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"We warned London of the threat of attack": France
A confidential report by France's intelligence service that was finalised days before the 7 July London bombings pointed to the threat of an Al-Qaeda attack on Britain, the French daily Le Figaro said Monday. The conservative daily said the report by the DCRG intelligence agency also highlighted the need to closely observe France's Pakistani community with a view to preventing an attack on French soil. An official at the interior ministry confirmed the existence of the report, but cautioned it was "a very technical study on the Pakistani community in France". He said it was not aimed at lecturing Britain on what might happen on its own soil.
The report pointed to "the multiplication of passages through France by Pakistani activists from south Asia or London and the setting up of underground or official representations of the main extremist groups". In particular it named the Lashkar-e-Taiba, an organisation which is linked to Al-Qaeda, adding that several hundred Pakistanis living in France "have chosen the path of terrorism and salafism to express their hatred of the West." Salafism is one of the most radical expressions of Islam. Le Figaro said that in April 2005 France had refused entry to a Pakistani Islamic senator who was a member of a Pakistani parliamentary delegation in Europe "because of his membership of an Islamist group linked to the Taliban". The hardline Islamic Taliban, which had ties with al-Qaeda, ruled Afghanistan until it was ousted in a US-led campaign in late 2001. Another Islamist senator managed to stay in France in November 2004, even though he had been banned from French soil, the report said. After he left, police arrested the people who had helped him stay in France, Le Figaro said. The report said that the refusal to deliver visas had unleashed strong criticisms against France from "Pakistani extremists".
Posted by: Steve 2005-08-08 |
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