Welcome to the Interior Ministry, Dom

French authorities evacuated stations on a train line that cuts across the French capital, as well as Metro stations that connect to it, on Thursday evening after the CIA warned of possible attacks, police said.

"We got threats of attacks on the RER via the CIA," said the official.

But as the timeframe passed, there was no word that an attack had been carried out. Police said just after 9.30 p.m that the alert was being lifted and that a search of stations found nothing abnormal.

Traffic on the RER-A line that crosses the French capital and links it to the suburbs had been interrupted at 8:15 p.m (1815 GMT), police said. Stations, both in Paris and the suburbs, were evacuated so officers could search.

Also evacuated were Metro stations that connect the underground network to the RER line, the RATP public transport company said.

Dom le Vil, former anti-American Foreign Minister, Appeaser Supreme and dictator/terrorist ass-kisser has been Minister of the Interior for less than a week.

The RER-A line, whose stops inside Paris include big stations Charles de Gaulle - Etoile, Châtelet, and Nation is one of the biggest RER lines.

How how how how can that be? I mean, France is not in Iraq! Nooooooooo!!! Why oh why, why?

Of course, chances are that, just like the threat on Air France around Christmas, thankfully, didn't materialize, the French are going to blame the CIA, and, above all, the Bush administration for paralyzing the Paris subway for an hour not on a basis of a threat but as a mere retaliation from the US against the French government's position over Iraq.

I'm glad to learn the CIA continues to take care of our security. I shudder not at the news of terrorist threats on Paris but at the thought that Dom is in charge now.

Well, maybe "in charge" isn't the right wording.

UPDATE: According to Libération the French Interior Ministry was informed by the Spanish branch of the CIA.

The police department has also made an announcement to the press ahead of the closing of the RER-A line during an hour at the beginning of the evening, mentioning a "bomb alert", without any further information.

And in other news:

On Wednesday, a bag containing wire and a flask with a suspect liquid was discovered in the Parisian subway, at the Alésia station [Line 4].

As a precaution, the Parisian judicial police is investigating. It will determine whether it is a bad joke or a dangerous device.

Immediately after the discovery of the bag, bomb disposal experts had been called and the station evacuated during several hours. . .

[The RATP spokesperson] noted that about 15 suspect bags were reported daily since the attacks in Madrid.

According to France 3 late evening news - which, btw, didn't even mention the story in the headlines during the first 2 minutes of the news and preferred to insist instead on the "worsening of the situation in Iraq" - reported that the bag found yesterday contained "a blast-off device, several cartridges and a flask with an unidentified liquid."

Sounds to me like the situation is worsening. In France.