Hell's Frozen Over - French Stepping up Anti-terrorism campaign with US

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

France steps up role in anti-terrorism fight
Helping out in Afghanistan, elsewhere in central Asia

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - As the going gets tougher for the U.S. military in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region, one ally has stepped up despite a recent straining of ties: France.

Paris has significantly boosted its military presence in Central Asia and Afghanistan, plus in nearby seas, as both it and Washington nurture their budding rapprochement after a bitter falling out over the Iraq war.

French fighters have been flying sorties under U.S. command in Afghanistan since Aug. 16, and France also took command this month of an international naval task force on terrorism-related patrols in the seas between the Horn of Africa and Pakistan.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9107811/

[exstatic]

France has been aggressively prosecuting and imprisoning terrorists long before we got caught with our britches down around our ankles one sunny September day. Notice that they are in Afghanistan, but not Iraq. Smart fucking country. THEY know where the fight against terrorism lies.

[Trainwreck2100]

glad to know their oil prices are finally getting to them.

[boutons]

France suffered multiple bombs going off on busy over a long period in busy shopping streets in the 80s, often placed in public traschans, many dozens killed, from Algerian and assorted N. African terrorists. That wasn't jihad and suicide bombers, it was political terrorism (military-ruled Algeria had an election in the early 80s, the radical theocratic Muslims won, so the Alegerian military govt, supported by France, annulled the election, aka the shit hit the fan). Even today, I wouldn't be surprised if the French still have the trashcans sealed on the Champs-Elysees.

Although all of France's judicial and enforcement systems have much experience with terrorists (decades ahead of the FBI/CIA/NSA), there is one famous, motherfucking tough, tireless French anti-terror judge that any US anti-terror expert knows and respects, and appreciates his co-operation with the US:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3031640.stm

"glad to know their oil prices are finally getting to them."

... you're yet another dumbfuck, ignorant American chauvinist with your head up your ass. The Europeans actually want to be our friends and allies, and have been, and will continue to be, enormously helpful and cooperative, in spite of the USA's fuck-you-all, go-it-alone-AND-fuck-it-all-up tactics, eg, Iraq.

Behind the political grandstanding by the national leaders, there is enormous and effective co-operation in the trenches.

About European gas prices: the Europeans actually have the maturity and discipline to impose high national taxes (aka "sacrifice") on gasoline, diesel, etc in order to discourage consumption and city-destroying traffic, while shrub thinks he can start a fucking bogus war and not ask ANY sacrifice or discipline from the Americans. It's ridicuous to see these facile, hypocritical "support our troops" stickers everywhere, but don't ever acutally ask an Ameican to sacrifice $$ to "support our troops" by reducing the USA's geopolitical dependence on the Middle East.

Since the USA has 5% of the worlds population but consumes 25% of the world's petroleum, if the US ever would have the courage and responsibility to add $2+ federal tax to a a gallon of gas, for $5 or $6 per gallon retail, the world "will be glad to know their oil prices are finally getting to them". Hell will freeze over first.

While it was a Frenchmen who showed European solidarity with US in the aftermath of 9/11 by saying "We are all New Yorkers" (that solidarity was kicked in the teeth by shrub/dickhead/Repugs with their bogus Iraq war of choice), here's an article showing even tiny, "social democratict" Denmark fully engaged in the war in terror (rather than wasting their troops and Kroner in Iraq):

washingtonpost.com

Denmark Tries to Act Against Terrorism as Mood in Europe Shifts

Law Raises Concerns of Civil Libertarians

By Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, August 29, 2005; A09

COPENHAGEN -- Said Mansour, a slightly built man with a bushy beard, believes Muslims have a right to kill Americans in Iraq because, he said, "This is war; it's not a picnic."

So, he explained in an interview last week, he had no qualms about downloading and burning CDs of Internet videos depicting beheadings in Iraq and speeches by Abu Musab Zarqawi, the terrorist mastermind behind much of the Iraqi insurgency.

Now, Danish police intend to make Mansour, 45, a Moroccan-born Danish citizen, the first person ever charged under an anti-terrorism law enacted in 2002 that forbids instigation of terrorism or offering advice to terrorists. Police sources said Mansour would probably be charged for distributing CDs that contained the inflammatory jihadist speeches and gruesome images.

