Ever heard of Camolin?

[Adrian II]

An article in Der Spiegel claims that the United States, France, Britain and Germany are collaborating in an anti-terror unit by the name of 'Camolin' based in Paris. Anybody ever heard of them before?

There is no translation available on their English language site. However, the article says the collaboration has become problematic after the story broke that the U.S. may be operating 'Guantanamos' on European soil.

[Geoffrey S]

The article doesn't mention who would be running the gig, does it? The article states that after the brain-storming session all information is sent by the involved nations on a particular subject, and anything flowing from that is shared amongst the participants. Would this be an effective way of operating, or purely a nice little PR stunt?

Either way, more international cooperation across the Atlantic is always welcome; sometimes people seem to get confused about who the enemy actually is.

[Louis VI the Fat]

An article in Der Spiegel claims that the United States, France, Britain and Germany are collaborating in an anti-terror unit by the name of 'Camolin' based in Paris. Anybody ever heard of them before?

In Paris arbeiten europäische Nachrichtendienste mit der CIA in einem Anti-Terror-Zentrum zusammen - das Projekt ist ebenso heikel wie geheim.

Psst, Adrian, try and search for codename 'Alliance Base'.

You'll find what your looking for...

You're not supposed to know this, though. It's not meant for public knowledge.

Selon un article publié dimanche par le quotidien américain «The Washington Post», il existe à Paris «un centre top secret, portant le nom de code 'Alliance Base', mis en place par la CIA et les services secrets français en 2002».
La CIA et la DGSE, les services secrets américains et français, auraient créé en 2002 un centre secret antiterroriste nommé "Alliance Base", basé à Paris et dirigé "par un général français assigné à la DGSE".
Le but : analyser les mouvements transnationaux des terroristes suspects et lancer des opérations pour les capturer ou les espionner. Cette coopération entre les deux pays aurait notamment permis d'interpeller le 3 juin 2003 un allemand converti à l'islam, Christian Ganczarski, considéré comme "l'un des plus importants membres européens d'Al-Qaïda vivants" et depuis incarcéré en France.

[Adrian II]

Psst, Adrian, try and search for codename 'Alliance Base'.

Grand merci, Louis. Mais est-ce la même chose?

[Louis VI the Fat]

How could it not be the same? What are the odds?

It's the only top-secret Gallo-Anglo-Allemand anti-terrorist centre established in Paris after 2001 that I know of.

[Louis VI the Fat]

There is no translation available on their English language site. However, the article says the collaboration has become problematic after the story broke that the U.S. may be operating 'Guantanamos' on European soil.

And let us not be fools about this. Problematic is not the Americans operating a Gulag Archipelago, but their not being able to keep it a secret.

We're quite happy to use the information they gather from it.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

And let us not be fools about this. Problematic is not the Americans operating a Gulag Archipelago, but their not being able to keep it a secret.

We're quite happy to use the information they gather from it.

The USA has never had very many folks who could've played "Iron Felix" 's
role as "sword and shield." Too soft-hearted for the most part and way too used to flapping our beaks. We can do skunk-work projects pretty tight-lipped (though again, not perfectly so).

[Louis VI the Fat]

The USA has never had very many folks who could've played "Iron Felix" 's
role as "sword and shield." Too soft-hearted for the most part and way too used to flapping our beaks. We can do skunk-work projects pretty tight-lipped (though again, not perfectly so).

Ouch, I'm afraid this really goes over my head.
Care to translate this into an English that us poor foreigners can understand?

[Adrian II]

How could it not be the same? What are the odds?

It's the only top-secret Gallo-Anglo-Allemand anti-terrorist centre established in Paris after 2001 that I know of.

Yeah, I found a bit more about it as well. It started out as Alliance Base in 2002. Since then Germany, Canada, Australia and Britain have acceded to the charter, according to German papers. The articles say Camolin prevented a host of terrorist attacks. Their greatest success to date seems to have been the arrest in France on June 3, 2003, of the German muslim convert Christian Ganczarski who was considered at the time to be the head of Al Qaeda in Europe. He was on his way through and gotcha! Apparently Ganczarski did not disappear into the CIA Gulag, but was handled in France by judge of instruction Jean-Louis Bruguière who specialises in terrorism.

Thanks again, Louis!

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Sorry....

Iron Felix was the nickname of Felix Derzhinsky [sp?] founder of the Cheka (later KGB a.k.a. The Sword and Shield of the Party). He was ruthless even by the standards of Bolshevik Russia.

Skunk-works is U.S. slang for highly secret R&D projects.

Pardon. Vous ecrivez en Anglais tres facilement. Ce n'est pas difficile pour oublier l'Anglais n'est pas votre langue primaire.

[Sjakihata]

So this is an international anti-terror unit, right? Just like rainbow six - lush

[yesdachi]

So this is an international anti-terror unit, right? Just like rainbow six - lush

Ding Chavez just signed up.

[Adrian II]

Ding Chavez just signed up.

Yeah, the German article refers to him, too. I must say I got halfway through Clear and Present Nonsense, to about the point where the ninja throwing stars came in.

[Bartix]

muslim convert Christian

A sad day. I have no contribution except to point to irony of name.
Camolin must work also.
I am not being blown to bits by terrorist a lot.