Iran/France/Security: security forces arrest AFP journalist in Tehran

The Agence France Presse (AFP) announced on Thursday that Iranian security forces arrested one of its reporter in Tehran who was covering Wednesday's rally marking the anniversary of seizure of the US embassy. "Farhad Pouladi was covering the rally when he was stopped and taken away by three security agents, two in uniform and one in plainclothes," acting Tehran bureau chief Jay Deshmukh said. "Since yesterday morning, we have no news about him."

Deshmukh said the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance had given assurances to AFP that Pouladi's case was being followed as a priority. Witnesses said Pouladi was taken away by three security agents, who took his mobile phone at first.

Pouladi has a press card from the foreign press department of the Iranian Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry, but since the demonstrations over the disputed June presidential vote, the department has banned all foreign media from directly covering protests or making contact with opposition figures. On Wednesday, journalists, photographers and television crews were only allowed to cover a state-organized, anti-US rally in front of the former American embassy but not opposition protests held a few hundred metres away.

France/Pakistan/Terrorism: French secret service doubt Islamist role in Karachi bomb blast

According to a source, close to the case investigating the bomb attack in Karachi that killed 11 French nationals in 2002, a French secret service documents have cast doubt on a theory that Islamist militants were responsible for the attack. "The documents, which are all top secret, show strong scepticism of the Al-Qaeda theory," the source said.

The source also said the magistrates had dropped an arrest warrant for a suspected Pakistani Islamist leader, Mati Ur Rehman, whom they had been seeking as part of the investigation. The French judges are studying the theory that the Pakistani soldiers ordered the attack after a dispute on the payment of commissions in Pakistan linked to the building of the submarine.

The documents related to the bombing were declassified in October. Two investigating judges asked for 40 documents to be declassified amid suspicion the attack was linked to shady defense deals, not a terrorist plot. The bombing killed 14 people, including 11 French naval engineers and technicians of a naval construction firm.

Somalia/France/Piracy: soldiers on board French fishing boat thwarts pirates

According to a military statement on Sunday, soldiers on board the Avel Vad, a French fishing boat, thwarted Somali pirates by firing warning shots and fireworks. It has been reported that the pirates tried to hijack the vessel at around 0730 GMT on Saturday as it was sailing in the waters between the Somali coast and the Seychelles. “A skiff from a pirate ship began approaching with aggressive intent. Our soldiers then fired fireworks and warning shots at the pirates, scaring them off. They have not been caught, » it said.

Earlier on Tuesday last week, pirates had attacked a ship operated by the Brittany-based CMB Company – who also owns the Avel Vad. Following the attack on the Cap Saint Vincent, European Union warships have so far arrested 7 suspected pirates. Since last year, an international naval force has been patrolling the maritime trade routes in the Gulf of Aden. However, pirates have now started to operate in the Indian Ocean – making it difficult for naval warships to patrol effectively.

France/Spain/Terrorism: a lawyer under European arrests warrant arrested in South-west of France

The French police has arrested late on Wednesday Joseba Agudo Mancisidor, a Spanish lawyer suspected to have worked for the Basque Separatist organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) as a messenger. The Spanish Interior ministry said the man was arrested in the town of Hendaye, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department (South-west of France). According to a source closed to the investigation, the lawyer was under a European arrest warrant delivered by Spain after the police carried out a search on October 28 in his office in Oyarzun, in the Basque country.  He is currently detained in the city of Bayonne.

He communicated with the ETA by using coded messages and he served as a messenger to “ensure communication between ETA and its hiding members in other countries, mainly South American and European ones,” the source said. He is also accused of having occupied the return of fugitives in France, “under the leadership of the terrorist organization.”

ETA is considered as a terrorist organisation by Brussels and Washington. The terrorist group has claimed more than 820 killed during its 41 years of violence against the Spanish government. Since it has broken its truce in December 2006, the French and Spanish police pressure has never decreased, leading to the arrest of several of its main leaders.

