France's president proposed a sweeping new law Thursday that would jail those who visit extremist web sites one of several tough new measures floated in the wake of a murderous shooting spree.
The proposed rules, unveiled by Nicolas Sarkozy after the death of an Islamist fanatic wanted for a horrifying series of execution-style murders, have alarmed journalists and legal experts, who say they risk pulling the plug on free expression.
Sarkozy argued that it was time to treat those who browse extremist websites the same way as those who consume child pornography.
"Anyone who regularly consults Internet sites which promote terror or hatred or violence will be sentenced to prison," he told a campaign rally in Strasbourg, in eastern France. "What is possible for pedophiles should be possible for trainee terrorists and their supporters, too."
How the proposed rules would work isn't clear. When asked, Sarkozy's office directed the query for details to the Ministry of Justice, which didn't immediately offer clarification.
Continued on Page 47
French gunman Mohamed Merah, who killed three soldiers and four Jews in France in the last two weeks, had been on a trip to Israel in the past, France's Le Monde newspaper reported Thursday.
According to the report, Merah's passport had Israeli stamps in it. The purpose of his visit is not known, but analysts suspect he was either trying to visit the Palestinian territories or do reconnaissance to plan a terror attack.
Based on the stamps in his passports, Merah also visited Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Afghanistan.
Continued on Page 47
A police siege in the French city of Toulouse has ended with a man suspected of killing seven people now dead, the French interior minister has said.
Police stormed the flat where Mohammed Merah was holed up at 09:30 GMT, after a siege that had lasted 32 hours. Merah fired at officers and was found dead after jumping from a window.
Oh, 'jumped' did he?
The self-confessed al-Qaeda militant was suspected of killing four people outside a Jewish school and three soldiers in three separate attacks. Merah, 23, said he was acting to "avenge Palestinian children" and protest against French military interventions overseas.
President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a televised address, said everything had been done to try to bring Merah to justice but it was decided that no more lives could be put at risk. He also vowed a new crackdown on those who visited "hate or terrorism" web sites or travelled abroad to be indoctrinated in terrorism.
Interior Minister Claude Gueant said officers had thrown grenades and entered by the door and windows of the flat. After surveying the scene and finding no sign of the suspect, they proceeded to the bathroom, moving slowly as they were wary of booby-traps.
When officers tried to find out if there was anyone in the bathroom, the suspect came out firing several weapons. Mr Gueant said the suspect was "shooting very violently. The bursts of gunfire were frequent and hard".
Gunfire usually is 'very violent'...
Merah then jumped from a window, continuing to fire. He was found dead on the ground.
One police source told Agence France-Presse that Merah had been killed by police as he fled through the window.
"I can fly Ma! I can fly!"
Two officers were reported wounded in the final assault.
Mr Gueant said: "A RAID [special police] officer who is used to this kind of thing told me that he had never seen such a violent assault."
By the perp or by the police?
A number of explosions had been set off overnight to intimidate Merah, officials said.
Worked well, didn't it...
They said he was armed with a Kalashnikov high-velocity rifle, a mini-Uzi 9mm machine pistol, several handguns and possibly grenades.
I had no idea that 'Fast and Furious' had reached into France...
Street lights were switched off in the vicinity of the building on Wednesday evening and surrounding areas evacuated.
In his TV address, Mr Sarkozy announced an investigation into whether Merah had accomplices and into possible Islamist indoctrination practices in prisons. He also said: "The French should not give rein to anger - our Muslim compatriots have nothing to do with the crazy actions of a terrorist. We should not embark on any stigmatisation."
It would help if the French Muslim community would roundly reject what Mr. Merah had been doing, but don't count on hearing so much as a peep...
Merah claimed to have received al-Qaeda training in Pakistan's Waziristan area, and also said he had been to Afghanistan.
Mr Gueant defended intelligence services for not preventing the attacks, describing Merah as a "lone wolf".
Ah yes, the 'lone wolf'. First he was described as a 'right-winger'. When that obviously wasn't true he was described as 'disturbed'. Now he's a 'lone wolf'. The authorities and the MSM will never describe as they should, however, because they can't bear to say what he is: an Islamicist.
"The domestic intelligence agency tracks a lot of people who are involved in Islamist radicalism. Expressing ideas... is not enough to bring someone before justice," Mr Gueant said.
