Extremism, Sarkozy voodoo dolls and basic human rights

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Following the extremist attacks on Mumbai from Le Figaro:

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Deux Français ont été tués dans les attaques de Bombay Two French were killed in Mumbai attacks

Le Quai d'Orsay a confirmé la mort de ce couple, qui séjournait à l'Oberoi/Trident. L'armée a repris le contrôle du centre juif de Bombay où les corps de 5 otages ont été retrouvés. Des explosions et des échanges de tirs ont encore lieu à l'hôtel Taj Mahal. Quai d'Orsay has confirmed the death of the couple who were staying at the Oberoi/Trident hotel. The army has taken control of the Jewish center of Mumbai where the bodies of 5 hostages were found. Explosions and gunshots are still heard in the Hotel Taj Mahal.

Loumia Hiridjee et son mari dînaient à l'Oberei, au moment de l'attaque. Loumia Hirdjee, a French-Indian national and founder of Princess Tam Tam lingerie, and her husband were dining at the Oberei during the attack. They had been living in Mumbai for a year doing humanitarian work.

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The Times headlines Jewish hostages killed as British terrorists linked to Bombay attacks. Pakistanis holding British citizenship have become very radical and as we all know, some have been directly linked to Al Qaeda. British laws on immigration and nationality have been considered some of the more lax in Europe when it comes to immigration which have probably allowed foreigners with extremist links to circulate freely and liberally in the UK.

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Time to rethink state policies and to formulate better strategies on dealing with extremism -- whatever the colour. Si vis pacem para bellum!
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Meanwhile, the Paris Appeals Court agrees that the Sarkozy voodoo dolls sold in the streets attack presidential dignity but rules that this attack does not justify forbidding their sale.

La poupée vaudou de Sarkozy reste dans le commerce Sarkozy voodoo dolls to remain in shops

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I don't agree with the Court of Appeals. Let's leave the presidential seal out of it and look at it from the perspective of human rights.
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No French or any human being should be deprived of his/her dignity and certainly not by a group of individuals whose objective is purely borne of malice, depravity and with serious intent to cause moral harm. By virtue of the fundamental right to dignity that each and every human being is entitled to, why should Nicolas Sarkozy be deprived of his elementary human right to dignity just because he happens to be the president of the republic? It doesn't make sense!

France nabs Basque terror chief suspect

From: Le Point: Le chef militaire présumé de l'ETA arrêté en France ETA military cell chief arrested in France.

L'opération a été menée sur commission rogatoire de la juge antiterroriste Laurence Le Vert, par des fonctionnaires de la Sous-Direction antiterroriste (SDAT), de la Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur (DCRI), de la PJ de Bayonne et du Raid. Selon une source proche du dossier, c'est un renseignement de la garde civile espagnole, transmis à la DCRI, qui a permis l'interpellation.

The operation was led on the basis of an order issued by Anti-terrorism judge Laurence Vert by members of SDAT (Counter Terrorism Sub Unit), the agents of DCRI (Interior Intelligence Central Office), the Judiciary Police unit and of Raid. According to a source who knows the file, the arrest was made on a tip received from the Spanish Guardia Civil which had been transmitted to the DCRI.

From CNN:

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Police arrested the suspected military chief of the Basque separatist group ETA in a pre-dawn raid Monday in southern France, the French interior minister announced.

Suspected ETA military chief Aspiazu is considered a Basque separatist hardliner.

The suspect, Mikel Garikoitz Aspiazu, 35, is wanted in connection with the shooting deaths of two plainclothes Spanish Civil Guards last December -- while they were on an anti-ETA investigation in France. He is thought to have been the ETA commander who trained and sent operatives to carry out attacks.

French anti-terrorism police arrested Aspiazu, alias "Txeroki," at an apartment in the Pyrenees resort village of Cauterets, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Lourdes. A woman, not immediately identified, was also detained in the raid with a warrant from French anti-terrorism judge Laurence Le Vert, CNN partner station CNN+ reported. Full story here.

Comment: I can safely say that I know the Basque regions both in France and in Spain. For years, we used to holiday in the Basque region down in the southwest of France and had made excellent friends with both French and Spanish Basques that continue to this day. We had a home in Ascain, a small village near the coastal towns of Cibourre, Biarritz and St Jean-de-Luz. The children learned to ski in the Pyrenees near Saint Nary Soulan, a few miles from world famous pilgrimage site Lourdes.

Basque terrorism (ETA) on the other side of the border (in Spain) was raging but despite the troubles in the neighbouring region of San Sebastian, there were no incidents over at our side. The French Basques were perhaps more financially at ease. They had integrated very well into the mainstream French way of life. Didier Deschamps and Bixente Lizarazu were two prominent football players who played for the French team in 1998 and became World Cup champions. Deschamps captained the team to victory.

Why a group or a handful of Basques in Spain continues to violently espouse independence thus causing havoc and misery among the otherwise peaceful population in the Spanish Basque region is beyond me. Doesn't make sense. They cannot go it alone even if they had their independence. That part of Spain is not just up to it.

Taliban at the gates of Peshawar and threatening to hit Paris

From Le Figaro:

Des officiers de la police pakistanaise sont en état d'alerte, à un croisement à Shabqadar, à 30 kilomètres au nord de Peshawar, le 12 novembre. Un attentatsuicide venait d'y faire 3 morts à l'entrée d'une école. Crédits photo : AP (On 12th November, Pakistani police were in a state of alert at the junction of Shabkadar 30 kms north of Peshawar. A suicide bombing had killed 3 people at the gates of a school.)

Refuge des habitants des zones tribales chassés par les bombardements, la capitale du Nord-Ouest frontalière de l'Afghanistan est devenue la cible des talibans pakistanais. (Refuge for tribes who were driven away by the bombings, the capital of the North-West border of Afhganistan has become the target of Pakistani Talibans.)

Comment: The Talibans should be decimated. Extremism has no place in a society that wishes to survive. They are a menace to every man, woman and child who simply want to go about living their lives.

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The bloody Talibans even had the audacity to threaten to bomb Paris if we didn't withdraw our forces from Afghanistan! Do they really want to end up like Bush?

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So they want to bring their poppy cultivating war right to our doorstep? Well, here's what... I have no doubt that President Sarkozy will follow Jacques Chirac's nuke doctrine if these Taliban weasels even if they remotely try: France will make potholes every single square foot of land these Taliban weasels inhabit!

Reuters video