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Europe

Detonators, Explosives Stolen from French Military Base

2015-07-08

Possibly this will turn out to be War on Terror related, but at this point there is no information about the miscreants, who may merely be safecrackers. [AnNahar] At least 150 detonators and a stock of plastic explosives have been stolen from a military base in La Belle France, triggering immediate probes into a theft that has authorities on high alert. Thieves broke into the vast army logistics base in Miramas near Marseille in southern La Belle France on Sunday night after cutting through a wire fence. The facility, which houses some 200 soldiers, is used to stockpile weapons for foreign missions, such as those in Africa. In a statement, the defense ministry said it had launched an internal probe into "the protection of all military sites stocking munitions" following the theft. Another probe has been launched to determine whether anyone was responsible for security breaches, it added. According to Europe 1 radio, around 40 grenades have also been stolen. It said the base occupied an area measuring some 250 hectares and was surrounded by two rows of wire fencing, but had no security cameras. La Belle France has been on high alert since a jihadist killing spree six months ago in Gay Paree that left 17 people dead, including 12 people bumped off in the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo ...A lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... The country is high on the hit list of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group. In the most recent attack, a 35-year-old found to have links to an IS fighter in Syria beheaded his boss at a gas factory in the southeastern city of Lyon and tried to blow up the premises. It was as yet unclear what was behind the theft in Miramas, but this is not the first time that a large quantity of explosives has been stolen in La Belle France. In July 2008, thieves took 28 kilos of explosives from a bomb disposal unit just outside Lyon. Then interior minister Michele Alliot-Marie had blamed "faults in the site's security."

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Africa North

France working for Libyan no-fly zone

2011-03-06

BORDEAUX, France - French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Saturday his country was working with Britain to get a United Nations Security Council resolution to impose a no-fly zone in Libya. "We are working in New York with the British to get a UN Security Council resolution creating an air exclusion zone to avoid bombings," he said in Bordeaux. You don't need the UN. Honestly. You've trapped yourselves into thinking you do, but you don't. Tell the UN to push off and you'll see that nothing bad happens to you in response. These are the guys who put Libya on the Human Rights Commission, fergawdsake, it's not like they're going to punish you. "We are watching very carefully" the situation in Libya and "this morning I spoke by telephone with minister Younes" Abdel Fatah, Libya's former interior minister until he resigned who is now in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. "We are on the side of all those who want to win their freedom and make a successful democratic transition," Juppe said shortly before leaving for Egypt and his first official visit outside Europe since being appointed. On Sunday he was due to meet in Cairo the secretary general of the Arab League Amr Moussa. Oh that'll be a great help. You'll get a carefully-worded statement of vagueness from the Arab League. On Thursday, Juppe and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said they were preparing measures to propose to the European Union summit on Libya set for next Friday, specifically mentioning a possible no-fly zone. The uprisings in the Arab world have proved testing for France. Its diplomats have been accused of having failed to see them coming and ministers of having had links with despotic and corrupt leaders. Since he replaced Michele Alliot-Marie as foreign minister on Tuesday Juppe has made "refounding" President Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for the Mediterranean a priority. This has been made essential by the upheavals in progress and the departure of Egyptian former president Hosni Moubarak, Sarkozy's chief partner in the scheme. President Sarkozy: if you want to implement a no-fly zone, as opposed to just talk about it, you'll need to get the Charles De Gaulle out to sea real soon. Use a task force centered on her to set up coverage over Benghazi as a start. Then negotiate with the new rebel government to put a small contingent of aircraft with a support and protection package into the airport there. That secures Benghazi and demonstrates to the world which side you're on. Then you and the Italians (you DO have the Italians in on this, don't you?) need to convince Malta to let you put a squadron of attack aircraft in there. Bring tanker support in from Sicily. You'll need intel aircraft as well to identify potential anti-air units still loyal to Qadaffy, and you'll then need to eliminate them as a threat. If you can do that through subterfuge and propaganda so the much better. But you need to convince them that they shouldn't be the last men to die for Glorious Batshit-Crazy Leader. Now then: perhaps the Italians could bring in the Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Cavour, both excellent small carriers, to the western coast of Libya. Between them and the aircraft you base in Malta, along with tanker and intel support, you suppress air units still loyal to Qadaffy there. The Benghazi strike group and the De Gaulle keep Libyan air units out of the east. The idea here is to limit the mission strictly to enforcing a no-fly zone by Qadaffy-loyal air units. Don't allow mission creep to take hold. You're not going to bomb armor units, etc., and you'll take out only those anti-air assets that threaten your aircraft. That's quite enough -- ask the US Air Force and Navy about enforcing the NFZ over Iraq a decade ago. I realize I'm no military expert. Listen to yours, but make it clear that if it CAN be done, then it WILL be done. This is going to be damned hard, but if you and the Italians (you don't need the Brits or the Spanish) can pull this off, the Libyan people will thank you. Maybe. But they will sell you oil. You may thank me later.

