Sebastian Rotella at the leftwing organ LA TIMES ...............huh!
PARIS — A Brinks technician is charged with pulling off a million-dollar heist for a Moroccan
terrorist group allegedly led by his brother.
Employees set up clandestine prayer areas on the grounds of the Euro Disney resort.
Workers for a cargo firm at Charles de Gaulle airport praise the Sept. 11 attacks.
Female converts to Islam operate a day-care center that authorities eventually shut down because of its religious radicalism.
.....a recent study by a think tank here paints a picture of rising fundamentalism in the workplace, ranging from proselytizing to pressure tactics to criminal activities.
In March 2004, Hassan Baouchi claimed that stick-up men had waylaid him during his rounds north of the capital and stolen about $1.2 million. But he now awaits trial on charges of faking the robbery in cahoots with a gang of known jihadis. About $40,000 later turned up on a fugitive captured in Algeria. "That's a real concrete example of terrorist financing," said the senior law enforcement official. He also said extremists have been detected trying to establish a presence in sensitive sectors related to defense and transportation.
The report describes a case in which police investigated a cargo company atCharles de Gaulle International Airport with about 3,000 employees. Managers complained that a small group of radicals had tried to gain influence by preaching to co-workers and threatening repeated strikes. Some of the activists "expressed satisfaction" with the Sept. 11 attacks, the report says. The French intelligence official confirmed that authorities closely monitor the notable presence of Muslim fundamentalists among the many immigrant employees at the airport. In 2002, a 27-year-old systems engineer working in the airport's control tower was abruptly barred from secure areas. Police had discovered that he was a devout disciple of a radical imam and frequented militant mosques here, in his native Morocco and in the Middle East. The Iraqi-born imam is now under house arrest, accused of hate speech. "There are worries about the presence of extremists at the airport," the intelligence official said.
[the engineer] was certainly very active in a fundamentalist movement with anti-Western, anti-American ideas. Because of the particularly sensitive job he had, a decision was made, in the name of caution, to reassign him." A lot of financing comes from traffic in fake papers and armed robbery."
In fact, Denece also discusses the emergence of "gangsterrorism," in which extremists team with mafias for mutual gain.
But the private sector faces a more subtle and slippery challenge from nonviolent militants, the report says. Executives say pressure groups in supermarkets and other companies advance oppressive ideological agendas: They pressure co-workers to wear religious garb, defy the authority of female managers and demand boycotts of products such as alcohol, pork, Israeli oranges and American brownies, Denece said. "For French companies, the rise in power of radical Islam represents a new threat," the report states. "This trend expresses above all a move to take control of behavior and ideas of other workers in order to impose a value system conforming to extremist ideology."
As the report points out, Muslim employees in France are starting to organize themselves along religious and ethnic lines rather than following the lead of traditional leftist unions.
On a sinister level, the study asserts that Islamic networks are trying to establish a
presence in firms involved in sectors such as security, cargo, armored cars, courier services and transportation. Once they gain a foothold, operatives raise funds for militants via theft, embezzlement and robbery, the study alleges.
The report was issued before the recent riots that spread arson and violence nationwide and focused attention on France's immigrant neighborhoods, which are predominantly Muslim. Authorities worry that the tense urban climate strengthens the hand of hard-core Islamic networks.
Extremism is rising in France, home to Europe's largest Muslim community, and intertwining with a foreign threat. Recent arrests reveal that France has been targeted by an alliance teaming Abu Musab Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, with an Algerian-dominated network, said a senior French law enforcement official, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.
UPDATE: Neglected this little jewel in this very article. Leave it to the Fwench. Still trying to minimize the impact and sweep the ticking time bomb under the rug;
French anti-terrorism officials agree with some of the findings of the study of the private sector, though they say parts of the report exaggerate or simplify a complex issue.
uh huh.............
Thomas Sowell on the Riots in France and No Pasaran is the go-to blog for the best intelligence on what is actually happening on the ground in France.
UPDATE: November 27th: More fwench logic, my favorite oxymoron, While French citizens die from the cold COLD BLAMED FOR FOURTH DEATH IN FRANCE
France offers Katrina relief
Miami Herald France has offered to fly over some of the city's musicians and
provide them with rent-free residences and monthly stipends for up to three
months.
Uh huh, read it again, that's what it says. Quels hypocrites!........mental note - send to RightWingNuthouse's Carnival of the Clueless
UPDATE: November 28th:
The family and friends of an 18-year-old girl, doused
with petrol and set alight in broad daylight by the man she refused to
marry, led a silent march through a Parisian suburb
yesterday. Jihadwatch
On the morning of Nov 13, the Moroccan teenager was attacked while walking near her home in Neuilly-sur-Marne in the north eastern Seine-Saint-Denis suburb.
The French minister for social cohesion and sexual equality,
Catherine Vautrin, described the attack on Chahrazad as a "horrible
illustration" of male violence against women, which claimed the lives of 163
women in France in 2003 and 2004.
hat tip Tom P
