Marianne under attack

   

 http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=La+Marseillaise+Edith+Piaf&FORM=RESTAB#view=detail&mid=EB15ED92FD58B22A4BB6EB15ED92FD58B22A4BB6

"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.

“There is a possibility of other attacks and other sites are being secured,” police union official Rocco Contento said."  euronews

-----------------------------

IMO this was not IS.  They exhort their people to attack with uncovered faces, seeking martyrdom.  This was an AQ operation and in spite of all the moaning on the tube it had a number of defects:

1- They tried to go in the wrong door.  This indicates that the planner of the attack was not in the strike group.  The assault party would normally have been walked by the door one at a time in the preceding days in a really well run op.

2- Once they arrived at the right door, they had to ask a janitor or someone else like that where the conference room was located.

3- They evidently had a rocket launcher with them (RPG-7?).  This would have been for breaching the door to get in.  That would indicate that they did not really know much about the security in the building.

4- They should have had a car available to switch to in their escape butthey did not.  Instead they hijacked a car from an elderly Frenchman.  He asked if he could have his dog from inside the car. They complied with his request.

On the positive side from the raiders' POV, they knew who to expect to find in the building.  They called them out by name before shooting them and they timed the attack to have maximum access to important targets.

"Charlie Hebdo" evidently chose not to harden their doorway.  It would have been easy to do.

The French Police gave chase immediately and several fire fights ensued in the immediate area and across the northern part of the city.   IMO it will not take long to find them in whatever safe house they are lurking.  They will then have the chance to "dance" with the CRS and a Gendarmerie Group d'Intervention.

I suppose we won't be hearing much about "freedom fries," or "cheese eating surrender monkies for a while."  pl 

http://www.euronews.com/newswires/2870880-at-least-10-dead-in-paris-shooting-french-itele-tv/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compagnies_R%C3%A9publicaines_de_S%C3%A9curit%C3%A9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gendarmerie_Intervention_Group

Comments

[oofda]

Colonel,
You are correct- there is an operation now being undertaken in Reims

http://www.leparisien.fr/charlie-hebdo/en-direct-attentat-a-charlie-hebdo-12-morts-la-traque-des-terroristes-se-poursuit-07-01-2015-4426929.php

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2015/01/07/01016-20150107LIVWWW00152-en-direct-Charlie-Hebdo-Paris-fusillade.php

[Farooq]

1 dead 2 in custody
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/charlie-hebdo-deadly-shooting-magazine-ran-muhammad-cartoons

Wish France had death penalty

[Poul]

The police seems to have identified the attackers. One of them was a known extremist who had attempted to go to Iraq in 2005 inspired the Abu Ghraib prison photos but ended up in jail instead.

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/charlie-hebdo-paris-die-polizei-hat-die-verdaechtigen-identifiziert-a-1011818.html

[Lars]

From some reports I have seen, 2 men are in custody and 1 is dead. Unfortunately, this incident will be exploited by the anti-immigrant right wing all over Europe and make the area even more ungovernable.

Americans should be grateful that tribal associations here are by choice and not by legacy.

[robt willmann]

A short while ago, I saw for the first time one of the videos of the end of the attack. Caution: this one shows the uncensored killing of a person reports said was a policeman--

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bc6_1420632668

From the brief 42-second video, you can see that contrary to press reports, these guys are not trained commandos, just by the way they move...one is not covering the other in an effective way, in fact, not at all. And the getaway car has no driver! The two guys go down the street to kill the policeman, leaving the car unattended in the middle of the street with the doors open.

The only thing those guys had experience in was killing people. It does take practice to be able to kill people in cold blood. But fortunately, they were not otherwise skilled attackers.

[Dubhaltach]

"and make the area even more ungovernable."

I love how people who don't live here make ludicrous statements like that.

Only a few weeks ago I was told that my country was awash with rioters and that one of my neighbouring countries to the north was being scoured by hordes of ravening mooooooooooooslim men* intent on violating every Swedish woman they could get their hands (and presumably other body parts) on.

So to all of you flogging these dubious goods of an entire continent in disarray and collapse I have a simple question:

Project much?

Dubhaltaach

* Who are of course not white - the fact that they're moooooooslims and most emphatically NOT white was apparently very important, indeed it seems to be THE most important part of the ..... fantasy.

[Abu Sinan]

It will be exploited by the right wing in Europe, and that is the idea. Despite the foreign fighters in the Middle East, the vast majority of European Muslims reject extremist views of Islam. This attack, other than the obvious retribution against the people who published some offensive cartoons, was meant to elicit violent attacks and repression of European communities, thus driving them into the hands of the extremists.

