Posted on 09/14/2006 10:20:32 AM PDT by Republicain
The French services believe that several cells of activists have formed in France.
"In 2002, the networks of the GSPC [Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat] in France and Europe were moribund and the group was in great difficulty in Algeria," a judge comments. "Three years later, it is still weak in its own country but is regaining strength in Europe."
If a precise estimate is difficult to make, the Algerian terrorists could still count on the support of several dozen individuals in France. In its latest note, the Antiterrorist Coordination Unit (Uclat) speaks of "some 40 cells created owing to their links with the Iraqi, Pakistani-Afghan, and Sahel-Maghrebian areas". The great majority of these cells can be described as having close ties to the GSPC.
Furthermore, in the last three years the police have observed that a genuine network of GSPC sympathizers has been established from Italy and Germany in the four corners of France. For the French, the danger is not limited to the national territory. On 21 August 2006, a convoy of French tourists was almost intercepted in a desert region of southeastern Niger.
"The number one enemy of Islam"
In this context, the French authorities are worried about the consequences of the policy of national reconciliation conducted in Algeria. Since the start of March 2006, 2,629 detainees, including former members of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA, the perpetrator of the 1995 attacks in France), have been released. The head of the GSPC immediately called on these former prisoners to join his movement. The theory that a small number of them are leaving Algeria to continue their fight in Europe is one taken very seriously by the French services.
Another danger is the remobilization of militants from the 1990's upon their exit from prison. Two examples made the front pages of the papers last autumn. The group of Safe Bourada, a former GIA member sentenced for his role in the 1995 attacks, rapidly reformed and took advantage of contacts in Lebanon and Iraq. Upon leaving prison, Safe Bourada also moved closer to the GSPC. During the same period, Ouassini Cherifi was also questioned. This computer expert, questioned for the first time in 2000 for trafficking in forged papers, in prison joined with common criminals. Here again, he grew closer to the GSPC and established contacts with some of its representatives.
In Europe, crackdowns have been regularly conducted in Italy and Switzerland where militants of the group devoted themselves to collecting funds. More than 100,000 euros were reportedly amassed in the Helvetian Confederation. This is further evidence of the continued existence of the logistical networks, which could tomorrow provide their assistance to terrorists wishing to strike France, identified by their leader as "the number one enemy of Islam."
I'm sure that number is waaaaaaay too low...............
Way low and I am sure the French are drawing up surrender plans.
That was a cheesey statement. The white flag is a "fait accompli" and needs no written documentation.
Gobment Cheesy or just cheesy. Or maybe it was brie.
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