French backtrack on chemical attack claim (Hold My Wine Alert)

French backtrack on chemical attack claim
By Elizabeth Bryant
United Press International
From the International Desk
Published 12/19/2002 1:29 PM

PARIS, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- The French government appeared to be backtracking Thursday from suggestions earlier this week that a biological or chemical attack may have been foiled, as laboratory tests of materials seized in police raids yielded no conclusive evidence.

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told the National Assembly that police had seized empty containers and vials of suspicious-looking fluids and powders, as well as a jumpsuit apparently designed to protect from a biological or chemical attack.

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By JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press Writer

PARIS (AP) — French counterterrorism agents found suspected detonator components and a chemical that can be used to make explosives in an apartment used by four suspected Islamic militants, an official said Thursday.

Agents from the counterintelligence service DST found the components hidden in a washing machine in the apartment in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve, the official said. The official, who is close to the investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity.

Three Algerians and a Moroccan were arrested Monday in a raid on the apartment. The raid also turned up a protective suit against biological, chemical and nuclear attacks, false identity papers, $5,000 in cash, a computer and extremist Islamic documents, French officials have said.

A vial of unidentified liquid also was found in the apartment. The official said it did not appear to be a chemical or biological agent — as news reports at first suggested. Results of tests on the liquid have not been made public.

Tests on a second substance found at the apartment showed it to be iron perchlorate, judicial officials said. The chemical can be used to make explosives, they said.

The official said the other liquid appeared to be similar, ``that's to say some sort of potential explosive rather than anything else.''

``We are more in the explosives field than in the chemical or biological,'' he said.

Agents also found two empty gas bottles, the official said. Such bottles packed with explosives have been used in attacks in France.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that the suspects were thought to have spent time in training camps in Afghanistan and Chechnya and had been in contact with Rabah Kadre, who was arrested last month in Britain on terrorism-related charges.

Kadre, 35, is accused of possessing materials for the ``preparation, instigation or commission'' of terrorism. According to French news reports, he has links to the al-Qaida network.

Sarkozy indicated the suspects arrested in France were planning an attack, saying that ``with these four individuals, it was better to arrest them before rather than after.''

France's top anti-terrorist judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, ordered the arrests. Bruguiere has recently stepped up arrests amid mounting concerns in Europe that a terror attack may be imminent.

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