The law contains curbs on free speech that are remarkable in a country famous for tolerating all points of view. It illustrates how democracies across Europe are adopting tougher measures in an era of rising extremist violence, despite protests that civil liberties are being sacrificed in the process.

The 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people, and the London bombings last month, which killed 56 people, including the four bombers, have added new urgency to the issue.

"We have to look at reality," said Rikke Hvilshoj, Denmark's minister of refugee, immigration and integration affairs, noting that some have abused Denmark's free speech guarantees to encourage violence and killing. "The day we don't have freedom of speech, the fundamentalists have won," she said. "On the other hand, we can't be naive."

Experts said the debate about how to balance anti-terrorism protections with individual freedoms is at the top of the agenda for European nations. The issue is particularly acute in Denmark, Italy and Poland -- which have troops in Iraq as part of the U.S.-led military coalition and fear they could be the next target -- and in Spain, following the train attacks there.

"The mood has shifted in Europe more toward security than it was before the London bombings," said Daniel Keohane, senior research fellow at the Center for European Reform in London. "The Europeans have always been very nervous about infringing on civil liberties. But when you experience terrorism, it changes your views."

France, with Europe's largest Muslim community -- 6 million people -- has just announced plans to strengthen its anti-terror laws, already among Europe's strongest. Britain now plans to ban or deport those who incite terrorism, close bookshops or places of worship used by radical groups and criminalize speech that "foments, justifies or glorifies" terrorism.

Human rights groups and Muslim civic leaders called those measures too broad.

"What may be seen as a glorification of terrorism by one person might be seen as an explanation of the causes of terrorism by another person," said Azzam Tamimi, a senior leader of the Muslim Association of Britain.

Some political activists here said their government was trampling free speech guarantees contained in the Danish constitution.

"They have crossed the line," said Naser Khader, 42, a Syrian-born member of Parliament who has been a vocal critic of Muslim extremists. "The society must be open and free. If you close it and make a lot of restrictions, the terrorists get what they want."

But a recent survey found that 80 percent of Danes supported the new laws to battle terrorism and control immigration. In Britain, 73 percent of people polled by the Guardian newspaper in mid-August said that they were willing to give up some civil liberties to improve security.

"The terror is getting closer," said Morten Messerschmidt, a member of Parliament from the strongly anti-immigration Danish People's Party. "First it was D.C. and New York, then Madrid and now London. Who's next? There's no doubt we are in a potential threat situation, and that scares people."

Messerschmidt said curbing free speech was "very tough and emotional to do in England or Denmark or any other country that respects freedom, but it's out of necessity." He said a terror attack in Denmark was inevitable. "You'd have to live in a fantasy world to think it won't happen here."

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen ordered a review of national laws governing security and civil liberties immediately after the London bombings. "We must not have a police state and a surveillance society," he said in a recent radio broadcast. "But we must not be overindulgent either."

Many European countries have long had laws banning racist hate speech, an outgrowth of their experiences with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. But analysts said Denmark's new speech law, part of a package of anti-terror laws enacted in the aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was at the forefront of tougher European laws. The law banning instigation of terrorism carries a penalty of up to six years in prison.

Denmark's anti-terror laws also ban financing of radical groups and give police new powers to electronically eavesdrop on suspected radicals. Danish intelligence officers have also increased what Hans Jorgen Bonnichsen, commander of the Danish Security Intelligence Service, called "preventive talks" with potential radicals.

In an interview, Bonnichsen said his officers conduct close surveillance of suspected radicals and occasionally let them know they are being watched in order to disrupt their activities. He said intelligence officers work closely with Danish universities to monitor foreign-born students and watch for suspicious activity.

"Three years ago, people thought it was terrifying what Denmark was doing," said Hvilshoj, the immigration affairs minister. But with the shifting mood in Europe, she said, "that has changed. People are looking at Denmark differently."

