) to fight in the insurgency against U.S.-led forces could strike terror elsewhere, including France, the defense minister warned Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press.
The warning followed the detention this week of 11 people in Paris as France's domestic counterterrorism agency moved to break up a network suspected of seeking to funnel young French Muslims to Iraq. Ten suspects remain in custody; one woman was released Wednesday.
French officials have said the arrests were aimed partly at ensuring that suspected would-be militants do not receive combat training and experience in Iraq that could make them a threat at home if they survive.
"These French citizens who are prepared to carry out suicide attacks in Iraq are people who could one day carry out suicide attacks elsewhere," said Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. "That worries us. There are movements, groups, that can threaten our territory as well as others."
Alliot-Marie said she did not know how many French citizens were involved in the insurgency in Iraq.
Some French youths have been taken in by Islamic leaders and receive religious training in preparation for suicide attacks, she said.
Alliot-Marie, who has been defense minister for the last two years, is considered a rising star of French politics and media have speculated that she could one day become prime minister — a prospect she declined to comment on.
The defense minister spoke to the AP ahead of a Feb. 9-10 meeting of NATO (news - web sites) defense ministers in the Riviera city of Nice. Issues such as the alliance's role in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Kosovo and its prospects for training Iraqi soldiers are likely to be discussed there.
France "cannot be happy" about continued violence in Iraq, Alliot-Marie said, reiterating France's willingness to train Iraqi police outside the wartorn nation. France was a leading opponent of the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and repeatedly has said it does not plan to send troops there.
Relations between Paris and Washington deteriorated after France expressed opposition to the war. Alliot-Marie said President Bush (news - web sites)'s new administration has "extended its hand" to Paris "and we wish to extend our hand back."
In other areas, Alliot-Marie said France remains "concerned about seeing Iran have a nuclear program that could lead to a nuclear weapon," but would not give up on diplomatic efforts France leads with Britain and Germany to prevent that from happening.
She said France opposes integrating NATO's mission in Afghanistan and a separate U.S.-led coalition searching for remnants of the al-Qaida terror network and the deposed Taliban regime.
At a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Romania in October, France and Germany spoke out against U.S. plans to put the alliance in charge of military and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. However, U.S. officials said NATO was to develop plans to merge the missions.
At the end of its six-month term next month, France is to hand over leadership of NATO's 8,000-strong International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan to Turkey.
You guys can talk until your face turns blue but Iran will never give their nukes up. The only way is to knock them out!
its TERRORISTS not 'insurgents'
The "French " terrorists will be the ones to surrender..
the french should at least pay for the ammo the marines and MNF will need to take out this vermin. Hell they are doing the french a favour. Again!!!
or whip up an IES......improvised explosive souffle
the french should at least pay for the ammo the marines and MNF will need to take out this vermin. Hell they are doing the french a favour. Again!!!
What!!!! Someone from france actually WILL FIGHT??? Gotta be wrong. Has to be.
J'ai pensé que nous étions des amis?
Pas de lieu Rhone que nous!
Michele Alliot-Marie: Kill all the Imperialist Americans you want, just don't hurt us, please! (waves white flag of cheese-eating surrender monkeys everywhere)
That snake is gonna bite them.
That is because these are not real French but Algerians or Moroccans or some other form of muslim.
Hard to believe they can do that with their heads up their proverbial asses. ;)
Then they can't be french. No french has fought since Nam. After that defeat, they started just running up the white flag. These guys might be from a french place, but they certainly do not have that yellow blood of a frenchman running in their veins.
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