French arrest nuclear physicist connected to Al Qaeda (AQiLIM)

BBC News reports that French authorities have arrested a French nuclear physicist of Algerian descent on charges of “criminal association with a terrorist enterprise.”

He was workng at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern), “Europe’s main centre for the study of atomic physics…at the Cern laboratory which houses the giant Large Hadron Collider.”

Authorities have been quick to emphasize that his work “did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism.”

Officials noted that he had not been at work for most of the year, claiming illness, but he was in contact via email.

[J]udicial sources told the AFP news agency that agents had come across him during a separate inquiry into the recruitment of would-be Islamist militants who wanted to fight in Afghanistan.The physicist had exchanged messages over the internet with people known to be close to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [AQiLIM] and expressed a desire to carry out attacks, but had “not got to the stage of carrying out material acts of preparation”, one said.

For more on al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb [AQiLIM] click here.

Uighurs don’t make headlines in the Middle East.

Go figure. Does the Arab media think the Muslim Uighurs aren’t Muslim enough? Maybe; after all, the Saudi Arab Times did distinguish them as “co-religionists.” Maybe we’re seeing some Anti-Asian bias?

Or maybe, as the Time article suggests, state-sponsored publications don’t want to focus on it because of political, economic, or trade interests:

According to U.S. government statistics, China is both Iran and Sudan’s biggest trade partner, and either the main or secondary source of imports for most of the other countries in the region.

This is not to say that some of the radicals in the region haven’t noticed. This week,  “al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb this week called for attacks on Han Chinese in North Africa in retaliation for Muslim deaths.”

I’d be interested to see how this develops. Will al Qaeda and other militant groups turn their sights to China and start recruiting Uighurs en masse into their training camps (if they haven’t already)? The Chinese don’t mess around when it comes to terrorists. Or pirates, for that matter.  I have a feeling it’ll get really ugly (and hopefully entertaining).

More on al Qaeda affiliate AQLIM

Another interesting article on the increased wingspan of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQLIM or AQIM).

“Al Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa has carried out a string of slayings, bombings and other lethal attacks against Westerners and African security forces in recent weeks that have raised fears the terrorist group may be turning a more deadly corner.”

Al Qaeda: terrorism’s equivalent of a fast food franchise!

AP (via MSNBC) reports that Al Qaeda continues to form allegiances with homegrown groups sharing similar goals e.g. the al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM or AQLIM) in Algeria. Put simply, Al Qaeda trains them and lends them their brand name, and in return the ubiquitous group gets more members at their disposal and a greater reach across areas like northern and western Africa and Europe.

Note: some of you might remember that AQLIM was the group whose training camp was decimated by the bubonic plague this past January. Click here for my post.

Ironic that their business model is based on one of the Western concepts they most despise.  One could argue the joke is meant to be on us, but I thought the point was to find culturally non-Western, Islamic ways of doing things and prove they work better than Western concepts? What do I know, I’m just an infidel.

Algerian al Qaeda killed by bubonic plague

The UK Sun reports that 40 members of a branch of al Qaeda training in Algers were killed by the bubonic plague (this blogger will resist the temptation to editorialize about any ironies here).

The terrorist group thought to be affected is “the AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East…it trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.”

The plague epidemic “began in the cave hideouts of AQLIM in Tizi Ouzou province, 150km east of the capital Algiers. The group, led by wanted terror boss Abdelmalek Droudkal, was forced to turn its shelters in the Yakouren forest into mass graves and flee.” The disease apparently spread through more insurgents “training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.”

I was looking for other news organizations reporting this story but couldn’t find any, apart from the Times of India which picked up the Sun’s story. I wonder who The Sun’s source is.

H/T to rhetorican.com for the tip and click here for full article.