France/Civil unrest: second consecutive night of violence in Fréjus

(Oligny Traoré/Gamma/Photo News)

New clashes erupted late on Monday in the town of Fréjus and in Saint Raphaël in the Var region (south of France) after young men threw stones and Molotov cocktails against a police patrol. Immediately after that incident, demonstrators took to the streets and set fire to garbage and several vehicles parked in the area of Gabelle, an outskirt of Fréjus where a young Morrocan killed himself on Sunday. “The police entered the hart of the city to scatter the groups that committed violence,” said a prefecture statement. “The situation remains however highly strained,” it added. According to the police, two people have been arrested during the night. Two police officers and two fire-fighters were also wounded.

Violent clashes erupted earlier on Sunday in the town of Fréjus after Mohamed El Matari, a 21 years-old Moroccan national, living in the city killed himself while he was trying to steer clear of a roadblock. After the incident, at least 50 youths took to the streets and started to break windows and to burn garbage, tires, a motorcycle and five vehicles in a shipyard. After the violence, the El Matari family called to the end of violence. “Tonight, do not break anything, do not burn anything, I even do not want to see a kleenex burning!” said a member of the family.

France/Spain: police arrests a suspected member of ETA

A police source who asked to remain anonymous has announced this Tuesday that a suspected member of the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) had been arrested on Monday in Vienne, in the Isère department (central-east of France). The man from Spain origins was arrested during a routine police patrol while he was pretending to repair his car. He started to flee from the police but officers succeeded to catch him. At least 50 kg of materials usually used to make explosives have been seized. He had already been arrested in France in 2005 and sentenced to three years in jail for “conspiracy in connection with a terrorist purpose”, the source said.

On Monday 19 October, Aitor Elizaran Aguilar, the head of the political wing of the terrorist organisation had been arrested with his girlfriend Oihana San Vicente in the city of Carnac, in the Morbihan region (west of France).

French and Spanish police have intensified their pressure on the organisation listed as a terrorist one by Brussels and Washington. During its 41 years of violence against the Spanish government, ETA has killed more than 820 people. However, since the organisation has broken its truce in December 2006, several of its main leaders including Javier Lopez Pena and Garikoïtz Asiazu Rubina, aka "Txeroki", had been arrested.

France/Civil unrest: clashes erupted in Fréjus after a young man killed himself.

Violent clashes erupted late on Sunday in the town of Fréjus (south of France) after Mohamed El Matari, a 21 years-old Moroccan national, living in the city killed himself while he was trying to steer clear of a roadblock. According to Simon Babri, the chief of staff of the Prefect, "initially, at 17h30, the young man turned back to avoid a roadblock at the entrance of Fréjus and he fled. He tried to bypass a second roadblock and by driving on the bottom side of the road it hit a tree".

After his death, at least 50 youths took to the streets and started to break windows at the entrance of Gabelle, an outskirt of the city. The youths also burned garbage, tires, a motorcycle and five vehicles in a shipyard, said the police. When the Police and the fire-fighters arrived on the scène, protesters threw stones and Molotov cocktails against them. Then, the police retaliate by firing tear gas but it was unable to enter into Gabelle.

No wounded have been reported during the incidents. According to a statement published by the prefecture of the Var region, “at midnight the police were able to take position inside the area and to restore calm." However, police stay in the area during the night to prevent any other incidents.

Sudan/France/Insurgency: French ICRC aid worker kidnapped in Darfur

Unidentified gunmen kidnapped a French employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Sudan's Darfur region on Thursday. “The gunmen kidnapped Gauthier Lefevre while he was on his way back to Al-Geneina, the capital of Sudan’s West Darfur state, from a trip north of the town to help local communities upgrade their water supply systems,” the ICRC said in a statement on its Web site. He was traveling with other staff members in clearly marked vehicles, the group said. “The ICRC is calling for the rapid and unconditional release of its kidnapped staff member,” the statement said.

“The Red Cross worker is in good health according to the first report I have received,” Sudan’s minister of state for humanitarian affairs, Abdel Baqi Gilani, told Agence France- Presse on Friday.

