The French may have to fight after all.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060915/...al_qaida_video


PARIS - Al-Qaida has for the first time announced a union with an Algerian insurgent group that has designated France as an enemy, saying they will act together against French and American interests.

Current and former French officials specializing in terrorism said Thursday that an al-Qaida alliance with the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French initials GSPC, was cause for concern.

"We take these threats very seriously," Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said, adding in an interview on France-2 television that the threat to France was "high" and "permanent," and that "absolute vigilance" was required.

Al-Qaida's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, announced the "blessed union" in a video posted this week on the Internet to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

France's leader have repeatedly warned that the decision not to join the U.S.-led war in Iraq would not shield the country from Islamic terrorism. French participation in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon could give extremists another reason to strike.

The national police had no immediate comment on the announced alliance, but officials have long regarded the GSPC as one of the main terror threats facing France.

French experts agreed, but also noted the group has been severely weakened by internal divisions, security crackdowns and defections in Algeria, a former French territory still working to put down an Islamic insurgency that reached its most murderous heights in the 1990s.

"The GSPC is losing speed and has suffered very significant losses in recent months," said Louis Caprioli, former assistant director of France's DST counterterrorism and counterintelligence agency.

Some GSPC fighters took advantage of a recent Algerian amnesty for Islamic insurgents and others have been killed, said Caprioli, who works for Geos, a risk management firm.

Of the 800 combatants that GSPC was estimated to have had last year, probably no more than 500 remain, and the group has had no operational cells in France since the late 1990s, he said.

But Caprioli and others also said an alliance of GSPC and al-Qaida could increase the terror risk for France â?? not least because al-Zawahri's designation of the country as a worthy target could inspire extremists to take action.

In his video, Al-Zawahri hailed "the joining up" of the GSPC with al-Qaida as "good news."

"All the praise is due to Allah for the blessed union which we ask Allah to be as a bone in the throats of the Americans and French Crusaders and their allies, and inspire distress, concern and dejection in the hearts of the traitorous, apostate sons of France," he said.

"We ask him (Allah) to guide our brothers in the Salafist Group for Call and Combat to crush the pillars of the Crusader alliance, especially their elderly immoral leader, America."

Although GSPC leaders had previously sworn allegiance to al-Qaida, al-Zawahri's video marked the first al-Qaida recognition of a union between the two, French terror experts said.

"From now on, the links are official, legitimate, and they are taking part in the same combat," said Anne Giudicelli, a former French diplomat specializing in the Middle East who runs the Paris-based consultancy Terrorisc.

Sarkozy said it was "not by chance" that al-Qaida used the emblematic Sept. 11 date to announce the insurgency movement's alliance with al-Qaida.

"But there is nothing new," he added, noting that the GSPC had done the same three years ago.

The GSPC, in its own statement on a Web site used by militants, confirmed the alliance and urged other militant groups to also join al-Qaida.

Giudicelli said the alliance could act as a green light for al-Qaida and GSPC militants to operate together and thus raises the risk for France.

"The Americans have become harder to target domestically, so they are trying to widen the field of action and strike their allies," she said.
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Lets go murder some inocent people in the name of God, "peace loving Muslims"

This amazes and baffles me. I don't know why Al Qaeda and the Algerian insurgents wouldn't at least have more hesitation about targeting France than this. I know Algeria hates France for suppressing Islamic insurgency--and for having once possessed Algeria as a territory--but the fact is France itself --at least its population--is, of all the European countries, the most Islamic-heavy. I think nearly 10% of its population is Muslim now, and that number grows every day. Islam is France's second-biggest religion, and it's increasingly closing in on Catholic market-share every day.

The more I think about it, though, nothing A-Q and its allies do makes real sense. And of course they'd look upon their Islamic counterparts in France, and look upon all of America, as having sold out to western infidel culture. What despicable logic from despicable terrorists.

Actually it make perfect sense for Al-Quada to allie itself with Algerian terrorists. With the 10% Muslim population you talked of being held back in poverty; they already have sympathysers embedded within French borders.

France wanted to play the nice guy.......we'll see how they deal with this one. They are the only NATO country that has a free finger on the nuke button and Chirac changed the laws of terrorism to include the use of nukes.

Another thing, with French troops being deployed in Lebonon and probably soon to be in Sudan, how many conflicts can they handle at once?

Have a good one!:thumbsup:

That's true, isn't it? I was thinking about what you said and what I've read about England and France (and this is true of Spain, too). Those Muslim populations are mostly poor, downtrodden, dispossessed people. Not all, of course, especially not the ones who migrated further back in the 50s - 70s. But of course, the poorest and most unsettled ones are unhappy and ready to voice their opposition, too.

I just had to think about it for a bit. Thanks, P4B, for reminding me of how those folks are feeling about their new county(ies). The riots in Paris weren't that long ago that I should have forgotten that.

I'll be called a war lovin' neo-con for this one but oh well. Fact is, you can't fight a war, recruit troops, etc...without financial backing. It is well known that Syria and Iran are doing just that. Not only that but we(the U.N.) are sitting back watching Iran develope nuclear technology.

The world, or a few nations, has a choice; either cut off the head of the snake now while it's small or wait for it to grow. Let Iran get far enough to create small nuclear devices and we'll see one hell of a mess. I personally can't believe Russia's stance on this considering that Iran backs Chechin rebels.

I see one of two choices:
1) Have a conventional war now
2) Have a nuclear war in about 10 years

Try to have a good one!:thumbsup:

I found this one on these boards I believe....

French Ban Fireworks at Euro Disney
(AP), Paris, March 5, 2003
The French Government announced today that it is imposing a ban on the use of fireworks at Euro Disney. The decision comes the day after a nightly fireworks display at the park, located just 30 miles outside of Paris, caused the soldiers at a nearby French Army garrison to surrender to a group of Czech tourists.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by birdgirl73

The riots in Paris weren't that long ago that I should have forgotten that.

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Also, those rioting were born and raised in France, 2 Generation. I been told that French (society) has met these "Frenchmen" with less than open arms.

The French immigrants from northern Africa say that France is a pretty closed and racist as far as jobs and opportunities go.

Lots of potential recruits.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hamlet

I found this one on these boards I believe....

French Ban Fireworks at Euro Disney
(AP), Paris, March 5, 2003
The French Government announced today that it is imposing a ban on the use of fireworks at Euro Disney. The decision comes the day after a nightly fireworks display at the park, located just 30 miles outside of Paris, caused the soldiers at a nearby French Army garrison to surrender to a group of Czech tourists.

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^ that's funny.