Saturday, October 29, 2005

France May Be a Target of Islamists

It's hard to tell whether this is a real threat or simply bad intelligence or deliberate misinformation.

From the News.telegraph:
An Islamic terror cell has smuggled two surface-to-air missiles into Europe in a plot to shoot down planes at one of France's main airports, it was claimed yesterday.

French and Algerian extremists with links to al-Qa'eda bought the Russian SA-18 Grouse missiles from Chechens in 2002 and smuggled them via Georgia and Turkey, according to French anti-terror sources quoted in Le Figaro.
If they were smuggled into France in 2002, why haven't they been used already?
Before homing in on a preferred target, most of the group was arrested in a swoop by the French terrorist brigade, the DST, in two Paris suburbs late in 2002. But some escaped.
What will the French do if faced with their own 9/11? Will they fight like Yanks and Brits or cower like Spaniards?

My opinion is that an attack on French soil will goad the Gauls into action. Too many of them view Islamic terrorism in merely academic terms right now, but a plane shot down over Orly, or some ricin in le Métro will expose the bankruptcy of appeasement. They shouldn't need such a ghastly event to nudge them in the right direction, but...the French are the French.