Charlie Hebdo to publish Mohammad cartoon on front page: Tout est pardonné

Al Qaeda claims French attack, derides Paris rally Wed, Jan 14 14:52 PM EST image 1 of 3 By Sami Aboudi DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, saying it was ordered by the Islamist militant group's leadership for insults to the Prophet Mohammad, according to a video posted on YouTube. Gunmen killed 17 people in three days of violence that began when they shot staff in Charlie Hebdo's offices last week in revenge for the publication of satirical images of the Prophet. One Western source said no hard evidence of a direct operational link to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) had yet been found. But it was the first time that a group had officially claimed responsibility for the attack, which was led by Cherif and Said Kouachi, two French-born brothers of Algerian extraction who had visited Yemen in 2011. In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman said the United States believed the video was authentic but officials were still determining if the claim of responsibility is true. "As for the blessed Battle of Paris, we...claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the Messenger of God," Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, an AQAP ideologue, said in the recording. Ansi said the "one who chose the target, laid the plan and financed the operation is the leadership of the organization", without naming an individual. "ZAWAHRI'S ORDERS" He added that the strike had been carried out in "implementation" of the order of overall al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, who has urged Muslims to attack the West using any means they can find. Ansi also gave credit for the operation to slain AQAP propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki, a preacher cited by one of the gunmen in remarks to French media as a financier of the attack. It was not clear how Awlaki, killed by a U.S. drone in 2011, had a direct link to the Paris assault, but he inspired several militants in the United States and Britain to acts of violence. The purported claim of responsibility put a new spotlight on a group often cited by Western officials as al Qaeda's most dangerous branch. AQAP has recently focused on fighting government forces and Shi'ite rebels in Yemen, but says it still aims to carry out attacks abroad. AQAP mocked a huge rally of solidarity for the victims held in Paris on Sunday, saying the shock on display showed the feebleness of the Western leaders who attended. "Look at how they gathered, rallied and supported each other, strengthening their weakness and dressing their wounds," it said. Al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State released a video that it said showed interviews with three French fighters in Syria praising the attacks, the SITE monitoring service reported. One said: "I say to the French people who think that the Islamic State will not reach Europe: With permission from Allah the Almighty, we will reach Europe – all of Europe." "JOY AT TORMENT" SITE also said Nigeria's Boko Haram group had released a video showing its leader welcoming the attacks. “We have felt joy for what befell the people of France in terms of torment, as their blood was spilled inside their country. Allah is Great!" Abubakar Shekau said in the recording, according to SITE. One Western source described Ansi as an Al Qaeda hawk reputed to have advocated a merger with the even more hardline Islamic State. Two senior Yemeni sources said Cherif and Said Kouachi had met Awlaki in Yemen and undergone weapons training in the eastern province of Marib. However, a Marib tribal leader denied that they had trained there in 2011 or that Awlaki had been based there. AQAP's Yemeni leader, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, was once a close associate of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, whose father was born in Yemen, a neighbor of Saudi Arabia. Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi complained on Wednesday that Yemen had been subjected to a politicized media campaign over the alleged 2011 visit. "The person reported to have traveled to Yemen to learn in three days how to fire a pistol had been detained and under investigation for two years in France," Hadi said, according to the state news agency Saba. Hadi asked why such suspicious elements had been allowed to travel to Yemen and return home without being questioned. (Reporting by Ahmed Tolba in Cairo, Yara Bayoumy in Dubai, Mohammed Ghobari in Sanaa and Lesley Wroughton and Doina Chiacu in Washington, Editing by William Maclean, Dominic Evans and Kevin Liffey) ==== Charlie Hebdo to publish Mohammad cartoon on front page Tue, Jan 13 15:24 PM EST By Tom Heneghan and John Irish PARIS/BOBIGNY, France (Reuters) - Charlie Hebdo will publish a front page showing a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad holding a sign saying "Je suis Charlie" in its first edition since Islamist gunmen attacked the satirical newspaper. With demand surging for the edition due on Wednesday, the weekly planned to print up to 3 million copies, dwarfing its usual run of 60,000, after newsagents reported a rush of orders. Digital versions will be posted in English, Spanish and Arabic, while print editions in Italian and Turkish will also appear. France has drafted in thousands of extra police and soldiers to provide security after 17 people were killed in three days of violence that began when two Islamist gunmen burst into Charlie Hebdo's offices, opening fire in revenge for the paper's publication of satirical images of Mohammad in the past. In a parliamentary session honoring the victims, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said France was "at war against terrorism, jihadism and radical Islamism" but not the Muslim faith, the country's second-largest, which "has its place in France". After his speech, lawmakers broke into a spontaneous rendition of La Marseillaise, a first in parliament's history. The front page of Charlie Hebdo's Jan. 14 edition shows a tearful Mohammad with a sign "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) below the headline: "Tout est pardonné" (All is forgiven). "I wrote 'all is forgiven' and I cried," Renald Luzier, who drew the image, told journalists at the weekly's temporary office at the headquarters of the left-wing daily Liberation. "This is our front page ... it's not the one the terrorists wanted us to draw," he said. "I'm not worried at all... I trust people's intelligence, the intelligence of humor." RIGHT TO BLASPHEME The new edition of Charlie Hebdo, known for its satirical attacks on Islam and other religions, will include other cartoons featuring the Prophet Mohammad and also making fun of politicians and other religions, its lawyer said. "We will not back down, otherwise none of this has any meaning," Richard Malka told French radio. "If you hold the banner 'I am Charlie', that means you have the right to blaspheme, you have the right to criticize my religion." There was no official reaction from the French government on the new edition. At a regular news briefing,

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said: “We absolutely support the right of Charlie Hebdo to publish things like this. Again, that's what happens in a democracy. Period."

