Tag: France

Police kill three Charlie Hebdo suspects

Heavily armed SWAT teams moved into Porte de Vincennes after the hostage situation developed at a kosher grocery, involving a black gunman and at least one hostage, police said.

The Paris Public Prosecutor’s office confirmed the standoff had been connected to another hostage situation that had occurred at the same time outside Paris, where police shot dead two gunmen suspected in Wednesday’s Charlie Hebdo massacre.

Police told ABC News that a suspect in the Thursday fatal shooting of a police officer in Paris’ Monrouge area, identified as Amedi Coulibaly, 32, was believed to have been involved with the grocery standoff.

Police issued a wanted poster for both Coulibaly and another female suspect named Hayat Boumeddinene earlier in the killing of the policewoman. Police also gave more details about the attack, saying Coulibaly wore body armor when he allegedly killed the officer.

Coulibaly had met with Nicolas Sarkozy. He worked at a Coca-Cola plant in his hometown.

He and nine other people like him visited the President of the Republic in 2009, who wanted to meet companies engaged in favor of the employment of young blacks.

Sarkozy was not really very popular with black and Arab youths. But “the encounter in real life, it is impressive. Like it or not, it’s still the president,” Coulibaly said then.

The other hostage situation ended in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele outside of Paris. The two men, identified by police as Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, were holed up in a printing company in a town northeast of Paris, taking one male employee hostage, before they were shot dead by police.

Both had been on a US No Fly List ‘for years,’ a US official said. According to different revelations, one of the suspects trained with Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Yemen.

French-born sons of Algerian parents, they were both logged in the US government’s Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) system, a database on known or suspected international terrorists, US counterterrorism sources said on condition of anonymity. TIDE contains over one million names.

The casualty situation in Vincennes is still not clear. There have been reports of at least four hostages killed, but they have not been confirmed by French authorities. Other sources spoke of four “critically wounded”.

Multiculturalism and ISIS blamed for Charlie Hebdo shooting

The attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo was a result of Europe’s policy of multiculturalism, UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage said Thursday.

“The real question is this: We in Britain – and I’ve seen some evidence in other European countries of it too – have pursued a really rather gross policy of multiculturalism and by that, what I mean, is that we’ve encouraged people who have come from different cultures to remain within those cultures and not to integrate fully within our communities.” Farage said during the Leaders’ Debate program on LBC radio.

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg accused Farage of using the incident to make political gains after the UKIP leader started speculating on the reasons behind the deadly attack on the magazine in France.

The head of Britain’s MI5 agency reportedly said that a group of core al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning attacks, adding that intelligence services cannot hope to stop them all.

Militants in Syria were planning “mass casualty attacks” in the West, the head of Britain’s MI5 agency Andrew Parker said, adding that intelligence services may be powerless to stop them, AFP reported.

“We know… that a group of core al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West,” agency’s head was quoted as saying to journalists on Thursday.

Earlier the head of the agency spoke about the threat from extremists amid terrorist attack on the headquarters of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. “It is too early for us to come to judgements about the precise details or origin of the attack but it is a terrible reminder of the intentions of those who wish us harm,” he said in his Thursday speech in London.

He estimated that “600 extremists are among the many Britons who have travelled there (to Syria). A significant proportion has joined ISIL (IS),” and called the threat “ongoing and increasing,” CBS News cited.

Twelve killed in attack on French satirical magazine

Masked gunmen stormed the offices of a French satirical newspaper Wednesday, killing 11 people before escaping, police and a witness said. The weekly has previously drawn condemnation from Muslims.

French President Francois Hollande called the slayings a terrorist attack and said that several other terror attacks have been thwarted “in recent weeks.”

Xavier Castaing, head of communications for the Paris police prefecture, confirmed the deaths in the shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly that been repeatedly threatened for publishing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, among other controversial sketches.

Hollande rushed to the scene and top government officials planned an emergency meeting.

Luc Poignant, an official of the SBP police union, said the attackers escaped in two vehicles.

