Masked gunmen opened fire Wednesday in the offices of a satirical newspaper in Paris that has faced previous threats for Muslim-related cartoons, killing at least 12 people before escaping in what France’s president described as a terrorist attack.
French officials immediately raised the country’s terrorism alert to its highest level after the shooting at the newspaper Charlie Hebdo, where staff members and police were among the dead.
Across Paris, security was stepped at media outlets, transportation hubs and other sites as a massive manhunt was underway for the suspected assailants.
The weekly had drawn repeated threats for its caricatures of the Prophet Muhammed and other sketches and articles on Muslim figures.
French President Francois Hollande called the shooting a “terrorist attack without a doubt,” but authorities had no immediate comment on possible suspects or motives.
Two of the dead are French policemen, one of whom was executed outside on the streets of Paris at point blank range. The magazine was attacked in 2011 because of its satirical cartoons depicting Muslim leaders. The editor of Charlie Hebdo is among the dead and was on ISIS’s version of a most wanted list.
What is to keep the USA from becoming the next stop for these terrorists? Even if these are caught, how many wait to fill their shoes?
Based on surveys, about 1% of Muslim are willing to commit jihad, with about 10% supporting jihad.
1.6 billion muslims.
Do the math.
Do the math on how many aren’t willing to do jihad. Not sure what your point is. We really need to separate those who are willing to do terrorism from those who are not. Not sure how.
The only way to deal with something like this is to figure out what these people don’t want, and then do it.
@Cargosquid
I answered this question:
“Even if these are caught, how many wait to fill their shoes?”
Western civilization is at war.
We will lose this war unless we accept that fact.
I read backwards behind the scenes. I missed that you were answering my question. Sorry.
The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.
I don’t agree that we’re “at war” with Islam. Any more than we’re “at war” with terrorism, or with criminal behavior in general.
Tim McVeigh wasn’t Islamic. The guy who tried to shoot up the Holocaust museum wasn’t Islamic.
Or most school shootings. Or James Holmes.
The disaffected and damaged people who would carry out attacks “in the name of Allah” inside the US would probably be doing it for some other cause if Islam did not exist.
But I do feel that the free nations of the world have a responsibility not to reward terrorism. In this case, we should be printing up cartoons that are insulting to “the prophet” and airdropping them over ISIS’ territories.
Shocking and sad. The perpetrators are still at large so there could be more to come
Time for the world to step up and deal with these radicals. Where are the Arab and Muslim leaders denouncing the terror? We need to stop funding those that support these terrorists or hide them.
I have no quarrel with the ones who don’t commit or support Jihad, nor do I fear them, as I don’t fear peaceful Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, Rastafarians, etc. But how do you “separate” the ones who don’t, with from the ones who do? Do the ones who do separate the “infidel” from themselves? Why yes..yes they do. And they try to kill them. Man, woman, child. Soldier and civilian. Policeman begging for their lives, and mothers begging for the lives of their children. The Jihadi don’t separate their victims, they target them.
This kabuki-PC theater is killing us.
We are not at war with Islam. We are at war with certain terrorist organizations that happen to be Islamic, and strike US interests at home, and abroad. A global war on terror would require us to attack any and all terrorist organizations, be they Islamic, Maoist, Fascist, Racist, Anarchists, Nihilist, Environmentalist, or any other ideologically driven to commit acts of violence. No..a war of this magnitude would be unwinnable. We lack the Will and the Means to win.
Instead, we like to slap the word “War” on something, to communicate the “resolve” with which we hope to face the challenge. The word itself has become politically trite. “War on poverty”, “War on drugs”, “War on obesity”, “War on tobacco”. “War on Coal”…and my all-time favorite, “War on Women”.
I hope the republicans change their minds and fund the Delsrtment of Homand Security beyond the next month. The safety and security of our nation should not be du me to political fun and games.
Young mother let terrorists into Charlie Hebdo building after threat against daughter
Yahoo News By Michael Walsh 1 hour ago
Masked terrorists entered the office building in Paris where they murdered 12 people Wednesday by threatening a young mother and her daughter, she said.
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Corinne Rey, a cartoonist for the weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, says she was forced to enter the security code after returning from picking up her child at daycare, according to a local report.