In Denmark, as in much of Europe, fears of terrorism are often intertwined with concerns about immigration, particularly the immigration of Muslims. There are about 15 million Muslims living in the 25 countries of the European Union. Roughly 200,000 of Denmark's 5.4 million people are Muslim.

Rasmussen's right-leaning government was elected in November 2001, riding a wave of popular anger about rising immigration. Nearly overnight, the government reversed Denmark's generous immigration policies, tightening requirements for asylum-seekers and for foreign residents trying to bring in spouses.

Many Muslims in Demark see racist motives in the government's policies.

"The Danes have a fear of disappearing into the bigger European ocean," said Ahmed Abu Laban, one of Denmark's most prominent imams. "They have made immigrants pay the price. Muslims have become the scapegoat. They think we will undermine their culture and their values."

But police officials said racism had nothing to do with their plan to charge Mansour under the instigation law.

Mansour, who arrived for an interview in long Muslim robes and sandals, insisted on praying before speaking to a journalist.

He said he had come to Denmark in 1983 to join a sister who lived here. He married a Danish woman the next year; they now have four children who attend public schools. His wife is a public school teacher, but Mansour said he was unemployed and collected a monthly government welfare benefit of about $1,800.

Mansour described leading an active life in Danish Muslim circles, distributing audio recordings and videotapes of peaceful Islamic songs and stories. He denied being a violent radical, although he said he was "happy" about the Sept. 11 attacks and admitted he maintained relationships with well-known radicals from other countries.

He said he had been close friends with Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the cleric who was convicted in connection with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. He said Abdel Rahman stayed at his house twice on visits to Denmark.

Mansour also said he was in contact with two men whom authorities have described as aiding or inspiring the Sept. 11 attacks. One was Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric who was convicted in Jordan of several bomb attacks; tapes of his speeches were found in the German apartment used by several Sept. 11 attackers. The other was Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, a Syrian accused in Spain of giving money and support to the Sept. 11 attackers.

Mansour said he was aware that the police intend to bring charges against him. But he said that knowing people who had been convicted of crimes was not illegal and that passing out material downloaded from the Internet shouldn't be, either.

"Everybody can do it," he said, asserting that Danish officials are "just trying to show the Americans they are against terrorism. They don't have anybody, so they are using me."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

[Dos]

france has a little iraq of it's own..

(CBS) Tom Fenton, in his fourth decade with CBS News, has been the network's Senior European Correspondent since 1979. He comments on international events from his "Listening Post" in London, and other parts of the world as well.

The president of a major Western power orders troops sent to a crisis-torn country on another continent. Officials close to the president talk of the need for “regime change” and “democracy” and ramp up a military response to the unrest under the cover of a United Nations resolution.

Mobs take to the streets of the crisis country as the Western troops seek to impose order. The military reports that European women have been raped, and local thugs have beheaded foreigners with machetes. The troops rescue frightened whites as the mobs bay for Western blood. Chaos reigns, and back in the Western capital, the public begins to demand what their soldiers are doing in that far-off country.

The troops are French, the country is the former French colony of the Ivory Coast and this is what some observers are now calling French President Jacque Chirac’s “little Iraq.”

Indeed, a letter from a resident of the Paris region to the editor of the French daily “Le Figaro” says, “France is doing in the Ivory Coast what we reproach the Americans for doing.” It is, the writer says “none other than the unilateralism which we denounce (in Iraq), but of course France loves to give lectures to others.”

All that’s missing would be for France to ask for American troops to help it overthrow the government of the Ivory Coast, and the irony would be complete. But President Chirac, of course, will not ask for help, even if the lives of thousands of French expatriates in the Ivory Coast are at risk. That part of West Africa is France’s traditional area of influence: former colonies that France maintained within its system of military and economic control after granting them independence.

If rebels threaten a leader of one of the former French colonies who is considered to be a “friend of France”, the Foreign Legion is there to help prop him up. Or if the leader of one of the former colonies appears to threaten French economic interests there, France can arrange to remove him.

That is what may happen in the Ivory Coast after President Laurent Gbagho’s air force targeted a French military camp in the north of his country and killed nine French soldiers. President Chirac did not waste time assembling a coalition of the willing. He promptly ordered the destruction of the entire Ivorian air force – two jet fighters and several helicopters. Bang, and they were toast.