A witness to the attack, Benoit Bringer, told the iTele network he saw multiple masked men armed with automatic weapons at the newspaper’s office in central Paris.

Source: AP

Second French jihad attack as driver ploughs into pedestrians

A driver shouting “Allahu Akbar”  ploughed into pedestrians in eastern France Sunday, injuring 11 of them, just a day after a man yelling the same words was killed in an attack on police officers.

Two of the people injured in the car attack in the city of Dijon were in a serious condition, a police source said, adding that the driver had been arrested.

France is still reeling from a suspected radical Islamic attack on Saturday that saw a French convert to Islam shot dead after attacking police officers with a knife while also reportedly crying “Allahu Akbar” in the central town of Joue-les-Tours.

The assailant, Burundi-born French national, Bertrand Nzohabonayo seriously injured two officers — slashing one in the face — and hurting another.

The 20-year-old attacker also cried “Allahu Akbar” during the assault, said a source close to the case speaking on condition of anonymity.

The assault prompted the government to step up security at police and fire stations nationwide.

The anti-terror branch of the Paris prosecutor’s office has opened a probe into that attack, with the line of inquiry focusing on whether it was motivated by radical Islam.

The weekend incidents in France come as governments around the world brace for so-called “lone wolf” attacks by individuals returning from waging jihad abroad, or who are simply following Islamic State group calls for violence in the countries involved in a coalition fighting the militants in Iraq and Syria.

The group has repeatedly singled out France for such attacks, most recently in a video posted on jihadist sites this week.

Last week in Australia, an Iranian-born Islamist with a history of extremism and violence entered a cafe and held people hostage for 16 hours before being killed. Two of the hostages also died.

Source: Yahoo

Russia turns to right-wing parties in EU

A Russian loan to France’s National Front. Invitations to Moscow for leaders of Austria’s Freedom Party. Praise for Vladimir Putin from the head of Britain’s anti-European Union party.

As the diplomatic chill over Ukraine deepens, the Kremlin is keen to enlist Europe’s far-right parties in its campaign for influence in the West.

Russia fears that NATO could spread to countries it considers part of its sphere of influence. And it has rightly served notice that it will not tolerate meddling, most recently with its Ukraine campaign.

Europe’s right-wing and populist parties, meanwhile, see an Atlanticist-dominated EU as contrary to their vision of Europe. They want to see a union of strong national states that do not toady to America.

The fact that many of Moscow’s allies are right to far-right reflects the Kremlin’s full turn. Under communism, nationalist parties were shunned as “xenophobic”.

Statements by leading critics of the EU, or euroskeptics, reflect their admiration of the Kremlin.

National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen told The Associated Press this month that France and Russia “have a communality of interest.”

Daughter Marine Le Pen, party president and a strong contender for the French presidency in 2017, envisions a Europe stretching “from the Atlantic to the Urals” — a “pan-European union” that includes Russia and is supported by other right-wing parties.

Nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban perceives prevailing winds as “blowing from the East” and sees in Russia an ideal political model for his concept of an “illiberal state.”

The head of Britain’s euroskeptic Independence Party, Nigel Farage, has said Putin is the world leader he most admires.

Among other Moscow regulars from euroskeptic parties across Europe are members of Hungary’s anti-Semitic Jobbik and Austria’s Freedom Party.

Jobbik parliamentarian Bela Kovacs is under investigation in Hungary for allegedly “spying” for Russia.

While in Moscow recently, Freedom Party firebrand Johann Gudenus accused the European Union of kowtowing to NATO and America and denounced the spreading influence of the homosexual lobby in Europe.

Shunned at home by the liberal establishment and pro-American media, many are eager to gain air time on RT television, Russia’s international answer to CNN.

For them, “the benefit is that they can receive diplomatic support from a very high level from a superpower,” says Peter Kreko of Hungary’s Political Capital research institute.

Financial rewards are also incentives. Orban just signed a nuclear-reactor deal with Moscow. France is abuzz over the National Front’s recent 9 million euro loan from a Russian bank owned by a reputed Putin confidant.