Egypt's Grand Mufti warned Charlie Hebdo against publishing a new Mohammad caricature, saying it was a racist act that would incite hatred and upset Muslims around the world. One Paris newspaper vendor said he had received 200 advance orders for Charlie Hebdo and was stopping there as he could no longer cope. French Muslim leaders urged their community to keep calm and respect the right to freedom of expression. "What is uncomfortable for us is the representation of the Prophet," Abdelbaki Attaf told Reuters at the funeral in the northern Paris suburb of Bobigny of Ahmed Merabet, the Muslim policeman shot trying to defend the Hebdo cartoonists. "Any responsible Muslim will find it hard to accept that. But we shouldn't ban it," said Attaf, an administrator at the mosque in nearby Gennevilliers occasionally visited by Cherif Kouachi, one of the Hebdo killers. A separate funeral was held in Jerusalem for four Jewish victims of a hostage-taking in a kosher grocery shop in Paris. GUN BATTLE On Sunday, at least 3.7 million people throughout France marched in support for Charlie Hebdo and freedom of expression. World leaders linked arms to lead more than one million people through Paris in an unprecedented homage to the victims. Three days of violence ended on Friday with a siege at the Jewish grocery in Paris where four hostages and a gunman were killed. Shortly before that, police killed the Hebdo attackers in a gun battle at a print works northwest of the city. In the wake of the violence, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said 10,000 troops were being deployed at sensitive sites including synagogues, mosques and airports. President Francois Hollande's government has avoided referring to the Maghreb and African roots of the three killers. It has also sought to discredit their claim to be acting in the name of Islam, calling them "fanatics". However, France's Islamic council called on the government to step up protection of mosques, saying that at least 50 anti-Islamic acts had been reported since the attack. Abdallah Zekri, head of the National Observatory against Islamophobia, said Muslim sites such as Paris's main mosque were not getting the same protection as Jewish synagogues or schools. "There are websites out there calling for the murder of Muslim leaders and the torching of Muslim religious sites," he told France Info. "Let's stop the double standards." European leaders fear the events in France will add to rising anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe. On Monday, a record 25,000 anti-Islamist protesters marched through the German city of Dresden, many holding banners with anti-immigrant slogans. Le Drian said the government would need to review some of its military capabilities following the attacks and raised the prospect of reconsidering the severely strained military budget when its long-term spending plan comes up for review later this year in parliament. On Tuesday, the parliament voted overwhelmingly to approve France's continued participation in air raids against Islamic State in Iraq. One of last week's killers cited France's military strikes against Muslims as a motivation for his acts. "Islamic State is a terrorist army with fighters from everywhere," Le Drian told Europe 1 radio. "It is an international army that has to be wiped out and that is why we are part of the coalition." (Additional reporting by Mark John, Leigh Thomas and Dominique Vidalon and Emile Picy, Doina Chiacu in Washington; writing by Mark John and Tom Heneghan; editing by Giles Elgood and Philippa Fletcher) ==================================== Jihadism Born in a Paris Park and Fueled in the Prison Yard By JIM YARDLEYJAN. 11, 2015 Photo The Buttes-Chaumont park in Paris where members of the network behind last week’s terror attacks used to work out when they lived in the neighborhood. Credit Agnes Dherbeys for The New York Times Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story Share This Page Email Share Tweet Save more Continue reading the main story PARIS — They jogged together or did calisthenics along the hilly lawns and tulip-dotted gardens of Buttes-Chaumont, the public park in northeastern Paris built more than a century ago under Emperor Napoleon III. Or they met in nearby apartments with a janitor turned self-proclaimed imam, a man deemed too radical by one local mosque because of his call for waging jihad in Iraq. The group of young Muslim men, some still teenagers, became known to the French authorities as the Buttes-Chaumont group after the police in 2005 broke up their pipeline for sending young French Muslims from their immigrant neighborhood to fight against American troops in Iraq. The arrests seemingly shattered the group, and some officials and experts were skeptical that members ever posed a threat to France. Continue reading the main story Related Coverage Open Source: Murdoch and Fox News Mocked on Twitter for Claims About MuslimsJAN. 12, 2015 Huge Show of Solidarity in Paris Against TerrorismJAN. 11, 2015 Amedy Coulibaly, left, and Hayat Boumeddiene. French Police Say Suspect in Attack Evolved From Petty Criminal to TerroristJAN. 10, 2015 Jihadists and Supporters Take to Social Media to Praise Attack on Charlie Hebdo JAN. 10, 2015 But the shocking terror attacks last week in Paris have now made plain that the Buttes-Chaumont network produced some of Europe’s most militant jihadists, including Chérif Kouachi, one of the three terrorists whose three-day rampage left 17 people dead and who was killed by the police. Photo Boubaker al-Hakim, whose photo was shown at a news conference last year in Tunisia, had called on “all of my friends” from the neighborhood to join him in jihad. Credit Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times Other alumni from the group have died in Iraq or remained committed to radical Islam, including a French-Tunisian now aligned with the Islamic State who has claimed responsibility for a handful of assassinations in Tunisia, including the July 2013 murder of a leading left-wing politician. “They were considered the least dangerous,” Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies and specialist on French Islamic terror cells, said of the Buttes-Chaumont group. “And now you see them really at the forefront.” Now French authorities, while still piecing together how such violent attacks could have been staged in the capital, must also be concerned by the possibility that other homegrown groups may be passing unnoticed — or may be similarly underestimated. The attacks suggest the prospect of a potent intermingling among some members of the original Buttes-Chaumont group and other extremists. Their meeting place, apparently, was the French prison system. There, their radicalism hardened as some members of the group came together with other prominent jihadists who were connected to more extensive and dangerous militant networks. For decades, France has endured Islamic terror threats and attacks, from Iranian-inspired groups during the 1980s, to Algerian extremists in the 1990s, to cells linked to Al Qaeda before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. More recently, French and other European security services have grown increasingly alarmed by thousands of young, alienated Muslim citizens who have enlisted for jihad in the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. In each decade, a familiar pattern has emerged: a radicalized minority of European Muslims — whether they have gone abroad for jihad or not — have been angered and inspired by wars the West has waged in the Arab world, Africa and beyond, and have sought to bring the costs of those conflicts home. After French authorities swept up members of the Buttes-Chaumont group in the 2005, during his time in prison Chérif Kouachi came under the sway of an influential French-Algerian jihadist who had plotted to bomb the United States Embassy in Paris in 2001. Continue reading the main story Graphic The Links Among the Paris Terror Suspects and Their Connections to Jihad Where their lives intersected and what may have influenced them. There, he also recruited a holdup artist named Amedy Coulibaly, the man who killed four hostages at a kosher supermarket in Paris on Friday. It is unclear if his older brother, Saïd Kouachi, who also took part in the attack on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper office, was a member of the Buttes-Chaumont group, but the authorities have confirmed that the older brother spent time in Yemen between 2009 and 2012, getting training from a branch of Al Qaeda. Dominique Many, one of the defense lawyers involved with the Buttes-Chaumont group, said prison had only hardened Chérif Kouachi’s radicalism. “He was much more radical when he was judged in 2008 than he was in 2005, when he was arrested,” he said. “So perhaps in jail he became what he is today, the Kouachi that we knew these last days.” His path began in the 19th Arrondissement, the neighborhood around the Buttes-Chaumont park, which then was heavily populated by Muslims and immigrants. The central figure for the group was Farid Benyettou, a janitor born in 1981 to