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Nuclear Scientist Arrested for Alleged al-Qaeda Ties

CERN says researcher didn't work on dangerous projects

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 9, 2009 2:07 PM CDT
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(Newser) – French authorities have arrested a researcher working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) on suspicion that he has been in contact with al-Qaeda. Police say they believe the 32-year-old and his brother contacted people linked to the terror group online, and they had been planning an attack in France. CERN says the man’s work “did not bring him into contact with anything that could be used for terrorism.”

The researcher, who is of Algerian descent, was an employee of LHC Beauty, an outside contractor using CERN’s Large Hadron Collider to study the differences between matter and antimatter through “beauty quarks.” Police say the brothers had expressed a desire online to carry out attacks, the BBC reports, but they don’t think they’d “got to the stage of carrying out material acts of preparation.”

The last element, weighing 100 tons, of the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) experiment is lowered into the cave at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in this file photo.
The last element, weighing 100 tons, of the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) experiment is lowered into the cave at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in this file photo.   (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini, FILE)
In this file photo dated May 31, 2007, part of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is seen in its tunnel at the CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) near Geneva, Switzerland.
In this file photo dated May 31, 2007, part of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is seen in its tunnel at the CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) near Geneva, Switzerland.   (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini, File)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 11 comments
riffran
Oct 11, 2009 4:19 AM CDT
still no rebuttal I see
riffran
Oct 10, 2009 6:04 AM CDT
they have stopped a few attacks...see below
riffran
Oct 10, 2009 6:02 AM CDT
Thwarted Attacks Richard Reid, December 2001 Jose Padilla, May 2002 Lackawanna Six, September 2002 Iyman Faris, May 2003 Virginia "Jihad" Network, June 2003 Dhiren Barot, August 2004 James Elshafay and Shahawar Matin Siraj, August 2004 Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, August 2004 Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augstine, June 2006 Umer Hayat and Hamid Hayat, June 2005 Levar Haley Washington, Gregory Vernon Patterson, Hammad Riaz Samana, and Kevin James, August 2005 Michael C. Reynolds, December 5, 2005 Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi, Zand Wassim Mazloum, February 2006 Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, April 2006 Narseal Batiste, Patrick Abraham, Stanley Grant Phanor, Naudimar Herrera, Burson Augustin, Lyglenson Lemorin, and Rotschild Augstine, June 2006 Assem Hammoud, July 2006 Liquid Explosives Plot, August 2006 Fort Dix Plot, May 2007 JFK Plot, June 2007 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, March 2007 Zazi Terrorism Case 2009 Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, Dallas bomb attempt 2009 I think that's 21 that we know of...That have been stopped in the U.S....but good try

 
terrorism • France • al-Qaeda • CERN • Large Hadron Collider • European Organization for Nuclear Research • LHC Beauty

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