"Suspected al-Qaida financier arrested in France" by Angela Charlton Associated Press / July 3, 2012
PARIS—French authorities filed preliminary terrorism charges Tuesday against a Tunisian administrator of an extremist French website who is suspected of playing a key role in financing and recruiting for al-Qaida and other violent groups.
The announcement of the suspect's arrest was unusually dramatic and public for French authorities, but it did not spell out what evidence has been culled or how much money may have been involved, or provide the man's name. It is the first publicly announced suspected terrorist arrest since President Francois Hollande took office in May....
Oh, it's to make the new guy look like he's tough in the war on terror, sigh. Some f***ing change, as we say in AmeriKa.
Prosecutors say he is suspected of acting as a financier and recruiter for an unusually broad range of terrorist groups stretching from South Asia across the Middle East to North Africa: al-Qaida, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Lebanon-based Fatah al-Islam, the Islamic State of Iraq, Tawhid al-Jihad, and Palestinian extremist group Jaish al-Islam.
Where printed paper cuts it, and where I need to go take a crap.
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What I read when I was in there:
"Ex-President Sarkozy’s home, offices searched" July 04, 2012
PARIS — French investigators searched Nicolas Sarkozy’s home and office on Tuesday as part of an investigation into suspected illegal financing of the former president’s 2007 presidential campaign by the L’Oreal cosmetics heiress, an official said.
Potential legal troubles have threatened Sarkozy since he lost the presidency to Socialist Francois Hollande in the May elections. Sarkozy, who lost his immunity from prosecution June 15, denies wrongdoing.
See: Former French Presidents
He's in trouble now. Really calls into question the close margin in the recent rigged election, cui bono? Real vote was probably 60-40.
Judge Jean-Michel Gentil and other investigators from the Paris financial crimes unit conducted Tuesday’s search of Sarkozy’s home and offices, the official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing an ongoing investigation.
Messages left with Sarkozy’s staff were not immediately returned.
The probe centers on the finances of France’s richest woman, L’Oreal cosmetics heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
A long-running family feud over her fortune ballooned in 2010 into a multilayered investigation and political affair. Allegations emerged that Bettencourt provided illegal campaign cash to Sarkozy’s party during the 2007 campaign. Sarkozy vigorously denies the claims.
The allegations struck a chord with Sarkozy’s critics, who were frustrated with his handling of the recession-hit economy and saw him as too cozy with the rich....
And that's why he barely lost?
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Also see: Air France to cut more than 5,000 jobs
France is readying for fiscal austerity
So much for the Socialist seizure of power.
Report says Strauss Kahn, wife split
What took her so long?