a French-Algerian family. According to a published report on French terror cells by Mr. Filiu, Mr. Benyettou got his first taste of jihadi militancy when one of his sisters married Youssef Zemmouri, who was involved in a French-Algerian terror network. Mr. Zemmouri was arrested in May 1998 as part of an alleged plot to stage a major attack at the World Cup soccer tournament. Soon, Mr. Benyettou was studying literature on Salafism, an Islamic movement, and presenting himself as a self-taught imam. He was expelled from the Pré-Saint-Gervais mosque in Paris but began hanging around the fringes of the Dawa mosque, even as he began collecting a group of young, impressionable followers, including Chérif Kouachi and his childhood friend, Thamer Bouchnak. “One day, they decided to go to a mosque where they met Farid Benyettou,” said Mr. Many, the lawyer, who represented Mr. Bouchnak in the case. “He was a young man, not much older than them, and Thamer and Chérif were impressed.” Proving their devoutness became something of a competition. “They wanted to be the best Muslim,” Mr. Many said, “better than their best friend.” Mr. Benyettou joined the protests in 2004 against the law banning Muslim girls from wearing the veil at public schools and developed a controversial preaching style, railing against the American invasion of Iraq and calling for young French Muslims to go there and fight, if not wage attacks on French soil. Why Reams of Intelligence Did Not Thwart the Paris AttacksJan. 10, 2015 Stéphane Charbonnier, Known as Charb, Relished Defying MoresJan. 08, 2015 Proud to Offend, Charlie Hebdo Carries Torch of Political ProvocationJan. 08, 2015 Video Shows a Paris Gunman Declaring His Loyalty to the Islamic StateJan. 12, 2015 “France is an unbeliever country,” he said in a 2004 interview. “I do not like this country. It does not respect the Muslims, through discrimination and Islamophobia. We have to fight in France, but through legal means. We have to turn democracy against France. But we should not fight with weapons nor throw bombs. France has not declared war on us.” Iraq was different. Already, a few young Muslim men from the 19th Arrondissement had fought in Iraq, most notably Boubaker al-Hakim, who had volunteered to defend the government of Saddam Hussein against the American invasion in 2003. There, according to Mr. Filiu’s study, Mr. Hakim made connections with Syrian and Iraqi security services, and fought. His brother, Redouane, 19, was killed during an American bombing raid in Iraq in July 2004. Two other French 19-year-olds also died fighting in Iraq, while Boubaker al-Hakim granted an interview to the French news media in which he called for his friends from the 19th Arrondissement to come join him. “All of my friends in the 19th, I tell them, come do the jihad,” Mr. Hakim told RTL, a French radio station in March 2003. “All of my brothers who are over there, come, to defend Islam. They are wimps, wimps and buffoons. The Americans aren’t anything.” He continued: “I am ready to fight on the front line. I am even ready to blow myself up. I am ready to blow myself up, to put dynamite and, ‘Boom! Boom!’ We will kill all of the Americans. We are mujahedeen. We want death. We want paradise.” Boubaker al-Hakim was detained by security services in Syria and returned to France. But in his old Parisian neighborhood, he was a hero to many young Muslim men, and Mr. Benyettou, the self-taught imam, quickly sought him out. “Benyettou recruited Boubaker because he was a softy preaching in Paris and Boubaker was the muscle,” said Mr. Filiu, the academic. Soon, Mr. Hakim was using his security connections in Syria and Iraq to arrange for young men to go fight. Some were killed. Eventually, it was time for Chérif Kouachi and Thamer Bouchnak to go fight the Americans. Photo Chérif Kouachi, one of those behind last week’s killing spree, was influenced in prison by Djamel Beghal, pictured here. Credit Gamma The two childhood friends never reached battle. French investigators used wiretaps to uncover the network and arrested everyone in January 2005, days before Chérif Kouachi and Mr. Bouchnak were supposed to ship out. The verdict and sentencing was completed three years later: Mr. Benyettou was sentenced to six years in prison, and Mr. Hakim to seven. The two recruits, Chérif Kouachi and Mr. Bouchnak, were released with time served. During the court proceedings, Mr. Benyettou testified that Chérif Kouachi had expressed his hatred for Jews and said he wanted to “burn synagogues,” “vandalize Jewish stores in Paris” and “terrorize the Jews,” according to a court document in the case. But Mr. Benyettou told the authorities that he had dissuaded his younger disciple and lectured him that the jihad was in Iraq, not France — that if he wanted to “move into action,” he needed to go to “a land of jihad.” Chérif Kouachi initially lied to investigators, according to the court document, saying that Islam appealed to him because it was “calm and moderate.” He later admitted that he planned to go to war in Iraq, but denied that he was anti-Semitic, saying his remarks were “just words” and “that he didn’t believe in what he was saying.” Lawyers in the case noted a decided difference in him by the time he was sentenced in 2008. He had spent nearly three years at Fleury-Mérogis prison, about 20 miles south of Paris, and when he appeared before the judge, he refused to stand. “He refused to stand up because the judge was a woman,” said Mr. Many, the lawyer. “And she represented French justice.” At Fleury-Mérogis, a prison then notorious for bad conditions, Chérif Kouachi received the second stage of his education in militant Islam. A report by French police intelligence, leaked to the news media, documented how Islamic extremism was spreading in the prison system, with some prisoners hanging posters of Osama bin Laden. The report estimated that 200 Muslim inmates were radical enough to “merit attention,” and 95 were categorized as “dangerous.” The report said these inmates could be “time bombs” once released. Charlie Hebdo Editors Explain New Cover Israel Remembers Jewish Paris Victims Paris Pays Respects to Slain Officers Continue reading the main story Video Before Dying, French Suspects Speak Shortly before being killed in police shootouts, Chérif Kouachi and a man believed to have killed a police officer spoke on the phone with a French television station. Video by BFMTV on Publish Date January 9, 2015. Photo by Getty Images. “The whole who’s who of French Islamists was in jail at that time,” Mr. Filiu said. Inside the prison, Chérif Kouachi came under the influence of Djamel Beghal, the French-Algerian jihadist convicted in the 2001 plot to bomb the United States Embassy, and through him met Mr. Coulibaly, the militant who attacked the kosher grocery. In June 2009, Mr. Beghal was released in central France but remained under police supervision, and the two younger men, also no longer in prison, visited and brought him food, money and clothing. By 2010, Mr. Coulibaly had been incorporated into the old Buttes-Chaumont network. He, Thamer Bouchnak and Chérif Kouachi were linked to a new plot to stage an armed prison break to free an Algerian jihadist convicted of an October 1995 bombing of a French subway station. Both Mr. Bouchnak and Mr. Coulibaly were convicted, as was Mr. Beghal, largely based on wiretaps. Chérif Kouachi was linked to the plot but never charged. Court documents uncovered an elaborate plot, using coded language, usually between Mr. Beghal and the imprisoned Algerian terrorist Smaïn Aït Ali Belkacem, who was sentenced to life in prison for his role in an October 1995 bombing at a Paris subway station. In their conversations, they referred to Mr. Coulibaly as the “little black” or the “Negro.” With his criminal past, Mr. Coulibaly was in charge of obtaining weapons. Investigators found 240 cartridges of AK-47 ammunition at his home. “He had the contacts to get cheap weapons easily,” said George Sauveur, one of Mr. Coulibaly’s lawyers. “That is when his role became important to him.” Mr. Coulibaly was released from prison last year. He would later say on a video released Sunday that he had partly coordinated his rampage at the Jewish grocery with the Kouachi brothers. The two dominant figures of the Buttes-Chaumont group, Mr. Benyettou and Mr. Hakim, have taken divergent routes. After serving his prison sentence, Mr. Benyettou studied to become a nurse. This week, his internship at the Parisian hospital where he worked was cut short. Mr. Hakim, the man who had fought in Iraq, is now a member of the Islamic State and has been actively recruiting and building a network of fighters across Northern Africa and in European immigrant communities in recent years. Just as in 2003, when he exhorted his fellow Muslims from the 19th Arrondissement to join the jihad, Mr. Hakim released a video in December, claiming responsibility for the Tunisian assassinations and vowing that the Islamic State was coming to Tunisia, once a colony of France. He was a long way from Paris, but France clearly remained on his mind. “By Allah, the Islamic State is coming to Tunisia, Allah permitting,” he said. “We will tear apart that flag that was raised by the grandchildren of Charles de Gaulle, the grandchildren of Napoleon.” Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting from Paris, and Carlotta Gall from Algiers, Algeria. A version of this article appears in print on January 12, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Jihadism Born in a Paris Park and Fueled in the Prison Yard. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe =========

