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| Europe |
| France arrests 5 Chechen hard boyz |
| 2004-01-06 |
| French counter-intelligence agents detained five people Tuesday on suspicion of providing logistical support to Islamic militants with links to Chechen rebels, police said. The suspects were taken into custody in Venissieux, a suburb of the central city Lyon, authorities said. They are being questioned for allegedly providing false passports to militants. Prominent anti-terror judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere ordered the arrests, police said. The suspects’ identities were not released. About 10 suspects from France’s so-called "Chechen networks" have been in prison since a year ago, when officials uncovered a group allegedly planning chemical-weapon attacks on Russian targets. December 2002 raids in the Paris suburbs Romainville and La Courneuve turned up diagrams of chemical formulas for explosives and a substance that, when subjected to heat or put in contact with water, would release a highly toxic gas, judicial officials said at the time. Counter-terrorism agents also found electronic components, a motorcycle battery, a suit to protect against chemical and biological attacks and radiation, two empty gas canisters, false identity papers and electronic equipment. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 And now, today's episode of "Family Affair", or in this case, "My Three Sons: An Islamic cleric whose son is being held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was among seven people detained by French security agents Tuesday as part of an investigation into suspected terror networks. The imam, Chellali Benchellali, was arrested at his home in the tough Minguettes high-rise neighborhood of Venissieux, a suburb of the southeastern city of Lyon, said a lawyer for the family. Attorney Jacques Debray said the imam's wife and one of his sons, Hafid, also were detained in the sweep by the DST, France's secretive counterterrorism and counterintelligence agency. Another of his sons, Mourad Benchellali, is among six French detainees suspected of ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network who are being held at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay. French agents also arrested a pharmacist from Minguettes who works at a Lyon mosque and another man from the neighborhood, according to an association that supports prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. A third son of the imam, Menad Benchellali, was picked up in the Paris region during a sweep a year ago that authorities said thwarted planned bomb or toxic gas attacks in France and Russia by a terror cell with ties to Chechen rebels and al-Qaida. French authorities have said that Menad Benchellali trained with Chechen rebels and met high-level al-Qaida operatives in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, which borders Chechnya. |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-1-6 3:53:04 PM |
| #1 The "reworked" heated motorcycle jacket was missing? Hello, Delta 043. |
| Posted by: john 2004-1-6 3:04:31 PM |