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Police have arrested a couple in connection to gas canisters found in a parked car near the Notre Dame Cathedral:
A criminal terrorist investigation has been opened in Paris following the discovery of a car parked near Notre Dame Cathedral with seven gas canisters and pages written in Arabic inside, prosecutors said.
The Paris prosecutor's office revealed Wednesday that a couple it described as radicalized —a 34-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman— was arrested a day earlier and transferred to Paris to be questioned in the case.
The car found near the famous cathedral on Sunday morning had its license plates removed and hazard lights on. That evening, its owner went to the police to report that his is radicalized daughter was missing but without saying his car had also disappeared, the prosecutor's office said. Police briefly detained and questioned the car owner before letting him go, the prosecutor's office said. His daughter still is being sought, the office said.
Also at Reuters, WSJ, Le Figaro. What's in the can?
[Update: 9 total people arrested - cmn32480]
[More....]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37331053 continues with:
French prosecutors have charged one of the "terrorist commandos of young women" arrested over a foiled attack near Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Ornella G, 29, was charged with alleged involvement in a terrorist act and attempted murder.
Three other women are still being questioned by police, after a car packed with gas cylinders was found last Sunday close to the cathedral. They are alleged to have been planning other "imminent and violent" attacks.
[...] The three other women being questioned by police were arrested on Thursday with a man. Police say they were directed by so-called Islamic State.
One of them, identified as Sarah H, aged 23, had been engaged separately to two French jihadists, both now dead, who carried out attacks this year. Another, identified as Ines Madani, aged 19, reportedly declared her allegiance to IS in a letter. Mr Molins said she had tried several times to travel to Syria. The third woman was identified as Amel S, 39. Her 15-year-old daughter, who had been radicalised, was also taken into custody, the prosecutor said.
Update 2: France arrests 15-year-old boy for planning 'imminent' Paris attack: sources
(Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Monday September 12 2016, @02:06AM
Propane kinda sucks. Ever see that episode where the Myth Busters set a rigged tank on a propane burner with a weakened bottom to make a rocket? As soon as it burst, the pressure wave of the boiling propane extinguished the flame before the gas could ignite. And you also have to mix the two pretty good otherwise the initial pressure wave would blow the gasses apart before mixing and the result would be unspectacular. A few firemen could handle it.
They're thankfully doing it all wrong. If you want an explosion, you have to start with a really good oxidizer. The fuel could be newspaper or the cars interior. Basically anything flammable. If you want to see what tons of Ammonium perchlorate can do, do a search for the pepcon disaster and watch the video. If you had a car full of that mixed with, say, diesel fuel...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday September 12 2016, @03:33AM
If you want to use diesel, why not go bigger than a car? [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 12 2016, @04:25AM
> They're thankfully doing it all wrong. If you want an explosion, you have to start with a really good oxidizer.
Actually... You have to start with a detonator. And they didn't have one.
They just parked a car full (?) of propane tanks next to a cathedral and left it there.
Which makes you wonder WTF was their plan? Its almost like they wanted to get caught.
But they wouldn't be the first [wikipedia.org] to try such an inane bomb design.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Monday September 12 2016, @04:34AM
It sounds like they were setup for failure by government agents looking to smoke out potential extremists. Lure them in, give them bad instructions so nothing bad happens, and make your arrests after the failed "attack".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 12 2016, @04:44AM
I really can't see the government trying to sell them on such an obviously foolish plan. Its the kind of thing that 10 minutes with google would have ruined.
My guess is that the people who did it felt rushed and when they couldn't get all the necessary components they decided to "make do" with what they had under the idea that half-assed is better than no ass. Which is stupid if you care about effectiveness but not quite so dumb if you see it as more of a primal, inchoate manifestation of frustration.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 12 2016, @03:11PM
It might sound easy to someone with a little more technical knowledge. But you cant underestimate stupidity. This was a dragnet for low hanging fruit. Most of the suspects appear to be women and Moslem women tend to be uneducated because their religion/culture forbids it. So it stands to reason they can cast off a few lines and a few ignorant people will take the bait.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 12 2016, @05:05PM
> Most of the suspects appear to be women and Moslem women tend to be uneducated because their religion/culture forbids it.
Which must be why in Iran's college population is 60% female and engineering grads are 70% female.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday September 12 2016, @05:24PM
That is a very sweeping and inaccurate statement. Are you suggesting the Muslim girls in the UK, France or Germany don't attend school, or go on to university. If you are, you are wrong.
Some countries that have Muslim governments or are currently suffering at the hands of radical Muslim groups may prohibit education for girls, but that doesn't mean it applies to the rest of the world.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 12 2016, @10:17PM
In america, muslim women as a group are 2nd only to jewish women for educational attainment. [thenation.com]