SEVEN ONE of PARIS, At least 11 dead in Paris shooting: police

Charlie Hebdo columnist on why latest edition depicts Prophet Muhammad The French magazine Charlie Hebdo has revealed the cover of its first issue since the bloody attack on its offices. It shows a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed holding a 'Je Suis Charlie' sign under the headline "All Is Forgiven." Zineb El Rhazoui, a Charlie Hebdo columnist who was on holiday in Morocco when the attack happened, told Today the Charlie Hebdo staff are proud of the latest edition. She said she was very happy with the cover and that "if the terrorists hadn't killed my colleagues it would have been about culture or sport". "Now three million people will have the Prophet Muhammad's drawing at home". On forgiveness she said: "Charlie Hebdo's team needs to forgive. We know that the struggle is not with people but with an ideology". First broadcast Today programme 13 January 2015. ========= A former White House official says the terrorist attack that killed 12 people on Wednesday in Paris was a false flag operation “designed to shore up France’s vassal status to Washington.” Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, who was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, made the remarks in an article published on Thursday. “The suspects can be both guilty and patsies.((A person easily taken advantage of, cheated, blamed, or ridiculed.)) Just remember all the terrorist plots created by the FBI that served to make the terrorism threat real to Americans,” he wrote. He said that the French economy is suffering from the US-imposed sanctions against Russia. “Shipyards are impacted from being unable to deliver Russian orders due to France’s vassalage status to Washington, and other aspects of the French economy are being adversely impacted by sanctions that Washington forced its NATO puppet states to apply to Russia.” Vassalage: 1. The condition of being a vassal. 2. The service, homage, and fealty required of a vassal. 3. A position of subordination or subjection; servitude. 4. The land held by a vassal; a fief. 5. Vassals, especially those of a particular lord, considered as a group. Dr. Roberts stated that French President Francois Hollande this week said that the sanctions against Russia should end. “This is too much foreign policy independence on France’s part for Washington.” He added that the CIA has apparently resurrected a policy that it followed against Europeans during the post-WW II era when the US spy agency would carry out attacks in European states and blame them on communist groups. Dr. Roberts said now the US agencies have planned false flag operations in Europe to create hatred against Muslims and bring European countries under Washington’s sphere of influence. He noted that “the attack on Charlie Hebdo was an inside job and that people identified by NSA as hostile to the Western wars against Muslims are going to be framed for an inside job designed to pull France firmly back under Washington’s thumb.” The widely read columnist stated that the US “government tells Americans whatever story the government puts together and sits and laughs at the gullibility of the public.” ========

Posted 18 January 2013 - 02:09 AM The West and the Islamists have agendas that may meet or contradict each other. Secular leaders like Saddam, Assad and Gaddafi have imprisoned, tortured and killed Islamists, sometimes with Western help. As a tactic, the fundamentalists accepted Western help to topple secular governments hoping to settle scores with the USraeli-led West on a later date. This is precisely what has happened in Libya where the US ambassador, Christopher Evans was killed on September 11, 2012, the 11th anniversary of 9/11 by no other than Al-Qaeda men. These 'rebels' were financed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, supported by Jordanian, British and French Special-forces on the ground, armed by the CIA and its affiliated agencies, NATO planes were used as their airforce while the US cruise missiles pestered Gaddafi radars and defences. The attack on the US consulate in Benghazi was in retaliation for the role of the CIA and MI-6 in the arrest and handing of Libyan Islamists to Gaddafi where they were imprisoned and torured. The on-going French-led war on Islamists in Mali may trigger an open war between the militant Islamists with their newly found strength and the West, threatening Western interests and nations from Nigeria to Somalia. Ironically, the rebels in Mali use arms supplied to them in Libya by former president of France, N. Sarkozy in order to topple Gaddafi. As long as the Wise Europeans are infected with the chronically short sighted US foreign policy, there will be more ironies, miltary interventions and violence. The US plays a major role in the appointment of key officials in NATO, the European Union and individual European Governments, mainly to serve US interests and ensuring the security of Israel; not necessarily to serve Europe's Vital interests. The ground in the M.E. grows religious and political weeds as well as useful fruits and crops. The M.E. that produced the three great religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam is currently infested with tribes fighting each other and practice cruelty and violence that predated Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. For example, the message of Moses "Though shall not kill" has been converted by his followers into a campaign of assassination with impunity. The followers of Jesus wage perpetual wars throughout the world disregarding his message of "love and forgiveness". And the followers of Mohammed, the lord of "equality between all people" and who recognized Moses and Jesus as holy profits, justify killing Muslims, Christians and Jews after labeling them as infidels. Naturally, there are good Jews. Christians and Muslims, but they are becoming an extinct breed. In the short term, things don't look good and killings by sophisticated machines or by primitive means will continue for the foreseeable future. What a waste! After investing so much on education and culture the world went to produce ruthless killers like, Catholic Hitler, Jewish Sharon, Muslim Saddam or Protestant G.W. Bush. Like talking to a wall! When highly-educated and moderate Dr Khatemi of Iran suggested a dialogue between civilisations, the US labelled his country Iran as member of the "Axis of Evil". The Iranians stayed away from Khatemi and went to vote for Ahmefinejad. Similarly, Yasser Arafat called for a just peace, but he was poisoned, his PLO was undermined and the Palestinians went to vote for Hamas. To whom should you talk these days while Western Democracies are manipulated by greedy cartels promoting wars, sanctions and hatred between nations. It is like the Jewish Rabbi who prayed for peace for 40 years infront of the wailing wall. When asked whether God has answered in prayers, he said " No, it was like talking to a wall." Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times

================ French police seal off town as they close in on newspaper killing suspects Fri, Jan 09 08:56 AM EST image 1 of 19 By John Irish DAMMARTIN-EN-GOELE, France (Reuters) - French anti-terrorist police sealed off a small northern town and helicopters hovered overhead after a police source said two men believed to have carried out an attack on a satirical journal took at least one person hostage in a small print works. Earlier, police had chased a vehicle at high speed along a main road heading towards Paris as one of France's biggest security operations in recent times unfolded. Gunshots rang out and the suspects abandoned their car in Dammartin-en-Goele, a small town of about 8,000 residents. Police trucks, ambulances and armored vehicles descended on the area close to Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport after the suspects took refuge with at least one hostage in a building on an industrial estate, according to police sources. Police quickly blocked all entrances to the town seeking to limit the scale of any siege and confine the suspects, French-born sons of Algerian-born parents. Residents were asked to stay off the streets. "All residents are requested to remain at home. Children are to be kept safe in school,” the municipal website said. The two suspects have been on the run since they stormed the Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo weekly newspaper on Wednesday, killing ten journalists and two police officers in an attack that raised security fears across the world. The journal was known for its irreverent satirical treatment of Islam as well as other religions and political leaders. Yves Albarello, local MP for the Seine-et-Marne department and member of the crisis cell put in place by authorities, told iTELE the two suspects had let it be known that they wanted to die “as martyrs”. Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told iTELE television: "We are almost certain it is those two individuals holed up in that building." Separately, a police source told Reuters that the man who killed a policewoman in a southern suburb of Paris on Thursday and fled the scene was a member of the same Islamist group as the two suspects in the Charlie Hebdo shooting. The source said the three men were all members of the same Paris cell that a decade ago sent young French volunteers to Iraq to fight U.S. forces. Cherif Kouachi served 18 months in prison for his role in the group. Western security services had been keen to trace any links between the two suspects and militants overseas. A senior Yemeni intelligence source told Reuters one of the two was in Yemen for several months in 2011 for religious studies. The danger of hostage taking or of a second attack has been a central concern of security services since the attack that has rocked France and raised questions about policing, militancy, religion and censorship. WORLDWIDE CONCERN World leaders described Wednesday's attack on Charlie Hebdo as an assault on democracy; but al Qaeda's North Africa branch praised the gunmen as "knight(s) of truth". Yohann Bardoux, a plumber whose office is two doors down from the printing shop where the hostage-taking was playing out stayed away from work after hearing gunfire. But he said his mother was in the building next door to the printing shop. "Of course I'm worried about her, I hope it all comes down soon, and turns out well," Bardoux said. "They are everywhere. It's really jumping. They've blocked the whole zone, we've got helicopters overhead, the police presence is impressive." A spokesman for Charles-de-Gaulle airport said all its runways were open but that landings were only taking place at the two south terminals. A senior Yemeni intelligence source told Reuters one of the two suspects was in Yemen for several months in 2011 for religious studies; but there was no confirmed information whether he was trained by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The gunmen shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) as they carried out the attack, which has been described by President Francois Hollande and other world leaders as an attack on the fundamentals of democracy. The attack has raised fears in other capitals of similar actions. Western leaders have long feared Islamist militants drawn into fighting in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere could launch attacks in their home countries on their return. London suffered an assault on its transport system in 2005, four years after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. More recent attacks have been carried out by militants in countries including India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Kenya. The fugitive suspects are both in their early 30s, and were already under police surveillance. One was jailed for 18 months for trying to travel to Iraq a decade ago to fight as part of an Islamist cell. Police said they were "armed and dangerous". U.S. and European sources close to the investigation said on Thursday that one of the brothers, Said Kouachi, was in Yemen in 2011 for several months training with AQAP, one of the group's most active affiliates. A Yemeni official familiar with the matter said the Yemen government was aware of the possibility of a connection between Said Kouachi and AQAP, and was looking into any possible links. U.S. government sources said Said Kouachi and his brother Cherif Kouachi were listed in two U.S. security databases, a highly classified database containing information on 1.2 million possible counter-terrorism suspects, called TIDE, and the much smaller "no fly" list maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center, an inter-agency unit. U.S. television network ABC reported that the brothers had been listed in the databases for "years". Amid local media reports of isolated incidents of violence directed at Muslims in France, Hollande and his Socialist government have called on the French not to blame the Islamic faith for the Charlie Hebdo killings. Hollande has held talks with opposition leaders and, in a rare move, invited Marine Le Pen, leader of the resurgent anti-immigrant National Front, to his Elysee Palace for discussions on Friday. QUESTIONS OVER POLICING French people held a national day of mourning on Thursday. The bells of Notre Dame pealed for those killed in the attack on the left-leaning slayer of sacred cows whose cartoonists have been national figures since the Parisian counter-cultural heyday of the 1960s and 1970s. Many European newspapers either re-published Charlie Hebdo cartoons or lampooned the killers with images of their own. The younger brother's jail sentence for trying to fight in Iraq a decade ago, and more recent tangles with the authorities over suspected involvement in militant plots, raised questions over whether police could have done more to watch them. Cherif Kouachi was arrested on Jan. 25, 2005 preparing to fly to Syria en route to Iraq. He served 18 months of a three-year sentence. "He was part of a group of young people who were a little lost, confused, not really fanatics in the proper sense of the word," lawyer Vincent Ollivier, who represented Cherif in the case, told Liberation daily. In 2010 he was suspected of being part of a group that tried to break from prison Smain Ali Belkacem, a militant jailed for the 1995 bombings of Paris train and metro stations that killed eight people and wounded 120. The case against Cherif Kouachi was dismissed for lack of evidence. (Additional reporting by Paris and U.S. bureaus; Editing by Mark John, Ralph Boulton and Peter Millership) ====== Charlie Hebdo: Executed Muslim police officer asked 'are you going to kill me?' before he was murdered Jan 08, 2015 22:40 By Anthony Bond Ahmed Merabet was killed by terrorists during the devastating attack at Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris 47 Shares Share Tweet +1 Email Horrific: This picture is believed to show policeman Ahmed Merabet, who was executed in the street by terrorists A Muslim police officer executed in the street during the Charlie Hebdo terror attack asked his killer 'are you going to kill me' before he was shot dead. Horrific video footage from the scene of the attack in Paris - which left 12 people dead - showed Ahmed Merabet being shot dead by the terrorist. It can now be revealed that the 42-year-old bicycle patrolman said to one of the gunman: "Are you going to kill me?". The killer replied: "'It's okay, chief" before shooting him dead. The policeman's death has led to an outpouring of sympathy in France. His name was trending across Twitter today under the rallying cry #JeSuisAhmed - or “I Am Ahmed”. Many of the thousands who showed solidarity with the officer pointed out he died protecting those who poked fun at his religion. A tweet by Dyab Abou Jahjah, retweeted more than 5,730 times, said: “I am not Charlie, I am Ahmed the dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture and I died defending his right to do so. #JesuisAhmed”. Mr Merabet’s colleagues were in shock at the brutal way he was “shot down like a dog”. The French police union’s departmental secretary, Rocco Contento, said he was a very quiet and conscientious man. “We are all extremely shocked. The police are deeply affected by the video of the murder of their colleague circulating on some networks,” he said. It is understood that Mr Merabet was a married Parisian cycle cop assigned to the 11th arrondissement – the Paris neighbourhood where Charlie Hebdo’s office is located and known for its dining and fine wines. As the French magazine vowed to publish next week in defiance of the massacre, one French mourner wrote: “Ahmed Merabet died protecting the innocent from hate. I salute him.” Mr Merabet, originally from Livry-Gargan in north eastern Paris, had been a police officer for eight years. Charlie Hebdo VIEW GALLERY  Tributes for Mr Merabet continuing pouring in today, with one person writing: “RIP Ahmed Merabet, French policeman, murdered protecting people in Paris”. Alan Mendoza said: “Important to note that amid the carnage today a brave Muslim policeman was murdered by those claiming to represent Islam.” His family have said they wish to bury him at a famous Muslim cemetery in France. Located just north-east of Paris, it is the burial ground of more than 7,000 Muslims. Others, shocked at revenge attacks on mosques, prayer halls and a kebab shop near a Muslim temple, used Mr Merabet’s to appeal for calm. “I, a Muslim, was killed protecting ur right to express yourself, only for u to now use it to call for hate against my people? #JeSuisAhmed,” said one. ================ (Reuters) - French anti-terrorism police converged on an area northeast of Paris on Thursday