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Al-Qaeda chemical weapons plot thwarted in France
The French police are convinced that their country has escaped a planned chemical or biological attack by an Islamist cell linked to al-Qaida. An interior ministry official said evidence from Islamist militants arrested in the Lyon area last week made it "very plain" that an attack with the deadly botulism or ricin toxins was being actively prepared. The eight suspects arrested on Tuesday were mainly relatives of Menad Benchellali, the son of a radical imam in the Lyon suburb of Venisseux, who has been in jail since December 2002, when he was arrested during a police investigation of French Islamistsâ efforts to send young Muslim volunteers to fight the Russian forces in Chechnya. The ministry official, who asked not to be named, confirmed a report in Le Monde that the suspects admitted to the police that Mr Benchellali was a chemicals expert who had been trained in poison-making in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and was actively trying to produce a botulism toxin and ricin. He had tested his chemicals on animals, they said. CNNâs dead dogs, perhaps> Mr Benchellaliâs arrest was said at the time to have thwarted suicide bomb attacks on Russian targets in Paris, including the embassy. But Tuesdayâs arrests have proved a "goldmine" of further "unexpected but unsettling" evidence, the official said. "After last yearâs arrests we thought we were dealing with a group planning bomb attacks on Russian interests, and possibly supplying false papers, money and lodgings to Chechens," an investigator said. "It now seems a cell around the Benchellali family was trying to manufacture chemical and biological weapons for attacks around Europe." Interesting. What were their targets? Those arrested last week included Mr Benchellaliâs father, Chellali, a well-known and controversial radical imam; his mother; his brother Hafed; and his sister Anissa. Another of his brothers, Mourad, is among six French nationals suspected of having ties to al-Qaida held by the US authorities at Guantanamo Bay. Two women were released on Saturday, their lawyer, Jacques Debray, said, but six others were expected to be brought before the anti-terrorist magistrate, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, in Paris today. About 150 Muslims in Venisseux protested against the arrests on Saturday. Muslim organisations asked people to gather in the market square and read a statement calling the arrests "a message to intimidate all Franceâs
That was the ricin scare right before the war in Iraq started that was later dismissed as the result of an errant test ... or so it was thought at the time. Last weekâs arrests appear to confirm fears expressed by the French intelligence service DST in a hitherto secret note dated November 2002, which referred to an "organised attempt by al-Qaida-linked radical Islamists to manufacture or acquire chemical and biological weapons to be used in attacks". It said the men involved were mainly "veterans of Afghanistan with chemical and biological expertise who have recently returned from fighting Russian forces in Chechnya". That means theyâve likely been to Pankisi, which jives with yesterdayâs story about Abu Khabab coming out of the woodwork again ... It devoted an entire chapter to the possible role of the extended Benchellali family. Itâs a family affair! The arrests also reinforce evidence that several active al-Qaida cells are operating in Europe. Which is run by Zarqawi, by all accounts ... The head of the DST, Pierre de Bousquet de Florian, said late last year that France had successfully foiled "quite a few" terrorist plots: 120 suspected Islamists had been arrested since the September 11 attacks and half of them convicted of membership of a terrorist organisation. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-01-12 |
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