"One asks himself why a certain number of young French people are in Pakistan in religious schools," Sarkozy said. One also asks himself why this training for violence and mayhem always seems to take place in religious schools, and I don't mean the local Methodist Sunday school, and why so few (if any) officials are facing the implications of that fact, either in Pakistan or in the West. "France Says Extremists Are Enlisting Its Citizens: Police Assert Some Trained in Mideast Could Attack Paris," from the Washington Post, with thanks to Kemaste:
PARIS -- French police investigating plans by a group of Islamic extremists to attack targets in Paris discovered last month that the group was recruiting French citizens to train in the Middle East and return home to carry out terrorist attacks, sources familiar with the investigation said.One French official said the extremists were using a virtual "underground railroad" through Syria to spirit European and Middle Eastern citizens into and out of Iraq. A senior French law enforcement official, who declined to be quoted by name because he was speaking about classified information, said French citizens had undergone terrorist training at camps in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
"There's always been an enormous jihad zone to train people to fight in their country of origin," the official said. "We saw it Afghanistan, in Bosnia, in Kosovo, and now we're seeing it in Iraq."
What's new, he said, is that the French cell under investigation "is linked with networks in Iraq, right now, through an individual based in Syria. Now we're finding camps in Syria and Lebanon, and it's the same pattern, training in explosives and chemical weapons, which is an obsession of the jihadists."
In a recent television interview, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy called the terror risk for Paris "very high," adding, "We know that there are about 10 young Frenchmen in Iraq, ready to become kamikazes."
"One asks himself why a certain number of young French people are in Pakistan in religious schools," Sarkozy said. "It's not normal that an individual who lives in our neighborhoods leaves all of a sudden for four months in Afghanistan, three months in Syria. We want to know who is going where, for how long, and when they come back."
Sadly someday we may have to offer such courses to Our young out of self-defense...
Why is it unlikely that an adherent of Islam can possibly sing along with Charles Trenet -- "Douce France/Cher pays de mon enfance..." -- and mean it, even if born in Paris, in Lyon, in Marseille?
And for us older ones (40-somethings) lessons in using Glocks, M16s and 50 cal Brownings. Trouble is, there aren't too many places where you can get lessons to use them in Britain.
This will be good for them... Perhaps they'll stop blaming America for all the evils in the Islamic world -- begin evicting the terrorists who find safe haven in France, and begin fighting by our side in the war against Islamic fascism... Er, scratch that last item... The idea of American troops having to babysit French troops in the middle of a pitched battle worries me a lot...
Let me re-phrase that last point:
..."and begin cooking for our troops as they fight the war against Islamic fascism ...."
As allies the French are nearly worthless, but their food is pretty good!
I don't wish it on the French, but perhaps the best thing that can happen is for a spate of Islamoterrorist attacks, serious ones, and maybe they might "get it" and start deporting all of those Muslims who swarm and swim into France for the jobs that their failed ideology can't provide.
That a person would risk life and limb to migrate to a land of opportunity, then once there turn around and start defecating on the sidewalks, and berating the hosts of the culture and country that gave them what their ideology couldn't provide.. a better way of life and an opportunity, just boggles the mind.
such thinking is incomprehensible (to a rational mind).
BTW JSLA, despite your politically induced loathing of the French (for not joining Bush's coalition of the coerced) at least France has the balls to ban Hijab, and had the balls to ban Hezbollahs TV Station, Al Manar, from French Airways. Yet France does have it's problems, French police refuse to enter Muslim enclaves, Muslim women demonstrate on the streets of Paris, about violence towards women (by Muslim men) to absolutely no effect, the Government turns a deaf ear. I think that the problem in France and Europe is one of their need for oil, profits and trade. The corporations and financiers can't be pissing off the Arabs, on whom they and their profits (as well as their automobiles) depend.
If the French, English and Europeans, didn't have a muslim market for their products, technology (even nuclear) then who would they sell to, where would be shareholder value, and what employment could they offer their people, and how would they fill their gas tanks.
That's the side of the coin, that too many people don't even want to look at, much less acknowledge, how "capitalists" and economies are dependent on cheap Islamic labor, oil, and markets for their products.
Then again I'm only halfway through Bat Ye'or's Eurabia.