Marine Le Pen describes it as “a perfectly legal loan that we will reimburse perfectly legally,” saying the party turned to Russia after being rejected by Western banks. But the transaction has galvanized fears among the National Front’s opponents of increased Kremlin influence, with the Socialists calling for an inquiry.

Links between Russia and the right predate the Ukraine conflict. A 2005 US diplomatic cable made public by Wikileaks noted close ties between Bulgaria’s extreme-right Ataka party and the Russian Embassy in Sofia.

And Joerg Haider, the late leader of Austria’s Freedom Party, helped powerful Russian businessmen with residency permits more than a decade ago in exchange for close to 1 million euros in campaign funding.

Putin’s friendships with German ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Italy’s former Premier Silvio Berlusconi were also useful for the Kremlin.

Now the diplomatic gloom is settling in, their strong domestic and EU election showings this year will help further its own interests, Moscow hopes.

Of the 24 right-wing populist parties that took about a quarter of the European Parliament’s seats in May elections, Political Capital lists 15 as “committed” to Russia.

Many owe their popularity to evidence that EU-friendly parties in power are to blame for the continent’s economic woes — a view that could grow if the downturn persists.

“What Russia is saying is, ‘It’s fine for you to be the way you are’,” says analyst Melik Kaylan, in a study for the Institute of Modern Russia.

CIA torture: France should exit NATO says Le Pen

NATO is an opportunity for the United States to extend its influence

The shocking revelations of CIA torture techniques give France a reason to exit NATO, National Front party leader Marine Le Pen said on Saturday. The report on the CIA’s former interrogation practices has drawn wide criticism since its release.

“If indeed everyone is outraged by the tortures used by the US then, let’s leave NATO,” Le Pen said during an interview with Europe 1 radio channel. She wrote the same statement on her Twitter account.

The US Senate Intelligence Committee’s CIA “torture report,” which details the CIA’s use of torture on prisoners in the wake of 9/11, was released by the Senate on Tuesday.

Le Pen has previously criticized French President Francois Hollande’s close ties with the US and called on France to leave NATO.

Speaking to RT’s Sophie Shevardnadze in June, Le Pen said that NATO is an opportunity for the United States to extend its influence.

At a cost of over $40 million, the findings unveiled the “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or EITs, used within the walls of covert, overseas prisons by the CIA.

The report raised serious questions over controversial tactics which included sleep deprivation, waterboarding, rectal feeding, and others. Dianne Feinstein, the committee chair, admitted that the techniques were “torture,” though the word was never used in the report.

The findings also revealed that the CIA’s treatment breached the body’s legal mandate, as investigators said they found evidence of the intelligence agency’s systematic deception of Congress. Despite the methods used, the agency failed to gather information that foiled subsequent threats to US national security, the report found.

Since the report’s release, prominent human rights groups have demanded to prosecute the responsible US officials listed in the document.

Despite widespread criticism and a wave of outrage sparked by the results of the Senate investigation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Wednesday that it will not be pursuing charges against those involved in the interrogations.

 

US, France brace for Africa

Molotov cocktails explode and tear gas fill the streets as U.S. Marines from SPMAGTF Crisis Response – Africa and French gendarmes with Mobile Gendarmerie Armored Group try to control a crowd of rioters in a city street.

That is how the scenario played out as the Marines and gendarmes trained together in crowd and riot control techniques at National Gendarmerie Training Center in St. Astier, France, from Dec. 1 to 5, 2014.

The Gendarmerie, like the Marines of SPMAGTF-CR-AF, are called to locations of instability to restore peace and protect national interests abroad. The idea to have the Marines and Gendarmes train together came about 10-12 years ago. Both are called by their nations to reinforce embassies in the face of a threat or an event of crisis.

During the multi-day event, the Marines and gendarmes shared historical lessons learned, trained in convoy escort and riot control procedures, conducted live-fire training, and built esprit through combined obstacle courses. The training culminated with a scenario that simulated the Marines and gendarmes conducting a partnered mission responding to a crisis in a foreign country, protecting the U.S. and French embassies, and conducting crowd and riot control.