after two brothers suspected of being behind an attack on a satirical newspaper were spotted at a gasoline station in the region. France's prime minister said on Thursday he feared the Islamist militants who killed 12 people could strike again as a manhunt for two men widened across the country. Two police sources said that the men were seen armed and wearing cagoules in a Renault Clio car at a petrol station on a secondary road in Villers-Cotterets some 70 kilometers from the French capital. Amid French media reports the men had abandoned their car, Bruno Fortier, the mayor of neighboring Crépy-en-Valois, said helicopters were circling his town and police and anti-terrorism forces were deploying en masse. "It's an incessant waltz of police cars and trucks," he told Reuters, adding that he could not confirm reports the men were holed up in a house in the area. A policewoman was killed in a shootout in Paris earlier in the day, but police sources could not immediately confirm a link with Wednesday's killings at the Charlie Hebdo weekly newspaper that marked the worst attack on French soil for decades. National leaders and allied states described the assault on Charlie Hebdo, known for its lampooning of Islam and other religions as well as politicians, as an assault on democracy. The bells of Notre-Dame cathedral rang out during a minute's silence observed across France and beyond. Many European newspapers either re-published Charlie Hebdo cartoons or mocked the killers with images of their own. Montrouge Mayor Jean-Loup Metton said the policewoman and a colleague were attending a reported traffic accident when Thursday's shooting occurred. Witnesses said the assailant fled in a Renault Clio and police sources said he wore a bullet-proof vest and had a handgun and assault rifle. But one police officer at the scene told Reuters he did not appear to resemble the Charlie Hebdo shooters. Prime Minister Manuel Valls was asked on RTL radio after an emergency cabinet meeting with President Francois Hollande whether he feared a further attack. "That question is entirely legitimate, that's obviously our main concern, and that is why thousands of police and investigators have been mobilized to catch these individuals." "ARMED AND DANGEROUS" Police released photographs of the two French nationals still at large, calling them "armed and dangerous": brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, aged 32 and 34, both of whom were already under watch by security services. Late Wednesday, an 18-year-old man turned himself into police in Charleville-Mézières near the Belgian border as police carried out searches in Paris and the northeastern cities of Reims and Strasbourg. A legal source said he was the brother-in-law of one of the main suspects and French media quoted friends as saying he was in school at the moment of the attack. French social media carried numerous reports of police helicopters across northern France. Police tightened security at transport hubs, religious sites, media offices and stores. There were scattered, unconfirmed reports of sightings of the assailants and police increased their presence at entry points to Paris. One police source talked of a type of “psychosis” setting in with various reports and rumors, but police had to take each of them seriously. The defense ministry said it had brought in an additional 200 soldiers from parachute regiments across the country to Paris to take the number of military patrolling the capital's streets to 850. France held a day of mourning for journalists and police officers shot dead by black-hooded gunmen using Kalashnikov assault rifles. French tricolor flags flew at half mast. Tens of thousands took part in vigils across France on Wednesday to defend freedom of speech, many wearing badges declaring "Je Suis Charlie" (I Am Charlie) in support of the newspaper and the principle of freedom of speech. Britain's Daily Telegraph depicted two masked gunman outside the doors of Charlie Hebdo saying to each other: "Be careful, they might have pens". Many German newspapers republished Charlie Hebdo cartoons. The attack raised questions of security in countries across the Western world and beyond. Muslim leaders condemned the shooting but some have expressed fears of a rise in anti-Islamic feeling in a country with a large Muslim population. France's Muslim Council called on all French Muslims to join the minute of silence and said it was issuing a call for "all Imams in all of France's mosques to condemn violence and terrorism wherever it comes from in the strongest possible way." Police sources said the window of a kebab shop next to a mosque in the town of Villefrance-sur-Saone was blown out by an overnight explosion. Local media said there were no wounded. Security services have long feared that nationals drawn into Islamist militant groups fighting in Syria and Iraq could return to their home countries to launch attacks - though there is no suggestion that the two suspects named by police had actually fought in either of these countries. Britain's Cobra security committee met on Thursday. London's transport network was target of an attack in 2005, four years after 9/11. There have been attacks in countries including Spain, Kenya, Nigeria, India and Pakistan that have raised fears in Europe. Islamist militants have repeatedly threatened France with attacks over its military strikes on Islamist strongholds in the Middle East and Africa, and the government reinforced its anti-terrorism laws last year. A total of seven people had been arrested since the attack, he said. Police sources said they were mostly acquaintances of the two main suspects. One source said one of the brothers had been identified by his identity card, left in the getaway car. COURTING CONTROVERSY Cherif Kouachi served 18 months in prison on a charge of criminal association related to a terrorist enterprise in 2005. He was part of an Islamist cell enlisting French nationals from a mosque in eastern Paris to go to Iraq to fight Americans in Iraq and arrested before leaving for Iraq himself. The gunmen stormed the journal's offices on Wednesday killing journalists, including its founder and its current editor-in-chief, and shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest). They then escaped in a black car, shouting, according to one witness, that they had "avenged the Prophet". Charlie Hebdo has published numerous cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad. Jihadists online repeatedly warned that the magazine would pay for its mockery. Charlie Hebdo's lawyer Richard Malka said the newspaper would be published next Wednesday with one million copies compared to its usual print run of 60,000. Satire has deep historical roots in Europe where ridicule and irreverence are seen as a means of chipping away at the authority of sometimes self-aggrandizing political and religious leaders and institutions. Governments have frequently jailed satirists and their targets have often sued, but the art is widely seen as one of the mainstays of a liberal democracy. French writer Voltaire enraged many in 18th century France with caustic depictions of royalty and the Catholic Church. The German magazine Simplicissimus in its 70-year existence saw cartoonists jailed and fined for ridiculing figures from Kaiser Wilhelm to church leaders, Nazi grandees and communists. "Freedom assassinated" wrote Le Figaro daily on its front page, while Le Parisien said: "They won't kill freedom". The last major attack in Paris was in the mid-1990s when the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) carried out a spate of attacks, including the bombing of a commuter train in 1995 which killed eight people and injured 150. (Additional reporting by Valerie Parent, Sophie Louet, Alexandria Sage, Emmanuel Jarry, Nicolas Bertin, Hannah Murphy, Ingrid Melander; editing by Mark John, Ralph Boulton and Peter Millership) Police hunt brothers after Paris attack, third man hands himself in Wed, Jan 07 22:14 PM EST image 1 of 36 By John Irish and Antony Paone PARIS/REIMS (Reuters) - The youngest of three French nationals being sought by police for a suspected Islamist militant attack that killed 12 people at a satirical magazine on Wednesday turned himself into police, an official at the Paris prosecutor's office said. The hooded attackers stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for lampooning Islam and other religions, in the most deadly militant attack on French soil in decades. French police were still in a huge manhunt for two of the attackers who escaped by car after shooting dead some of France's top cartoonists as well as two police officers. Police issued a document to forces across the region saying the men were being sought for murder in relation to the Charlie Hebdo attack. The document, reviewed by a Reuters correspondent, named them as Said Kouachi, born in 1980, Cherif Kouachi, born in 1982, both from Paris, and Hamyd Mourad, born in 1996. The police source said one of them had been identified by his identity card, which had been left in the getaway car. An official at the Paris prosecutor's office