French suspect showed no sign of militant leanings

http://news.yahoo.com/french-suspect...174820686.html

French suspect showed no sign of militant leanings

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/kjm...p_logo_106.pngBy THOMAS ADAMSON | Associated Press – 37 mins ago


PARIS (AP) — Just a few weeks ago, Mohamed Merah partied at a nightclub, and an acquaintance noticed nothing out of the ordinary about the former car body shop worker who another friend said liked to talk about "cars, bikes, girls and sport."
On Wednesday, they both stood stunned near a huge police cordon in a blue-collar neighborhood in the southwestern city of Toulouse where negotiators were trying to get Merah to surrender.
The 24-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent was holed up in his apartment after exchanging gunfire with police and suspected of killing three Jewish children, a rabbi and three paratroopers in a wave of attacks in southern France.
Prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters that Merah was a self-taught Salafi who had been to Afghanistan twice and had trained in the Pakistani militant stronghold of Waziristan. He also had a long criminal record, the prosecutor said, adding that the suspected gunman's brother had been implicated in a 2007 network that sent militant fighters to Iraq.
But according to acquaintance, Mehdi Nedder, nothing about Merah's social life in Toulouse before the French attacks made him stand out as a radical bent on sowing terror — or even that he had radical leanings.
Nedder, 31, described Merah as a "normal young man."
"Three weeks ago he was in at a nightclub," Nedder said in an interview. "And this morning I hear we're talking about al-Qaida. How can you change like that in three weeks?"
A friend of Merah's who would only identify himself by his first name, Kamel, recalled playing soccer with him as the two grew up in Toulouse.
"(He) was respectful and generous," said Kamel, 24. "We never spoke about weapons, religion or politics, but cars, bikes, girls and sport."
Police brought Mehdi's mother to the standoff scene to try to get her to negotiate Wednesday with her son, but she declined, saying she had no control over him, French authorities said.
As a teenager, Merah got caught up in petty crime, some of it involving violence, said his lawyer, Christian Etelin. But Etelin told BFM TV the recent wave of deadly shooting attacks didn't fit the profile of the suspect he first represented in 2004.
"He was a polite and courteous boy" who used to work in a body shop, Etelin said.
However, Etelin also said he was aware that Merah had been monitored by authorities after he made a visit to Afghanistan two years ago.
Western officials have been concerned for years about Muslim militants with European citizenship visiting northwestern Pakistan, possibly training for missions that could include terror attacks in Europe. In 2010 alone, dozens were believed to be there.
French authorities did not say whether they were aware that Merah had been training with militants before the attacks in France that began March 11 — or if they learned of the training after they closed in on him.
A person of the same name was arrested in southern Afghanistan five years ago and escaped from his prison cell in Kandahar province in a 2008 mass Taliban jailbreak, according to Kandahar provincial spokesman Ahmad Jawed Faisal. However, Faisal says their records also show that Merah was an Afghan citizen from Kandahar province.
In neighboring Germany, which regularly tracks extremists who head to Afghanistan or Pakistan for paramilitary training, a senior intelligence official said that he had never seen Merah's name come up. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue with the media.
American officials have been kept in close contact with French authorities as the killings of soldiers and Wednesday's standoff evolved, and are now "working to determine what the suspect's ties to al-Qaida might be," a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
British officials want to know whether Merah "had any links that could present threats to (Britain's) national security," said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his job.
"Another question will be if he was simply affiliated with a group, or whether someone in a group was giving him specific instructions," the British offical said. "At this stage, that doesn't appear to be the case but it's still in early days."
____
Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier, David Rising and Paisley Dodds contributed from Washington, Berlin and London.

i hope stavros,prospero and the gang jump on a plane to save the poor unfortunate lol:praying::praying::praying::praying:

Much as I like Toulouse, I think the professionals know what they are doing and why would I want to save a killer like that? Do you ever actually read my posts?

Still closing in.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/fr...055423403.html

French police close in on suspect in Toulouse school killings

http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/jxQ...all_224930.pnghttp://l.yimg.com/os/mit/media/m/bas...rent-95031.pngBy Laura Rozen
Senior Foreign Affairs Reporter






Elite French counter-terrorism police were closing in Wednesday to arrest a suspect in the killing this week of three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in the southwestern city of Toulouse, France. The suspect in the attacks was identified as a 23-year-old Frenchman from Toulouse of Algerian descent named Mohammed Merah. He has reportedly traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan, served jail time in France from 2007-2009 for non-terrorism related offenses, and allegedly has proclaimed ties to al-Qaida. Police earlier Wednesday arrested the man's brother, whose computer IP address was reportedly used to answer an ad for a motorbike for sale by one of three French soldiers shot last week.

