'Secret anti-terror alliance' based in Paris

An anti-terrorism team bringing together the US, France and four other countries to fight al-Qaida has been based in Paris since 2003, it was reported.

The reported mission, codenamed Alliance Base, was first divulged in a July 2005 story by the Washington Post. However, officials have never confirmed the operation’s existence.

But France-Info radio said yesterday it had access to documents that refer to the creation of the secret cell in the first half of 2003 – the height of US-French tensions over the Iraq war and the US war on terror.

The radio station said the base was made up of secret agents from six countries: the US, with the CIA and the FBI represented; Britain, with MI5 and MI6 agents; Canada, Australia, Germany and France. The cell was funded in part by the CIA, it said.

The French defence ministry and France’s main anti-terrorist agency would not comment on the report.

France-Info said the documents provided the location of Alliance Base, at L’Ecole Militaire in the chic 7th district of Paris with other offices at the nearby complex known as Les Invalides, which houses offices, a military museum and Napoleon’s tomb.

The report said the mission of Alliance Base was to fight al Qaida.

The arrest of a German man, Christian Ganczarski, who was described by interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy as a ranking al Qaida member with contacts with Osama bin Laden, was attributed to Alliance Base by the Washington Post.

The paper, which cited anonymous US and European intelligence sources, had said the base was set up to track transnational movement of terror suspects.