“I just went to get my daughter from daycare. As I got to the front door of the building, two masked, armed gunmen brutally threatened us,” she told L’Humanité. “They wanted to enter, go up. I typed the code.”
Rey, who goes by “Coco,” said she hid under a desk while the gunmen shot and killed a dozen staffers inside the office.
While crouched down on the ground, she saw the men kill fellow cartoonists Georges Wolinski and Jean Cabut, the French paper reported.
“They shot Wolinski and Cabut,” she said. “It lasted five minutes.”
The terrorists, claiming to be with al-Qaida, spoke fluent, unaccented French, according to Rey.
http://news.yahoo.com/young-mother-let-terrorists-into-charlie-hebdo-building-after-threat-against-daughter-190057740.html
Sounds like the work of home-grown extremists.
Three suspects have been identified – now to hunt them down. Two are brothers – 18, 32, 34 years old.
@Starry flights
“Sounds like the work of home-grown extremists.”
Western Europe’s demographics have changed significantly over the last 30-40 years. Huge declines in birthrates amongst the populace, coupled with increased immigration from former colonial regions, many Islamic majority, have lead to an explosion in madrasahs and mosques. Many 2nd and 3rd generation muslims have been radicalized, and France has periodically experienced unrest within these communities. Remember the riots and fires in 2003 and 2004? Remember the head-scarf and face-veil ban? The UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, all are experiencing terror that while domestic, is still rooted in radical Islam.
We are at war with barbarians that use their religion to support their actions. Until the Islamic civilizations work to defeat each and every one of the Islamists, then they must be considered to support them. http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2015/01/06/does-egypts-el-sisi-deserve-the-nobel-peace-prize/
The Iraqis and the Kurds fight ISIS/ISIL. Outside of the Sadr gang, none have promoted terrorism AND they are actively fighting terrorism…..well, some of them are.
Any nation that uses rhetoric that supports the ideals of the Islamists….they are the enemy.
President Al-Sisi of Egypt deserves the Nobel Peace prize for his latest comments in his last speech.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has called for a “religious revolution,” asking Muslim leaders to help in the fight against extremism.
In a speech celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Muḥammad, which coincided with New Year’s Day, he said they had no time to lose.
“I say and repeat, again, that we are in need of a religious revolution. You imams are responsible before Allah. The entire world is waiting on you. The entire world is waiting for your word … because the Islamic world is being torn, it is being destroyed, it is being lost. And it is being lost by our own hands,” el-Sisi said.
“We need a revolution of the self, a revolution of consciousness and ethics to rebuild the Egyptian person — a person that our country will need in the near future,” the President said.
Hey Ed,
This is what happens when you have unarmed police.
The Guardian reported:
A spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, confirmed that 12 people had been killed in the attack. Witnesses and police sources said three men carrying automatic rifles and a rocket-launcher arrived at the building that houses the magazine’s offices, in rue Nicolas Appert in the eastern 11th arrondissement. Cries of “Allahu Akbar” were heard, they said.
“We heard shouting in the street,” Benoît Bringer, who works at a press agency on the same floor as the magazine’s offices, told France Info radio. “We saw hooded men carrying Kalashnikovs entering the building. We called the police. After a few minutes we heard heavy firing – a lot of firing, a hell of a lot. We went upstairs to take shelter on the roof. Then after about 10 minutes we saw two armed men come out onto the street. There was more shouting, more firing.
“Three policemen had arrived on bikes but had to leave because the men were armed, obviously … Then the attackers took off in a car.”
Obviously this kind of thing can happen here … we all remember the dip-s*** brothers with the pressure cooker bombs.
There’s no quick fix for it. Or any permanent fix either. All we can do to provide disincentive to terrorism is to never give in to it.
Islam is in a fight with modernity. I see a lot of similarities of the violence within Christianity between 1500-1800 and Islam today. The sectarianism of the reformation period was awful bloody in Europe until western societies accepted the separation of church and state doctrine illustrated by the US.