The suspect's mother has been brought to the scene to try to assist police in persuading her son to surrender. France's Interior Minister Claude Guéant also arrived on the scene, outside a residential building in the northern Toulouse neighborhood of Croix-Daurade.
Mareh has barricaded himself in the building, which the police were surrounding after a thirteen-hour standoff, as French officials addressed the media nearby.
Earlier Wednesday, two French police officers were wounded in a shoot out with the suspect, MSNBC reported. The operation to try to take Mareh into custody has been broadcast live on French television all day.
French news channel BFM TV reported that Merah "was linked to Forsane Alizza (Knights of Pride), an Islamist group banned last month in France," the BBC reported. "From a family of five children, the suspect is a mechanic by trade, according to Le Point."
A man claiming to be the gunman called French broadcaster France 24 Wednesday saying he had filmed the killings and would post the videos online, the broadcaster said.


The same .45 caliber gun has reportedly been used in three separate shooting incidents over the past nine days, resulting in seven deaths in the Toulouse area. Those killed include four people at the Jewish school this week, as well as three French troops of North African and Caribbean descent, who were killed in two separate incidents last week. The victims were shot in the head by a gunman riding a black Yamaha scooter, reports said.
The chief suspect is said to have cited the death of Palestinian children as the reason for the attacks, and to have targeted the French troops of North African descent (like himself) because he considered them traitors. French police allegedly tracked him based on recent emails inquiring about the sale of the motorbike.
Killed in the attacks on Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse Monday were Jonathan Sandler, a rabbi and teacher at the school, his two sons, Gabriel and Arieh, ages 3 and 6, and Miriam Monsonego, the 7-year-old daughter of the school principal. A fifth person, a 17-year-old boy, was also wounded in the attack.
Those killed at the Toulouse Jewish school, who had dual French-Israeli nationality, were buried in Israel Wednesday. Their bodies were flown to Israel from France Wednesday, accompanied by their relatives and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe.
The French embassy in Washington will give those who wish to sign a book of condolences over the Toulouse tragedy an opportunity to do so on Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.


http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/jNl...oulouse321.jpg


http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editor...822dd212c.jpeg


http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/E.p...ouseafp630.jpg

A convoy carried coffins from the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse, France March 20, 2012. (Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty …

Mohammed Merah killed by French Police Sniper fire.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/fr...133538199.html

So... Was that the plan?

i suppose the guy will be made a saint by the muslims

In Aftermath of Shootings, Sarkozy Is Seizing the Moment http://news.yahoo.com/aftermath-shoo...191724539.html

France is sitting on a time bomb and so are large parts of Europe

Russtafa wrote: "i hope stavros,prospero and the gang jump on a plane to save the poor unfortunate lol
__________________ It seems in his book that a man murdering Afghan women and children in their beds in Afghanistan is fine but a similar crime in Europe is not. BOTH are 100 per cent wrong Russ - old chap. Your hate blinds you. You really are such a simple minded man.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Prospero

Russtafa wrote: "i hope stavros,prospero and the gang jump on a plane to save the poor unfortunate lol
__________________ It seems in his book that a man murdering Afghan women and children in their beds in Afghanistan is fine but a similar crime in Europe is not. BOTH are 100 per cent wrong Russ - old chap. Your hate blinds you. You really are such a simple minded man.

---

you really are such weak man no heart =i'm coming over to your place on holiday and chuck you out in the street and i reckon you would not stop me yah pussy .i don':rolleyes:t think you have any balls yah girl.if you rocked up to my door i would be calling an ambulance for you as a good christian

i am still waiting for Europe to go up like a bomb with it's huge muslim populations= time will tell !

Time has already told. One of bin Laden's aims with his 'spectacular' events was to galvanise the Muslim populations of Europe and North America, 'dazzled' by what bin Laden believed his style of politics could achieve. What did it achieve? Nothing.

Al-Qaeda as an organisation was split between those who were opposed to activities outside the Muslim world, and those who wanted it to go international; the 'base of the base' in Afghanistan was dispersed, further weakening the organisation. In Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East, including in Iran, 9/11 was condemned. As an advertisement for Islam, it was as disastrous as the hijacking in the 1970s by Palestinian fringe groups proved disastrous at the time for the Palestinian cause.

