BBC: Al-Qaeda 'issues France threat'

[Eugene]

Last Updated: Thursday, 14 September 2006, 14:39 GMT 15:39 UK

Al-Qaeda 'issues France threat'

Al-Qaeda's deputy leader has claimed that a radical Algerian Islamist group
has joined al-Qaeda and is being urged to punish France, it has emerged.

Ayman al-Zawahiri appeared in a video on a website on the fifth anniversary
of the 11 September attacks.

In the tape, he issued a warning of new attacks targeting Israel and the Gulf.

Although France's government opposed the US-led war in Iraq, French officials
believe the country is still a target for Islamist militants.

In the video, Zawahiri says: "Osama Bin Laden has told me to announce to Muslims
that the GSPC (the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat) has joined al-Qaeda,"
according to the transcript of his message given by the AFP news agency.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5345202.stm

Also: Latest al-Qaeda tape made France a target: report - Reuters

[tocqueville]

1. the GSPC has always been "part" of Al Quaeda under the name of GIA

nothing new here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_France_Flight_8969

On December 24, 1994, at Algiers, Algeria, four men dressed in Air Algerie uniforms boarded Air France Flight 8969 bound to depart for Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris at 11:15. Immediately the terrorists demanded that the passengers close all of the window shutters and empty their personal belongings into a black plastic bag. Twenty five year old Abdul Abdullah Yahia and three other members of the Armed Islamic Group (Groupe Islamique Armé, or GIA) brandished their AK-47, Uzi, automatic weapons and demanded cooperation from the 220 passengers and 12 flight crew.
...............

After nearly forty hours of intense negotiations and the loss of three lives, the Algerian Colonel gave in and removed the mobile staircase and wheel chocks at 02:00 the morning of 26th. The negotiation team decided to divert the flight to Marseille International Airport, some five hundred miles south of Paris. Air traffic controllers in the tower secretly communicated to the crew of Flight 8969 to tell the hijackers that they didn't have enough fuel to make it all the way to Paris. The French forces left Spain and landed just twenty minutes before 8969 touched down at Marseille-Marignane Airport on the coast of France just after 03:30. Tired from the two day stand off, the hijackers maintained radio silence until late morning when the terrorists demand they receive nearly 27 tons of fuel; considerably more than the 9 needed to make the five hundred mile flight to Paris. It was believed that the hijackers wanted as much fuel as possible, making the Airbus into a flying bomb and that the GIA planned to either fly the plane into the Eiffel Tower in Paris or blow it up over the city.
....................


The ensuing firefight injured eleven commandos, thirteen passengers and three members of the crew. The hijackers were all shot dead. The gunfire was so fierce that the co-pilot of the Airbus jumped out of the cockpit window to the concrete twenty-five feet below, breaking his leg. The GIGN deployed all of the emergency escape chutes to allow the people to evacuate the aircraft during the firefight that lasted nearly twenty minutes that at last left the four hijackers dead. When all was said and done, all remaining passengers and GIGN members survived.
____________________________________________________________________________
a serie of bombings followed then in France since the leaders were shot or arrested

so been there, down that. The results was the building of a very efficient anti-terrorist intelligence (due to France's infiltration's capabilities) one of the main (if not the main) resources for the CIA. And all this was 7 years before 9/11

[Greeby]

2. Al-Qaeda now have more in common with the Republican Party

Than they thought :eyes:

[Laughing Mirror]

3. France, under Mitterand, did support Algeria cancelling elections, however

when FIS was going to win them. So it wasn't just random violence. There was a legitimate beef.

Is GIA now Al-Qaeda? Is that the new big name brand for everybody who has a beef with the West? Al-Qaeda?

[tocqueville]

10. GIA and GSPC have remnants.

They have always been working with "Al quaeda". They have the same roots. GSPC has taken over the GIA role.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_Islamic_Group

[hogwyld]

4. Why would they want to alienate the French

The French have been their best "ally" in trying to hold off the imperial U.S. junta.

[Amonester]

5. They don't want to to hold off the imperial U.S. junta, au contraire,

because the junta of the PNAC's crackpots is their most effective recruiting tool.

Who would want to stop the "hands that feed them"??

Granted, they're crazy, but not THAT crazy...

