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August 18, 2006
France: Fake Islamist Threatens Paris Tourists
News from Agence France Presse via Expatica states that yesterday, a youth was arrested after he had threatened tourists from the Arc de Triomphe (pictured) with what appeared to be a gun. He had climbed to the top of the massive monument at the upper end of the Champs Elysées, and pointed his "gun" at tourists.
Though situated within a busy traffic roundabout, the arch is a popular tourist site, visited by more than a million people per year, and has some remarkable sculpture adorning it. The arch was commissioned in 1806, and beneath it lies France's tomb of the unknown soldier. A spiral staircase allows people to climb to the top to admire the view, or to intimidate tourists.
The gun was a compressed air pistol. The youth had scrawled on his T-shirt and on his upper body the words "revendication Al-qaeda" - "in the name of Al Qaeda." He waved the pistol at people who were also on the top of the monument, and at one stage fired into the air.
Though described as a "toy", air pistols at close range can be dangerous. Police arrived, and overpowered the youth.
His ethnic identity was not mentioned in the report, but he is said to come from a northern Paris suburb. It was within the northern suburbs that Muslim rioting took place last year from October to November.
The youth was said to be aged 17, and with no previous criminal record. He is currently in a psychiatric ward, undergoing evaluation of his mental state.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at August 18, 2006 11:02 AM
Comments
Giraldus,
Apart from yourself - in response to mine, yesterday - I'm the only person I've known to post comments here :-).
Anyway, I've been to the top of the Arc a couple of times (also to the top of the Eiffel Tower in the days when it was allowed). I fear I may have thrown this moron off, had I been there during this incident. I doubt if I would have faced charges. To the contrary.
To the real purpose for this post: I think JihadWatch is either 1/-drawing increased audience and needs equipment beefing up (I would contribute a small amount - I don't have much in the first place, but could always manage a little in a good cause)or 2/-is under a denial of service, or some other form of, attack.
Current problems with the site only started in the past couple of days, and moslems are known to attack sites (and, frankly, anything else non-moslem that does or doesn't move).
Is there any way of checking this out and getting some information posted? It's getting very frustrating.
Personal: my dad was a Welsh speaker as his first language all his life. I've been away too long (mostly military)and have lost the iaeth I once had, but my sister is fluent (she still lives in Anglesey) as is the rest of my wider family - over 150 of them in a few square miles of Anglesey. When I was young - up into my twenties - I knew plenty of old people who couldn't speak English, and to me growing up, even English people were rare enough to be rather exotic. It was a wonderfully innocent existence.
I never even saw a non-Welsh or -English person until I was fourteen; he was a Sikh door-to-door salesman carrying a huge brown suitcase full of goods, who used to go door to door every six months. We kids used to hide from him out of fear, but felt compelled to keep him under observation out of sheer fascination. If only ... never mind, that world's gone now, forever. Hwyl.
Posted by: Sir Henry Morgan ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.westernresistance.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 18, 2006 3:29 PM
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