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| Europe |
| Paris airport bomb witness held |
| 2002-12-31 |
| A former soldier who alerted police to a bomb and weapons cache at Paris' biggest international airport has himself been taken into custody. The man raised the alarm when he said he saw a weapon in the car of an airport baggage handler at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport. Police confirmed on Tuesday that the ex-soldier had himself been detained for questioning on his account of what happened. Humm, something about his story doesn't sound right? Or maybe just being careful? The baggage handler, Abderazak Besseghir, was arrested when he returned to the car. Police found plastic explosives, detonators, a fuse, a machine gun and an automatic pistol in the boot. That's a awful lot of stuff to be a setup. He has refused to answer nearly all questions put to him, except to claim that he is the victim of a set-up, possibly by a member of his family seeking revenge against him. "I was framed!" French media reports say his wife's family blame him for her death in a fire, and he believes he has been the victim of a plot to frame him. Paranoid as well The former soldier is believed to have told police he saw Mr Besseghir moving items in the car boot, and heard strange noises. "Investigators are trying to check the credibility and the veracity of his statements, in addition to establishing his personality profile," said a police official. Sounds like maybe the witness might have a few screws loose, which doesn't mean he didn't really report a real crime. Cops have this problem all the time when your witness is a drug user, hooker, or a mentally ill person. You have to be real careful to make sure the evidence is good. Mr Besseghir, a 27-year-old Frenchman of Algerian origin, is not known to have any links to extremist groups, although correspondents say the possibility of a terrorist connection with Islamic militants will be closely examined. I think the algerian origin part is a clue, but that's just me He has told police that someone else must have put the arms cache in the vehicle, to frame him, as he had never seen the guns and explosives before. "No, no, I told you, that AK-47 isn't mine. This one has a maple butt stock. Mine is walnut....wait, let me rephrase that" One report said radical Islamic and pro-Palestinian material was also found in the car, along with information about pilots' uniforms. Police say the bomb components found in the car were ready to use, but have been puzzled as to exactly what they might have been used for. "He certainly wasn't going mushroom picking," one investigator has said. Ah, those witty French cops |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #5 " Cops have this problem all the time when your witness is a drug user, hooker, or a mentally ill person. " Or if they are French. |
| Posted by: Brian 2002-12-31 19:44:29 |
| #4 Nope, it is wabbit season! Fire! |
| Posted by: Hodadenon 2002-12-31 14:08:06 |
| #3 Maybe it's elk hunting season? |
| Posted by: seafarious 2002-12-31 12:14:12 |
| #2 I thought all Allahmobiles came standard with machine guns, plastic explosives, and detonators? Who knows when you'll be stuck in traffic and have to slug it out with the infidels or usurper Jews. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2002-12-31 11:34:43 |
| #1 A very curious story. Oh, not the part about the French police being puzzled. That I took for granted. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-12-31 11:12:02 |