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Europeans Fear That the Threat From Radical Islamists Is Increasing
nytimes ^ | Dec. 8 2002 | ELAINE SCIOLINO and DESMOND BUTLER

Posted on 12/08/2002 5:43:32 PM PST by dennisw

December 8, 2002

Europeans Fear That the Threat From Radical Islamists Is Increasing

By ELAINE SCIOLINO and DESMOND BUTLER

PARIS, Dec. 7 — Political leaders and police investigators across Europe have concluded that the threat of terrorism from Al Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups is more serious than they had earlier assumed and may take years to neutralize.

Recent recorded messages attributed to Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, that cite Europe as a target have prompted politicians to put the continent on alert. Recent arrests in Europe, particularly in France and the Netherlands, have underscored the extent of the problem. Testimony at trials of suspected Qaeda members in the Netherlands and Germany has suggested the global reach of Mr. bin Laden's terrorist organization.

The holiday season has contributed to the edginess. In France, the prime minister announced on Thursday that he was mobilizing "the entirety of state services" to combat potential attacks and the Interior Ministry said it would double the size of its antiterrorism unit to 800 soldiers and reinforce its police and undercover force.

Senior European officials dealing with terrorism say that recent investigations have uncovered surprisingly well-established networks of Muslim militants with potential to commit terrorist acts and affiliations that stretch across Europe to operatives in North America, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. But in the absence of hard intelligence pointing to a specific threat, the officials disagree sharply over the extent to which Europe is actually more vulnerable to terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States. There are suspicions among counter-terrorism experts that politicians and law-enforcement investigators may be exaggerating the threat in order to appear vigilant in the eyes of the public and to cover themselves should an attack occur.

Jean-Louis Bruguière, France's senior investigative judge dealing with terrorism, is among those who insist that Europe is at greater risk. "There is a probability of an attack in Europe in the coming months," he said. "The threat is much wider than Al Qaeda. It is like a spreading cancer. There is no structure, absolutely none."

Pedro Rubira, the Spanish High Court prosecutor dealing with terrorist cases, is similarly alarmed. "Arrests might shut down a cell, but it's impossible to destroy it completely," he said in an interview.

European investigators have said that Islamic terrorists are often hardly different from small-time racketeers turned radical, who get money from the sale of contraband and form into small, mobile units. But some terrorism experts say that portrayals of the threat in Europe are being shaped by politics.

"Historically, we French are in the camp of skeptics when it comes to terrorism," said one senior French official. "On the one hand we have the same intelligence we've had for some time that something big may happen in the heart of Europe. On the other hand, we have a turn to the right in this country, and we don't want to appear to be taking the threat less serious than President Bush or Tony Blair."

Officials are concerned that Europe is increasingly vulnerable. For example, an October audio broadcast by Mr. Zawahiri on Al Jazeera, the satellite channel based in Qatar, specifically linked the threat to the April attack that killed German tourists outside a mosque in Tunisia and the suicide bomb in Karachi, Pakistan, that killed 11 French engineers.

"The young holy warriors have already sent messages to Germany and France," he said. "However, if these doses are not enough, we are prepared with the help of God to increase the dosage." That warning prompted officials throughout Europe to sound the alarm.

Prime Minister Blair urged Britain to steel itself in the face of new threats, warning that the war on terror does not come "without a price."

On Friday, Germany's interior minister, Otto Schily, said the threat of terrorism in Germany was as great now as it had ever been since the Sept. 11 attacks. He warned that plots against soft targets like tourist destinations were hard to anticipate. "We cannot protect every hotel," he said. His comments contrasted with the statements of German officials after the Sept. 11 attacks that Germany and Europe as a whole served primarily as a sanctuary where terrorists could make use of relaxed asylum laws and generous welfare systems.

German investigators have concluded now that Germany itself is a target. Citing American intelligence, the Germans said there were six regional commanders around the world. They identified the coordinator for attacks on Europe as Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is one of the most sought-after fugitives linked to Al Qaeda.

A senior French official, however, questioned how well-organized Al Qaeda is, saying, "I do not believe that Al Qaeda has the logistical power for this level of organization after being driven out of the camps in Afghanistan."

Last year, German and other European officials criticized as meaningless and misleading the tendency of American authorities to issue repeated warnings of possible attacks. But in recent weeks, senior German and French officials have sounded similar alerts.

"The call to action by Al Qaeda's leadership was a signal to the holy warriors and individual assailants worldwide to attack with or without Al Qaeda's support," said Hans-Josef Beth, head of the German Federal Intelligence Service's international terrorism division.

In recent weeks, France has opened a special judicial inquiry to investigate connections between radicals in Europe, and particularly France, and Chechnya, the breakaway Russian region locked in a bitter war with Moscow.

The inquiry, the first of its kind since a 1995 examination of links between France and Afghanistan, gives Judge Bruguière and his colleagues the right to make arrests, interrogate suspects, tap phones and even indict people without evidence.