Yes, Nariz -- I agree with you, and admit that I have not depicted a very complex picture for my contempt for the French... It goes far deeper than just "not joining" however you care to characterize the coalition. The French actively worked to thwart our efforts in the leadup to the war, it wasn't just 'not participating' -- And I believe this was largely due to the bitter envy of the US, and it represented a vindictive French vainglory which they simply cannot relinquish as a nation. I hold France's arrogance largely to blame for the virulence and rise of German Nazism in the early 20th Century -- and I hold France most at fault for latter 20th Century debacles which continue to haunt America -- beginning with but not limited to Viet Nam, Algeria, and Syria... Their fingers are positively filthy with the slime of their brand of despotic corrupt and incompetent imperialism... Compare their global rapes and pillages to their British counterpart; where once was France there is now horror and devastation -- where Britain reigned, warts and all, they tended to leave a far better legacy.... It is through that lens that their staggering arrogance, and their utter lack of grace towards America AND Americans makes my gorge rise. When it is understood that we yanked their bacon out of the fire at least thrice in the last century, and they return the favor with feral hatred, treachery, and cravenness, what else could I possibly think about the race of France? I could go on and on -- nukes for Saddam -- nukes for Israel -- nukes for Pakistan -- their fingerprints are on all of those -- How about bombing Greenpeace boats in New Zealand --- How about the only country to flout international treaties and sentiment to continue testing their nuclear arsenal above ground? Their vileness knows no limit!
And I'm not at all sure that banning the headscarf is any more than lipstick on a pig -- what is THAT going to accomplish juxtaposed against the exploding Muslim masses they have so foolishly and suicidally welcomed into Europe's heartland with such wild abandon? I could liken them to the WHORE of Babylon -- but I won't...
Thanks for you thoughts, though!
jsla and nariz:
re: the French, don't ever forget who wanted to equip Saddam with a nuclear facility (Chirac himself, was the key govt. minister) or how deeply involved various French officials have been in Saddan's oil-for-food swindle that allowed the SOB to build numerous palaces and provide his military elites with Mercedes Benzes among other things, while crying to the world that the sanctions were resulting in all sorts of infant mortality etc.
jsla: The French ARE full of envy. They are insanely jealous.
They can't accept that they are no longer a world power. Worse, they are really third rate. Their great new nuclear aircraft carrier, Charles De Gaulle, sits useless due to repeated malfunctions. I understand it even had to borrow a propeller from an older ship.
But their sailors are really cute and stylish. Their uniforms look like they were designed by Dior. (Hell, maybe they WERE!)
Meanwhile, American carriers part the seas and drop bombs through the enemy's WINDOWS from seven miles overhead (after all the lawyers review the tasking orders, of course).
Spirit of 1683:
Us "oldsters" have to make up for youth and vigor with cunning and treachery.
I thought it was really sad when, a few years ago, I heard that Britain had enacted some more restrictive gun laws. Britain has a great history of sport hunting. Upland birds and African big game, etc. There must be lots of fine old English double barrel 12 gauge shotguns somewhere out there. Can you find one of those? Are they legal? Can you buy ammunition?
If you want to learn about the current crop of military weapons, and some of the older ones like the Browning, you should plan a holiday visit to America. Take a cheap flight from London to Houston via Continental Airlines. Rent a gas-guzzling macho SUV, with a high-end gear for highway driving. Get a case of beer and a cheap ice chest and head West. Visit one or two of our National Parks. Big Bend and the Grand Canyon would be good choices. Watch out for wetback Mexicans and drug-runners. Oh, and don't let the police see you drinking that beer.
Make your way to Nevada. Take in Las Vegas. And scout the internet for one of those private shooting ranges (more like ranches) where you can spend a few days making lots of noise and learning how to shoot various weapons. You can tailor-make your experience.
Back home, remember that the Irish had lots of weapons (and probably still do). If you study some of the old pictures, you will see some M-16s. These came from the Palestinians, who got them from the Vietnamese, who got them from us. The favorite sidearm on the Continent is the Browning High-Power 9mm semi-auto. Americans like the Glock and the Ruger. Ammunition for all these weapons can be "liberated" in quantity, being military issue.
Have fun.