http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1499952/posts
Alleged hijack bid nonstarter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | October 8, 2005 | Mark Davis
Posted on 10/10/2005 10:26:46 AM PDT by neverdem
Gwinnett police on Friday arrested a man they characterized as a
would-be hijacker who tried to commandeer a tractor-trailer idling in
traffic.
Unfortunately for him, said officers, he chose a truck whose driver was
armed.
Police said Cesar Iban Santoyo Pantija, 23, jumped into the cab of a
tractor-trailer traveling north on I-85. It was about 11:30 a.m., and
traffic had come to a stop just south of Indian Trail Lilburn Road,
police said.
Official links French terror cell, al-Qaida
10/10/2005, 5:21 p.m. ET
By JAMEY KEATEN
The Associated Press
PARIS (AP) — A French terror cell suspected of plotting attacks on the subway and other targets in Paris had indirect contacts with Iraq's al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a leading French counterterrorism official said Monday.
Christophe Chaboud, head of the counterterrorism unit of the national police, also told The Associated Press that a member of the cell returned to France from Lebanon with a substance that some experts say can be used in bomb-making.
"There were in effect contacts between the group and al-Zarqawi," Chaboud said in an interview, referring to the French group known as "Ansar al-Fath" — or Partisans of Victory. He said the contacts were "indirect" — through intermediaries.
Chaboud said one of the members of the alleged cell built around Safe Bourada — a previously convicted Islamic militant arrested again in France last month — had returned home from Lebanon with black cumin, a substance that has been identified in the past as an explosives ingredient. He did not elaborate and did not name the person.
Another police official said a second suspected cell member, Kaci Ouarab, returned from Lebanon in early 2005 after a few months of training in weapons and explosives, and possibly, ways of detonating bombs by using mobile phones.
Ouarab left for Lebanon either in late 2004 or early 2005, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his agency does not allow him or the agency to be identified by name.
Bourada, 35, and five suspected accomplices have been placed under investigation — one step short of formal charges — in the past two weeks and jailed for suspected criminal association with a terror group in the case.
The group was suspected of plotting attacks against the Paris subway, the headquarters of French counterintelligence service DST and an airport in the capital, Chaboud said.
Bourada was among 36 Islamic militants sentenced in February 1998 for providing support for bomb attacks that terrorized France in 1995. He received a maximum 10-year sentence, but won early release in 2003. Police say he had been under surveillance ever since.
The issue of black cumin cropped up at a trial in absentia of al-Zarqawi, three other fugitives and nine men in custody in Jordan in June. An explosives expert testified that when mixed with other chemicals, black cumin can be used to cause explosions with more force than TNT. Other experts, however, said black cumin also can also be used for benign purposes.
Chaboud did not say whether French experts believe that black cumin has explosive properties.
Also Monday, an 18-year-old fiancee of a Frenchman killed in Iraq was detained for questioning in an investigation of networks suspected of sending Islamic militants from France to Iraq, a police official said. He said she is not expected to be charged in the case.
About seven French nationals are known to have been killed in Iraq and three others are being held by police, Chaboud said. Another three are in the custody of the U.S.-led coalition there, he said.
About 20 French nationals are believed to be missing in Iraq, though there may be others, Chaboud said.
http://www.nj.com/newsflash/war/index.ssf?/base/international-15/112896505142400.xml&storylist=njterror