But it would be good to bring him to justice before he kills a bunch of innocent people...
Christian Etelin, a lawyer who has previously acted for Merah, said his client had violent tendencies.
"There was his religious engagement, an increasing hatred against the values of a democratic society and a desire to impose what he believes is truth," Mr Etelin said. He also denied earlier reports that Merah had been jailed for explosives offensives in Afghanistan, saying his client was in jail in France for robbery with violence at the time - from December 2007 to September 2009.
#4
He committed suicide while running away from Infidels. He murdered children.
Nevertheless, he will be a hero in the Arab world. Do a poll in the Arab world, who is the bigger hero, Mohammad Merah or Mohamed Bouazizi. Lets see who would win. That face shot from the Drudge Report will be the new Che picture for Islamists.
⢠Video surveillance equipment was sent into the flat and when it approached the bathroom Merah jumped out âall guns blazingâ armed with a sub machine gun.
⢠After a fierce fire fight lasting around four minutes Merah jumped through the window of his apartment and over the balcony. As he did so he was shot in the head and died from his wounds. France24
#6
Islam certainly seems to attract those with violent tendencies, doesn't it. Gives them the excuse they need to express what they can't seem to control.
Posted by: Water Modem ||
03/22/2012 12:43 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Merah claimed to have received al-Qaeda training in Pakistan's Waziristan area, and also said he had been to Afghanistan. Common theme re Waziristan but still the Pak army do nothing.
#13
I've always been under the impression that it would be pretty frickin hard for a Moroccan to buy an AK-47, an Uzi, and acquire GRENADES in France. This guy was no lone wolf. That stuff is really hard to get in France. This guy was clearly al-Qaida affiliated, and took his time to prepare these attacks. The weaponry would've cost thousands of Euros, I'd imagine. Where did he get the money to fly to Pakistan and buy all these weapons? Lone wolf my beef.
#14
The French + possible "sieges" of such Gunmen = Terrorists, may had only just begun ....
To wit,
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > FRENCH ATTACK COULD INSPIRE NEXT/NEW GENERATION OF TERRORISTS: EXPERT. Similar Terror by "Lone Wolves" as poten waged throughout Europe.
* SAME > TOULOUSE SHOOTING: 80 FRENCH NATIONALS
"TRAINING WID PAKISTAN TALIBAN [TTP]", mostly in NW Pakland = North Waziristan but some in South Waziristan also???
ARTIC = also denotes...
> PAK-BASED TTP MILITANTS = are CLOSELY WATCHING THE EVENTS IN FRANCE.
> FIVE TERRORISTS [fully trained?] LEFT PAK BACK IN JANUARY 2012 - Final Destinations, Plans cannot be confirmed or denied by the TTP.
* SAME > TOULOUSE GUNMAN SUSPECTED OF TRAINING IN PAKISTAN [ + Afghanistan].
* TOPIX > THE JIHAD IN EUROPE.
NO more or not much of a UK Royal Navy anymore = CHARLES MARTEL + BATTLE OF TOURS II IN FRANCE???
The killer of French schoolchildren and soldiers turns out to be a man called Mohammed Merah. The story can now proceed according to time-honored tradition:
Stage One: The strange compulsion to assure us that the killer is a right wing conservative extremist, in the words of NRO commenter ExpatAsia, echoed by Chrisman and Galts Bain. Up north, this view was shared by Canadas most prominent establishment Jew and the Liberal Party attack poodle Warren Kinsella (whom NR readers may recall from my free-speech cover story, which mentioned the groveling apology he was forced to make to the Chinese community after an unfortunately sinophobic cat joke). The insistence that the killer was emblematic of an epidemic of right-wing hate sweeping the planet is, regrettably, no longer operative. Instead, the killer isnt representative of anything at all.
So on to Stage Two: Okay, he may be called Mohammed but hes a lone wolf. Sure, he says he was trained by al-Qaeda, but what does he know? Dont worry, folks, hes just a lone wolf like Major Hasan and Faisal Shahzad and all the other card-carrying members of the Amalgamated Union of Lone Wolves. All jihad is local.