This is the third kidnapping of international workers in the troubled region since July. On Sunday, two female staff of Irish aid agency GOAL who were kidnapped at gunpoint in Sudan's Darfur region in July were released on Sunday from more than 100 days in captivity. Irishwoman Sharon Commins, 33, and Ugandan Hilda Kawuki, 42, were kidnapped in the North Darfur town of Kutum on July 3 by a gang of armed men from a compound run by GOAL.

France/Spain/Terrorism: 2 ETA members arrested in Carnac

Two suspected members of the Basque separatist organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) have been arrested this Monday in the city of Carnac, in the Morbihan region (west of France). According to sources closed to the investigation, Aitor Elizaran Aguilar, the head of the political wing of the terrorist organisation has been arrested with his girlfriend Oihana San Vicente. The arrest is the result "of several months of investigation and surveillance," the source said adding that the Central Directorate of Internal Intelligence (Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur - DCRI) and the Spanish Civil Guard had cooperated.

Last week, the Spanish judge from the National Audience Baltazar Garzon had arrested Arnaldo Otegi and four other activists who were suspected to re-build Batazuna, the ETA political wing which is forbidden in Spain.

French and Spanish police have intensified their pressure on the organisation listed as a terrorist one by Brussels and Washington. During its 41 years of violence against the Spanish government, ETA has killed more than 820 people. Several of its main leaders including Javier Lopez Pena and Garikoïtz Asiazu Rubina, aka "Txeroki", have been arrested since ETA has broke up its truce in December 2006.

France recommends leaving Conakry

Paris asked to the French nationals living in Guinea to leave the country because of its worsening security situation, said the French Foreign Ministry. According to the Ministry website, "it is formally discouraged to go to Guinea and French people leaving the place are recommended to leave the country".

"There is no prospect of improvement in the short term," the ministry said in its note. He explained that "the security situation has deteriorated in Conakry," and that "acts of banditry have increased, especially armed robbery," after the crackdown by the army of the opposition demonstration on September 28. "Numerous victims among the Guinean population." resulted of that violence.

Italy/France/Security: French minister incredulous at Taleban bribes report

French Defence Minister Herve Morin reacted sharply against a British press report which says that the Italian government had paid Taleban commanders and Afghan warlords not to carry out attack against its troops deployed in Afghanistan. "I have no reason to question the word of the Italian government," Morin said, adding: "The French army would never take part in such practices," he said. "Paying the Taleban for peace goes against the principles of honour on which an army is founded," he said. "The very idea that an army could pay the people it is meant to fight would obviously be a very bad sign. It would be a sign that we were not able to carry out our mission," he added.

Britain's The Times newspaper reported on Thursday that Italian secret service paid ten thousand of dollars to insurgents to keep the Sarobi area east of Kabul quiet while Italian forces were stationed there. The report cited unidentified Western military officials.

Italy's Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa called the report "garbage" and "offensive" and said he had ordered staff to prepare a lawsuit against The Times. Italy also denied the Times' report that the US ambassador had submitted a formal complaint after discovering through intercepted phone conversations that Italians had been buying off militants in the far-west Herat province.

France/Terrorism: bomb alert breaks the subway traffic of Paris

Several lines of the subway have not stopped at the Opera Station this Thursday morning because of a bomb alert in the subway of Paris. According to the police, authorities received a threatening phone call earlier and decided to close the metro station. The alert ended at 9:30 am (local time) but no explosive device were found.

This threat came two days after the French appeals Court of Paris has confirmed late on Tuesday the life jail sentence for Rachid Ramda convicted of helping fund and organize the deadly terrorist attack that targeted the metro stations of Saint Michel, Maison Blanche and Musée d’Orsay respectively on July 25 and October 6 and 17, 1995 in Paris.

France/Justice: life jail sentence confirmed for Rachid Ramda

The French appeals Court of Paris has confirmed late on Tuesday the life jail sentence for Rachid Ramda, an Algerian national, convicted of helping fund and organize the deadly terrorist attack in the French capital in 1995. The man had already been sentenced to a life prison on October 26, 2007 after he was extradited from the United Kingdom to France but he appealed the decision, claiming he was innocent. The nine judges have followed the summing-up for the prosecution specifying “he was found guilty of complicity and attempted murder by order, help and support for terrorist attacks”.