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Africa North

Tunisia calls up army reserve to tackle violence

2011-02-09

[Arab News] Tunisia asked military reservists to report for duty and warned police they would be fired for skipping work on Monday, in a new drive to restore order three weeks after an uprising overthrew the president. Security officials in the coalition government put in place after President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali decamped to Soddy Arabia have said there is a conspiracy by officials close to the old administration to spread chaos and take back power. After days of shootouts and looting immediately after Ben Ali was pushed out, it had seemed security was being restored but since last week violence has flared again, raising new questions about Tunisia's stability. The military has for weeks been in the streets helping keep order and filling the gap left by a police force whose ranks have been thinned by desertions and absenteeism. "The Defense Ministry has called on retired members of the army, navy and air force ... to go to the regional centers of conscription and mobilization nearest to their place of residence," said a ministry statement reported by the official TAP news agency. Tunisia's uprising against Ben Ali's authoritarian rule inspired protest movements elsewhere in the Arab world, notably in Egypt, and its halting progress toward stability is being watched closely in the region. In a separate statement, the Interior Ministry urged police to play their role in bringing back security. Public respect for the police is low because many Tunisians blame them for carrying out acts of violent repression during Ben Ali's rule, and suspect them of trying to undermine the new government after he decamped. "The Ministry of Interior calls on coppers to guarantee the security of the country and to act to help all those who ask their help in case of danger," the official news agency quoted the ministry as saying. "In cases where police leave their workplace to answer urgent calls they must return as soon as the emergency is dealt with. If they do not return they will be considered as having left their job," the ministry said. At least five people have been killed in violent incidents in provincial towns since Friday, including two rubbed out in the northern city of El Kef when police tried to disperse protesters. There were no reports of any deaths or injuries on Monday but protesters clashed with police again in El Kef and set fire to buildings in the town, local media reported. In the Tunisian capital, about 300 employees of the foreign ministry staged a protest rally outside their workplace to demand that the minister, Ahmed Ounaiss, step down. He had angered many Tunisians by lavishing praise on French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who is under fire at home from opposition politicians who accuse her of having cosy relations with Tunisia's ousted administration.

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Europe

French PM Fillon says Mubarak lent him plane on holiday

2011-02-08

One aspect not generally understood, is that most Presidents in the third world get 5% of the government budget as a "personal allowance". There is no check on how this money is spent, nor is the president required to present details on his spending. It can be worth a lot of money after 30 years, especially if invested "wisely" in first world countries. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said the Egyptian president lent him and his family a plane during a holiday in Egypt at Christmas. Hosni Mubarak, who is facing widespread anti-government protests, also paid for Mr Fillon's holiday accommodation. How...generous. This is how the elites of the world take care of each other. Peasants need not apply. Another French minister has said she used a Tunisian businessman's plane during the country's uprising. Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, who has faced calls to resign, said she deeply regretted her actions. Not enough to go ahead and resign, apparently...