"If I think an arrest or a search is urgent, I can order it done immediately on my own authority," he said. "I can decide whether to tap someone's phone. This gives me an operational ability to react that doesn't exist in other systems."

The inquiry was opened, Mr. Bruguière said, because, "Chechnya could become the new Afghanistan. It could serve as a new laboratory for attacks as Afghanistan once did."

The terrorism threat has high visibility in France. Last month, France hosted the first major European antiterrorist exercises to simulate radiological and chemical disasters. Last week, a front-page headline in the popular daily Le Parisien read, "Terrorist menace: How France protects itself." Articles included a rundown of how security has been stepped up around Paris.

Even officials who have long denied the presence of Al Qaeda in their midst have begun to change their tune.

In the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven, for example, a small, inconspicuous place that does not have a particularly large Muslim population, there have been a series of arrests since early last year of Muslim men suspected of links to Al Qaeda. The most recent arrest came last month, when a 22-year-old Moroccan was held on charges that he was among several Eindhoven residents who had been recruited by Al Qaeda and had prepared "to be sent out to die in international jihad." In December 2001, two young men from Eindhoven were killed by the Indian police in Kashmir. Indian authorities say they were preparing suicide attacks.

Eindhoven's mayor, Rein Welschen, insisted there was no Qaeda cell in his town. But in an interview this week, he said, "It's very hard to say."

Trials under way in several European countries show the wide reach of the network. In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, four men are being tried in a plot to attack the American embassy in Paris. Evidence was presented to show that the men were trained in Afghanistan and that their plans extended across Europe's porous borders.

The main suspect in the case is a 28-year-old French citizen who is accused of providing a fake passport for the Tunisian thought to have been chosen to be the suicide bomber in the plot. The other suspects on trial are two Algerians and a Dutchman of Ethiopian origin.



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Free Republic; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: closethebarndoor; europeans; islamists
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To: Loyalist
Well stated!! I'll bet there's zero or near zero abortion in Islamic nations. Turkey being a possible exception. Kosovo and Albania too??
I wonder if they even sell condoms/birth control in Islamic lands.
21 posted on 12/08/2002 6:35:33 PM PST by dennisw
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To: dennisw
Yet Mohammedan immigration continues unabated...
22 posted on 12/08/2002 6:35:34 PM PST by Guillermo
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To: lentulusgracchus
"I'm amazed that they persisted in their complacency for as long as they did"

Hey, America still has not closed down its borders yet, either. Who knows how many terrorists have strolled across the Mexican (and Canadian) borders since 9/11?

23 posted on 12/08/2002 6:38:35 PM PST by quebecois
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To: Cicero
As the North Vietnamese used to say, fish swim in the ocean.

Was Mao Tse Tung and yes this applies to Islamics and Jihadists in Europe:

Mao said, "The guerrilla is the fish and the people are the water." If you want to kill the fish, you remove the water. If you want to kill the guerrilla, you remove the people, because they provide all kinds of assistance: medical help, agricultural help, they put out the booby-traps, they provide the intelligence, they provide the trailwatchers. They are the whole sea in which the guerrilla-fish swims.

http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:3QKauN07bfYC:www.pbs.org/wgbh/peoplescentury/episodes/guerrillawars/hackworthtranscript.html+guerrilla+fish+water+mao&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

 


24 posted on 12/08/2002 6:40:38 PM PST by dennisw
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To: Kenny Bunk
And your point is? Did not Colin Powell recently advocate bringing more Muslims to the US? And how many of our own illegals have we sent home? And just what steps are we taking to shut off the flow of illegals? And why do we need almost one million more legal immigrants every year? Just to keep Wal Mart building more stores? We are nuts as a nation and will pay the price. The coming anarchy is going to be a bitch.
25 posted on 12/08/2002 6:56:13 PM PST by willyone
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To: willyone
Did not Colin Powell recently advocate bringing more Muslims to the US?

Powell should resign to the fact Islam is the enemy we face!
26 posted on 12/08/2002 7:11:18 PM PST by TLBSHOW
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Comment #27 Removed by Moderator

To: LoneRangerMassachusetts; willyone
OK, here's the plan. Sorry you guys didn't get the Memo.

We admit another 35 illegal Million Mexicans. They got plenty! (Hey, we're already looking the other way, so it won't require any kind of public policy shift.) We use them to colonize Iraq, and the Eastern (oil)Province of Saudi Arabia. They'll love it. A little more arid than home, but whatever! They're really hard workers, and with proper direction, they can keep that crude flowing.

Everyone who hires illegals is forever singing their praises. That's why we should encourage new Mexican illegal entry, and keep those already here to be temps and do the gardening and babysitting for CA Liberals. It's OK, as they multiply (very... sorry "Berry Berry" quickly) into the majority, we can all learn Spanish.

This must be the George Bush Immigration Reform Plan. What other reason could there be for allowing illegals to overrun the Southwest? Yeah! That's it, we're training them to take over the oilfields in the Middle East!