said the youngest of the three had turned himself in at a police station in Charleville-Mézières, some 230 kilometers northeast of Paris near the Belgium border. BFM TV, citing unidentified sources, said the man had decided to go to the police after seeing his name in social media. It said other arrests had taken place in circles linked to the two brothers. The police source said Cherif Kouachi had previously been tried on terrorism charges and served 18 months in prison. He was charged with criminal association related to a terrorist enterprise in 2005. He had been part of an Islamist cell that enlisted French nationals from a mosque in eastern Paris to go to Iraq to fight Americans in Iraq. He was arrested before leaving for Iraq to join militants. Police published pictures of the two brothers Thursday morning calling for witnesses and describing the two men as "armed and dangerous." The police source said anti-terrorism police searching for the suspects and links to them had carried out searches in Reims, Strasbourg and Paris as part of the investigation. A Reuters reporter in Reims saw anti-terrorism police secure a building before a forensics team entered an apartment there while dozens of residents looked on. EXECUTIONS During the attack, one of the assailants was captured on video outside the building shouting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is Greatest) as shots rang out. Another walked over to a police officer lying wounded on the street and shot him point-blank with an assault rifle before the two calmly climbed into a black car and drove off. The third man was not seen in any of the footage and it was not clear if he was directly involved in the attack. A police union official said there were fears of further attacks, and described the scene in the offices as carnage, with a further four wounded fighting for their lives. Tens of thousands joined impromptu rallies across France in memory of the victims and to support freedom of expression. The government declared the highest state of alert, tightening security at transport hubs, religious sites, media offices and department stores as the search for the assailants got under way. Some Parisians expressed fears about the effect of the attack on community relations in France, which has Europe's biggest Muslim population. "This is bad for everyone - particularly for Muslims despite the fact that Islam is a fine religion. It risks making a bad situation worse," Cecile Electon, an arts worker who described herself as an atheist, told Reuters at a vigil on Paris's Place de la Republique attended by 35,000 people. Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly) is well known for courting controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders of all faiths and has published numerous cartoons ridiculing the Prophet Mohammad. Jihadists online repeatedly warned that the magazine would pay for its ridicule. The last tweet on its account mocked Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the militant Islamic State, which has taken control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria and called for "lone wolf" attacks on French soil. There was no claim of responsibility. However, a witness quoted by 20 Minutes daily newspaper said one of the assailants cried out before getting into his car: "Tell the media that it is al Qaeda in Yemen!" Supporters of Islamic State and other jihadist groups hailed the attack on Internet sites. Governments throughout Europe have expressed fear that fighters returning from Iraq or Syria could launch attacks in their home countries. "Today the French Republic as a whole was the target," President Francois Hollande said in a prime-time evening television address. He declared a national day of mourning on Thursday. BARBARIC ACT An amateur video broadcast by French television stations shows two hooded men in black outside the building. One of them spots a wounded policeman lying on the ground, hurries over to him and shoots him dead at point-blank range with a rifle. In another clip on television station iTELE, the men are heard shouting in French: "We have killed Charlie Hebdo. We have avenged the Prophet Mohammad." Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the assailants killed a man at the entrance of the building to force entry. They then headed to the second floor and opened fire on an editorial meeting attended by eight journalists, a policeman tasked with protecting the magazine's editorial director and a guest. "What we saw was a massacre. Many of the victims had been executed, most of them with wounds to the head and chest," Patrick Hertgen, an emergencies services medic called out to treat the injured, told Reuters. A Reuters reporter saw groups of armed policeman patrolling around department stores in the shopping district and there was an armed gendarme presence outside the Arc de Triomphe. U.S. President Barack Obama described the attack as cowardly and evil, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel was among European leaders condemning the shooting. The dead included co-founder Jean "Cabu" Cabut and editor-in-chief Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier. Dalil Boubakeur, head of the French Council of the Muslim faith (CFCM), condemned an "immensely barbaric act also against democracy and freedom of the press" and said its perpetrators could not claim to be true Muslims. Rico, a friend of Cabut, who joined the Paris vigil, said his friend had paid for people misunderstanding his humor. "These attacks are only going to get worse. It's like a tsunami, it won't stop and what's happening today will probably feed the National Front," he told Reuters without giving his family name. The far-right National Front has won support on discontent over immigration to France. Some fear Wednesday's attack could be used to feed anti-Islamic agitation. National Front leader Marine Le Pen said it was too early to draw political conclusions but added: "The increased terror threat linked to Islamic fundamentalism is a simple fact." France last year reinforced its anti-terrorism laws and was on alert after calls from Islamist militants to attack its citizens and interests in reprisal for French military strikes on Islamist strongholds in the Middle East and Africa. The last major attack in Paris was in the mid-1990s when the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) carried out a spate of attacks, including the bombing of a commuter train in 1995 which killed eight people and injured 150. (Additional reporting by Nicolas Bertin; Writing by John Irish; Editing by Ralph Boulton, David Stamp, Toni Reinhold and Bernard Orr) ============= Response to Paris attacks caught between two risks The killings at the Charlie Hebdo weekly put French and European authorities at the confluence of two dangers – individual acts of violence and excessive countermeasures. Fringe parties may benefit if the response is too weak. Media freedom might suffer if it is too strong. Dick's buyout has financially sporting chance The $6 bln U.S. golf-to-guns vendor is mulling a sale to private equity. Low debt at Dick’s Sporting Goods means even with a chunky premium, attractive returns look possible. It would, however, require healthy growth when stiff online competition is challenging many retailers. Sony studio damage assessment misses big picture Boss Kazuo Hirai’s claim that “The Interview”-linked cyberattack won’t hurt the company financially may be funnier than the movie itself. Repeated and successful breaches keep damaging Sony’s brand. It’s a vicious circle that makes more hacks likely. Help wanted: New top U.S. number cruncher Republicans, who will control Congress in 2015, are seeking an experienced wonk to lead its budget office. The ideal candidate adores dynamic scoring and private competition and can endure work being scrutinized by the public. Position’s existence subject to political whims. Breakingviews TV: Valuing Snapchat The message service is now worth more than $10 bln. Antony Currie and Robert Cyran explain that's due to an expected virtuous circle of users, ads and apps. It's a big assumption. Watch the view Breakingviews Predictions Panel Join us Jan. 12 at Reuters HQ to celebrate the launch of Predictions 2015. Eric Cantor, Ruth Porat, Bob Diamond, Roger Altman and Marco Annunziata will join Editor Rob Cox for a discussion on what to expect in the year ahead, followed by cocktails. RSVP for the event here. Follow Breakingviews on Facebook | Follow Breakingviews on Twitter ============== Live: 'Terrorists' in deadly shooting at Paris HQ of French magazine Cartoonist Corine Rey, aka “Coco”, has told the weekly Humanité that she was the one who, at gunpoint, let the men inside the building of Charlie Hebdo. “They shot Wolinski, Cabu… it lasted about five minutes… I took cover under a desk… they spoke perfect French… they said they were Al Qaida,” Rey was quoted as saying. © Philippe Dupeyrat, AFP | Firefighters carry an injured man on a stretcher in front of the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris Text by FRANCE 24 Latest update : 2015-01-07 Gunmen