Today's NY Times:

March 3, 2004
Bizarre Blackmail Plot in France Is Disclosed
By ELAINE SCIOLINO

PARIS, March 3 — In a bizarre blackmail plot against the French state, an unknown terrorist entity has threatened to explode bombs throughout the French railway system unless it is paid more than $5 million, the Interior Ministry said today.

The threats were made in a series of letters sent since mid-December to both President Jacques Chirac of France and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, a noted law-and-order official.

Interior Ministry officials disclosed today that 11 days ago the police discovered and detonated one bomb, a relatively sophisticated 4.4-pound device made with ammonium nitrate. A detonator and timing system were set in a round white Tupperware-like container.

The device was found under a railway track near the central French town of Tolles, near Limoges, which is 220 miles south of Paris.

French investigators have ruled out the possibility of international terrorism by a radical Islamic or Chechen group, for example, but have not explained why, a senior official involved in the investigation said in a telephone interview.

The letters were signed with the initials "AZF," a signature that has mystified investigators, who do not even know whether an individual or a group is blackmailing the state.

One of the letters claims that 10 bombs have been laid along the French railway system, and the police confirmed that they are searching for other devices.

The episode has traumatized the French government, the state-run railway system and the police, and senior intelligence and police officials have characterized the plot as extremely serious.

The Interior Ministry was so intent on keeping the investigation secret that on Tuesday it took the highly unusual step of sending faxes to news organizations announcing that the investigation was under way and asking for a complete press blackout.

After the daily newspaper La Dépêche du Midi broke the embargo today, the government was forced to go public.

I was not aware of that. I ll watch the news in 10 minutes and give you more infos about it (if I get some). [img]smile.gif[/img]

heard about it. Jesus, its crazy, terrorists will do anything these days! Do u think the French will pay? On the radio they didnt make it clear that a device was found, so I suppose if they have one (cant they dissarm it) then the French will have to pay, for safetys sake.

Everything is correct. French Railroad Company is under high alert. They're looking for the other bombs.
Funny stuff : French govt. has been talking with the black-mailer through newspaper with coded messages.

so what do you think the French Government will do? I think if they hand over the money they will still try and nail the guys, they will catch up with them somehow.

I don't think these are terrorists. More like a couple of guys trying to make some fast cash. If it were terrorists, there wouldn't have been any contact, just a very loud bang.

They'll surrender [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Seriously, though, I think the term "terrorist" is overused. Johnny is right (Is this in the Book of Revelations? "The end is nigh when the Lady of Light accuses The Great Imbiber of being right; and lo, the Four Horsemen will ride within the week") here. Terrorists don't "warn" people. Maybe in urban legends they do ("I helped him carry my groceries and he told me to stay away from the city on September 11th")... What BS. They're not terrorists, they're criminals. There's a difference.

[ 03-03-2004, 04:04 PM: Message edited by: Illumina Drathiran'ar ]

The terrorist label will continue to be used to describe any sort of undesireable that a given government wants to deal with harshly and not be condemned by other nations. Handy term actually.


Mark

So is fascist for the flip side of the argument. ;)

With the Interior Minister we currently have, there is NO WAY in hell that govt. pay anything to anyone. They will just chase the guys down and beat the crap out of them.
And this even if it makes some bombs explode, govt don't wanna loose its credibility, especially during these "war on terrorism" times.

That heartens me Masklinn. At least your government has finally learned that appeasment doesn't work. That it is only a stop gap measure that usually encourages friskey behavior later.

Is it just me, or does Masklinn's baby dragon look like it's trying to cop a feel? :D

It's just you Timber.... just you and your wild imagination. :D

Hehe ... I admit to having a prurient imagination.

I think the French government should "smoke 'em out" and tell them to "bring it on." [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img]

<font color = lightgreen>What an interesting case; I'll have to follow this one.

Of course it can't be terrorists, because terrorists claim responsibility after a bomb has exploded.
The demand for $5 million is a smokescreen. Any person or group who can successfully plant a dozen (so they claim) "relatively sophisticated" 2-kg ammonium nitrate devices just wants to see if they can do it; they are more interested in outwitting the government than money, or they would have demanded a bigger ransom. Besides, the bomb planters know (or should know) that the French government will have a way of tracking the money no matter where they go or what they do with it, so being given a case full of money is useless.
"AZF" is probably also nothing. Either 1) the letters mean something only to those who planted the devices (an inside joke) or 2) they were chosen at random. If, as in the previous paragraph, these people want to see if they can get away with something they would have given their group's full name, to maximize potential publicity.</font>

Actually, AZF DOES mean something. It's the name of a chemical plant (i think)in Toulouse, which exploded and killed more than 20 people. It could have something to do with that. If your French isn't too rusty, read this.

I don't believe that's from Revelations, sounds more like Nastrodamus (sp?) Revelations just says there are four riders, they will ride and these are the things they'll do (paraphased by me).

Wrong, John D Harris.
There are 5 riders. Add up chaos.
He left before they became important, though. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

There is still a chance that that criminals are in fact terorrists.
Not sane ones, but... who knows? [img]smile.gif[/img]

you maybe right about there being 5 in total, I was thunking of the four, that are listed together, commonly called the four horsemen of the apocalpse(SP?)

<font color = lightgreen>Ah. Some form of ecoterrorism combined with moral outrage. I missed that one. [img]graemlins/petard.gif[/img] Still, planting explosive devices does fall outside the normal range of action taken by ecoterrorists. Oh, well...let's just hope no one gets seriously hurt.</font>