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72 Muslim Staff Barred At Paris Airport
72 workers at France's Charles de Gaulle airport have been stripped their security clearance for allegedly posing a "terrorist risk" to passengers. Airport authorities claim the staffers, who include cleaners and baggage handlers, spent time in terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. All but two are Muslims.
The BBC reports that one man is said to be an associate of shoe bomber Richard Reid. Another is reported to be close to an Algerian al-Qaeda affiliate.
As EURSOC reported last week, airport and local government officials began an investigation last year into the activities of staff at Charles de Gaulle. All 72 workers were included in the initial enquiry last May.
The publication of Philippe de Villiers' book, Les Mosquées de Roissy, intensified public and media interest in Islamist activity at the airport. De Villiers claimed that Islamist groups had infiltrated the airport and were planning attacks.
Also in the book, at least according to the Guardian, were claims that Muslim staff had opened secret prayer rooms under runways, and that plans were afoot to put the airport under Sharia law. The interior ministry took the former claim seriously: Under the orders of Nicolas Sarkozy, at least seven clandestine prayer rooms have been closed at CDG and Paris' other major airport, Orly, in recent months.
Fears about Islamist activity in France's airports have rumbled since the 11th September attacks. The day after the terror attacks on America, France ordered an "extraordinary" security probe into airport staff, which continued into 2002. In 2003, Jacques Lebrot was appointed deputy prefet for the Seine-St-Denis region where much of Charles de Gaulle is located, and was given special jurisdiction over the airport's security.
Security specialists have reported complained that it took so long for the authorities to act on the threat of Islamist activity in the airports.
The fact that the airport is one of the major employers in the Seine-St-Denis region - the notorious "neuf trois" epicentre of much of France's suburban unrest - troubles some commentators. Many workers, especially those employed on low paid, short-contract jobs come from the poor estates south of the airport: By the nature of the make-up of these neighbourhoods, many are from Muslim backgrounds.
Airport insiders claim that some short term staffers arrive for work sporting fully-grown Islamist beards: Hardly the most reassuring sight for travellers in this troubled period, and a worrying one for airport bosses too. France has high hopes to make CDG airport the major hub for western Europe.
Some of the airport workers, supported by major transport unions, are protesting against the security ban, claiming they have been discriminated because of their religion.