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Africa North

France suspends sale of arms, tear gas to Egypt

2011-02-06

[Arab News] The French prime minister's office says that La Belle France suspended the sale of arms and tear gas to Egypt in late January, as an uprising to force the ouster of geriatric President Hosni Mubarak mounted. The official says that the decision to suspend the sale of arms was made at a Jan. 27 meeting. According to the official, speaking Saturday, the meeting came two days after the French Customs service suspended authorization to export equipment to maintain public order, notably explosive products such as tear gas. The official, not authorized to speak publicly, asked not to be named. La Belle France was embarrassed by an offer to share its know-how in maintaining order with Tunisia despite an uprising that ultimately pushed President El-Abidine Ben Ali into exile. La Belle France's Foreign Ministry says that three French journalists and a researcher who went missing in Cairo amid attacks on journalists during violent demonstrations have been located and are safe. Michele Alliot-Marie had spoken by telephone with her Egyptian counterpart demanding the four be located. Saturday's statement said all four «have been found safe and sound" but provided no details. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says it has documented at least 101 cases of direct attacks on journalists and news facilities over the past week. The Gay Paree-based World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers on Saturday called on Egyptian authorities to protect journalists covering protests in Egypt.

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Africa North

Egypt Police, Protesters Clash for 2nd Day

2011-01-26

[An Nahar] Egyptian police and protesters clashed in the center of the capital and in the port city of Suez on Wednesday, the second day of anti-government rallies that had been threatened with a massive security crackdown. With the interior ministry having banned all protests, police fired tear gas at hundreds of people gathered near the journalists' syndicate in Cairo demanding the ouster of geriatric President Hosni Mubarak, an Agence La Belle France Presse news hound said. Protesters chanted "The people want the ouster of the regime," and threw rocks at police in response to the tear gas. In Suez, where three demonstrators died on Tuesday, witnesses told AFP police used batons to try disperse at least 2,000 protesters gathered outside a morgue and chanting "Down with Mubarak." Riot police trucks lined the streets of downtown Cairo where thousands had gathered the day before to demand that Mubarak step down. Officials said four people -- three protesters and a policeman -- had died in Tuesday's protest in a "day of anger" inspired by the uprising in Tunisia. The United States, a key Egyptian ally, said Cairo should be "responsive" to its people's aspirations, while both La Belle France and Germany urged restraint on all sides. An Egyptian security official told AFP around 200 people had been nabbed by Wednesday in the largest protests in Egypt since bread riots in 1977. Security forces had surrounded the journalists' syndicate on Wednesday, briefly detaining one of its board members. The pro-democracy youth group April 6 Movement, the driving force behind Tuesday's protests, had urged people to head back to Cairo's main square on Wednesday. This despite the fact that in the early hours of Wednesday, police had ended the Cairo protests by firing tear gas and rounding up protesters, with reports of dozens jugged or missing. "Everyone needs to head down to Tahrir Square to take over the square once again," the group said on its Facebook page which, along with Twitter, had helped to organize Tuesday's protests. In a separate statement, it urged Egyptians to carry on protesting. "To continue what we started on January 25, we will take to the streets to demand the right to life, liberty, dignity and we call on everyone to take to the streets ... and to keep going until the demands of the Egyptian people have been met," the group said. The interior ministry said further demonstrations were banned and anyone taking part would be prosecuted. "No provocative moves, or protest gatherings, or marches or demonstrations will be allowed," the ministry said. "Legal measures will be taken against anyone (in contravention), and they will be transferred to the prosecution," a statement continued. April 6 Movement members said they would take to the streets regardless. "We've started and we won't stop," one told AFP on Wednesday. On Tuesday, a police deployment of some 20,000 to 30,000 personnel had allowed demonstrators to march to Tahrir Square, where they chanted in unison: "The people want the ouster of the regime." Demonstrators also tore down posters of Mubarak and chanted, "Mubarak get lost," "Bread, liberty, dignity," and "We will follow Tunisia." Among demands are the departure of the interior minister, whose security forces have been accused of heavy-handedness; an end to a decades-old state of emergency; and a rise in minimum wages. Late Tuesday, the interior ministry said security forces had decided to allow demonstrators "to voice their demands and exercise their freedom of expression," with a commitment to "securing and not confronting these gathering". But it accused the Mohammedan Brotherhood of rioting and causing public disorder, which the group denied. Egypt's stock market saw a sharp decline and the Egyptian pound hit a six-year low to reach 5.83 to the dollar a day after the mass protests. The White House said on Tuesday that Egypt's government should be "responsive" to its people's aspirations. "The Egyptian government has an important opportunity to be responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people, and pursue political, economic and social reforms that can improve their lives and help Egypt prosper," a statement said. French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in Gay Paree on Wednesday that La Belle France regrets the loss of life in the anti-government protests and supports calls for more democracy "in all countries." "I can only deplore that there were deaths ... One must be able to demonstrate without there being violence, let alone deaths," she told La Belle France's RTL radio. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Berlin was "very worried" by unrest in Egypt and called on all sides to refrain from violence.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Paleo goons confront French FM in Gaza

