French Riots: Opportunistic Jihad After Happenstance Electrocution?

The actual genesis of "insurgent activity" in France was almost certainly happenstance. The initial rioting was just rioting, par for the course in France, which is still pretty proud about the Reign of Terror, after all.

But... just because it started as happenstance doesn't mean there's not enemy action behind its continuation and intensification.

Captain's Quarters quotes a report from September 27, 2005:

An Algerian Islamist organisation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), has issued a call for action against France which it describes as "enemy number one", intelligence officials said Tuesday. "The only way to teach France to behave is jihad and the Islamic martyr," the group's leader Abu Mossab Abdelwadoud, also own as Abdelmalek Dourkdal, was quoted as saying in an Internet message earlier this month.

"France is our enemy number one, the enemy of our religion, the enemy of our community," he was quoted as saying. ... Interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that the risk of terrorist attack in France is "at a very high level... There are cells operating on our territory."

Man, this joke gets old, but I'll repeat it anyway: It must be because of all those French troops in Iraq.

CQ muses:

The "riots' have sophisticated coordination between cell leaders, using the Internet and instant messaging as well as cell phones -- an odd tool for a spontaneous demonstration where one neighborhood would hardly have those phone numbers at the ready.

posted by Ace at 03:51 PM

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