March 16, 2004

Report: Islamist Letter Threatens France with Terror

A letter from an Islamist group threatens to plunge France into "terror and remorse," the newspaper that received the letter said Tuesday.

The letter linked the threat to the French ban on headscarves in state schools, the deputy editor of daily Le Parisien Jacques Esperandieu told Reuters.

The letter was signed by a group calling itself the Movsar Barayev Commando, the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

That appeared to be a reference to Movsar Barayev, who organized the October 2002 Chechen commando raid and hostage-taking at a Moscow theater that ended with 129 dead. He died in the special forces raid on the theater.

Typical Al-Rooters verbiage to aver that Barayev is dead; I think he's been declared dead at least 4 times (maybe he's a cat?).
After their very fruitful subway coup d'état attack in Spain, I'm sure that Al Queda and its affiliated groups like the Chechens are anxious to see if France is as ripe for the plucking.