“The facilities and training at St. Astier offered a unique experience that we are unable to replicate on Morón Air Base,” said Capt. Brian Green, the exercise officer in charge for SPMAGTF Crisis Response – Africa. “The ability to utilize rubber projectiles, Molotov cocktails, and CS gas during a mock riot brought a higher sense of realism to the training. The French gendarmes and U.S. Marines definitely built a lasting relationship that will continue to grow through further training in the future and will be proven strong if called to work together in Africa.”

The interoperability gained though the training evolution was invaluable as the two units may work together in the future. The exercise allowed the Marines to gain greater knowledge of non-lethal tactics, techniques and procedures while enhancing interoperability with the French Gendarmerie and strengthening the U.S. partnership with France.

“Both our nations have been allied for a long time, we even consider ourselves the oldest allies,” said French Gendarmerie Maj. Andre Rakoto, an officer with the Paris Gendarmerie Command. “It makes sense that we may want to combine our forces to conduct joint operations in Africa. In a time of crisis, the French may have to help American nationals and the Marines may have to help French nationals, making this training very good for our future.”

SPMAGTF-CR-AF is postured to respond to a broad range of military operations in the U.S. Africa Command area of responsibility, including: U.S. Embassy reinforcement, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel (TRAP), training with partner nations, and other missions as directed.

Source: www.dvidshub.net

Front National gets Kremlin loan

France’s National Front, is in talks with a Kremlin-linked bank to borrow €40 million to win power in France, Mediapart reports.

The Paris-based online investigative journal last weekend said Marine Le Pen’s party received a €9 million loan from the First Czech Russian Bank (FCRB), which is de facto owned by Roman Popov, a Kremlin-connected oligarch.

But it says in a second report on Wednesday (26 November) the €9 million is the tip of the iceberg.

It notes that its own investigation is corroborated by a member of the Front National’s political bureau.

“The first tranche was paid on a loan of €40 million … the tranche of €9 million has arrived, 31 others will follow,” the source said.

It also cites Bernard Monot, a National Front MEP, who told Mediapart: “We expressed, for sure, a need for comprehensive financing in our discussions with the bank … Our potential need until the [French] presidential and legislative elections [due in 2017] is €45 million”.

“We’re getting there step by step. We’re refining it as we go … We are on a long-term financial package”.

Wallerand de Saint-Just, the National Front’s treasurer, said he knows nothing about the larger sum.

But he noted the party needs between €35 million and €40 million to contest the 2017 votes.

He added he cannot exclude that larger sums were mentioned by Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, a National Front MEP who negotiated the FRCB deal, in Schaffhauser’s contacts with the bank.

Meanwhile, Le Pen herself tweeted on Wednesday evening: “Mediapart has lost its head. The amounts it talks about are a total fantasy. FN got a €9mn loan. Full stop”.

She told AFP the €40 million report is “fantastic, delirious”.

EU blacklist
Mediapart goes on to say that Le Pen personally sealed the FRCB loan on a “secret” trip to Russia in February.

It quotes an unnamed Le Pen aide as saying: “Marine Le Pen came at the final stage [of the negotiations]. Yes. To see where we are putting our feet”.

It notes that Schaffhauser, who was present at the meeting, introduced her to Alexander Babakov, a Russian MP, who was the “key” to the FRCB deal.

The EU blacklisted Babakov in September because he voted Yes on a Russian bill on the annexation of Crimea.

The 51-year old, who was born in Moldova, has business interests in the Czech Republic, France, and Ukraine.

According to documents published by Russian anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, the Russian MP owns at least €11 million of real estate in France via his wife, Irina Babakova.

According to Czech media, he was also the co-founder of a Czech-based shell company, Albion CZ, which was liquidated in June.

The National Front revelations come amid multiplying reports of Kremlin ties to anti-EU far-right parties.

German tabloid Bild on Monday cited German intelligence sources as saying Russia is financing the eurosceptic AfD party.