have attacked French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in the heart of Paris Wednesday, with police officials reporting 11 fatalities and 10 wounded. President François Hollande called it a ‘terrorist attack’. Follow FRANCE 24’s live blog. French President Francois Hollande spoke to the press at the scene and stated that the shooting was “undoubtedly a terrorist attack”. Hollande added that “several terrorist attacks were thwarted in recent weeks”. The gunmen were armed with Kalashnikovs and a rocket-launcher, according to sources close to the investigation. The government raised its alert level to the highest possible in the greater Paris region. Charlie Hebdo has drawn repeated threats for its caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, among other controversial sketches. A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo in November 2011 after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover =========== Wed, Jan 07 07:22 AM EST image 1 of 7 By Nicholas Vinocur PARIS (Reuters) - Black-hooded gunmen shot dead at least 11 people at the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a publication firebombed in the past after publishing cartoons lampooning Muslim leaders and the Prophet Mohammad, police said. President Francois Hollande headed to the scene of the attack and the government said it was raising France's security level to the highest notch. "This is a terrorist attack, there is no doubt about it," Hollande told reporters. Another 10 people were injured in the incident and police union official Rocco Contento described the scene inside the offices as "carnage". "About a half an hour ago two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs (rifles)," witness Benoit Bringer told the TV station. "A few minutes later we heard lots of shots," he said, adding that the men were then seen fleeing the building. France is already on high alert after calls last year from Islamist militants to attack its citizens and interests in reprisal for French military strikes on Islamist strongholds in the Middle East and Africa. British Prime Minister David Cameron described the attack as sickening. Late last year, a man shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest") injured 13 by ramming a vehicle into a crowd in the eastern city of Dijon. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said at the time France had "never before faced such a high threat linked to terrorism". A firebomb attack gutted the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a publication that has always courted controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders, in November 2011 after it put an image of the Prophet Mohammad on its cover. The last tweet on Charlie Hebdo's account mocked Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State, which has taken control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria. (Reporting By Brian Love, Nicholas Vinocur and Sophie Louet; Editing by Mark John, Andrew Callus and John Irish and Ralph Boulton) ========================= British Prime Minister David Cameron condemns attack on the Paris offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo as 'sickening' - President Hollande calls Paris magazine shooting an 'undoubtedly terrorist attack'; 11 dead, 4 critical - @AFP France raises anti-terror alert level in greater Paris area to highest level after attack at Charlie Hebdo headquarters - @gavreilly, @heatherfoxnews French newspaper attacked in Paris by gunmen At least one journalist killed and police officers injured in attack on satirical newspaper in French capital. 07 Jan 2015 11:29 GMT | Politics, Europe Paris police say shots have been fired at a French satirical newspaper, killing at least one person, a police union official has said. A police official in Paris told the Associated Press on Wednesday, that at least one journalist was killed, and three police officers were injured during the attack on the newspaper. Police had few details on Wednesday's attack on the weekly, Charlie Hebdo. Benoit Bringer, a journalist with Agence Premiere Ligne who saw the attack, told the iTele network he saw several masked men armed with machine guns. Armed gunmen stormed the offices of French satirical weekly leaving "casualties", said the publication's cartoonist. "I think there are casualties," Renaud Luzier told AFP news agency. 3 attackers killed, 3 police wounded following attack at a police academy in Khost, Afghanistan - @euamiri Security officials double death toll in Yemen suicide bombing, saying blast killed at least 30 - @AP End of alert ==================== A Muslim-run France? Novel sparks Islamophobia row © Lionel Bonaventure/AFP Text by Tony TODD Latest update : 2015-01-07 Famed French author Michel Houellebecq has insisted that his novel “Submission”, which envisions a France ruled by a Muslim government, is not a racist scare story. Nevertheless the novel, which hits bookstores Wednesday, has sparked a media storm. “Submission”, which is released in French on Wednesday, has been the subject of intense debate in recent weeks, particularly for its portrayal of Islam. In 2001 Houellebecq described Islam as “the stupidest of all religions”, a position he has since vocally distanced himself from. But his latest book has stirred criticism from all quarters and been widely attacked by the French media, politicians, and on social media. France’s Muslim community accuse the author of inciting Islamophobia in a country with Europe’s biggest Muslim population. The book's publication could not come at a more sensitive time as France is currently undergoing a fierce debate on Islam and national identity. Leading the barrage is Laurent Joffrin, editor-in-chief of left-leaning newspaper Libération, who argues that the novel “will mark the date in history when the ideas of the far-right made a grand return to serious French literature”. “This is a book that ennobles the ideas of the [far right anti-Europe and anti-immigration] National Front (FN) party,” he added. Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right FN, weighed into the highly-charged debate, stating, “What is very interesting about this book is that it is a fiction, but a fiction that could one day become reality…” While, philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, a member of France’s prestigious Académie Française, described Houellebecq as a man, “with his eyes wide open and who is not intimidated by political correctness”. Profound changes to French society “Submission” is set in 2022, at the end of a hypothetical second mandate for unpopular Socialist French President François Hollande, who is beaten in the first round of a presidential election by far-right FN leader Marine Le Pen and the fictional Mohammed Ben Abbes, who leads France’s first “Muslim Fraternity” party. The French electorate, wary of seeing the FN take power, vote for Abbes, a Muslim moderate whose election provokes immediate and profound changes to French society. Women change the way they dress and leave the workplace in droves to look after families, solving France’s unemployment problem, while the book asserts that the resulting increased conversion to Islam kills freedom of thought in an increasingly patriarchal society. It also imagines a France where polygamy is authorised, and universities are made to teach the Koran. In a long interview with France Info (in English on the Paris Review), Houellebecq insisted his novel was not right-wing “provocation”. “I accelerate history, but no, I can’t say that the book is a provocation—if that means saying things I consider fundamentally untrue just to get on people’s nerves,” Houellebecq said. “I condense an evolution that is, in my opinion, realistic.” “Yes, the book has a scary side. I use scare tactics,” he added. “Actually, it’s not clear what we are meant to be afraid of, [white far-right] nativists or Muslims. I leave that unresolved.” ‘A Muslim party makes a lot of sense’ And while Houellebecq freely admits that his vision of a future France is “not very realistic” because Islamic political unity in France “is the most difficult thing to image”, he insists that Muslims are dangerously unrepresented in mainstream French politics. Muslims, he says, are “very far from the left and even further from the Green Party” while “one doesn’t really see why they would vote for the right, much less the extreme right which utterly rejects them”. “For those reasons, it seems to me, a Muslim party makes a lot of sense,” he said. Houellebecq, best known in the English-speaking world for his 1998 novel “Atomised” and his 2001 “Platform”, a story about a French couple who create a sex tourism business in Thailand that falls victim to Muslim terrorists, said he had read the Koran while researching his latest novel. “The Koran turns out to be much better than I thought, now that I’ve reread it — or rather, read it,” he said. "The most obvious conclusion is that the jihadists are bad Muslims ... an honest reading will conclude that a holy war of aggression is not generally sanctioned, prayer alone is valid." Date created : 2015-01-04