http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/08/news/france.php French intelligence said to have predicted London bombings Reuters, Agence France-Presse TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2005
PARIS A French intelligence service issued a report shortly before the London bombings saying that Al Qaeda planned to attack Britain and would use Britain's large Pakistani community to strike, the newspaper Le Figaro reported on Monday. A report by the Direction Centrale des Renseignements Généraux, the equivalent of the Special Branch of the British police, also said that monitoring France's Pakistani community was vital if the country was to avoid violence, the newspaper said. Written in late June, the 20-page report on the Pakistani community in France said "the United Kingdom remains threatened by plans decided at the highest level of Al Qaeda." "They will be carried out by agents who will take advantage of the pro-jihad sympathies within the large Pakistani community in the United Kingdom." Three of the four bombers who carried out the July 7 attacks were Britons of Pakistani origin. British intelligence chiefs had reduced the threat level from Al Qaeda to "substantial" from "severe - general" in June after the May general election. The London blasts killed 56 people, including the four bombers. A French Interior Ministry official confirmed the existence of the report, but cautioned that it was "a very technical study on the Pakistani community in France." He said it was not aimed at lecturing Britain on what might happen on its own soil. The report said France, which has a Pakistani community numbering between 35,000 and 40,000 that is based mainly in the Paris area, "is not shielded from these sort of violent groupings when you realize the close links," in terms of family, trade or via associations, "between the Pakistani community in Britain and many of their compatriots living in France." It adds that following the Pakistani community is "vital in terms of preventing any violent act" in France. The report cited statements in March by the Jaish-e-Mohammad, or Army of Mohammad, a banned Qaeda-linked Kashmiri militant group that branded France hostile to Islam. The group could trigger attacks on French interests in Pakistan, the report said. The Pakistani community in France was increasing through illegal immigration and networks that specialized in forged identity papers, it added. But, it continued, most Pakistanis in France wanted to integrate and disapproved of the activities of a minority bent on religious extremism. Louis Caprioli, a former antiterrorism officer with France's counterespionage agency, the Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire, or DST, who is now a consultant with a private security firm, GEOS, said that the Pakistani community in France "insofar as it has elements practicing Islamic fundamentalism, has always attracted the attention" of intelligence services. "That started in the 1990s, when it emerged that Pakistan was a transit point for jihad training in Afghanistan," he said. Richard Reid, a Briton who was sentenced to life in prison for trying to blow up a Paris-to-Miami flight in 2002 by igniting a bomb in his shoe, notably had connections with Pakistanis in France, he said. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hha6q4s/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1123608980/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