It said the Kremlin used middlemen to sell gold to AfD at below-market prices without AfD’s knowledge of who was behind the transactions.

The left-wing SPO party in Austria has also accused the far-right FPO of receiving Russian money.

AfD and FPO denied the claims. But their Kremlin links were on display this week in meetings in Berlin and Moscow.

Source: euobserver.com

British Navy jolted by Russian flotilla

The British Navy has been jolted by a Russian naval flotilla that entered the English Channel to undertake a series of exercises.

The British have described the flotilla as a “provocation”, although foreign vessels regularly pass through.

While the four ships – led by an anti-submarine vessel called the Severomorsk – are not breaking any rules, naval sources told The Telegraph they were monitored and escorted through the North Sea and into the Channel by a British patrol vessel.

An MoD spokesman said on Friday: “We are aware that four Russian naval ships have passed through the Dover Strait from the North Sea into the English Channel, which all ships have the right to do under international law.

“The ships were escorted by the Royal Navy warship HMS Tyne as part of her UK maritime security role and have now left UK waters.”

The ships are expected to pass through the Channel and head south to relieve other Russian vessels in the Mediterranean.

Russia’s Northern Fleet said the flotilla had passed through the Strait of Dover and anchored in the Seine Bay off Normandy to wait off a storm.

“While it is anchored the crew are undertaking a series of exercises on how to tackle infiltrating submarine forces and are training on survival techniques in the case of flooding or fire,” the fleet said in a statement, according to the state-run news agency, RIA Novosti.

The flotilla, which the British press ominously described as a “convoy” and “squadron” includes the Alexander Otrakovsky, an amphibious ship, a tanker and a tug.

Earlier this week, the Northern Fleet said that the ships had left their base in the Arctic port of Severomorsk on November 20. On its way towards Britain, the squadron carried out an exercise to simulate repelling an air attack after it was circled by NATO planes, the fleet added.

 

Hi-tech gear stolen from Mistral

Electronic equipment, including hard drives and a device operating the helicopter carrier’s communications system, has been stolen off the Mistral ship built for Russia in the French port of Saint-Nazaire.

An investigation into the case of the missing equipment has been launched, French media reported. “Sensitive material” could allegedly be stolen from one of the amphibious-assault vessels, constructed by the French in a multi-million dollar deal with Moscow.

The items, which were announced missing on November 25, could have been stolen a week prior to that date, the prosecutor’s office of the French city of Rennes reported.

According to AFP, two computer hard drives, a motherboard, and a graphics card – as well as a device with a program operating the carrier’s communications system – have disappeared from the ship.

All the equipment was installed by French military electronics firm Thales, and could only be operated on the helicopter carrier.

A spokesman for French shipbuilder DCNS, Emmanuel Godez, confirmed the theft to TASS news agency, but said the unique articles – which he refused to name – did not contain any secret or sensitive data.

French ship builders STX, who are in charge of the Russian-ordered Mistral ship’s construction, also confirmed that some items went missing. The company said a relevant statement had been submitted by the corporation to French police.

According to Le Point magazine, a preliminary investigation did not find any evidence of a break-in. Russians are reportedly not suspected to be behind the theft, a spokesperson from France’s Defense Ministry said.

As Dutch move gold out of US, French and Swiss call to follow

The financial crisis in Europe is prompting some nations to repatriate their gold reserves to national vaults. The Netherlands has moved $5 billion worth of gold from New York, and some are calling for similar action from France, Switzerland, and Germany.

An unmatched pace of money printing by major central banks has boosted concerns in European countries over the safety of their gold reserves abroad.

The Dutch central bank – De Nederlandsche Bank – was one of the latest to make the move. The bank announced last Friday that it moved a fifth of its total 612.5-metric-ton gold reserve from New York to Amsterdam earlier in November.

It was done in an effort to redistribute the gold stock in “a more balanced way,” and to boost public confidence, the bank explained.

“With this adjustment the Dutch Central Bank joins other banks that are keeping a larger share of their gold supply in their own country,” the bank said in a statement. “In addition to a more balanced division of the gold reserves…this may also contribute to a positive confidence effect with the public.”

