France Foils Terrorist Plot to Target Eiffel Tower

France foiled an Islamist terrorist plot to target the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and a nuclear power plant, Le Parisien reported Wednesday.

According to the paper, French police arrested last month a 29-year-old Algerian butcher from southern France after decrypting coded messages between the suspect and one of the reportedly highest-ranking members in al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM.

The butcher, known as Ali M, was reportedly asked by his AQIM contact, whose web alias was Redouane18, to make "suggestions concerning how to conduct jihad in the place you are currently."

Ali M suggested targeting nuclear power plants, "planes at the moment of take-off," and a string of French landmark sites, including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum in Paris.

His contact then asked him to travel to Algeria to "benefit from a military training and training in combat techniques." After that, he would return to France, and "await your instructions."

"I am fully ready and prepared," Ali M replied.

The man’s lawyer said he had been brainwashed. "The arrest was a relief for him," Daphné Pugliesi told Le Parisien.

The French government, however, is deeply concerned about the radicalization of its nationals who have gone to fight in Syria.

Those fears were heightened by the arrest of Frenchman Medhi Nemmouche, who spent a year in Syria, after the shooting at the Brussels Jewish Museum in May that left four people dead.