Saudis say al Qaeda targeting France

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said on Sunday that French had been warned by Saudi Ara that al Qaeda was targeting Europe and especially France. "Several hours or days ago, there was a new message from the Saudis that said al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was without doubt active or planning to be active in Europe, especially France," he told French radio RTL. "This is not about overestimating the threat or underestimating it," he said. "I am indicating, based on all these elements, that the threat is real." Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), an arm of al Qaeda thought to include Yemenis and Saudis, has stepped up attacks on Yemeni and Western targets since it claimed a failed U.S. airliner bombing in December.

Impoverished Yemen, which is struggling to end a civil war in the north and a separatist rebellion in the south, is trying with U.S. help to crush AQAP, which has been based in Yemen since 2006, when Saudi Arabia mounted a counter-terrorism drive against its Saudi arm. Hortefeux's remarks indicated that the new warning was not connected with the heightened alert in France in late September based on a tip-off that a female suicide bomber was planning to attack its transport system. A police source told Reuters at that time that the information about the threatened attack had come from Algeria.

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Police chief: Threat of attack on France hits peak

France is facing a "peak" terror threat, and authorities suspect al-Qaeda's North African affiliate of plotting a conventional bomb attack on a crowded target, the national police chief said Wednesday. The warning from National Police Chief Frederic Pechenard came on the eve of national protests that unions hope will send millions into city streets, and was the latest warning in a recent drumbeat from French officials that the public needs to be more alert about terrorism. "France is today under threat. For that matter, French people need to get used to it," he told Europe-1 radio. "We're now facing a peak threat that can't be doubted. There is a specific threat against French interests. We have serious indications, coming from reliable intelligence, saying that there's an important risk of an attack," he said, adding that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, "is targeting us in particular."

Last week, there was a false bomb alert at the Eiffel Tower, and investigators are looking into an anonymous phone call that prompted police to evacuate the most-visited monument in the tourism-oriented country. AQIM claimed responsibility for last week's abduction of five French nationals and two Africans in northern Niger. Pechenard said the group isn't thought to have the means to launch a nuclear or biological attack in France, but could carry out assassinations or attacks using conventional explosives. "In order to do the maximum possible damage (such an attack) would be likely to happen in a place where there are lots of people, which could be the public transit system, a department store or a gathering," Pechenard said. Last week, the French Senate voted to ban burqa-style Islamic veils in France, a subject that has prompted warnings by AQIM.

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Who Are Gypsies, and Why Is France Deporting Them?

The term Gypsy is short for Egyptian, although ethnically, Gypsies actually originally came from India. They left their homeland sometime during the 11th century, probably as a result of Muslim invasions, and have never returned. By the 14th century, they'd entered Eastern Europe, whose residents somehow got the impression that they came from Egypt (hence the nickname). Although they rarely show up on official censuses, today's Gypsy population is estimated to be between 2 million and 5 million. Most of them live in Slavic-speaking countries such as the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania.

Yet despite centuries of Gypsy presence, Europe has never accepted this oft nomadic ethnic group and has enacted systematic purges of varying severity since they first arrived on the continent. Evidence of discrimination can be found just by looking at our language: when we cheat someone out of money, we "gyp" them. Gypsy moths are parasitic, and gypsy cabs operate illegally. And though many Roma still use the slang term — Britain's Gypsy Council is a self-organized association of so-called travelers — others regard gypsy as an insult despite its wide use and prefer Roma, or sometimes Romani.

• France Deports Gypsies: Courting the Xenophobes?, Time, 8/19/10.
• Romani.org website.
  

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France seeks Seychelles' help in trying suspected Somali pirates

French Defense Minister Herve Morin asked Seychelles authorities Sunday to prosecute suspected pirates operating in the Indian Ocean. Bringing to justice suspected Somali pirates captured by international navies in the Indian Ocean has proven difficult as lawless Somalia cannot try them, while most European countries do not want to take in a suspected pirate who may then claim asylum. This month, 11 suspected pirates were captured after they tried to attack French tuna boats. The Somalis were released shortly afterward due to a lack of evidence.

On a trip to the Seychelles, Morin told reporters he had asked authorities to set up a legal system allowing for the trial of such suspects. But Joel Morgan, the Seychelles minister in charge of environment, resources and transport, said the island lacked the resources. "We have a single prison here, for some 300 people, so taking in a large number of Somalis can cause problems with capacity," he said. France is protecting its tuna fleet off the Seychelles by deploying marines on the civilian ships. Morin said that mission would be extended into next year.

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France arrests three major ETA suspects

French police have arrested three men suspected of being members of Eta, the Basque separatist group, and seized bomb-making materials. Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, Spain's interior minister, said the trio were all "top members of the military apparatus" of Eta, responsible for "supplying arms, ammunition and explosives" to fighters.

Police found weapons, fake identity papers and computers in a dawn raid on an flat in the Alpine resort of Corbier-Villarembert on Wednesday. Rubalcaba said police also uncovered about 20 explosive devices and 42 detonators, and an additional stash of similar material at a hideout in Ferrieres, about 40km from the Spanish border.

He named one of the detained as Alberto Machain Beraza, who has been on a wanted list since a bomb attack last month on the Spanish island of Mallorca in which two police officers died. The other two were named as Andoni Sarasola and Aitzol Etxaburu. The Spanish authorities believe Etxaburu has ties with Mikel de Garikoitz Aspiazu, a suspected Eta chief arrested in November in France.

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