[mom cat]

7. Hint: read ... false flag. The US gets to hit France and blame the

terraists. I highly suspect any so called queda tapes and believe that the repukes have a nasty October surprise ready to launch.

Be suspicious.... Be very suspicious!

[Henny Penny]

8. And then France will finally agree ...

to send lots of troops to Afghanistan!!

[tocqueville]

11. sorry but this is tinfoil

the US relies heavily on French intelligence.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/02/AR2005070201361_pf.html

Help From France Key In Covert Operations
Paris's 'Alliance Base' Targets Terrorists

By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 3, 2005; A01

PARIS -- When Christian Ganczarski, a German convert to Islam, boarded an Air France flight from Riyadh on June 3, 2003, he knew only that the Saudi government had put him under house arrest for an expired pilgrim visa and had given his family one-way tickets back to Germany, with a change of planes in Paris.

He had no idea that he was being secretly escorted by an undercover officer sitting behind him, or that a senior CIA officer was waiting at the end of the jetway as French authorities gently separated him from his family and swept Ganczarski into French custody, where he remains today on suspicion of associating with terrorists.

Ganczarski is among the most important European al Qaeda figures alive, according to U.S. and French law enforcement and intelligence officials. The operation that ensnared him was put together at a top secret center in Paris, code-named Alliance Base, that was set up by the CIA and French intelligence services in 2002, according to U.S. and European intelligence sources. Its existence has not been previously disclosed.

Funded largely by the CIA's Counterterrorist Center, Alliance Base analyzes the transnational movement of terrorist suspects and develops operations to catch or spy on them.

____________________________________________________________________

Besides French engagement in Afghanistan is quite substantial. France is one of the few countries to give air support to operations (including strikes) through the French bases in Tadjikistan and the French carrier group.

Of course you don't read that in the US media and we keep a low profile.

[mom cat]

21. Perhaps it is. I just know that between now and the elections that I

wwill be very suspicious of anything that could possibly inflame the situation in the middle east and give Bush a boost or an excuse to bomb anyone else.

[tocqueville]

9. this was completely irrelevant and shows a profound misunderstanding

# 1 The French never supported the Islamists, so no need to be "alienated"

# 2 French secularism and separation of church and state is relatively unique and a nightmare for the Islamists. It's the antithesis of what all they fight for. It's very attractive to the Arabic societies because it allows to combine modernity, human rights with religion. It's far worse for them than the US model which is practically the closest you can get to the Christian Caliphate. France offers an alternative, US doesn't, unless you convert.

# 3 "The law about the scarf" has been completely misunderstood and created outrage among the Islamists. We didn't expect anything else. Worse is that it is misunderstood in the US, even among progressives.

# 4 France is participating in the effort in Afghanistan with quite a lot or ressources, specially through special forces, naval and air support. I mean : our guys are flaunting on Osama's neck and nearly captured him one year ago.

# 5 France is the number one provider of anti-terrorist intelligence to the CIA. This is due to the infiltration ability, France is one of the few WESTERN nations able to provide secret agents with arabic background.

# 6 France's intervention in Lebanon and support for a non-radical solution in the region, independence towards Israel, is very popular in the Arab world. It alienates both the Islamists and the Hezbollah. Wnen the EU sets the good example with efficient peace keeping to the contrary of the Iraqi clusterfuck, it's no good for the Islamists. After all we werre grreted with flowers, even if it's not shown on TV.

all those reasons above make us a perfect target (with the reservation that we are prepared)

[Henny Penny]

12. The recent events in Lebanon are more likely to make

the so called "Islamists" make Hezbollah their next big target, not France.

I'm still in the "probable false flag to galvanise French public opinion" camp.

[tocqueville]

13. French opinion doesn't need to be galvanized

there is full support for the troops in Afghanistan and Lebanon. This is not Iraq. If the Islamists hit France in a more spectacular way, one of the probable responses will be (besides the research for the perpetrators on French soil) a cruise missile attack on the GSPC training camps in the Atlas mountains and Mali (sub sahara), maybe combined with an attack by special forces. It's more sensitive in Algeria due to the colonial past, but probably already planned for Mali, according to some intelligence experts interviewed today. There might even be a response of that type in Afghanistan, depending of the magnitude of the attack. Probably of little military value, but just to show we are to be counted with.

