Posted on 11/03/2007 8:56:07 AM PDT by LS
LONG: These are excerpts
By Gary J. Schmitt, Reuel Marc Gerecht Posted: Thursday, November 1, 2007 EUROPEAN OUTLOOK,AEI Online, November 1, 2007
(snip)
Two waves of terrorist attacks, the first in the mid-1980s and the second in the mid-1990s, have made France acutely aware of both state-supported Middle Eastern terrorism and freelance but organized Islamic extremists. The attacks in 1985 and 1986 were probably Iranian-inspired, carried out as payback for France's military and financial support of Saddam Hussein. The attacks in the 1990s, however, in part an outgrowth of the Algerian civil war, clearly revealed to French security officials that "proper" Frenchmen, les français de souche, could convert to Islam, and that Muslims raised in France could spearhead mass-casualty terrorism.[1]
By comparison, the security services in Great Britain and Germany were slow to awaken to the threat from homegrown radical Muslims.[2] Britain gambled that its multicultural approach to immigrants was superior to France's forced assimilationist model. But with the discovery of one terrorist plot after another being planned by British Muslims, as well as the deadly transportation bombings that took place in London on July 7, 2005, British public and security officials have begun to question the wisdom of their "Londonistan" approach to Muslim integration.[3] Similarly, until recently, officials in Berlin believed that Germany was safe from homegrown Muslim terrorism, but two major bomb plots over the past year and a half--one aimed at German trains, the other at American military personnel, installations, and interests in Germany--have raised serious doubts in the minds of many German security officials about that previous assumption.[4]
French scholars and journalists have also been way ahead of their European and American counterparts in dissecting Islamic extremism and jihadism, and in analyzing the "Zacarias Moussaoui" phenomenon of European-raised Muslim militants and terrorists.[5] And French officials, who work in counterterrorism domestically and overseas, appear to be well aware of this intellectual spade work, often maintaining friendly relationships with scholars and journalists working in the field. The French interior ministry and prison system, for example, were remarkably open and helpful to the renowned Franco-Iranian sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar in his interviews of jailed al Qaeda members. Khosrokhavar's research, which produced the untranslated Quand Al-Qaida parle: Témoignages derrière les barreaux (When al Qaeda Speaks: Testimonies from Behind Bars) is the most insightful look into the mind and manners of highly westernized, Europeanized members of al Qaeda. Nothing in the American literature comes close to dissecting the nature of al Qaeda's westernized elite.[6] Given the distance and stiffness between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and American scholars and journalists, it is unlikely that Khosrokhavar will soon have any American competition.[7]
The Marsaud Report, issued on November 22, 2005, by a special parliamentary commission charged with examining France's counterterrorism capacities, articulates the general French view of the threat posed by radical Islamic terrorism. It is perhaps the most cogent statement yet by an official European governing organization on why its citizens are inextricably involved in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism and unavoidably tied to the United States.
The absence of Islamist attacks on French soil since 9/11 should not be misinterpreted: it does not signify at all that France has been immunized from such actions, notably because of its position on the Iraq conflict. Elsewhere, we have already indicated that terrorist cells have been taken apart [since 9/11]--cells which were planning attacks on our soil. Further, outside of our national territory, French targets were struck, like the May 8, 2002, attack in Karachi, which killed fourteen, of whom eleven were employees of the DCN [Direction des Constructions Navales, France's major shipbuilder], or the attack against the oil tanker Limburg off the coast of Yemen on October 6, 2002. France is an integral part of Western civilization, a target of radical Islamic terrorists. In this regard, she figures among the potential targets of these terrorists to the same extent as any other Western nation. A member of the international coalition in Afghanistan, where our special forces participate in the hunt of al Qaeda's leaders, France is thus considered an enemy, no matter her position on Iraq. Furthermore, France has been since 1986 on the cutting edge of countering [Middle Eastern] terrorism: her contribution in dismantling networks and her central role in the international counterterrorist effort have made her undeniably an enemy of international terrorist groups. Additionally, France must take into consideration her geographic position and her history. It has been clearly shown that France is the target of choice for the Algerian GSPC [the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat].[8]
(For more, go to the link)
I think many of us have from time to time thought the French were too stupid to recognize this, but apparently they are well aware that their position on Iraq has not, nor will not, insulate them.
Read the piece. Socialism or not, they have a system where they don’t need to wait on judges to approve wiretaps and other investigatory measures. They appear to be much more responsive than us or the Brits.
bttt
That’s interesting.
Indeed. Although I should qualify this by stating that she spent almost all of her time in rural France in areas that were liberated from the Nazis by American troops.
Agreed, but there is also that strain of French uppity-ness where they still want to see themselves as the leaders of a “united Europe.” Those old Napoleonic urges just don’t die easily!
Thanks...I am always interested in receiving on-the-ground reports, unfiltered by the MSM.
Having something of an obsession with France myself -- the love/hate variety -- I always try to keep in mind that judging a nation by its leader of the moment is a perilous enterprise. Clearly, there are many people in France who do not share the anti-Americanism which has been such a staple of elite opinion in recent decades.
On the other hand, I am sadly unable to dismiss the fact that generations of politicans have judged that anti-Americanism is an easy sell in France. Let's hope we've reached a tipping point where this opinion will lose credibility.
Well, remember France had the war in Algeria completely won-—literally had crushed the FLN-—when DeGaulle gave Algeria away.
DeGaulle should have stuck with being an infantryman and kept out of politics, and he wasn't that good of a soldier.
BUMP!
What people are not getting yet, but will in time, is that if Hillary ends up president, and given Gordon Brown’s small view of things and the pathetic Olmert government in Israel, France under Sarkozy (and possibly Australia if the Howard-conservative legacy continues) will be the leading lights not only of western counter-terrorism but, for that matter, of western values period. It will be up to France or France and Australia to lead 21st century western conservatism because the US will be too busy rushing headlong toward 20th century Soviet Bolshevism. Perhaps some of the emerging Eastern European democracies will eventually pitch their tents in the conservative camp, much as Pope JP II did, but....
Conclusion: Whatever is required to stop this woman from taking over the US, it has to be done. Voting for a RINO is gonna be a lot less stressful than fighting in the hills.
Excellent piece, evenhandedly executed, rare in a "European" document. Very professional.
I fear that this paragraph pretty well sums up the political angst produced by, and the derailment of, the "War on Terrorism".
Of course the political opportunism of marginally functional legislators didn't help at all!
“The absence of Islamist attacks on French soil since 9/11”? I remember a bunch of cars burning up last summer and those youths torching those cars looked might islamic to me.
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