BOMB FOUND ON FRENCH RAILWAY LINE

[rodbarnett]

A bomb containing several detonators has been found on a French rail line linking Paris to Basel, in Switzerland, according to police.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1128708,00.html

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. wonderful

I wonder how long it'll be before the LIRR gets hit.

Now I'm scared. I don't fly in planes except in rare circumstances, but I always take the train into the city.

:scared:

[leftynyc]

11. Metro North for me - I have no choice

and I'm scared also. It's just a matter of time.

[CaptainClark23]

12. NYC Subway

And terrorist threat aside, I feel safer on it today than I did back in '77.

Fear is relative.

See you in the Streets.

[THUNDER HANDS]

13. what happened in 77 ?

I was born in 78 so I have no idea what you're referring to.

[CaptainClark23]

30. Was a different City then...

Was just a tad more dangerous on the streets, and particularly moreso in the subways.


ah for the days of Dondi, Serge, and Futura2000...(obscure ref, you'll either get it or won't)

[mr_hat]

2. French government surrenders to rail worker...

[WillyT]

3. Huh...???

Explain please...

:wtf:

[Fovea]

4. I don't quite get your point...

What are you trying to say here?

[mr_hat]

6. Just making a cheap freeper joke. Excuse moi.

[hang a left]

5. THis article doesn't say crap!

I would like to know how the bomb was detected. Fishy story.

[tlcandie]

7. From fishy source ta boot!

nt

[mobuto]

17. Not at all

Some wacko group has planted bombs all over France, and is demanding ransom money or else they say they'll start blowing up trains. Every SNCF worker (French national railroad) has been out walking the tracks. This is NOT a surprise at all.

[Dover]

18. Yes, I argued another possibility for the bomber in Madrid, and

maybe this story confirms my suspicions.

I think it's possible that an EU nation set off the bomb in Madrid in order to tilt that election to the Left (the Spanish population was already VERY unhappy with the current Bush-friendly government there, so the bomb might have been meant to nudge them in that direction).

The EU quickly welcomed Spain back into it's fold after that incident which I believe may have been the goal all along.

So perhaps the planting of a similar bomb on a French train was done to deflect suspicion from itself. (In other words, maybe France was behind the Madrid bombing). I know it's not a popular theory and everyone would like to pin it on Bushco or al Qaeda, but I wonder........

[w4rma]

26. Anzar's people determined it was Al Queda.

I'm sure that if it wasn't Al Queda they'd have broadcast the proof everywhere. Remember that they tried to pin it on a Spanish seperatist group, but their own evidence shot them down.

[Kucinich04]

32. Bushco could've done both just as easily...

They might well have thought that such a bombing would force the Spanish population to the RIGHT just like it did here. They go after France as well, just because they are France!

Just as logical as YOUR story...

[Paschall]

33. Dover, that's completely wacky

The split in the EU over Iraq is--relatively speaking--of little import for internal European affairs. Ya think Chirac's conservative government planted bombs in Madrid to help elect the Spanish socialists?!?... Having the socialists in power in Spain is much more bothersome for Chirac than the French/Spanish differences over Iraq.

Time for you to hit the sack!

[Cooley Hurd]

8. CNN now breaking in with it...

Device was disabled before it could go off. *phew!!!*

KC Star link

<snip>
PARIS - A French railroad worker found an explosive device buried in the bed of a railway line heading from France to Switzerland on Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.

Bomb disposal experts neutralized the device, which was half-buried under a track in the village of Montieramey, on a train line heading from Paris to Basel, Switzerland, the ministry said in a statement. It was discovered shortly after noon.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The Interior Ministry said the device did not resemble bombs described in threats by a mysterious and previously unknown group calling itself AZF.
</snip>

[hang a left]

10. Where would that actually be on a train?

"buried in the bed of a railway line"

[Scairp]

14. No

In the ground, buried in the dirt, so that it could be detonated when the train went over it.

[hang a left]

15. How would one know to look there?

[Scairp]

19. You don't know much about railroads do you?

Railway workers rountinely walk the tracks for inspection purposes. It sounds as if they got lucky by just happening to walk that piece of track today. REALLY lucky.

[hang a left]

20. Nope, sure don't. So Cal girl.

Doesn't it seem a little too lucky?

[Scairp]

21. Not necessarily

The terrorists do get caught once in awhile. They won't succeed everytime. It doesn't seem suspicious to me that they happened upon it by walking the tracks. And I'm Scairp, NOT So Cal girl.

[hang a left]

29. clueless in So Cali

what is scairp?

[TahitiNut]

25. My impressions of the diligence of SNCF workers ...

... from when I was working in France for a few months is that they're remarkably good at surveying the tracks and monitoring the condition of the equipment. I've noticed no comparable diligence on rail lines in the US, even though I spent s significan part of my childhood hanging out around the local rail lines. (Flattening pennies and such. Hard to keep a kid awy from the tracks.)

During the months I spent in France working outside Paris, I recall seeing railway workers either walking along the tracks or riding inspection cars so often it seemed nearly constant to me. It added to my impression that railroads are far more integrated into the lives of Europeans than we understand in the US. In my several trips to Europe, I've always relied on train travel with utmost confidence in the comfort, safety, and convenience. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest that any tampering or planting of bombs would be far more likely to be discovered in virtually any European country than in the US -- and 10 to 20 times sooner.