Bomb attacks  had targeted the metro stations of Saint Michel, Maison Blanche and Musée d’Orsay respectively on July 25 and October 6 and 17 in Paris. The explosion had made 8 killed and about 200 wounded.

France/Somalia/Piracy: French troops on tuna ship fight Indian Ocean pirates

French military spokesman Christophie Prazuck said French marines deployed on a tuna fleet off the Seychelles fired at suspected Somali pirates on Tuesday. He said small boats carrying what appeared to be Somali pirates chased two French tuna fishing ships some 370 km north of the Seychelles.

"The troops fired a type of flare to show the pirates that the ships were protected. As they continued to come closer, the soldiers fired warning shots in front of the boats of the pirates, who turned back and stopped the attack," Prazuck said.

In a separate incident on Saturday French troops fired at pirates to protect two tuna ships some 350 km off the Seychelles. One of the fishing boats involved in Saturday's incident — the Drennec — had already escaped a rocket attack by pirates in September 2008, an event that led the fishing industry to ask for military protection. The two tuna trawlers, the Drennec and Glenan, were heading toward the Seychelles islands after a fishing trip when they were attacked. The pirates, in two skiffs, approached at sunrise, when they were about 300 kilometers north of the Seychelles.

France/Civil unrest: 8 people sentenced to jail following the clashes in Poitiers

Three demonstrators who have taken part to the clashes in the city of Poitiers (in the Poitou-Charentes region, west of France) on Saturday have been sentenced to two or four months in jail after appearing before a judge on Monday evening. Five other people have been given suspended sentences. According to the counsel for the defence, it is a "travesty of a trial". “the thieves of apples have been arrested but not the leaders,” she said

According to the police, at least 250 masked people linked to an anti-prison association protested on Saturday against the building of a new prison in Vivonne, nearby Poitiers. They destroyed shop windows, bus stops and telephone booths. Bernard Thomasini, Poitou-Charentes’ prefect, said they were organised as commandos, adding that several arms caches had been found in the centre of the city.

“The demonstrators of Poitiers were coming from the Great West, Brittany, and Bordeaux. There was even a Welshman,” said a local official. According to a police source who asked to remain anonymous, the demonstrators were from “some protesters' circles” in the universities of Toulouse and Rennes, Nantes and Grenoble. “They take their lead from the German black blocs, as if the movement of April in Strasbourg began to spread in France,” he worried.

France/Civil unrest: 7 people to appear before judge after clashes in Poitiers

Seven people out of the seventeen detained in police custody after the clashes on Saturday in Poitiers (in the Poitou-Charentes region, west of France) will appear before a Judge this Monday. The French Interior Minister, Brice Hortefeux is also expected in the city where he could meet the victims of the violence.  Three people are charged with “assaulting with arms against police officers”, and two others are charged with “possession, shipping and transport of unexplosive fireworks”. All of them are also charged with “degradation of public property by dangerous means”.

According to the police, at least 250 masked people linked to an anti-prison association protested on Saturday against the building of a new prison in Vivonne, nearby Poitiers. They destroyed shop windows, bus stops and telephone booths. “It is true that people coming from all of France and even from foreign countries had been on the area of Poitiers for a few days. They belonged to an anarchist movement. But we had never thought they were organised as well,” said Olivier Bourdin from a police trade union. Bernard Thomasini, Poitou-Charentes’ prefect, said they were organised as commandos, adding as a proof that several arms caches had been found in the centre of the city.

France/Terrorism: police arrests 2 ETA suspected members

Lurgi Mendinueta and Joanes Larretxea, two suspected members of the terrorist organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) have been arrested on Sunday in the city of Rivières (45 km north of Nîmes in the Gard region, South of France). The two men have been arrested as they were driving a car till a possible arm cache. Police indeed seized guns, twelve detonators and bottles with unidentified liquid as well as false identity paper. Both have been placed in police custody in the southern city of Montpellier. Iurgi Mendinueta Mintegui was responsible to welcome the ETA members in France while Joanes Larretxea Mendiola is suspected to be linked to the terrorist attack in Spain in July.

