nycmuzik Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 By Tom Heneghan PARIS (Reuters) - A deranged neo-Nazi fired a rifle shot near President Jacques Chirac in an apparent assassination attempt Sunday during France's Bastille Day parade, but the man was quickly subdued and the march continued uninterrupted. The man pulled the .22-caliber sporting rifle out of a brown guitar case and fired as Chirac passed by in an open military jeep to begin descending the Champs Elysees avenue at the head of the march commemorating the 1789 French Revolution. He was rapidly thrown to the ground, handcuffed and led away by police -- both uniformed and plain-clothed -- responding to cries from onlookers standing opposite the Arc de Triomphe. A Paris magistrate said the man appeared highly disoriented in a subsequent interrogation, but had confessed to having targeted the president. "He admitted he intended to kill the president, but his words were very confused and incoherent," he told Reuters. A police statement said the individual was 25 years old and was "known to belong to neo-Nazi and hooligan movements." After the interrogation, police sources said he was sent to a police psychiatric unit for observation. The sources said police investigators were searching the man's home in Courcouronnes, south of Paris. A French-Canadian tourist, Mohamed Chelali, who witnessed the incident told LCI television the man had clearly aimed at Chirac. "Mr. Chirac was passing by in his car when I felt the crowd move on my right side," Chelali said. "Then I saw, two or three meters from me, a man aiming in the direction of the president." But the police did not transfer the case to the anti-terrorist unit and appeared to be treating it as an isolated incident. "He fired in the direction of the car but the bullet went astray and nobody was injured," said Nicolas Couteau of the Force Ouvriere police union. "I don't think there was any plot because the shooter would have used a gun of a larger caliber," he added. "It looks like the act of a demented person." Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi was quick to express his outrage over the incident. "Hearing of the criminal gesture that shook the July 14 anniversary ... I want to pass on to you assurances both of my own personal friendship and the solidarity of the Italian people," Ciampi said in a message to Chirac. PARADE CONTINUES The parade went ahead under cloudy skies, and followed calls from Chirac and Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie for higher defense spending to fight terrorism and catch up with Europe's other main military power, Britain. At the front of the parade were 163 West Point office cadets, sporting the trim gray jackets and white trousers of the U.S. military academy, invited as this year's main guests. West Point is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, as is the French military academy Saint-Cyr whose cadets also marched in their blue jackets and red trousers. In another sign of French-American partnership, 75 New York City firemen and relatives of firefighters who died in the suicide plane attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11 watched the parade as guests of their Paris colleagues. A New York pumper truck flying an American flag rumbled down the avenue with the Paris firemen's contingent, to the applause of the crowd. DEFENSE SPENDING HEADING UP In a televised interview after the parade, Chirac said France aimed to boost its defense spending and was considering building a second aircraft carrier. "We are looking for ways to cooperate on this with the British," Alliot-Marie told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper after saying higher spending could be approved later this year. Chirac also confirmed France's opposition to reforming the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) before its current budget expired in 2006. The European Commission put forward reform proposals last Wednesday. "I won't sacrifice France's capacity as the world's leading food exporter and second exporter of agricultural products...for reasons that do not seem justified to me," Chirac said. He confirmed the new center-right government would continue cutting income taxes after a five percent decrease announced for this year, but declined to confirm they would fall by a third over the five-year legislative period. Alliot-Marie told Journal du Dimanche that French military had fallen behind Britain's in research and development, training and air and naval capabilities. "If we don't react, we risk being left behind," said Alliot-Marie, France's first female defense minister. "Half of our tanks and planes today are immobilized because of a lack of spare parts," she added. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t0nythelover Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 what we need now is a super hero. we live in an age of spontaneous terrorism, evil corporations, and martha stewart. now neo nazi assasins too, damn. i cant beleive he was using a .22 caliber, he should have went for something more like a .752, but anyway, we need a hero to save us...and its not bush! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgym Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 Originally posted by t0nythelover what we need now is a super hero. we live in an age of spontaneous terrorism, evil corporations, and martha stewart. now neo nazi assasins too, damn. i cant beleive he was using a .22 caliber, he should have went for something more like a .752, but anyway, we need a hero to save us...and its not bush! I like how you ever-so-subtly threw Martha Stewart in there What type of hero do you propose?/? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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