| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Charles Farley" |
| Date: |
30 Oct 2005 10:40:39 AM |
| Object: |
Muslims to Bomb France's Airliners |
London Telegraph
October 29, 2005
Terror cell 'smuggled missiles into Europe'
By Henry Samuel in Paris
An Islamic terror cell has smuggled two surface-to-air missiles into
Europe in a plot to shoot down planes at one of France's main airports,
it was claimed yesterday.
French and Algerian extremists with links to al-Qa'eda bought the
Russian SA-18 Grouse missiles from Chechens in 2002 and smuggled them
via Georgia and Turkey, according to French anti-terror sources quoted
in Le Figaro.
Both missiles and several of the extremists are reportedly still at
large.
French anti-terrorism investigators learned of the missile terror plan
while interrogating a Jordanian al-Qa'eda operative close to Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, the head of the Islamic terror group in Iraq.
Adnan Muhammad Sadik, alias Abu Atiya, is now being held by the
Jordanian authorities.
He is believed to have been al-Qa'eda's chief in the Caucasus and
responsible for training foreign "holy warriors" -- many of whom
returned to their countries of origin to set up sleeper cells.
According to Abu Atiya, one such group, the so-called "Chechen
network", returned to France with the missiles and chemical and
biological agents such as botulin, ricin and cyanide.
Some of its members had allegedly been involved in a plan to explode a
bomb during a Christmas market in Strasbourg in 2000.
Others were linked to a conspiracy to blow up Los Angeles airport in
1999.
In 2002 the group wavered between attacking a symbolic target such as
Russia's embassy in Paris, to punish its Chechen policies, or a higher
profile location, such as the Eiffel Tower.
Before homing in on a preferred target, most of the group was arrested
in a swoop by the French terrorist brigade, the DST, in two Paris
suburbs late in 2002. But some escaped.
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/29/wterr29.xml
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