http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=10662 France arrests 11 for recruiting insurgents ISN SECURITY WATCH (27/01/05) - French authorities have arrested nine men and two women suspected by intelligence officials of recruiting fighters for the insurgency in Iraq, French news agencies reported on Thursday. The arrests were made during police raids on Monday and Wednesday, and officials said the timing was significant, as some of the suspects were allegedly planning to leave for Iraq, possibly to carry out suicide attacks. German officials also arrested two men over the weekend on suspicion of helping recruits from Germany into Iraq to bolster the insurgency. The New York Times quoted European counterterrorism officials as saying that such efforts to recruit insurgents for Iraq were not particularly organized or coordinated in Europe. French intelligence officials have estimated that there are between 2'000 and 3'000 foreign fighters in Iraq, though other officials have given much higher estimates. According to French news agencies, a French citizen has been identified as the leader of a group of around 20 insurgents in Iraq's Sunni stronghold of Falluja. "At the moment it would be wrong to speak of organized networks like there were with Afghanistan," a senior official told the French daily Le Monde on condition of anonymity. "But we are determined to stop young people going to make jihad in Iraq because if they come back they will have greatly enhanced prestige, and be in a position to recruit more people to the cause - or even mount terrorist operations," he said. The 11 arrested on Monday and Wednesday are all French citizens. By French law, they may be kept in custody for 96 hours without being formally charged. French authorities released one of the women later on Wednesday. The arrests come on the heels of an unprecedented ruling in Italy on Monday, when a judge dismissed charges against five terror suspects, saying the evidence against them indicated they were involved in "guerrilla warfare", not terrorism. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/_OLuKD/8WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