[confusedponderer]

"... and make [Europe] even more ungovernable"

Europe. Ungovernable. Right. Do you actually live here?

[Cee]

Abu Sinan,

Le Pen is thrilled.

[The Beaver]

@ Farooq

MSNBC is wrong . they relied on the info given to them by their counter-terrorism officials based in the US.

Only two ( the brothers) are involved if you go by what they found in the Citroen ( get away car before they highjacked a second car after taking their time to remove the owner's dog from inside) are still on the run.

The Police screwed up about the 18 yr old. He was in class and his classmates are all over the social media talking about how the police/intel messed up

[The Beaver]

Cee

She wants to bring back the death penalty.

I guess no one was sent to the guillotine when 17+ Algerians were thrown into the Seine on October 17th 1961 or when the OAS tried to kill de Gaulle in 1962.

[Dubhaltach]

In reply to confusedponderer

No of course he doesn't he's just another American projecting what terrifies him onto us.

Although I did enjoy his tribal associations comment. That one gave me a good laugh.

Dubhaltach

[turcopolier]

Dubhaltach

Lars is an immigrant to the US from Sweden. As a Dane perhaps you should talk about Scandinavian fears. pl

[SteveG]

CP Dubhaltaach others from Europe.

I do not understand why these men who go to
various countries to learn jihad are allowed back
in the country. Does it make any sense to spend
time money and personnel to monitor these
people in case they might carry out an attack when
it appears that is their eventual purpose.

My city, Minneapolis, has sent 25 plus to al-shabab.
Two have been killed fighting for IS. It is unconscionable
to me to let any of these trained killers return.

[turcopolier]

All

I suspect that these two men are essentially unaffiliated with major jihadi groups although they may have spent some time in the ME where they picked up a little combat knowledge. One of them did time in a French prison for recruiting for jihad but that proves little since enthusiasm could lead to that. I agree with R. Willmann that this was nothing like as skilled an operation as it is being described as the media. Unfortunately this attack may well lead to other copy cat jihadi attacks in France and other parts of Europe. Several similarly outfitted men were seen yesterday evening at a rest stop on a highway south of Paris. they said they were going to Paris. Today we have a Paris city policewoman shot to death in south Paris while directing traffic around an accident. The killer was equipped in the same way as the Charlie Hebdo attackers. pl

[Fred]

Abu Sinan,

The two killers were born in France.

[SteveG]

Abu Sinan

People will gravitate to the right
when the left continuously encourages
mass migration and makes excuses
for lawless behavior. Culture clash
Is inevitable when assimilation is not a
goal but seperate identities are IMO.

[Fred]

Cee,

So is the President of Ukraine, this gets him more help against those "bandits" in Ukraine that are backed by Russia.

http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-russia-yatsenyuk-bandits/26783093.html

[turcopolier]

SteveG

So far as I know, it is not a crime in Europe and the US to travel to Syria, Iraq, Turkey, N. Africa. That being so, how can you legally prevent a citizen frm re-entering his/her home country? Do you want to make such travel illegal? pl

[Babak Makkinejad]

US Border Patrol has been questioning young men who have traveled to Turkey and are coming back to US. This has been going on for months, it seems to me.

[turcopolier]

Babak

Questioning is one thing. detention is another. people are not being arrested in the US for having traveled to these places. That will soon emerge as a possibility. pl

[Dubhaltach]

In reply to turcopolier 08 January 2015 at 10:28 AM

Well Colonel what I certainly don't fear being overrun by hordes of brown-skinned muslims. Nor do I fear that either my country or the one that Lars abandoned are going to become ungovernorable.

The attacks on Charlie Hebdo were a crime, a despicable and loathsome crime, but still just a crime. The way to tackle terrorism of the kind that has just taken place in France is by good police work followed by a criminal trial.

Treating this as what it is - a crime, is how you it clear to these criminal scum that criminal scum is what they are and that that is all they are. Mock them, humilate them, give them a fair trial, and then lock them up.

Half-assed pontificating about how Europe is ungovernorable doesn't cut it.

Dubhaltach

[nick b]

Col.,

Does the attackers' alleged possession of a rocket launcher indicate anything in terms of affiliation with a larger jihadi group? Or is that something a highly motivated person could obtain on their own? I have no idea.

[Jack]

Sir,

I hope we don't detain without reasonable cause. What about Americans that just went to Turkey on legitimate vacation? Paranoia is how liberty gets eroded and it seems we are on a steady path south in that regard.

[SteveG]

Col Lang.
Iam talking about travel to these
countries to learn jihad not absorb
the warmth of cafe society. Video
has shown leaders encouraging
these "recruits" no matter the amount
of training to bring the fight to their
countries of origin.