French bombers 'suspend' campaign

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"while it improves its ability to carry them out."


Curious, they never hooked up the last bomb to explode.

This is game playing, perhaps trying to figure out a way
of collecting the money and not getting caught.


Earl

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French bombers 'suspend' campaign


PARIS, France (CNN) -- The shadowy group that has issued threats to bomb
France's railway system says it is suspending its terror threats while it
improves its ability to carry them out.

But a letter to President Jacques Chirac and the interior minister warns
that if the French government does not pay the $4 million the group calling
itself AZF has demanded, attacks will follow which will be worse than those
in Spain.

In excerpts from the letter published in the Paris daily newspaper Le Monde,
AZF said it was suspending its activities in order to correct "technical
problems."

The letter comes after a bomb with seven detonators was found Wednesday in
Troyes, 170 kilometers southwest of Paris, under the bed of a rail line
connecting the French capital and Basel, Switzerland.

The interior ministry said the device -- the second found in a month -- did
not resemble one left by AZF because it was much less sophisticated.

Despite the announcement of the suspension, French railway officials said
they had dispatched "thousands" of French rail workers Thursday to check the
country's tracks for bombs.

President Chirac and French Interior Minister NIcholas Sarkozy received a
one-page handwritten letter from the group which has previously made demands
of cash and threats to blow up tracks in France, but then stopped contact
with French officials.

French President Jacques Chirac also received a letter in which AZF said
"there are currently no bombs capable of functioning on the French rail
network."

"With the experience gained these last weeks and now conscious of its
technological, logistic and other weaknesses, AZF suspends its action for
the time needed to remedy this," the one-page typed letter said.

The letter carried the logo "AZF" with an arrow in the top left corner.

The government first revealed the threat from AZF on March 3, when it said
that a powerful bomb had been found February 21 on the Paris-Toulouse train
line, near Limoges in central France. The government said investigators were
told of the bomb's location by the previously unknown group.

The government said AZF was threatening to detonate nine bombs planted in
the rail network unless it was paid sums of $4 million and euro1 million
($1.2 million).

Those threats led the state rail company to dispatch 10,000 maintenance
workers to inspect thousands of kilometers of track.

In the new letter, AZF vowed to obtain the money and, in a cryptic threat,
said that if the money were not paid, "France will surpass without glory the
sad Spanish records" -- an apparent reference to the March 11 bombings of
four trains in Madrid which killed 190 people.

"So understand well that we in no way renounce obtaining the sum ... that
you should consider as a subsidy," the letter said.

In the letter, AZF described itself as "a small brotherhood." It said it
held no grievances against the French government.

"Our true objective is to strike a decisive blow against the depraved spirit
that prevails today in most human actions," the letter said.

The letter did not say whether AZF was responsible for the latest bomb at
Troyes.

That bomb, made of an explosive mixture of nitrates and diesel fuel, was
contained in a see-through plastic box measuring 20 centimeters by 20
centimeters, according to the Interior Ministry.

It was attached to a battery linked to seven detonators and a handmade
timing device, the ministry said.

Investigators have carried on a cat-and-mouse game with AZF, using special
phone lines and newspaper classified ads with code names like "My Big Wolf."
The investigators sign off as "Suzy."

Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin confirmed in mid-March that there had
recently been "several contacts" with AZF. State-run France-2 television
reported Wednesday that a rendezvous had been planned for last weekend but
AZF apparently did not follow up.

AZF is not the only mysterious group issuing threats to France.

Letters signed by the "Servants of Allah, the Powerful and Wise," addressed
to Raffarin, were received last week by two newspapers.

The letters threatened possible terror attacks against France and French
interests to punish the country for a new law banning Islamic head scarves
in public schools starting in September.

French embassies in Muslim countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia
received the same letter -- sent March 15 from a post office near the Louvre
Museum.

The government has said the letters do not resemble typical messages by
Islamic extremist groups. Authorities are looking into whether they could
have been sent by an extreme-right group masquerading as Islamic militants.

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