US embassy cable - 05PARIS4756

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 004756 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT ALSO FOR DRL/IL, EUR/WE, EUR/ERA, EUR/PPD, INR/EUC AND 
EB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, ASEC, EU, FR, PINR, SOCI, ECON 
SUBJECT: FRENCH INITIAL REACTION TO TERRORIST ATTACKS IN 
LONDON 
 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
1.  (SBU) Shared outrage and shock, and a renewed awareness 
of their own vulnerability, characterized French reaction to 
the terrorist bombings in the London transport system.  Prime 
Minister Villepin wrote to Prime Minister Blair within an 
hour of the attacks to express France's solidarity with 
Britain and commitment to helping track down "the authors of 
these crimes."  Villepin raised France's terrorism alert 
level.  He met with Interior Minister Sarkozy, Defense 
Minister Alliot-Marie, Foreign Minister Douste-Blazy and the 
heads of France's intelligence services to discuss 
reinforcing anti-terrorism measures.  Authorities stepped up 
security procedures at airports, and increased identity 
checks of passengers bound for London by rail.  Prime 
Minister Blair's statement at the Gleneagles Summit (during 
which he was flanked by the G-8 leaders with Presidents Bush 
and Chirac immediately behind him) is receiving wide media 
play in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.  The 
sentiments expressed by Prime Minister Blair -- determination 
to prevail in a struggle that must be fought together -- is 
receiving wide and approving media commentary.  End Summary. 
 
OPERATIONAL REACTION 
-------------------- 
2.  (SBU) Prime Minister Villepin, informed of the London 
attack while he was defending a proposed law on the Senate 
floor, left immediately for an emergency meeting with 
Interior Minister Sarkozy, Defense Minister Alliot Marie, 
Foreign Minister Douste-Blazy and the heads of France's 
intelligence services.  Villepin raised France's terrorism 
alert level from orange to red (France's four-color scale 
runs yellow/orange/red/scarlet).  The raising of the alert 
level increases security personnel (including military 
personnel) at transportation hubs and other public sites.  It 
also provides more leeway for conducting identity checks of 
air, rail, and road travelers.  Patrols increased in Paris' 
subway system.  The transportation ministry established a 
special monitoring and operations center and ordered 
reinforced passenger checks at airports and on trains bound 
for the UK. 
 
RHETORICAL REACTION 
------------------- 
3.  (SBU) Villepin, within an hour of the attacks, wrote to 
Blair to express the "horror and profound sadness at these 
odious crimes" felt by the French people.  In his letter to 
Blair, as in a televised statement, Villepin underlined 
France's commitment to continuous and full collaboration in 
searching for the perpetrators of these crimes.  Villepin, in 
his televised statement, stated that he directed the Minister 
of the Interior (political rival Nicolas Sarkozy) to prepare 
options for such reinforcement of security as circumstances 
might warrant.  Though Sarkozy will be in the media spotlight 
conducting inspections of police deployments and reporting to 
the public on Interior Ministry operations, Villepin in his 
statement clearly cast himself as personally in the lead 
directing the measures taken in reaction to the attacks. 
 
4.  (SBU) President Chirac, in a statement from the 
Gleneagles summit, declared his "horror" at the terrorist 
attacks, calling the acts "unspeakable" and expressing the 
"solidarity of all France."  Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe, 
upon arrival from Singapore (where Paris lost out to London 
as host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics) declared, "We are 
all Londoners now."  The President of the French Council of 
the Muslim faith (CFCM) issued a statement strongly 
condemning the attacks, which "can in no way be justified by 
any connection to Islam or its values." 
 
COMMENT 
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5.  (SBU) Prime Minister Blair's statement from the 
Gleneagles summit -- flanked by all the G-8 leaders and with 
President Bush and President Chirac immediately behind him -- 
is regularly replayed in the French media's ongoing coverage 
of the aftermath of the attacks.  Comment so far has been 
uniformly positive about Blair's framing of the issue as a 
struggle in which we are all engaged and in which we can only 
prevail together.  The French public is keenly aware of the 
near impossibility of defending a sprawling public 
transportation system against terrorist attack.  The public 
is also keenly aware of France's large, and in some quarters 
disaffected, Muslim population.  Apprehension runs high that 
such an attack could easily also happen in Paris, should a 
terrorist cell go undetected through the weeks of planning 
required.  For the French public and government, the attacks 
in London are sure to spur renewed commitment to 
anti-terrorist vigilance and anti-terrorism cooperation.  End 
Comment. 
STAPLETON