NOTED NUCLEAR PHYSICIST IS AL QAEDA GUY - SLEEP WELL TONIGHT - AT 8:07 A.M. ET:  Reader Joseph J. Gallick alerted us to an earlier version of this story:

An internationally renowned nuclear physicist has admitted to French investigators that he led a second life as an al-Qa'ida "mole", according to French judicial sources.

A picture began to emerge over the weekend of Adlène Hicheur, 32, who works at the "Big Bang" hadron collider on the Swiss-French border, and who is likely to be formally accused today of having "links with a terrorist organisation". However, his brother, Zitouni Hicheur, 25, who was arrested with him last Thursday at their parents' home just south of Lyon, has been released. Investigators believe the elder brother – who has worked on high-level, nuclear research projects in Britain and the United States – acted alone when he sent emails to Algerian members of al- Qa'ida and listed potential terrorist targets in France.

COMMENT:  The French are great at counter-terror, and, sad to say, seem to treat the subject more seriously than we do. 

I hope that we'll now have fewer charges of "fear mongering" directed at those who want to keep the threat of terror actively before the American people.

October 12, 2009