Reports: Hadron Collider physicist arrested on terrorism charges
A 32-year-old nuclear physicist, part of the Large Hadron Collider project on the Swiss-French border, has been arrested by French police on suspicion of involvement with al-Qaeda.
According to The Independent, the arrest was made after anti-terrorist police had followed his movements for more than a year. Le Figaro newspaper suggested that the man's name had originally come to light in connection with the "Afghan network" of terrorist groups based in Europe.
(Credit:
CC Ethan Hein/Flickr)
Of Algerian origin, he was arrested together with his brother, who was not working on the Collider.
Sources told The Independent that the scientist was not thought to be threatening the Collider itself, but rather was helping terrorists choose nuclear targets for attack.
The French Ministry of the Interior told Le Figaro that, having seized the man's two computers, three hard disks, and several USB keys, it believed the threat was serious. A Ministry spokesman said, "Our investigation showed without doubt that there were targets in France and elsewhere and indicated that we have perhaps avoided the worst."
CERN reassured the Independent that the suspect was not working on any of the major elements of the Collider, nor did he have access to the tunnel in which the Big Bang experiment is to be carried out. The CERN representative added, "None of our research has potential for military application, and all our results are published openly in the public domain."
The Collider is due to for a restart in November. One can only hope it's a safe one.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
How about just reporting the news, not trying to make it.
Rating of this story -10
he DID work on the HC project, just as this article says.
so calm down and do your OWN research dude... i rate your comment -20, mr. know-it-all.
i can't even really tell what you're complaining about. saying a physicist that works on the Large Hadron Collider project is a "Large Hadron Collider physicist?"
uh yeah... that's true. genius.
i think you'd be hard pressed to find anything factually incorrect in this article. hater.
Second there is not "Bing Bang experiment" in CERN or anywhere else.
From the other side all this government BS like: we took his hard disks is just incredible. Anybody who works in High Energy physics has access to hundreds of computers, afs, grid so if he wanted to hide some info he could easily do it. 3 hard disks and a key ... :) very funny.
On top of all of this: his working as a high energy physicist is of no advantage to someone who wants to know about nuclear sites (except that he's probably smart). Other than that he could equally be a truck driver.
Iam not a terrorist in any shape or blabla.But do know the human heart like the palm of my hand.
Neither an arab or islamic.
I was prepparing to sleep at 8;15 after my nightshift in 9-11-01,I did not blink,when we all went throght
the attacks,surprised ?Me? All that came to my mind that day was those Iraq soldiers 10 yrs before,kissing
the hands of the ones bombing them,and the exploits of Israel in the Palestinias territories.
You have to be a saint to not commit yourself to retaliate by any means.
Put this in the bank,some body in the islamic world is prepparing to bring all of us,the ultimate horror.
Here is my humble view,the powers that rule today, believe that is dealing with poor indians,poor blacks,when it
did,and still does its way.Big,big mistake,Islam is as rich or more than religion entities of the west.
In islam you do not contribute what ever you wish to,you must contribute regardless.
Those imans beside of very commited men,had the means to carry it out.
The world is a very big place,how you defend a big country to get infiltrated?If I were wrong,long ago America
had been able to stop the smugling of drugs.
There is this interdiction near Cuba and Haiti,still people get to the shores,and we are talking desperate
poor people without any means.Imagine the ones with resources and zeal.
First of all, it says in his bio that he's part of the blog network, and NOT a cnet employee.
And besides that, where is the cnet law that says all articles on their site must directly pertain to consumer electronics or software?
The fact is, most of the readers on this site fit under the geeks and/or nerds category, and the things Mr. Chris Matyszczyk writes about, if not specifically tech-oriented, are at least of interest to those people.
His bio also says that "he brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world." Not to mention the fact that his blog is called TECHNICALLY INCORRECT. What are you people expecting? Seriously.
Do you really want all of the articles on cnet to sound exactly alike? Variety is the spice of life, after all, and he brings a little more variety to the table. And, he's funny.
I'm really not seeing the problem here. I'd honestly expect more complaints about the kitchen gadgets blog, or the health articles from that new hippie chick (both of which I also like, btw, because my interests span father than iPhones, Windows, PS3s, and digital cameras) as those are much more "off topic" than this guy's.
Sensationalist journalist at it's best.
Guy works with the LHC project group.
Guy is Algerian and has an older brother who doesn't work for LHC or CERN.
Claims he was was helping terrorists choose nuclear targets for attack.
He was not planning to threaten the collider itself.
Had no access to materials that could be used for terrorism.
Cern emphasised that his work at the centre, on one of the smaller experiments linked to the collider, should not be cause for alarm. "None of our research has potential for military application, and all our results are published openly in the public domain," a statement said.
The physicist had no access to the tunnel itself.
His name came up in the investigation of the so-called "Afghan network" of European terror groups.
Investigators intercepted internet messages between the older of the two brothers and people identified as being linked to Aqim. The messages concerned possible French nuclear targets.
The French Ministry of the Interior told Le Figaro that, having seized the man's two computers, three hard disks, and several USB keys, it believed the threat was serious. A Ministry spokesman said, "Our investigation showed without doubt that there were targets in France and elsewhere and indicated that we have perhaps avoided the worst."
Yeah right, doesn't say that was the information on the computers.
Sounds more like the man was arrested for having a brother who had a friend associated with Aqim, which was only recently added to the suspicious groups with possible ties to Al Qaeda.
Arrest on a suspicion of a hunch of a possiblitiy of a precognition from a reader of chicken entrails.
"Hey Alphonse! How many nuclear plants do we have here in France?"
"Uh, I don't know, 6, maybe a dozen? I think there's one in Lyons, and maybe a couple near Paris?"
Quick! Arrest these men! They are planning on blowing up the Presidential Palace!
;-)
- by SustainedHavoc November 7, 2009 3:53 PM PST
- So, they're saying it was wrong to try to get plutonium from the Libyans?
- Like this Reply to this comment
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(20 Comments)Great Scott!