To give you a little context, the Ivory Coast was once the jewel of West Africa – a country that grew rich from its cocoa plantations under the benign rule of a Francophile president with the sonorous name of Felix Houphouet-Boigny. But Houphouet-Boigny died, the price of cocoa has fallen in recent years, and the late president’s successors were guilty of economic mismanagement, if not worse.

Fifteen years ago, 50,000 French expatriates lived a comfortable life in their West African paradise. Today, the few thousand who are left have either been evacuated to France, or are cowering in their homes or the homes of African neighbors, hoping the men with the machetes won’t get them. It’s your turn, Jacques.

By Tom Fenton
© MMIV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[1369]

I guess since they got the Greenpeace problem sorted out, they've got assets to spare in the war on terror.

[boutons]

"the Greenpeace problem"

What? Don't you macho super-patriots absolutely adore the bravado and skills it took for the French to blow up the greenpeace ship? Rambo and Dutch would be proud.

Now, if Greenpeace/whoever was interfering with what the US considered to be US national security operations, tell me that you wouldn't be cheering your lungs out if the Delta Force/Navy Seals did the exactly the same.

[boutons]

Hey AHF,

In spite of shrub/dickhead not taking Chirac's excellent, accurate advice to stay the fuck out of Iraq (note to red-staters and evangelical culture-of-lifers: no French blood wasted in Iraq), the French security/judicial/anti-terror services have been working with the US equivalents all along. Hell has been frozen over long before you got wind of it. Try to pay better attention.

The French helped enormously in first Gulf War, and you announce they are helping in Afghanistan, while totally abstaining from shrub's bullshit war in Iraq. A profoundly loyal and true ally in all three cases. Had shrub and his head-fucked ideologues heeded the French/German advice about Iraq (and Viet Nam), the world would be an enormously better and safer place, and 10's of 1000's of people would be alive and heathy and whole.

[SWC Bonfire]

The French are the key to supressing terrorism and radical Islam on the African continent. You haven't heard much about Algeria lately.

Don't bash the Frogs too much. The French are like a cat - you can't let them know what they are doing is what you want them to do, or they'll avoid doing it for awhile to make it look like it was their own idea.:lol

[SWC Bonfire]

...had...head-fucked ideologues heeded the French/German advice about...(Viet Nam)...

Not much ground to stand on there. The French wanted our help in Vietnam sooner rather than later.

[T Park]

Chirac's excellent, accurate advice to stay the fuck out of Iraq

wasnt it found, because he didnt want them to go in because they found French weapons, soldiers clothes, and also foundout they were trading fod for oil???

Yeah, listen to them....

[Clandestino]

EX-FUCKING-ACTLY!!! the french didn't want us to go into Iraq and uncover all their illegal dealings!

[boutons]

How can you red-state Americans be against the French companies trying to make some good old All American high-margin, no-bid $$$ in Iraq? $$$ are the Supreme American Family Value. Don't be greedy. The French helped fight against Saddam in Kuweit, aka, the "co-alition of the billing". and Saddam after Kuwait war wasn't a threat. bin Laden was.

dickhead/Halliburton/US contractors did Iraq business all through the 80s, while arming Saddam to the teeth, with their dicks firmly on his oily dick, as a countering force against Iran.

Every country acts in its best interests.

The only way you can rationalize throwing rocks at other countries is to believe the myth that America house isn't made of glass.

[Clandestino]

How can you red-state Americans be against the French companies trying to make some good old All American high-margin, no-bid $$$ in Iraq? $$$ are the Supreme American Family Value. Don't be greedy. The French helped fight against Saddam in Kuweit, aka, the "co-alition of the billing". and Saddam after Kuwait war wasn't a threat. bin Laden was.

dickhead/Halliburton/US contractors did Iraq business all through the 80s, while arming Saddam to the teeth, with their dicks firmly on his oily dick, as a countering force against Iran.

Every country acts in its best interests.

The only way you can rationalize throwing rocks at other countries is to believe the myth that America house isn't made of glass.

repost this bullshit and make some sense...