2011-01-22

EREZ CROSSING, Gaza Strip — Dozens of furious Palestinians protested against the French foreign minister on a visit to the Gaza Strip on Friday, pelting her motorcade with eggs and narrowly missing her with a lobbed shoe. The thugs protesters, relatives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, were angry about comments Michele Alliot-Marie reportedly made the day before in support of Gilad Schalit, an Israeli soldier captured in a cross-border raid by the Islamic militant group Hamas and held in Gaza since 2006. Thugs Protesters were waiting for Alliot-Marie as she crossed from Israel into Gaza through the Erez Crossing, lying on the road and jumping on her vehicle. Hamas police eventually dispersed those thugs protesters, but more thugs gathered outside a United Nations office in Gaza City that was her first stop in the Palestinian territory, and later followed her to a nearby hospital, pelting her motorcade with eggs. AP Television footage showed Alliot-Marie narrowly dodging a shoe thrown by a thug protester as she climbed into a jeep under heavy guard. Schalit, the captive soldier, is an Israeli-French dual national and France has repeatedly called for his release. Alliot-Marie made no public statement Thursday after meeting with Schalit’s parents in Jerusalem, but the soldier’s father, Noam Schalit, said afterward that the minister had called on Hamas to allow the Red Cross to visit his son for the first time. He referred to his son’s capture as a “war crime.” The Palestinians linked the comments to Alliot-Marie, although she did not say anything publicly before or after the meeting. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the statements reflected a “total bias toward Israel” and ignored the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. “They are the true prisoners of war,” he said. Hamas is demanding that Israel release hundreds of Hamas thugs prisoners, including terrorists militants behind deadly attacks against Israelis, in return for Schalit. Talks facilitated by a German mediator have produced no result. Schalit has been seen by no one but his captors since 2006. A videotape released in 2009 showed him talking and reading a newspaper. In keeping with the policy of the European Union, which considers Hamas a terror organization, Alliot-Marie did not meet with Hamas officials during her half-day visit.

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Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel to end Gaza electricity, water dependency