Dutch gold reserves are now divided as follows: 31 percent in Amsterdam, 31 percent in New York, 20 percent in Ottawa, Canada and 18 percent in London.

Meanwhile, Switzerland has organized the ‘Save Our Swiss Gold’ referendum, which is taking place on November 30. If passed, it would force the Swiss National Bank to convert a fifth of its assets into gold and repatriate all of its reserves from vaults in the UK and Canada.

“The Swiss initiative is merely part of an increasing global scramble towards gold and away from the endless printing of money. Huge movements of gold are going on right now,” Koos Jansen, an Amsterdam-based gold analyst for the Singaporean precious metal dealer BullionStar, told the Guardian.

France has also recently joined in on the trend, with the leader of the far-right National Front party Marine Le Pen calling on the central bank to repatriate the country’s gold reserves.

In an open letter to the governor of the Banque de France, Christian Noyer, Le Pen also demanded an audit of 2,435 tons of physical gold inventory.

Germany tried and failed to adopt a similar path in early 2013 by announcing a plan to repatriate some of its gold reserves back from the US and France.

The efforts fizzled out this summer, when it was announced that Germany decided to leave $635 billion worth of gold in US vaults.

Germany only keeps about a third of its gold at home. Forty-five percent is held in New York, 13 percent in London, 11 percent in Paris, and only 31 percent in the Bundesbank in Frankfurt.

US sinks France as military competitor

France has lost it’s sovereignty, as Hollande has made a decision that will be the nail in his own political coffin.

Unfortunately Hollande’s coffin will also be the demise of many working class French citizens, who will lose their livelihood from the imminent dismantling of France’s military industry.

Instead of building their own weapons, France can now buy US made weapons. The US military industrial complex has also removed a competitor in the weapons space.

I guess Ukraine is much more important to French President Hollande than French jobs and industry.

“The President of the Republic believes that the current situation in the east of Ukraine still does not allow the transfer of the first Russian Mistral-type ships to Russia,” a statement from the Elysée Palace said.

In this regard, Francois Hollande felt it necessary to postpone the new order to study the request for permission to supply Russia with the first Mistral vessel, the communique informed.

CNBC reports:

France suspended the planned delivery of a warship to Russia on Tuesday, after months of growing speculation about what would be the biggest arms sale ever by a NATO country to the Kremlin.

The French president’s office announced the suspension “until further notice” after growing pressure from allies to suspend the sale because of tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The first of the two ships, the Vladivostok, is docked at the French port city of Saint Nazaire, where about 400 Russian sailors have spent months training aboard the vessel.

The second ship, named the Sevastopol, after a port in the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula, was slated for delivery next year and recently arrived at the Saint Nazaire docks for finishing touches.

Tuesday’s statement, like a previous suspension of the delivery, stopped short of cancelling the deal, suggesting the French government is reluctant give up on a contract worth more than 1 billion euros and thousands of jobs at a time of an economic slump in France.

The Vladivostok can carry 700 troops, 16 helicopter gunships, and up to 50 armored vehicles.

Analysts have said the warships would give Russia an enhanced ability to move large numbers of troops and equipment, but were not game-changers for Moscow’s military.

Russia’s deputy defense minister told RIA Novosti news agency Tuesday that Moscow was not planning to take any immediate action against France for delaying the deal.

“We are satisfied, it is the French who are not satisfied, and we are going to patiently wait,” said Yury Brosiov. “Everything is spelled out in the contract, and we are going to act in accord to the contract like all civilized people.”

There is no way to sugar coat this… Hollande has fully exposed himself as a very weak puppy dog to American policy.

The repercussions to France for this poorly taken decision will be far reaching and devastating.

Working class people will lose jobs and an entire military and shipbuilding industry will be ruined for decades to come.

No country will do business with a France that does not honor its contractual obligations.

Source: Red Pill Times

France to vote on Palestinian state recognition

A symbolic vote planned in the French parliament on December 2 will call on the government to “use the recognition of the state of Palestine as an instrument to gain a definitive resolution of the conflict” and follows a similar motion adopted by Spain last week.

