Kenders' Musings

A tale full of questions. A tale of foiled terrorists. A tale of the french and their (occcassionally) wonderful justice system.

Of course the questions I bring up will most likely be hotly contested and outright attacked by those sympathetic to the lilypad and maybe even those that reside there, but we will bomb that bridge when we fly over it.

Some selected bits from this story. Along with my comments.

PARIS - A French court convicted six men Tuesday in an alleged plot inspired by al-Qaida to send a suicide bomber into the U.S. Embassy in Paris, closing a six-week trial that shed light on the spread of Islamic radicals in Europe.


Now did we see this coming or what? Will you folks on the other side of the pond please listen to us and see the danger you are in now? Or will you continue or appeasing ways hoping that these guys will leave you alone. I know, you're gonna point out that the target was the American embassy. Do you think that no french people work there? Or do you think that they get what they deserve for working for the evil Americans?

All six were convicted of "criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise," a charge commonly used in terrorism cases in France that, because of its sweeping nature, can facilitate conviction.

Hhhmmm..."criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise"...sounds like a sweeping charge to me, as if anything you wanted to make stick could, even something as simple as being related to a terrorist.

"Proof, we have none. There are no documents, no conversation," said Beghal's lawyer, Jean-Alain Michel. He denounced the trial as a "judicial parody."

Where is all that peaceful french outrage? They sure bitch loudly enough about Gitmo, but now the french are jailing terrorist scum without "documents" or even "conversation". Sounds like a railroading to me.

However, the prosecution argued that Beghal was part of a web of Islamic militants stretching across five European countries with the center of gravity in Afghanistan.

See? At least some of the french authorities are getting it. They are recognizing how widespread the threat is, and acting on it. I daresay that this may be one of the reasons that france did send soldiers to Afghanistan, as they realized the need, given the next bit.

The investigation was opened Sept. 10, 2001, a day before the terror attacks on the United States, and revealed what amounts to a new generation of Islamic militants in France, distinct from Algerian Islamic insurgents responsible for deadly Paris bombings in the mid-1990s.

Maybe now the french will realize what America realized on 9-11 and the Dutch realized after Theo Van Gogh was brutally murdered in the street, namely that there can be no quarter with these dogs, they are rabid and must be killed. Actually now that the french have convicted these guys they had better watch out.....these guys hate having their cohorts locked up.

"This affair is revelatory of a Europeanization of terror groups," prosecutor Christophe Teissier said in his six-hour closing arguments.

Something we have been saying for awhile now.

In a separate case, involving support for Muslim Chechen rebels, police Tuesday arrested two suspects for a reported plan to attack Russian targets in France, judicial officials said.

Does anyone remember how the russians handled these guys in Afghanistan? They kidnapped them and killed them, mutilating their bodies in embarrassing ways and tossed them on the streets. How do you think they will handle them now? Do you think perhaps the russians are more "enlightened" these days and will hunt them down and arrest them? Don't bet your rubles on that.

Some 20 people are under investigation in the Chechen case, most arrested in late 2002. The new arrests were made in Grenoble and the Lyon suburb of Venissieux, home to four members of a single family implicated in the plot, the officials said.

They are living amongst you. Heed that warning. Or not. If you don't we won't want to hear you crying about it ok?

The Paris trial largely hinged on a confession by Beghal to authorities in the United Arab Emirates after his July 2001 arrest. However, he retracted the confession after his extradition to France in September 2001, and testified that it had been extracted through torture that included the insertion of instruments like knitting needles into his genitals.

I want to know who (allegedly) tortured him? Maybe they called in the US military eh?

The French probe revealed a web of suspect relations that included Abu Qatada, the London-based radical Muslim cleric described by British officials as Osama bin Laden's "spiritual ambassador in Europe."

Why is this guy still walking around free? Why is he NOT jailed? Why is he even alive?


Wake up frenchy...they are among you, plotting against freedom and they aren't gonna stop with us. You too are an enemy of islam, simply because you aren't of them.

Now who is the racist eh?