What Is France Nervous About? (The Balkan Connection)

This is a partial transcript of Special Report with Brit Hume, Feb. 4, that has been edited for clarity. Click here to order the complete transcript.

JACQUES CHIRAC, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): First of all, I consider that war is always the worst solution. I believe that we do not need another war in that region. With this being said, I repeat that we consider -- I consider we should wait. We have got a strategy, which is inspections.

IJAZ: Abu Masab al-Zawkawi. He was transported through southern Turkey into the Balkans and then ended up in Paris sometime just before Ramadan started...

Now boarding the Istanbul Express...next stop Pristina, Kosovo...Sarajevo, Bosnia...Split, Croatia...Paris, France and London, England...ALL ABOARD!!

Now, that is where we come back to what President Bush said in October of last year when he identified a senior al Qaeda leader who had gone to Iraq, received medical treatment to have a leg amputated that was blown up in the Afghan bombing campaign and then proceeded to a northern Iraqi terrorist outfit. What we have not yet heard and this is what my sources are telling me over the past two or three days, is that that leader was in fact, transported through southern Turkey using Albanian mercenaries to transport him into...

FREE SLOBO!!!

"What Is France Nervous About?"

LINKS OF INTEREST:

stepping back in time...THIS IS LONDON.com: "MAJOR AIRPORT SECURITY ALERT" by Mark Wilkinson, Evening Standard (ARTICLE NOTE: The suspect is identified as Moroccan born Josef Monti, age 18, a man who resides in Paris, France.) (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Moroccan-born Josef Monti arrived on the Eurostar train on false papers and within 48 hours walked unchallenged into a highly-restricted area at the airport. He climbed into the cockpit of an unlocked European Aviation Boeing 737, which was empty and unguarded, and smashed instrument panels and equipment. He was about to attack another aircraft when he was detained by airport security. The 18-year-old later admitted to officials that he was a supporter of Saddam Hussein. Although he asked to be directed to the notorious Finsbury Park mosque after arriving in Britain...) (111902)

BBC News: "FLIGHT ATTENDANT GUILTY IN BOMB SCARE" (122102)

ISLAM-ONLINE.net - News: Paris. "FIRST UNIFIED ISLAMIC COUNCIL IN FRANCE IN PLACE" (ARTICLE SNIPPETS: "The day-to-day tasks of the new Council will be providing clergy to minister to Muslims in the army, universities and prisons, acquiring burial sites, delivering halal meat certificates, organising the pilgrimage to Mecca and building new mosques and prayer-halls. Fekkar-Lambiotte and another leading liberal, the mufti of the main Marseille mosque Soheib Ben Sheikh, both agreed to take up places on the Council's central committee."..."Algeria funds about 200 religious centers, while Saudi Arabia provided 90 percent of the money for the main mosque in Lyon. In addition 90 percent of French imams are paid by foreign countries, including Boubaker himself who is an employee of the Algerian government.") (122002)

WorldNetDaily.com: "TERROR ATTACK FOILED IN FRANCE? by Jon Dougherty (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Quoting unidentified police sources, French radio and television reports and the daily newspaper Le Parisien said the group was planning a chemical attack. UPI reported that French police seized empty containers, vials of suspicious fluids, powders and a chemical suit, along with $5,000 in cash and phony identification papers in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis. Specialists are currently studying the materials...") (121802)

BBC News: "POLICE SEIZE CHEMICALS IN PARIS" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "All three men, arrested in a dawn raid on Monday, are reported to be of North African origin. The French news agency AFP quoted a source close to the investigation, who said that the men had all spent time in both Afghanistan and Chechnya. Some French media reports described the three men as Algerians, and said they were allegedly preparing a chemical attack.") **Note: This article has been recently updated. (121702)

TELEGRAPH.co.uk: "COLLAPSE OF 'FARCIAL' DUTCH AL-QA'EDA TRIAL EXPOSES JUSTICE SYSTEM'S DIFFICULTIES" by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "After a trial criticised as farcical, a court in Rotterdam freed four members of an Islamic cell accused of plotting to blow up the US embassy in Paris and a Nato base at Kleine Brogel in Belgium. The alleged ringleader, Jerome Courtailler, was a laddish Roman Catholic butcher and football champion who grew up in the little French Alpine town of Bonneville, near Mont Blanc, before converting to Islam two years ago in an attempt to free himself from drug addiction.") (121902)

GOOGLE Search Term: "JEROME COURTAILLER"

GOOGLE Search Term: "FINSBURY PARK MOSQUE"

YAHOO! News: "ALGERIA"

BBC News: "FRENCH CLERIC FACES SHOE-BOMB INQUIRY" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The move against Kamel Lakhram, the imam or prayer leader of a mosque north of Paris, allows investigators to continue their inquiries and decide if he should be charged. French authorities have been trying to establish what logistical or financial help Reid had before he boarded a Paris to Miami flight in December 2001 and tried to detonate explosives hidden in his shoes. The mosque leader was one of eight suspects police arrested last Tuesday by French police investigating Reid's activities.") (120102)

BBC NEWS: "HIJACK DRAMA ON ITALIAN PLANE" (NOTE: The man said he was "a member of Al-Qaeda." According to an AP report, the suspect is identified as Stefano Savorani, age 29.) (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The plane was hijacked while flying over Swiss airspace, say police. Italian authorities say they have identified the man as a former policeman, thought to be aged around 30. They say that three years ago he attempted unsuccessfully to hijack a Moroccan airliner flying from Marseille to Paris and on another occasion he tried to hijack a high-speed train in Italy, breaking into the driver's compartment, the BBC's Rome correspondent David Willey reports.") (112702)

FOX NEWS.com (AP): "FRANCE ARRESTS EIGHT IN TUNISIAN SYNAGOGUE ATTACK" (ARTICLE NOTE: The suspected driver of the suspect truck is identified as Nizar Naouar, a Tunisian. ARTICLE SNIPPET: "French anti-terrorism judges ordered the arrest Tuesday of eight suspects in a deadly Tunisia synagogue bombing that authorities have linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Among those detained were the parents and brother of the suspected bomber. Nineteen people, including 14 German tourists, were killed when a truck laden with gas tanks exploded outside the Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba.") (110502)

FOX NEWS.com (AP): "TWO ISLAMIC MILITANTS GET LIFE SENTENCES IN FRANCE" (ARTICLE NOTE: The suspects are identified as Boualem Bensaid and Smain Ait Ali Belkacem. Both Islamic militants are members of the Armed Islamic Group.) ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A French court on Wednesday sentenced two Islamic militants to life in prison – the most severe punishment France allows – for their roles in 1995 subway bombings in Paris that killed eight people and wounded more than 200.") (103002)

MANSOOR IJAZ, FOX FOREIGN AFFAIRS ANALYST: Thank you for having me here in Washington.

BRIT HUME, HOST: What's your -- what are your sources telling you what France might be nervous about here?

..................

IJAZ: ............What we have not yet heard and this is what my sources are telling me over the past two or three days, is that that leader was in fact, transported through southern Turkey using Albanian mercenaries to transport him into...

HUME: What is his name, by the way?

IJAZ: Abu Masab al-Zawkawi. He was transported through southern Turkey into the Balkans and then ended up in Paris sometime just before Ramadan started...

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