2011-01-21

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Thursday with visiting French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, telling her Israel will work to end Gaza's dependency on his country, his office said. "During their conversation... Netanyahu said that Israel would strive to disengage from the Gaza Strip with regard to infrastructure utilities like electricity and water," a statement from his office said, providing no further details. Hamas should be pleased. They want nothing to do with the evil Jooz, and now they won't. So...shut them off. Dependency over. See? That was easy... They could burn dung like they used to before Israel took them on... they've got great, overflowing ponds of the stuff just sitting there, waiting for a bright idea. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, but still supplies some 70 percent of the strip's electricity, with the rest being provided by Egypt and local power plants. It also supplies fuel for the local plants through the Palestinian Authority. It was not immediately clear where Gaza would get its electricity if Israel cuts off supplies. How about an extension cord from France to Gaza... In the past, Israel has tried to use electricity cuts as a way to pressure Gaza's Hamas rulers. Israel also imposed a blockade of Gaza in 2006 when one of its soldiers was seized by Gaza militants in a deadly 2006 raid and tightened a year later when Hamas took over. The siege has been significantly eased in recent months after Israeli came under international pressure following a deadly May 31 raid on a flotilla of aid ships trying to breach the blockade.

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Africa Subsaharan

French hostages killed in Niger

2011-01-09

[Al Jazeera] Two Frenchies kidnapped in Niger have been found dead following a failed rescue operation. The two men were found dead following festivities between security forces and the kidnappers, Alain Juppe, the French defence minister, said on Saturday. "With the operation launched and co-ordinated with French elements in the region, the beturbanned goons were intercepted at the Mali border and several of them were overpowered," Juppe said. "After the fighting, the two hostages were found dead." The Rooters news agency reported an unnamed source as saying the the bodies had been flown back to Niamey, Niger's capital. The two Frenchies were seized on Friday while eating dinner in a restaurant in Niamey. Four gunnies burst into the restaurant and ordered the two men out into a 4x4 vehicle with Benin plates in which other gunnies were waiting, according to witnesses. One witness said that the gunnies were speaking French and Arabic and were dressed in clothes worn by nomadic tribes in the country's northern desert. Following initial festivities with Nigerien security forces, in which the national guard chief was reportedly injured, a chase was mounted in an attempt to recover the hostages. "The Niger national guard immediately gave chase to block them from reaching a zone of refuge, which is a grave threat for our hostages," Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said earlier in a televised address from the French Caribbean region of Martinique. "At the minute I speak to you, and I'm careful, the Niger national guard is following the beturbanned goons on their route to Mali," Sarkozy said. "This operation is in progress." Sarkozy, who urged Frenchies to avoid the west African region until the security situation improved, said the abductors were heading to a safe zone in Mali which would be "extremely serious" for the hostages. No group has grabbed credit for the kidnapping, but there are suspicions that it could be linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which operates across West and North Africa's vast Sahara desert. La Belle France is already working to secure the release of five other kidnapped Frenchies seized in Niger in September along with a Togolese and a Madagascan. They are believed to be being held in neighbouring Mali by AQIM. In November, Abdelmalek Droukdel, alias Abou Moussaab Abdelouadoud, AQIM's head, said in a message on A -Jazeera, that Osama bin Laden alone could negotiate the release of the hostages. But Michele Alliot-Marie, the French foreign minister, has rejected any suggestion that La Belle France would negotiate their freedom with bin Laden.

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Africa North

Egypt Rules Out Foreign Security after Church Bomb

2011-01-06

[Asharq al-Aswat] The protection of places of worship in Egypt is the responsibility of the government, an Egyptian minister said Wednesday, ruling out foreign security for Coptic Christians attacked this week. A New Year's Day attack on a Copt church in Egypt that killed 21 people has raised alarm about the safety of Christians in the Middle East with calls for Europe to come up with a coordinated response. "We will not allow any foreign party to protect the Copts in Egypt because that would infringe on the exclusive responsibility of our government," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said during a visit to Morocco. Egypt is on high alert Monday ahead of the Coptic Christmas on January 7. "The places of worship in Europe, the churches as well as the mosques, are also concerned about the question of protection," the minister said at a presser with his Moroccan counterpart, Taieb Fassi Fihri. French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Tuesday called on Europe to come up with a coordinated response to attacks on the Middle East's Christians, including asylum but also ways for people "to stay in their homes". The Egyptian minister, visiting Morocco as part of a regional tour, said investigations were still under way to find out who was responsible for the New Year's Day attack, which also maimed 79 people.

