It's probably not a suprise that such stories come at a time when a vast number of people are about to be further pushed to the margins by the worsening financial crisis. It's likely that we might discover a sense of what it is to be social again and this means resitance to poverty and repression. Do these articles, which are disguised as liberal whilst being quite reactionary, point to anything more than what we can expect always from the State (and its police) but especially when the happy gloss of credit and shopping has suddenly worn thin?

Two paragraphs that stand out are the following:

"Secret French government reports, seen by the Observer, describe an "elevated threat" from an "international European network ... with a strong presence in France" after the radicalisation of "a new generation of activists" in recent years. Senior analysts and experts linked to the government have drawn parallels with the Action Directe group, which carried out 50 or more attacks in the early 1980s. Others cite the example of the Baader-Meinhof gang.

A report by the French domestic intelligence service talks of "a rebirth of the violent extreme left" across Europe that is likely to be aggravated by the effects of the economic crisis. Other secret documents expose alleged links with activists in Italy, Greece, Germany and the UK. "It has been growing for three or four years now and the violence is getting closer and closer to real terrorism," said Eric Dénécé, director of the French centre of intelligence research and a former Defence Ministry consultant".

It's the last paragraph that is the more interesting. As with the Tarnac 9, there was no indication of any repression before the ridiculous scenes of the anti-terrorist police raid in the tiny French village. It's probably not surprising that State's have 'intelligence'. This is usually incorrect and skewed by how they think there are normal docile people and others prone to abnormal behaviour such as protesting, or even just being critical. I wonder what this Euro-wide intelligence really amounts too? A further paragraph (in the Guardian article) demonstrates the
sharing of info between states:

"Police said Coupat and his archaeologist girlfriend had been under surveillance for months. The arrests followed six incidents of vandalism on France's high-speed railway lines, which caused delays for thousands of travellers but no casualties. Coupat and his girlfriend had allegedly been seen by police near a train line that was later vandalised.

The couple had come to the attention of the FBI months earlier when they took part in a protest outside an army recruitment centre in New York. They and acquaintances are said to have often travelled to protests and demonstrations such as a recent protest at a European summit on immigration at Vichy".

There is much more to say on these themes. This is just a kind of notice of the two articles and some attempt to prompt some pro-active discussion that arises from those themes. Such a discussion does not need to happen here (for obvious reasons) but with those who are active in the kinds of circles described in the articles. Some other commentary here could be made here.

The articles -

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/03/france-terrorism-tarnac-anarchists

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/04/france-government-left-wing-extremism/print