[burrowowl]

27. Yes

this is done to check the bed, any changes in track width, etc. France's rail system is nationalized qand they don't want it to go the way of the UK rail system that has been partially privitized and maintenance has gone to hell for profit causing many accidents.

[theHandpuppet]

22. This is quite true

Could be any railroad worker, such as a brakeman, could have been checking car couplings, switches or the like and would have noticed something out of the ordinary. Since I'll assume the French RRs were on alert for just such an act of terrorism, they would have been especially vigilant. Still, it would be akin to finding a needle in a haystack unless the train were stopped at or near a town or station. It would be virtully impossible to spot such a device planted on a section of track in a rural area where trains can travel at high speeds for many miles without stopping, and out of view of any passersby.

[Paschall]

34. After the first device was found a few days ago...

...all French National Rail workers were put on alert and all 3,000 kilometers+ of French rail was to be inspected by walking crews. Such inspections are carried out regularly anyway, but a special inspection was carried out.

[maddezmom]

9. BBC reporting as well

'Bomb' found on French rail line


An explosive device has been found on a French railway line linking Paris to Basel, in Switzerland, police say.
A bomb disposal squad has made the suspect device safe, the French Interior ministry has announced.

The French national rail company SNCF says the object was found during an inspection of the line.

A group calling itself AZF has threatened to blow up parts of France's rail network if the government failed to pay a ransom.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3565417.stm

[Roaming]

31. Wasn't there also a more recent threat from muslim terrorists after

the Spanish bombings, that France was next? Seems to me I recall this but can't remember all the details.

[Iceburg]

16. CNN and Other US media inspect their own backyard more often

You won't find this on CNN or other mainstream US media sites ...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1174459,00.html

<snip>
They seemed normal but plotted to kill thousands

Paul Harris reports from Noonday, Texas, on how the FBI stumbled upon right-wing cyanide bombers

Sunday March 21, 2004
The Observer

William Krar and Judith Bruey appeared a perfectly normal couple. Certainly Teresa Staples thought so. She remembered a polite, sociable couple who always paid their rent on time for the three garages they rented from her.
So when the FBI showed up in the tiny Texas hamlet of Noonday demanding access to the garages, Staples thought they had made a mistake. But a few hours later, more FBI agents turned up, this time wearing biochemical warfare suits. 'When those guys showed up in spacesuits, I just knew something very bad had been found,' Staples said.

She was right. Among a terrifying arsenal of guns, bullets and bombs, the FBI found a chemical cyanide bomb. Used in a shopping mall, a stadium or a subway, it could have killed thousands. 'I was terrified. I live here with my children and they had that terrible stuff in there,' Staples said.

Krar and Bruey will soon be sentenced to lengthy jail terms, but their capture has revealed a gaping hole in America's war on terror: the home front. The FBI fears that other chemical bombs, built by Krar, may already be in circulation. The case has now sparked the biggest domestic terror investigation since the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

Critics say the case shows that the authorities, obsessed with Islamic terrorists, have ignored the deadly assortment of domestic extremists. America's right-wing groups, though diminished in numbers since 1995, have become bent on acquiring weapons capable of mass slaughter.

...more

[nolabels]

24. You can bet there are many more of them same out there also

This is the second amendment run amok,it is that third rail and a reflection of the violence that is beamed into peoples homes and sometimes demonstrated on the streets

Good link thanks

[tabasco]

23. What kind of sick animal plants bombs?

Knowing they will kill children, innocent people. I don't give a damn what the excuse, there is no way to justify attacks on innocent people. It is not only inhumane, it is inhuman.

[nolabels]

28. Most other vertebrates never transgressed to self -inflicted explosives

Reminds me of watching that Jane Goodall documentary when she watched the strange happenings off the older male chimps going out on a secret murder campaign, much to her amazement

http://media.animal.discovery.com/tuneins/gombe.html
Jane Goodall's Return to Gombe

Jane Goodall's Return to Gombe follows the world-renowned primatologist and humanitarian, capturing her thoughts and emotions as she goes back to Gombe, where her work began more than 40 years ago, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the East African country of Tanzania. Goodall wants to see what is happening to alpha male Frodo and the rest of the "F" family of chimps made famous by her many books, TV specials and films. She also hopes to recharge from her grueling globe-hopping schedule of lectures.

There are big changes brewing in and around Gombe, however. What was once a vast, flourishing forest teeming with apes is now home to only about 120 chimps who live confined to a few protected square miles of the Gombe reserve. The bordering areas are ravaged by deforestation — a critical problem for Gombe chimps, as they can no longer mate with neighboring communities and ensure the genetic diversity chimpanzee groups need to survive in the long term. And the long-time dominant alpha male Frodo — the biggest chimpanzee ever observed at Gombe — is suffering from a mysterious disease. After a tyrannical and brutal five-year rule, he is suddenly weakened and lying low, and Goodall is hoping to find him.

Meanwhile, Goodall sets out to find Gremlin — "my favorite living chimp," she says — who is the mother of the only two surviving chimpanzee twins in Gombe; twins are a rare occurrence in the wild. Goodall is also eager to chart the progress and personalities of the youngsters themselves, as they have overcome the murder attempts from other chimps and are growing by leaps and bounds. Later in Jane Goodall's Return to Gombe, she makes a visit to her sanctuary in Brazzaville, Congo, where there are more than 100 chimps, virtually all of whom are victims of the bushmeat trade in Africa. Formerly a local industry, the trade of chimps and other wild animals for food has evolved into a huge business, with more than a million tons a year going to human consumption.

(snip)