We still have anti-science, anti-modernity Christian fundamentalism, but lately it has not been as violent as Islamic fundamentalism aka Radical Islam. In the US there has been some violence between Christian sectarians but it has mostly been cast as racial divisions (e.g. Southern Baptists versus AME) and the Protestants versus Catholic divide has been conquered by carefully stitching a Republican coalition out of conservatives from both camps. I have hope the same progress can be made in the Muslim community.
Like communism, Islamic radicals have a vision that isn’t popular and isn’t economically sustainable. Inertia is going to eventually kill it unless it reforms itself. We just need to contain it during its transformation or death throes to limit the damage. I think it was a mistake to engage it directly as a war. Better to leave the factions to fight among themselves than to unite them to fight against the west.
An energy policy that reduces the amount of money the world gives to middle east countries (and our dependence on their oil) will reduce the economic damage that radical islam can inflict on the world. It sucks to be Europe where their energy is sourced from the most unstable places: Russia and the middle east. This is why I am bullish on the American economy. Leave the Chinese to deal with OPEC or be forced to abandon fossil fuels completely. Either choice would be a win for the US.
“This is what happens when you have unarmed police.”
And what good would 3 police with handguns be in a firefight with guys with rifles? They would be dead.
One could make the equally questionable argument that the police would have been more successful were they in a car instead of bicycles.
Cheap shot aside, police should have the tools to minimize deaths and the best tool is not always a gun.
@Ed Myers
Ed, Islam has never gone through a reformation, and the sectarian violence that persists, has existed since the death of the religion’s founder, so I’m pretty sure that your attempt at moral relativism fails the factual analysis. Furthermore, even at the heights of the inquisition, the Roman schism, Cromwell revolt, etc., innocent civilians were not targeted, and the generally accepted laws of war were observed by both sides.
Lets face it. Western culture has wussified itself, and no longer has the survival instincts required to fight. No. Instead of the wild bison that will drop it’s broad, horned head and charge the stalking wolves, we’ve become beef steers, willingly walking into the shoot, headed for our inevitable slaughter.
@Ed Myers
Ed, at 50 feet or less, the handgun is just as deadly as the rifle. Comparable balistics , penetration, and all that “gun stuff” that you know little about, but I do. As an enlisted marine, my issue weapon was an m16a2, and later, a mossberg 12g shotgun. After I was commissioned, I was issued a Beretta 92a1. I can say unequivocally, within 50 feet, which is where the Paris shootings took place, my pistol was every bit as deadly as the enemy’s rifle.
@Ed Myers
Three handguns against rifles….. nope…not a good idea. But doable. It would have delayed the bad guys. You can fight against ANYONE as long as you have cover and training.
Zero handguns against rifles……NOTHING. Zero. Dead meat.
I agree about the car…but they still could not have done anything.
@Steve Thomas
Actually, I think that it HAS had a Reformation. Our reformation saw a return to fundamentalism based upon scripture. They returned to a fundamentalist outlook.
In the 50’s and 60’s…. Islam was modernizing.
The 70’s saw the fundamentalists start to take over, using the Quran as the basis and violence as the tool.
What they need is not a Reformation, but an Enlightenment.
@Steve Thomas
What did you think of the Beretta? Other than the huge grips, I liked it. VERY accurate in my hands. If I can shoot Navy expert with it…it has to be accurate.
Tried a Glock…. I always hit left of center. Of course, since I inherited a Glock…. I’ll just have to use windage.
Know what Ed? Every now and then, I am prone to do something wacky, yet positive. Just ask Moon and Elena. I would like to invite you to join me at an official, licensed, safety supervised range, for an hour of shooting. My treat. I’ll bring everything, pistols, safety gear, pay for everything, ammo, lane fees. You just need to show. Think of it like I’m inviting you to a round of golf, because that’s really all recreational shooting is. What do you say?
I volunteer to go as a chaperone. I will even chip in for the cost. I enjoy range time every once in a while.
@Steve Thomas
Reports are that these guys trained in Yemen.
CS, valid points re: Islamic Reformation, but I would counter this argument with the fact that the basis of Nasser and the Muslim Brotherhood was political, not religious. He was nationalistic and preached pan-arabism, Islam was just a vehicle. Nasser could have cared less about Persian or Malaysian, Filipino, or other non-arab muslim.
