"Urges authorities to declare state of emergency equipping lawenforcement to take necessary measures to outlaw a clear and present danger to all French citizens - Christian, Jewish and Muslim."

Paris, 23 January 2013

The Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre,Dr. Shimon Samuels, has raised an alarm at the threats made by MokhtarBelmokhtar, spokesman of the terrorist group that last week attacked theAlgerian gas installation at In Amenas.

In an interview with the journal Paris Match, Belmokhtar claimed to bespeaking by telephone on behalf of his leader, the Mauritanian Salafist,Hacen Ould Khalil, aka Joulaybib, whom he quoted as "threatening tocommit new attacks against France, in which the Crusaders <Christians>and the Zionist Jews will pay for its aggressions in the north of Mali",adding, "I hope that France realizes that there will will be dozens ofMohamed Merahs <the Toulouse Jewish schoolchildren murderer> andKhaled Keikals <the 1995 Paris-Lyon train bomber and planner of attackon a Jewish school in Villeurbanne>, stressing that "the attack in InAmenas <Algeria> is merely the beginning".

Samuels noted that "this is a clear sign that native-born sleeper cellsin France are directly linked with terrorist groups, such as Al-Qaeda,based in the Middle East and North Africa"..."the threat is no longerlimited to local 'lone wolves', but elements from France trained inPakistan, the Horn of Africa and currently in Syria.  Once repatriatedto France, they are remotely controlled by their mentors in the 'landsof Jihad'", he added.

The Wiesenthal Centre joined its French partner, the BNVCA (the NationalBureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism) in urging the authorities "todeclare a state of emergency equipping law enforcement to take necessary measures to outlaw a clear and present danger to all French citizens - Christian, Jewish and Muslim".