Earlier the UK adopted a similar non-binding resolution calling for recognition of the Palestinian state as a step to securing a two-state solution.

Meanwhile Sweden has become the first West-European EU state to officially recognize the occupied state of Palestine, infuriating Israel who recalled its ambassador in Sweden.

A vote at the UN General Assembly in 2012 secured de facto Palestinian statehood, although a ‘yes’ vote from most EU members is still pending. While Sweden is the first EU member in Western Europe to have recognized the state, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta, Romania, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic have already done so.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has warned it would be a “grave mistake” for the French parliament to follow the suit of several other European nations in recognizing a Palestinian state in a vote scheduled early December.

“Recognition of a Palestinian state by France would be a grave mistake,” Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem. “Do they have nothing better to do at a time of beheadings across the Middle East, including that of a French citizen?” apparently referring to Herve Gourdel executed by Algerian jihadists in September.

“The State of Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, the only state that we have, and the Palestinians demanding a state do not want to recognize the right to have a state for the Jewish people,” Netanyahu added.

Marine Le Pen: Open letter to French Central Bank Governor

The French Front National’s leader Marine Le Pen has sent a letter to the Governor of the French Central Bank, the Banque de France, demanding that France join the list of nations which have repatriated their gold, or at least have tried.

In her letter,  Le Pen, who would be elected president of France if elections were held today, demands a gold audit.

Mr. Christian Noyer

Governor of the Banque de France
31 rue Croix des Petits-Champs
75049 PARIS Cedex 01

Nanterre, November 24, 2014

Open letter to Mr Christian Noyer on the gold reserves of France

Dear Governor

On behalf of the French and in my capacity as the main opposition leader, I am writing to you because it is my duty to present a petition on the gold reserves of France, in the best interests of our nation.

Even before the outbreak of the 2008 crisis, the National Front had anticipated and informed the political institutions of the future worsening of the macro-economic and geopolitical context. As part of the increasingly libertarian business model adopted by France under pressure from Brussels, economic fundamentals have not shown improvement.

All the French can see is that the austerity policies demanded by the European Union and the ECB and carried out by the government are a proven failure and have had serious consequences for our country.

The monetary institution you lead has a historic mission to be the central bank depositary of the national monetary reserves including gold reserves. According to our strategic vision and sovereignty, they belong neither to the State nor to the Banque de France, but the French people and also serve as the ultimate guarantee for the public debt and our money.

In the money cold war that is being fought between the West and BRICS countries, gold is increasingly playing an important role. According to the World Gold Council, the official reserves of gold from China, India and Russia increased significantly between 2007 and 2013.

For these reasons and in light of the rapid increase of global systemic risks, it is of the utmost importance to the future solvency of our nation to engage, by mid-2015, in a detailed audit, the results of which will be the subject of a report.

Le Pen also demands a complete inventory of the quantities of physical gold, all 2435 tonnes, as well as their quality (serial number, purity, bars ‘Good Delivery’etc.), conducted by an independent French body. This inventory will need to indicate the country in which the gold reserves are stored, she adds.

Over the period 2004-2012, about 614,6 tonnes of gold have been sold by France while at the same time the other Eurosystem central banks including the ECB pledged to limit their gold sales. According to a report by the Court of Auditors of 2012, this is extremely costly to the government and constitutes a serious violation of the national heritage, carried out without any democratic consultation.

Le Pen requests the urgent repatriation of all gold reserves from abroad.

Just like your heroic predecessors of the Bank of France in 1939 and 1940 had organized the evacuation of French gold, you will need to undertake this vast security operation of the national treasury, a patriotic act which will be recognized in time by public opinion.

I hope that, respectful of your duties as a high official in the service of the State, you will show the commitment and courage necessary to defend the general interest of our country. The challenge is considerable, it is the future of France which is at stake!

I beg you to accept, Sir, the Governor, the expression of my highest consideration.

Marine Le Pen