#34 France not Immune to Al-Qaeda

The ever presumptuous French President Chirac has countless times stressed the point that the French are good friends of the Arab and Muslim world, that they strongly opposed the invasion of Iraq and will do everything possible to avert the escalation of the US-Iran conflict, to the point of practically siding with the Iranians. These standpoints would make it clear that France should and could never be a target of Muslim extremists. Well, dear old Chirac has clearly misunderstood the threat of such extremism and his policies have been downright foolish.

Just last Friday the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat reported on a French intelligence report that stated France is being targeted by al-Qaeda. The report warned decision makers of a series of scenarios, including a terror attack which will take place ahead of the presidential elections in a bid to influence their results. In order to illustrate that the intelligence report was not based on thin air, a handwritten letter signed by Osama bin Laden was published, which instructed a radical Islamic organization in Algeria to "attack in eastern and southern France." The idea is reminiscent of the Madrid bombing in March 2004, which led to the election of Prime Minister Zapatero and the immediate withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq.

The intelligence information further points to the fact that one of the close assistants of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, confessed during an interrogation by the Iraqi intelligence that about 30 radical Islamic Moroccans carrying a European passport have secretly infiltrated France and several French-speaking countries in Africa in a bid to prepare terror attacks.

Once again it seems that we have to learn the hard way that appeasement really is not an option when dealing with certain types. History should have taught us this already, but with characters like Chirac, the French will possibly have to experience this first hand. France has made a noble and becoming effort to distinguish between Islamic terrorists and Islam as a whole, but the great Satan of the Islamic terrorists, President Bush, has done the same. The problem with France is that they have tried so hard to make this point, that the concept of Islamic terrorism has practically become imponderable in the French psyche. Granted, they do occasionally act on excessive incitement as in the case of the deportation of Imam Abdelkader Bouziane, but these incidents are always seen as a case in point. The idea that France could be a target of a larger international organisation that the country has not waged a war on, is unfathomable. The problem with the US, on the other hand, is that they have been poorly able to get their true intention and standpoint across to the Muslim world.

France will have to change its position if it is to retain any form of independence and not allow itself to be at the whim of terrorist petition the way the Spanish did. This means not having the knee-jerk reaction of opposing every activity and suggestion of the Americans in regard to the Middle East. This also means adopting a more critical standpoint when dealing with rogue states and organizations such as Iran and Hezbollah. Only by taking a clear and especially unbiased position on global issues can France be a worthy opponent of foreign and homegrown threats. Not through appeasement and not by "befriending" the enemy, as the intelligence report clearly shows.