The Provisional IRA had already shown that even though they did find willing recruits for a campaign of violence in the 1970s and 1980s, they never found enough, because in Ireland the majority of the population, north and south of the border, Catholic and Protestant, rejected precisely the kind of political violence advocated by the various forms the IRA has taken since it was officially banned by the Dublin govt in 1936.

Yes, there have been a few Muslims who took up the cause in Europe and North America. For the most part they were amateur outfits without access to the cash and communications networks bin Laden has used, which collapsed after 9/11; and yes there will be the odd nutcase or cell who thinks shooting people dead or putting a bomb in a disco is an achievement.

Russtafa, Musstafa, if this explosion of violence was going to happen on the scale you dream about, it would have happened already. Muslims reject it, they don't want to be a part of it, all you need to do is accept it and move on. Toulouse proves how feeble the organisation is, even if it is a gim reminded that one man and a gun can cause immense damage and heartache.

Threatening Prospero is childish from a man of your age.

Russtafa - your remarks are just pathetic and beneath contempt. Grow a brain.

Who decides what's hateful or terror related?
http://www.rt.com/news/merah-sarkozy...-toulouse-200/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dino Velvet

Who decides what's hateful or terror related?
http://www.rt.com/news/merah-sarkozy...-toulouse-200/

---

Governments do -with the obvious problem that Government A will place Group X on its list of Terrorist groups, while Government B does not, and Government C either overtly or covertly funds the same group. Hate is possibly even more elusive than terrorism as a category, given that there are some social scientists who don't think terrrorism exists, and class what most people call terrorists, as soldiers engaged in a war of their own invention. But hate...that is a tough one, what a fundamentalist Christian thinks is hate might be rational to an atheist and so on. How Sarkozy could even implement such a 'law' I dont know, it could just be knee-jerk reaction, as happens when some nutter kills someone and claims he was inspired by a video game and people then want to ban video games.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Stavros

Governments do -with the obvious problem that Government A will place Group X on its list of Terrorist groups, while Government B does not, and Government C either overtly or covertly funds the same group. Hate is possibly even more elusive than terrorism as a category, given that there are some social scientists who don't think terrrorism exists, and class what most people call terrorists, as soldiers engaged in a war of their own invention. But hate...that is a tough one, what a fundamentalist Christian thinks is hate might be rational to an atheist and so on. How Sarkozy could even implement such a 'law' I dont know, it could just be knee-jerk reaction, as happens when some nutter kills someone and claims he was inspired by a video game and people then want to ban video games.

---

Possibly could depend on the ideology of the man/woman in charge deciding what is hateful or threatening to the people or they themselves. Controversy and free thought can be corralled as hateful or insane.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dino Velvet

Who decides what's hateful or terror related?

---

two words: jack bauer

stavros get that place cleaned up for me and your stuff packed for when i move in

stavros talks pussy shit. Every time there is a terrorist plot in Europe is proof things are not right and i think there would be plenty of them

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by buttslinger

two words: jack bauer

---

In 24, some of the Presidents thought Bauer was a Patriotic Hero and others were trying to arrest and silence him. All Presidents of the same country.

http://www.solosubtitulos.com/upload...nes/24.s02.jpg

http://www.24spoilers.com/wp-content..._Sc22_0446.jpg

I read in a Hermann Hesse story about Germany in the early twentieth century. They were quizzical about a nation run by a "civil servant" Back then the Mayor or King or whatever was like a Father figure to the village or country. Lots has changed in the last hundred years. I went to France once. The waiter was rude.

things are going to get very nasty in the times to come in Europe what ever stavros and his friends of islam believe

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by russtafa

things are going to get very nasty in the times to come in Europe what ever stavros and his friends of islam believe

---

FFS Russ, taking a balanced or let's say "tolerant" view doesn't make you a card-carrying fellow traveller. Australia is depressingly racist, not so much towards people beyond its borders, but it's still certainly the case with regard to their own indigenous people - as you yourself have voiced often enough.

Your view of the UK and Europe is a ludicrous caricature.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by robertlouis

FFS Russ, taking a balanced or let's say "tolerant" view doesn't make you a card-carrying fellow traveller. Australia is depressingly racist, not so much towards people beyond its borders, but it's still certainly the case with regard to their own indigenous people - as you yourself have voiced often enough.

Your view of the UK and Europe is a ludicrous caricature.

---

try living in their areas and you will find out about racism i' am sure they will make an English boy like you very,very welcome Robert i have seen what happens to naive backpackers in kings Cross lol and calling me a racist and then calling the police=priceless

i would love to know how many terrorist cells are operating in Europe and how many mosques are spreading the holly jihad =more than one?