France seeks FBI support for investigation into high-speed train sabotage ahead of Olympics

• The email, signed by an unexpected delegation, was from a riseup.net address.
• French officials suspect domestic far-left groups but have not ruled out foreign involvement.
• The FBI would need to subpoena Riseup to obtain the details, but Riseup is unlikely to comply.

Police in France investigating the sabotage of high-speed rail lines just hours before the Paris Olympics’ Opening Ceremony have requested help from the US FBI, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the French inquiry.

Investigators called in the FBI after media organizations, including Reuters, received an email that police believe may have been sent by the perpetrators. The email outlined a rambling list of grievances but did not explicitly claim responsibility.

The email, signed by “an unexpected delegation,” was sent from a riseup.net address. Riseup.net, a Seattle-based collective, states that it provides “communication and computer resources to allies engaged in struggles against capitalism and other forms of oppression.”

The saboteurs targeted four high-speed lines heading into Paris with incendiary devices, causing travel chaos just hours before a global audience watched the parade of Olympic athletes along the River Seine on July 26. No arrests have been made. French officials suspect domestic far-left groups but have not ruled out foreign involvement.

Since riseup.net is US-based, French police have asked the FBI to press the organization to identify the email account holder, according to the two sources who spoke with Reuters. The FBI declined to comment, and Riseup did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

The FBI would need to subpoena Riseup to obtain the details, but Riseup is unlikely to comply.

“We will actively fight any attempt to subpoena or otherwise acquire any user information,” it says on its website. “We do not share any of our user data with anyone.”

In a 2020 interview with the Belarusian anarchist group Pramen, Riseup stated that it had never complied with a foreign legal request.

“We regularly get legal requests from all around the world. We are not required to respond, and so our policy is to not.”

However, the FBI has previously served warrants on Riseup. In 2012, FBI agents seized a server used by Riseup as part of a probe into bomb threats. In 2017, Riseup reluctantly complied with two FBI warrants seeking the identities of accounts involved in extortion.

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