I live in France and know what people think. They don't like, Bush but they loathe the Islamists even more. The neocons don't have to resort to false flag stuff. Besides it wouldn't work. What you can do at night in Tonkin is one thing, another to do it in Europe. A debunked false flag operation would turn Europeans COMPLETELY away from the US. And the neocons aren't that stupid.

Besides Al Quaeda has toned down the anti-shiite rethoric initiated by Zarquawi. So the Hezbollah isn't a target for them, even if religious competitors. Attacking them would jeopardize the little support they have in the Islamic world. And they DO need some logistics.

[pitohui]

18. terrific post and i appreciate these insights

all i can say is, two thumbs up!

[geek tragedy]

15. You can't believe everything you read on Free Republic.

The secularist, liberal French are most certainly not the allies of the Medievalists.

Sheesh.

[Julius Civitatus]

6. O'Reilly, Fox News rejoice

:sarcasm:

[oblivious]

14. I think bush speechwriters should follow this format, say about Poland:

"President Bush has told me to announce to free people around the world that the Poland has joined the war on terror. This should be a source of chagrin, frustration and sadness for the godless meanies of Al-qaeda, the treacherous followers of Osama Bin Laden."

He urges the Poles to become "a bone in the throat of the Al-qauea terrorists".

"We pray to God that our brothers from Poland succeed in causing harm to the top members of the alqaeda coalition, and particularly their leader, the vicious Osama bin Laden," he says.

blah, blah

[rodeodance]

16. Threat to France as Al-Qaeda enrols Algerian Islamists

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060914/ts_afp/qaedaattacksalgeria_060914205440

Threat to France as Al-Qaeda enrols Algerian Islamists

2 hours, 6 minutes ago

DUBAI, Sept 14, 2006 (AFP) - A radical Algerian Islamist group that has singled out France as its sworn enemy officially placed itself at Al-Qaeda's orders, vowing to support the terror network's war on "crusaders" worldwide.


The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), an armed movement which has long been linked to Al-Qaeda, formally pledged allegiance to the network's chief Osama bin Laden in a statement released online.

"Our soldiers are at his call so that he may strike who and where he likes," said a text signed by the group's leader Abu Mossaab Abdelwadud, who also vowed to pursue the group's "jihad" or holy war against the Algerian authorities.

Bin Laden's right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahiri earlier announced that the group -- long known to have links to Al-Qaeda -- was now part of the network, in a video released on the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks..........

[rodeodance]

17. AP Al-Qaida joins Algerians against France

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060915/ap_on_re_eu/france_al_qaida_video_6

Al-Qaida joins Algerians against France

By JOHN LEICESTER and OMAR SINAN, Associated Press Writers 57 minutes ago

PARIS - Al-Qaida has for the first time announced a union with an Algerian insurgent group that has designated France as an enemy, saying they will act together against French and American interests.


Current and former French officials specializing in terrorism said Thursday that an al-Qaida alliance with the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French initials GSPC, was cause for concern.

"We take these threats very seriously," Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said, adding in an interview on France-2 television that the threat to France was "high" and "permanent," and that "absolute vigilance" was required.

Al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, announced the "blessed union" in a video posted this week on the Internet to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

France's leader have repeatedly warned that the decision not to join the U.S.-led war in Iraq would not shield the country from Islamic terrorism. French participation in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon could give extremists another reason to strike.

[Laughing Mirror]

19. It's money in the bank for Sarkozy, the "terror" candidate for president

Sarkozy, remember, is the revolting interior minister, aspiring candidate who came to White House the other day and held hands with his dearly beloved George Bush, his idol and mentor, and asssured him that, yes like Tony Blair, if elected president of France he will carry out the popular policies of George Bush and his band of criminals. Sarkozy wants desperately to be part of the gang too, and, like Bush, like Blair has built his career on the the threat of terror in the France and unending insecurity in the streets. He certainly is doing his part to provoke and inflame hatred against enemies and jihadists of every stripe and give them reason to strike.

[Eurobabe]

20. Sure glad I am not flying Air France on Monday

sarcasm off.