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The French authorities charged with assessing security risks at Charles de Gaulle airport have stripped 72 Muslim workers of their access badges because they had traveled to Pakistan or Afghanistan, or were suspected of having links to extremists, according to a government official who oversees the airport.
Several are suspected of having trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, though a mere trip to one of those countries would be enough for a revocation, said the official, Jacques Lebrot. One of the suspended workers, he added, was a friend of Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber.
About a dozen other workers have been notified that they are considered security risks, but remain on their jobs pending questioning, Mr. Lebrot said. The unions representing them said some were still cleaning planes and handling baggage.
Mr. Lebrot did not present any evidence against the workers, saying that would compromise French intelligence sources. But France’s largest union filed a discrimination lawsuit in mid-October over the revocations, and at least 10 airport workers who lost their jobs have sued separately to regain their security clearance.
Among those still working is Hassane Tariqui, 37, a French citizen who was born in Morocco and supervises cleaners inside passenger planes, most of them bound for the United States. On Sept. 21, he received a letter from the authorities saying that his “attitude” and “personal behavior” posed a risk to airport security, but it did not specify how.
“If they really think I am a security risk, why am I still allowed to work here?” said Mr. Tariqui, who has been employed at the airport for 16 years. He said he was not a radical, nor even an especially devout Muslim, although he has made a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Mr. Lebrot said that some of the employees who received the letter were still working because they had not yet been interviewed. Those who lose their security clearance at the airport are at risk of dismissal by the private companies that employ them, like Air France and FedEx.
All who received the letter came to the attention of intelligence services in an antiterrorist investigation at French airports ordered by the Interior Ministry in May 2005, Mr. Lebrot said, and 72 had their security clearance revoked after questioning. Sixty-eight more people were investigated and cleared, Mr. Lebrot said.
The United States Homeland Security Department declined to comment on the development. “It’s the government of France’s jurisdiction,” said a spokeswoman, Joanna Gonzalez.
The airport, north of Paris, is near suburbs with Muslim populations where rioting erupted last year. Unions estimate that at least a fifth of the airport’s 83,000 employees are Muslim.
Mr. Lebrot, the deputy prefect in the Seine-St.-Denis district, where the airport is located, said the letters singled out employees suspected of links with movements or people who rejected “France and our values,” or who were suspected of traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some are believed to have spent time in terrorist training camps and extremist Koranic schools in the two countries, Mr. Lebrot said.
One employee, he said, was discovered to have been a friend of Mr. Reid, a London-born convert to Islam who tried to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami in 2001 using explosives hidden in his shoe. Mr. Reid is now serving a life sentence in Colorado.
Another man is believed to have been close to a senior figure in the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an Algerian terrorist group with links to Al Qaeda, Mr. Lebrot said.
Muslim organizations and human rights groups have accused the authorities of waging an anti-Muslim campaign in a presidential election year, while some terrorism experts say the government risks being too slow in removing security threats. “We need an emergency procedure to revoke badges, provided that the intelligence that calls the security of an employee into question is serious,” said Alain Marsaud, a lawmaker and former antiterrorism chief.
But Eric Moutet, a lawyer for some of suspended workers, said “We have not seen any objective evidence against our clients. The only common denominator we see today is that they are all Muslim.”
Mr. Lebrot insists that the decision to bar some airport employees has nothing to do with their religion.
“Monsieur or Madame X who goes to pray in the mosque and travels to Mecca for the pilgrimage is not a problem for us,” he said.
http://www.webislam.com/english/?idn=380
Several are suspected of having trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, though a mere trip to one of those countries would be enough for a revocation, said the official, Jacques Lebrot. One of the suspended workers, he added, was a friend of Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber.
About a dozen other workers have been notified that they are considered security risks, but remain on their jobs pending questioning, Mr. Lebrot said. The unions representing them said some were still cleaning planes and handling baggage.
Mr. Lebrot did not present any evidence against the workers, saying that would compromise French intelligence sources. But France’s largest union filed a discrimination lawsuit in mid-October over the revocations, and at least 10 airport workers who lost their jobs have sued separately to regain their security clearance.
Among those still working is Hassane Tariqui, 37, a French citizen who was born in Morocco and supervises cleaners inside passenger planes, most of them bound for the United States. On Sept. 21, he received a letter from the authorities saying that his “attitude” and “personal behavior” posed a risk to airport security, but it did not specify how.
“If they really think I am a security risk, why am I still allowed to work here?” said Mr. Tariqui, who has been employed at the airport for 16 years. He said he was not a radical, nor even an especially devout Muslim, although he has made a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Mr. Lebrot said that some of the employees who received the letter were still working because they had not yet been interviewed. Those who lose their security clearance at the airport are at risk of dismissal by the private companies that employ them, like Air France and FedEx.
All who received the letter came to the attention of intelligence services in an antiterrorist investigation at French airports ordered by the Interior Ministry in May 2005, Mr. Lebrot said, and 72 had their security clearance revoked after questioning. Sixty-eight more people were investigated and cleared, Mr. Lebrot said.
The United States Homeland Security Department declined to comment on the development. “It’s the government of France’s jurisdiction,” said a spokeswoman, Joanna Gonzalez.
The airport, north of Paris, is near suburbs with Muslim populations where rioting erupted last year. Unions estimate that at least a fifth of the airport’s 83,000 employees are Muslim.
Mr. Lebrot, the deputy prefect in the Seine-St.-Denis district, where the airport is located, said the letters singled out employees suspected of links with movements or people who rejected “France and our values,” or who were suspected of traveling to Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some are believed to have spent time in terrorist training camps and extremist Koranic schools in the two countries, Mr. Lebrot said.
One employee, he said, was discovered to have been a friend of Mr. Reid, a London-born convert to Islam who tried to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami in 2001 using explosives hidden in his shoe. Mr. Reid is now serving a life sentence in Colorado.
Another man is believed to have been close to a senior figure in the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, an Algerian terrorist group with links to Al Qaeda, Mr. Lebrot said.
Muslim organizations and human rights groups have accused the authorities of waging an anti-Muslim campaign in a presidential election year, while some terrorism experts say the government risks being too slow in removing security threats. “We need an emergency procedure to revoke badges, provided that the intelligence that calls the security of an employee into question is serious,” said Alain Marsaud, a lawmaker and former antiterrorism chief.
But Eric Moutet, a lawyer for some of suspended workers, said “We have not seen any objective evidence against our clients. The only common denominator we see today is that they are all Muslim.”
Mr. Lebrot insists that the decision to bar some airport employees has nothing to do with their religion.
“Monsieur or Madame X who goes to pray in the mosque and travels to Mecca for the pilgrimage is not a problem for us,” he said.
http://www.webislam.com/english/?idn=380
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