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France, Italy Detain "Islamists"
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Analysts
believe Sarkozy's tough terror laws are a step on the road to the
presidency.
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PARIS,
September 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Raids
against Islamists in both Paris and Rome, two European Union capitals
with apparent different stances on issues of concern to Arabs and
Muslims, marked the growing tendency to toughen laws targeting what
the Europeans term "extremists" and came as a new
post-London bombings anti-terror operations.
French
police detained nine people Monday September 26, during a series of
dawn raids west of Paris in the Yvelines and Eure regions, in what
they said was a crackdown on suspected Islamist terrorist activities,
according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Reuters
quoted a judicial French source as saying armed French anti-terrorist
police detained the nine Islamic militants suspected of plotting
attacks in France.
French
police believe the suspects are linked to Algeria's radical Salafist
Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), according to Reuters.
Head
of the French national police said in July the group had contacted
alleged Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, about
carrying out attacks in France.
France
believes Islamic militants could strike in spite of outspoken French
opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq. Paris shares intelligence
with the United States and Britain, Washington's main military ally in
Iraq.
"The
men are suspected of intending to carry out attacks in France. There
was a conspiracy and logistical activity, but no identified
project," officials close to the investigation told AFP.
Tough
Laws
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Cameras
will be set in French streets.
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The
raids were carried out as Nicolas Sarcozy, France’s Interior
Minister and leader of the UMP, was about to unveil new tough
“anti-terrorism” laws, designed as France's response to bomb
attacks in London on July 7, reported Reuters.
But
some analysts saw the raids in light of Sarkozy's presidential hopes
and courting rightist circles in France, which have long been accusing
Sarkozy of jeopardizing French secularism by being too
"lenient" with Muslim migrants.
France,
which had a strong anti-Iraq war stance and opposed all forms of US
pressures to side with its plans to invade Iraq, had not witnessed
terror attacks or threats thereof.
French
journalists Christian Chesnot, Georges Malbrunot and Florence Aubenas
who were kidnapped in Iraq were released after intervention of various
Arab and Islamic powers inside and outside Iraq to free them on the
ground of France’s stance against war. French Muslims played a great
role then and their efforts were hailed on the official, popular and
media levels.
“The
terrorist threat is there, and it is at a very high level,”
France’s interior minister told France 3 Television.
Sarcozy
new anti-terror laws seek to put closed circuit cameras on more French
streets.
Mobile
phone operators and Internet cafe owners will also be required to keep
records of users and calls under the proposed new law.
Simultaneously,
the Justice Ministry wants to impose tougher jail sentences for those
convicted of playing secondary roles in terrorist plots, said Reuters.
It
is also considering extending by two days to six the period suspects
can be questioned by police.
Rome
Later
Monday, Italian police detained 11 people in Milan, in parallel to
arrests in France, suspected of making up a militant Islamist cell,
authorities claimed.
Those
taken in for questioning are thought to belong to GSPC, an armed
Algerian movement that grew out of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA)
and allegedly has links to Al-Qaeda.
Italy,
which follows London on Al-Qaeda potential targets of "terror
attacks" has witnessed earlier in the month extradition of a
London terror suspect, Ethiopian-born Hussain Osman, also known as
Hamdi Issac, who faces charges of involvement in London 21 July
bungled attacks.
Rome
also has troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, a fact that renders Italy a
possible target for attacks on its soil.
France
is home to some six to seven Million, the largest Muslim minority in
Europe. While there are about one million Muslims in Italy,
concentrated mostly in Milan.
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