As for the Muslims residents in what used to be called (with a straight face) "Christendom," they should be used for interplanetary colonialization. Many of their homelands already look like Mars with flies, so there shouldn't be too much adjustment, or even homesickness. We'll send flies, too.

For our brothers in Islam, the Religion of Peace, there will be no more "NO FLY ZONES"

28 posted on 12/08/2002 7:58:18 PM PST by Kenny Bunk
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To: lentulusgracchus
It's amazing that they persisted in their complacency for as long as they did, after watching the World Trade Center go down in real time

But everyone knows that the Isralies-not muslims did that

29 posted on 12/08/2002 8:16:28 PM PST by Colorado Doug
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To: dennisw
Europeans Fear That the Threat From Radical Islamists Is Increasing

Ya think? So we're supposed to believe that the Euroweenies have finally decided maybe Islamofascism poses a legitimate threat. I'm not buying it for a second. The more likely Eurowimp response would be to denounce the police and intel officials quoted in this story as blatant racists and demand that they be fired and replaced with people more "tolerant and understanding of our Muslim friends" (IOW install even girlier girly men). Then the Euros can go back to the really important stuff, like toasting marshmallows over the smoldering rubble of the synagogues while congratulating themselves on their enlightened acceptance of diversity.

These people are never going to get it, because "getting it" would require an acceptance of what 9/11 really was - the opening shot of World War III. It would require them to at least consider that America and George Bush were actually on to something when we declared that we had to stamp out terrorism world wide. It would be a given that they would have to admit that they were wrong. That's just too much of a leap for a smug little brain-dead leftie to make.

When the Islamofascists overrun the Euros' little utopia of a continent and haul the corrupt and decadent socialist leaders out to the public square for their executions, they still won't know what hit them. They'll still be singing "Kumbayah" as the swords make contact with their necks. Hell, there may even be a significant number of them who think they have it coming.

30 posted on 12/08/2002 9:01:04 PM PST by CFC__VRWC
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To: AdamSelene235
Quick, give em some land and benefits and maybe they'll leave you alone

Yup. I agree. Europe's first response seems to be a reflexive appeasment attitude.

But as logic dictates, appeasement simply shows your opponent that you've got an extremely weak hand and are buying time, having nothing forceful to respond with.

31 posted on 12/08/2002 10:24:09 PM PST by America's Resolve
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To: dennisw
They didn't seem to care much as long as it was just us under attack.
32 posted on 12/08/2002 10:39:57 PM PST by Michael2001
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To: America's Resolve
Well, to quothe a famous, but fictional New Yorker, who's delt with Terrorists before;

WELCOME TO THE PARTY, PAL!!

33 posted on 12/09/2002 12:16:44 AM PST by Braak
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To: dennisw
Europeans Fear That the Threat From Radical Islamists Is Increasing

thus the impetus for Europe to offer Israel as a sacrificial lamb on the alter of Islam as an appeasement ploy ... little do they realize they will be next on the list not just for cultural invasion, but "submission" too ... and by then, when they realize what happened, it will be too late ...

and if Colin Powell, the de facto Saudi Ambassador to the United States has his way, the process will be accelerated in the good old USA too ...
34 posted on 12/09/2002 12:37:45 AM PST by Bobby777
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To: dennisw
Mr. bin Laden's terrorist organization

LOL! Howie Carr refers to writers for the Boston Globe as "bow-tied bum kissers." The shoe fits in more ways than one.

35 posted on 12/09/2002 7:39:44 AM PST by Aquinasfan
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To: Loyalist
The scalpel of the abortionist is the sword of Islam.

Great line.

36 posted on 12/09/2002 7:42:47 AM PST by Aquinasfan
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To: dennisw
Well, le Duhhh! The surrender monkeys are sure slow on the uptake. Dalrymple wrote a great piece a few weeks back...can't find it on search, maybe someone clever here can provide it? The title is "Barbarians at the Gate" detailing the plight of the central Parisian elite surrounded by seething Muslim ghettos. Shudder...
37 posted on 12/09/2002 7:46:13 AM PST by Mamzelle
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To: Cicero
As the North Vietnamese used to say, fish swim in the ocean. You can't have successful guerillas or terrorists without a population that is friendly to them and willing to help hide them, shelter them, and feed them.

This is why in the U.S. we must review the visa and even citizenship status of all immigrant Moslems. Anyone here illegally, and anyone with a whiff of Islamism must be sent packing. There is no 100% secuirty, but we can do many times better than we are doing now - but not without sending home the Islamic radicals.

38 posted on 12/09/2002 8:01:14 AM PST by eno_
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To: dennisw
C'est impossible!! They are Frenchmen, surely, not terroristes!!

Besides, as we all know, Islam is a religion of Peace.
39 posted on 12/09/2002 8:07:48 AM PST by headsonpikes
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To: Mamzelle
Barbarians at the Gate : Rise of the new Parisian Underclass
40 posted on 12/09/2002 8:17:59 AM PST by kaylar
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