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| Europe |
| French GSPC cell had military hardware, explosives |
| 2005-12-16 |
| French police have seized large quantities of military weapons and explosives as part of a probe into an Islamic militant group said to have indirect links to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, officials said on Thursday. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters the arsenal was discovered on Wednesday in a lock-up attached to a block of flats in the Clichy-sous-Bois suburb north of Paris. Judicial sources said the haul included assault rifles, dynamite and TNT. Police also arrested on Wednesday two new suspects in addition to the 25 rounded up in a string of dawn raids in the Paris area on Monday. Investigators believe the gang financed Islamic militancy by staging armed robberies and judicial sources said one suspect had admitted planning one such robbery in Beauvais, north of Paris, in October. Sarkozy told parliament this week that those detained had indirect links to key al Qaeda leaders and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the organisation's leader in Iraq. "Thanks to the arrests, an arms cache has just been discovered which reveals the seriousness of this matter. They are very determined people, with links between terrorist extremism and major crime," Sarkozy told BFM TV. "We think they have indirect links, at a fairly high level, with al Qaeda," he said. Four people have been released but police are still holding 23 people in custody on suspicion of terrorism-related offences. They include Ouassini Cherifi, 30, who has just served a five-year jail term for trafficking forged passports used by armed militants. Anti-terrorism magistrates are expected to place around 15 of the suspects under formal investigation on Friday. They must then be bailed or remanded in custody by a judge. Judicial sources are cautious about the Zarqawi connection. So far, they have only linked the latest group to another disbanded by police in October and November. It was allegedly run by Safe Bourada, a French national implicated in a wave of Islamist attacks in France in 1995. It is Bourada's group that has been linked to the GSPC, a militant Algerian Islamist group which western intelligence services say has contacts with Zarqawi. The tough-talking Sarkozy, who wants to run for president in 2007, is steering a major anti-terrorism bill through parliament. It sharply increases the use of closed circuit television surveillance, monitoring of mobile phone and Internet cafe connections and tougher sentencing for terrorism offences. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
#3 Investigators believe the gang financed Islamic militancy by staging armed robberiesBzzzzzt. Nice (PC) try, but it's far more likely they were/are being financed by Arabia and Iran. No doubt they staged robberies - for fun. But thanks for playing. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-12-16 16:16 |
| #2 NB: The GSPC is the group various "experts" said we were wasting our time going after in Africa. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-12-16 07:57 |
| #1 what about Australia? Chances are they have the same gear. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-12-16 06:07 |