On to Stage Three: Okay, even if there are enough lone wolves around to form their own Radio City Rockette line, its still nothing to do with Islam. Im sad to see the usually perceptive Ed West of the London Telegraph planting his flag on this wobbling blancmange.
And then, of course, Stage Four: The backlash that never happens. Because apparently the really bad thing about dead Jews is that it might lead to dead non-Jews: French Muslims Fear Backlash After Shooting. Likewise, after Major Hasans mountain of dead infidels, Shooting Raises Fears For Muslims In US Army. Likewise, after the London Tube slaughter, British Muslims Fear Repercussions After Tomorrows Train Bombing. Oh, no, wait, thats a parody, though its hard to tell.
Look, pace Ed West, isnt it just a teensy-weensy little bit to do with Islam? Or at any rate the internal contradictions of one-way multiculturalism? No, its not a competition. Most times in todays Europe, the guys beating, burning and killing Jews will be Muslims. Once in a while, it will be somebody else killing the schoolkids. But is it so hard to acknowledge that rapid, transformative, mass Muslim immigration might not be the most obvious aid to social tranquility? That it might possibly pose challenges that would otherwise not have existed for uncovered women in Oslo, for gays in Amsterdam, for Jews everywhere? Is it so difficult to wonder if, for these and other groups living in a long-shot social experiment devised by their rulers, the price of putting an Islamic crescent in the diversity quilt might be too high? Whats left of Jewish life in Europe is being extinguished remorselessly, one vandalized cemetery, one subway attack at a time. How many Jewish children will be at that school in Toulouse a decade hence? A society that becomes more Muslim eventually becomes less everything else. What is happening on the Continent is tragic, in part because it was entirely unnecessary.
Continued on Page 47
#4
Don't forget Beslan. There the MSM bent over backwards and even did a few backflips in order to give the followers of Islam cover. Calling them 'gangsters' and 'hostage takers' - anything except Islamists or Muslims.
And when that breaks down they roll out the old 'lone wolves' BS.
#9
Monsieur Merah took himself off to Pakistan to get training in the arts of jihad, which some jihadi group or other gave him...twice. His family was apparently involved in his little escapade. If we define the forward scouts of an invading army as lone wolves because they are not striding forward in the midst of the mass of their fellows, shoulder to shoulder and all that, then Mr Merah and Major Dr. Hasan, PhD are also lone wolves.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] French police said today they were probing a call made to a news channel by a man claiming to be the killer of seven people, who said footage of the attacks would soon be on the Internet.
The call to the La Belle France 24 news channel came just two hours before police cornered a suspect who made exactly the same claims as the caller -- that he was linked to Al-Qaeda and his crimes were Dire Revenge™ for Paleostinian deaths.
"He said he was affiliated with Al-Qaeda and that it was only the beginning ... that everything was filmed ... and that it would be on the web shortly," the journalist who took the call at La Belle France 24 told AFP.
On Monday, officials said witnesses to a deadly attack on a Jewish school in which a religious studies teacher and three children were killed saw the gunman wearing a video camera in a harness on his chest.
"Either I will go prison with my head held high or I will die with a smile," the caller to La Belle France 24 said, according to journalist Ebba Kalondo.
He also said he wanted to take Dire Revenge™ for the ban on wearing the full Islamic veil in public in La Belle France and for La Belle France's participation in the war in Afghanistan, she said.
Officials said that the man holed up in the Toulouse flat had also said he had acted to punish La Belle France for its foreign military interventions.
The call came at midnight local time on Tuesday, just two hours before police special forces in the south-western city of Toulouse surrounded an apartment block where a suspected Islamist myrmidon was holed up.
Officials said suspect Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old French citizen of Algerian descent who has visited Afghanistan and Pakistain, bragged of being in Al-Qaeda and said he acted to avenge the deaths of Paleostinian children.
Police sources said Sherlocks were taking the 11-minute call to La Belle France 24 seriously, but could not confirm it was the same man.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2012 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
From the BBC: A gunman suspected of seven killings in southern France has told police laying siege to his flat in Toulouse that he wants to die "weapons in hand", Interior Minister Claude Gueant says.
Mr Gueant said there had been no contact overnight with Mohammed Merah and it was not certain he was alive.
Police set off regular explosions overnight to increase the pressure on 23-year-old Merah.
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