As far As the 92, it grew on me, once my tiny hands figured out how to grip it. Long sight base and hi-cap. Hit where pointed and insanely reliable. Who could ask for more?
@Cargosquid
I carry a Kahr k9, blued. Love this piece. 12 years and 5k rounds without a single malfunction. Single stack with a great trigger.
Where did you guys get the idea that French police are unarmed? I lived in France and have spent a lot of time back-and-forth since and have never seen an unarmed policeman (ie., on duty in uniform – I’m sure that from time to time they leave their weapons at home when they go off duty to Home Depot or the French equivalent thereof).
@Steve Thomas
I don’t know how to isolate bad people. I wish I did.
@Steve Thomas
Ahhhhh the war on women. Steve, can you think of a better term for it? I cannot.
I agree that it’s politically trite. However, it is very real. I sure wish I could come up with another term to describe what I see.
I know the French gandamerie is armed, and I will say this too: if the terrorists could have picked a worse bear to poke, its the French. WW2 not withstanding, the French have never lost their national pride. They will not let this act go unanswered, and will do so in true French fashion. These animals would have been safer having attacked Israel.
So, since you are a target in the “war on women”, will you grant me similar latitude if I take up the banner of “war on men” or slice it to “war on christian conservative white males hands up don’t shoot ’cause we shoot backqnd don’t own klan robes despite what you say?”
LOL now I have never accused you of owning klan robes. Don’t forget, I have seen the real ones, both as a child and as an adult.
Garbage. Sig P226, Hogue grips, chambered for .357 sig.
Don’t know about bicycles but saw pix of shot up police car. As to pistols at 50 feet-first you have to get within 50 feet or less. As for me-still like the M1911A1-fired Expert on Marine Corps range.
Steve Thomas: “Furthermore, even at the heights of the inquisition, the Roman schism, Cromwell revolt, etc., innocent civilians were not targeted, and the generally accepted laws of war were observed by both sides.”
However, if you go back half a millennium, you might just find a lot of dead Jews and Muslims. Just saying…all about those, “christian conservative white males…”
Indeed, perhaps religion is the root problem rather than Islam per se. Perhaps when you choose to believe that a wise old man in the sky talks to you through prayer and through human intermediaries, it’s not a rational basis for clear-headed thinking.
As to the war on women, it’s probably fair to say that in some parts of the world other than the US it’s a real war. Here, it might be better called “the attempt by reactionaries to attempt to keep women in a subservient position to men, by means of laws which aren’t grounded in any type of realistic social policy, but which naively attempt to force women to live in accordance with scripture to a degree that would never be attempted with men”. I await the Christian right’s attempts to get bills through Congress to stop men from spilling their seed upon the ground, or to criminalize adultery.
Adultery will never be criminalized for men. You can bank on it.
I think oppression of women might probably be closer than war. Subjegation of women?
It’s a pretty direct leap. Men were more physically powerful than women. Women didn’t have the power. Men got to be the boss because they were bigger and stronger. When women started getting power(because society no longer relied on brute strength), men didn’t like it. Here we are.
Just about every single guy under 30 jerks off to laptop porn on a daily basis. I don’t hear anyone bitching and moaning about how this is creating a less moral society. Let a woman reach for some birth control pills though, you get a reaction.
I did not know this. Hmmmmmm. Is there a cut off at age 30 and how is it enforced? What about married? How about age 35? 40?
I simply don’t understand the birth control. You would think that men would like the idea of birth control. Maybe some old biddie wives are beating up their old moss back husbands to get rid of the pill. Maybe they think their old moss back husbands might find a lady friend.
It has to be coming from somewhere. Regardless. I have always resented it. People should be able to do what they want to do sexually with other consenting adults. (even if it is nothing)
@Steve. You have the false impression that I know nothing of guns and that is why I am opposed to them.
I grew up on a farm and we had some old guns that I used when I was in my teens.
I shot a double barrel 16 gauge shotgun hunting ducks and geese and slugs for deer. Used it a couple times against varmints. Didn’t much care for hunting especially when one hunter wasn’t watching where he was shooting and kicked up dirt several feet from my position.
We used a .22 rifle for killing hogs and steers. I target practiced with it a bit plinking cans and an old tv picture tube. The conical glass davits produced were cool but other it seemed pointless.
