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| Europe |
| Europeans Warn of Terror Attacks |
| 2003-01-29 |
| European investigators have evidence that over the past six months, Islamic militants have been recruiting hundreds of fellow Muslims to carry out attacks in the event of a war against Iraq, according to French and other European antiterrorism experts. A French expert said one threat to Europe came from radical groups who have links with Chechnya and have learned how to make chemical weapons, either at training camps in Afghanistan or while serving in the Soviet Army. He said Chechnya was now a kind of "neo-Afghanistan," a new training ground and staging area for anti-Western terrorists. That's obviously not so. Just ask Vanessa... What was just a working thesis a few months ago, he said, has been validated by new information about intense recruiting, training and a focus on chemical weapons. In both Spain and Britain, the police reported finding chemical protection suits during raids last week in Barcelona and London. In France, the police prevented "serious attacks" in Paris in December, probably including attacks using chemical weapons, the French expert said. It sounds like the next successful major attack is going to be real dirty. I don't know if it'll be dirty enough to wake up Brussels, Paris and Berlin... Western Europe is home to about 15 million Muslim immigrants and while a vast majority are peaceful citizens opposed to terrorism, their presence provides a recruiting ground and a cover for sleeper cells. Investigators said links between bases in Chechnya and cells in Europe had been known for some time. In recent days, some of the links have been publicized. But not very loudly... Last week, the Spanish police arrested 16 suspects, many of them Algerians, who they said had links to Chechnya, as well as radical Islamic cells in France and Britain. The police said the suspects were found with explosives and chemicals. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 I sure hope they're not counting on us to help 'em out if the turbans start whacking random civs... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-01-29 23:24:41 |