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Africa Subsaharan

West African leaders hold talks to end the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire

2010-12-25

[Daily Nation (Kenya)] West African leaders gathered for emergency talks on Friday on the crisis in Cote d'Ivoire with the United States searching for more UN troops and La Belle France offering Laurent Gbagbo a final chance to step aside. The summit comes after a UN body demanded a halt to "atrocities" in Cote d'Ivoire and the Central Bank of West African States blocked Gbagbo's access to finances, putting a further squeeze on his bid to remain in power. Much of the world, including the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society, has recognised Gbagbo's rival Alassane Ouattara as the winner in last month's elections, but the strongman has refused to budge in the face of mounting calls for him to leave. As leaders arrived for the Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas) summit, Nigeria's foreign minister sought to keep the pressure on Gbagbo, saying there would be no compromise on the bloc's demand that he step down. "The question of compromise is not on the table," Odein Ajumogobia told AFP ahead of the special summit of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States. "Something like a unity government or the sort of thing we have in Kenya and Zimbabwe are not on the table. We are resolute that Gbagbo has to step down." The meeting of West African leaders will be their second special summit on Cote d'Ivoire this month after having suspended the country from the group at the first gathering and called on Gbagbo to cede power. Some analysts have said the bloc could impose individual sanctions such as travel restrictions over the crisis, but officials have been tight-lipped over what will be on the table at the summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja. The United States has also said it is talking with regional countries from Ecowas about boosting the 9,000-strong UN mission in Cote d'Ivoire. French Foreign minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Friday that Gbagbo could still step down honourably, but warned that time was growing short. "Mr Gbagbo still has the possibility of leaving this situation with dignity by recognising what the results are and by handing over power," she told French radio. "He has the right to a completely honourable exit ... but the more time passes and the more things get out of control and there's violence, the more this possibility distances itself."

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Africa Subsaharan

Ouattara is legitimate president of Ivory Coast -- French FM

2010-12-10

(KUNA) -- French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Thursday that Alasanne Ouattara was the legitimate president of the Ivory Coast "in the eyes of all the international community." Speaking on "La Belle France Inter" radio, the minister pointed out that Ouattara was not just supported by La Belle France but he was also the president "in the eyes of the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society since yesterday, and before that in the eyes of ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States), the African Union and Europe." The UN Security Council on Wednesday backed Ouattaras election despite a decision by the Ivory Coast Constitutional Council which backed his opponent, Laurent Gbagbo. She remarked that incumbent Ivory Coast president Gbagbo, who is refusing to accept defeat at the hands of Ouattara, had no legitimacy anymore. "Indeed, things are clear. It has been said by everyone," Alliot-Marie remarked about the election result. Both Ouattara and Gbagbo have appointed Prime Ministers to form new governments, leading to gridlock and a dangerous stand-off in Ivory Coast that has already experienced a bloody civil war and has a tense balance between ethnic groups in the north and south of the country. Alliot-Marie recalled that Ivory Coast has a long democratic tradition and was even a model for Africa along with Senegal. "What we need today is that the results of the will of the people of Ivory Coast, expressed in a vote that was controlled by the United Nations, be respected," the French foreign minister affirmed. She said that the transition "must take place gently and there must be no violence." She also warned that "there are a certain number of procedures that could be put in place at the international level if the transition is not carried out" by Gbagbo. The minister also remarked that this was not a problem just for La Belle France, but it was also being followed closely at European and international level. La Belle France has close economic ties with Ivory Coast and is the major foreign investor in that country. There are also 15,000 Frenchies living and working in Ivory Coast. "We do not ignore the presence of our compatriots in Ivory Coast. Their safety is a major concern. Today, their security is not threatened," she indicated, although she noted that special recommendations had been given to French residents in Ivory Coast during the electoral period there.

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