Militant Muslim gang jailed for plot to destroy the Eiffel Tower

Times Online reportedA Paris court sentenced 25 Muslim militants yesterday for planning attacks against the Eiffel Tower and other targets with explosives in support of rebels fighting Russian forces in Chechnya.

The five main defendants, of Moroccan and Algerian origin, received prison terms of eight to ten years for planning terrorist acts. The others received lesser terms for criminal association. Two were acquitted in a trial which prosecutors said demonstrated the “globalisation of the jihad movement”.

Dr. Rusty Shackleford blogged France Jails 25 Unitarians for Eiffel Tower Plot - Did I say Unitarians? I meant Buddhists. Remember, all religions produce an equal proportion of murderous nuts and thugs. Repeat that mantra 20 times while genuflecting in the UN's general direction.

OTB blogged This AP story broke the same day that The New York Times ran Benchellali’s op-ed.

Which claimed that the vast majority of the detainees at Gitmo have no connection to terrorism.

Talk about irony. But more importantly, this reveals that either The New York Times knew about Benchellali’s family’s ridiculously clear ties to terrorism and ran the article anyway or, more likely, “the newspaper of record” was in such agreement with Benchellali’s arguments that it didn’t bother researching his background.

There is a third possibility. They knew about Benchellali's family's ties to terrorism, but they wanted so much to hurt the Bush administration they ignored that knowledge to bring us this baloney.

After all, he was singing the right tune and had the Gitmo cred to back it up.

Knowing what we know now, it seems likely that Benchellali just “happened” to be in Afghanistan like each of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon just “happened” to be hit with planes all on the same day. And The Times, blinded by its own agenda, wound-up promoting the agenda of a terrorist. Well done guys. Well done.