On Saturday, Ibai Suescun, another suspected “Eterras”, surrendered in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques region (bordering Spain). According to the police, the 29 years-old man was coming from the Spanish city of Pampelune, 20 km south of the French border. Meanwhile, Spanish police also found an arm caches belonging to the ETA in the south-eastern region of Alicante.

France/Terrorism: 2 radical Muslims arrested near Lyon

Two radical Muslims brothers closed to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have been arrested on Thursday in Vienne, 30 km south of Lyon, in the southern Isère region of France. The identities of the two brothers have not been revealed by the authorities but they could be French nationals from Algerian origins.

They have been arrested under an investigation led by the antiterrorist Judge Christophe Teissier who opened a judicial information in September 2009. they are accused of "criminal association linked to a terrorist organisation". According to the French newspaper Le Progres, the Judge has been leading an investigation for several months about a French-Belgian terrorist network that was trying to hire Islamist fighters across Europe.

“The investigation will probably say what were the goals of these people in France or elsewhere and will indicate that, maybe, we have avoided the worst,” said yesterday Brice Hortefeux,  the Interior French Minister. “We are experiencing continued vigilance; we follow closely the daily statements of some terrorist organizations officials. Our vigilance never goes down. The risk is permanent,” he explained refusing to give further details about a possible terrorist attack in France. However, he underlined that some responsible of terrorist organizations “have spoken publicly” by targeting France.

France/Terrorism: a terrorist arrested earlier is a nuclear researcher

The French daily newspaper Le Figaro has revealed today that one of the two suspected terrorist arrested earlier yesterday in Vienne (South of France) was a researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. He could have passed on noticeable intelligence to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) about possible targets in France.

What appeared to be significant, both the two terrorists arrested, were high profile from Algerian origin, including one who worked for a research centre. “They are not simple delinquents, hired in a suburb and suffering of lack of integration or unemployment,” said an Intelligence specialist.

The two suspects are under detention in the buildings of the Central Directorate of Home intelligence (Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur – DCRI) in Levalois-Perret (an outskirt of Paris). According to a first investigation, the older brother could have tried to perpetrate terrorist attacks in France. Police have indeed intercepted emails with people suspected to be linked to the AQIM. More over, his university degree and his high level of thinking indicate he was not dreaming but instead, he intended to commit real attack.

Speaking yesterday about that arrest, Brice Hortefeux, the Interior French Minister said “the investigation will probably say what were the goals of these people in France or elsewhere and will indicate that, maybe, we have avoided the worst.” He also underlined that France “is experiencing continued vigilance” because the country is under “a permanent risk”.

Laurent Murawiec passed away on October 7

We just learned that Laurent Murawiec passed away, on October 7, 2009, aged 58. Laurent was a friend of ESISC. He was also a brilliant and innovative thinker who specialized, years ago, in strategic studies.

He was an adviser to to the French Ministry of Defense and a teacher at the prestigious Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), in Paris, before moving to the United States where he joined the Rand Corporation as a senior international policy analyst.

He had to leave his position at Rand after having publicly denounced the links between Saudi Arabia and Islamic Terrorism and joined the Hudson Institute as a Senior Fellow.

He was considered as a key thinker in the neoconservative circles.

Laurent who spoked at least 5 languages - left hundreds of articles and op-ed, and a dozen of books published in French and English.

The intellectual was an unconventional and disturbing thinker. The man was attentive to others. The friend was generous, funny and eager for supporting those who needed it.

At the very beginning of ESISC, in 2002, and in the following years, he was instrumental in introducing us in the intellectual, political and military circles in Washington. 

In his intellectual and professional life, Laurent Murawiec won a lot of battles and was never afraid to enter a new one.

Unfortunately, he didn’t win the battle he had to fight against cancer.

ESISC mourns Laurent Murawiec with all his friends around the world.