French Physicist Charged With Terrorism

So the Large Hadron Collider physicists were trying to destroy the world? Dr. Adlène Hicheur, a French-Algerian scientist working at the CERN atomic collider, was arrested last week and charged on Sunday with terrorism offenses. French authorities, who placed Hicheur under surveillance after a tip from U.S. intelligence, claim to have intercepted electronic communication between the physicist and al Qaeda where Dr. Hicheur expressed interest in perpetrating an attack, leading French anti-terrorist judge Christophe Teissier to open a formal investigation and order the scientist’s detention. Teissier and French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux have come under criticism for what is seen by some as ill-considered and overpublicized arrest; detractors claim that the detention, committed before Hicheur had started any material preparation, came too early, and that the physicist should have been kept under surveillance so that more information about his contacts could have been obtained.