I played with friends who had an bb gun. We shot cans and birds. Didn’t like shooting birds.
We had an old .306 surplus that I used once to bag a deer. I was actually cutting firewood and saw an injured deer and ran back to the house to get the gun and luckily hit it with one shot from about 50 yards. That was my sole satisfying gun experience.
My older brother’s friend had a .44 handgun and brought it by and thought it would be fun to see if it would knock me over if I fired it. I was probably 12 and it didn’t. Declined to do it again.
One day we noticed that my bedroom window had a hole from a bullet…likely fired by a hunter. That was unnerving.
10 years ago I visited friends who had modern handguns and shot something with a clip…maybe a 9mm semi. Someone though it would be fun to empty the clip. Well they didn’t have good control and the last few bullets ended up way over the target and backdrop and into someone else’s property. The county police eventually came to investigate but the wild shooter had already headed to the airport for a flight out of state. Fortunately no harm. The shooter was a rabid 2A warrior and it further colored my opinion that significant number of gun owners who profess how guns make them feel safer are irresponsible idiots when there is a whiff of gunpowder.
I never got any enjoyment from shooting guns. It’s sissified to target practice and I didn’t like the killing that was an integral part of using a gun in hunting. I prefer blowing things up, burning stuff; my wonton destruction mode is more pyro. I’d probably find launching an RPG into junk cars a real blast but alas the 2A doesn’t cover my “arms”.
So thanks for the generous offer to go shooting, but no thanks …unless you have RPGs.
Some folks are both. I tend more towards pyro also. Pyro and turquoise.
I enjoy going to the range but I don’t get to do it often. My mother loved guns and target shooting. No one in my family really had much taste for killing animals. I remember my father and grandfather going bird hunting. I can remember a time or two where they actually shot partridges and brought them home. Someone had to clean them and I cried my eyes out over the dead birds. My father refused to deer hunt. Too personal. when my parents bought the farm (later years) he wouldn’t allow anyone to keep cattle on it. He allowed crops but not animals. He didn’t want to get attached to something that might end up as supper.
My parents did raise bird dogs most of my life. Go figure. They didn’t eat them.
Before you make fun..yeah modern guns have magazines and not a clips.
@Pat.Herve
Those leaders tell the terrorists that they will be left alone if they go elsewhere.
@Scout
From the reports stating that 3 unarmed gendarmes arrived on bicycles.
but alas the 2A doesn’t cover my “arms”.
yet.
Tsk, tsk, Mr. Bentley. And here I thought you might have tempered a bit on the nasty anti-religious bias.
I guess rick has as much right to be anti religion as you do to be pro religion. Come to think of it, he isn’t as nasty as some people have been to me for being what they consider secular Christian. I am not fundamentalist at all. I very much believe in allegory and feel that the bible was written by men. However, I generally don’t get in fights with people about it because I just don’t discuss it. One’s faith or lack thereof is not provable. It is a matter of faith. Its a belief, it’s an opinion.
I guess this is give a little, get a little.
Wolve, i did say “perhaps”!
Regarding religion being the root problem, here’s an interesting fact (according to an op-ed piece by Fareed Zakaria in today’s WaPo):
There is no mention of punishment for blasphemy in the Koran. The term is never actually even used in the Koran. It IS used in the bible, and death is the required punishment. Fun facts!
So why wasn’t I struck down dead coming back from Gainesville today when I did the B word?
And here’s proof that you don’t need to be Muslim, or even religious, to be bigoted and intolerant of other people to the point of oppression – new Russian law preventing transgender people from driving cars. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30735673
@middleman
But you ignore the Hadith…which is Mohammed’s commentaries on the Koran. This is where the prohibited actions and appropriate punishments are listed, which many Muslims take with equal authority. Ironically, blaspheming Mohammed and Jesus (who Muslims recognize as another prophet) have equal punishments in the Hadith: blasphemers are to be killed.
Have you seen the Russian dashcam videos that are all over youtube? Russian drivers are crazy. Any law that bans any Russian (straight, transgender, bi-curious) from driving, makes their roads safer.http://coolmaterial.com/roundup/10-craziest-russian-dash-cam-videos/
Repent.