France: Terror Attack

[Coyote]

So apparently, the terrorists have claimed alliegence to Al Queda in Yemen and to IS.

 

[Vikrant]

So apparently, the terrorists have claimed alliegence to Al Queda in Yemen and to IS.

That is interesting because Al Queda and IS compete against each other.

 

[Vikrant]

Some touching photos

Striking Photos From The Massive Unity March In Paris After Charlie Hebdo Attack

 

[Vikrant]

AHMEDABAD, INDIA — Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he will travel to Paris this week to show solidarity with the French people, following sharp criticism of the Obama administration for not sending a senior official to Sunday's rally for unity in Paris that was attended by some 40 world leaders and more than a million people.

Kerry said at a news conference that U.S. officials, including himself and President Barack Obama, had been "deeply engaged" with French authorities almost immediately after the first attack occurred and had offered intelligence assistance.

As to criticism about the lack of a senior official at Sunday's March, Kerry said, "I really think that this is sort of quibbling a little bit," noting that the U.S. ambassador to France was there, as were "many people from the (U.S.) embassy."

"As everybody knows, I have been here in India for a prior planned event," he added. "I would have personally very much wanted to have been there but couldn't do so because of the commitment that I had here and it is important to keep these kinds of commitments."

Kerry said he is going to France to reaffirm U.S. solidarity with America's oldest ally. He said as soon as he heard about the march, he asked his team what the earliest time was that he could go.

"That is why I am going there on the way home and to make it crystal clear how passionately we feel about the events that have taken place there," he said. "I don't think he people of France have any doubt about America's understanding about what happened, about our personal sense of loss and our deep commitment to the people of France in this moment of trial."

While in Paris, Kerry will be meeting with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and pay tribute to the victims of last week's attacks, which killed 17 people. Kerry is a fluent French speaker, has a well-known affinity for France and has visited Paris more than a dozen times since becoming secretary of state.

Kerry will arrive in Paris on Thursday after stops in Sofia, Bulgaria and Geneva, Switzerland. In Geneva, on Wednesday Kerry will he meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif to discuss the status of nuclear negotiations that are to resume the next day.

Kerry will be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit France since the terrorist attacks on a French newspaper and a kosher supermarket. Authorities say one of those involved in the attacks pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video. He and two other suspected extremists were killed during police raids.

"I want to emphasize that the relationship with France is not about one day or one particular moment," Kerry said. "It is an ongoing longtime relationship that is deeply, deeply based in the shared values, and particularly the commitment that we share to freedom of expression."

"No single act of terror, no two people with a AK-47s, no hostage-taking at a grocery store is ever going to prevent those who are committed to the march for freedom to continue to march and to ultimately see all people enjoy their rights, to be able to enjoy the protections that come with that freedom," he said.

The U.S. ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, was the top American official at Sunday's unity march against barbarity.

Millions demonstrated across France, and rallies supporting the French were reported in major cities around the world.

Obama offered condolences last week at the French Embassy in Washington. "We stand united with our French brothers to ensure that justice is done and our way of life is defended," he said.

Kerry was in the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Sunday for a long-scheduled appearance at an international investment conference, and to prepare for President Barack Obama's trip to India later this month.

Read more here: Lexington KY local and state news by the Lexington Herald-Leader Kentucky.com

 

[Mindful]

Some touching photos

Striking Photos From The Massive Unity March In Paris After Charlie Hebdo Attack

You were being sarcastic, weren't you?

"So take little notice of the political posturing and pompous platitudes in Paris on Sunday.

If two million people had marched through London a fortnight ago, protesting against Islamist extremism and waving cartoons of the Prophet, the Government would have sent in the riot police and made hundreds of arrests for racially and religiously aggravated hate crimes.&

Read more: Doing the hokey-cokey won t defeat terror Dave RICHARD LITTLEJOHN says it is time Britain stopped being such a soft touch Daily Mail Online

 

[Vikrant]

Some touching photos

Striking Photos From The Massive Unity March In Paris After Charlie Hebdo Attack

You were being sarcastic, weren't you?

"So take little notice of the political posturing and pompous platitudes in Paris on Sunday.

If two million people had marched through London a fortnight ago, protesting against Islamist extremism and waving cartoons of the Prophet, the Government would have sent in the riot police and made hundreds of arrests for racially and religiously aggravated hate crimes.&

Read more: Doing the hokey-cokey won t defeat terror Dave RICHARD LITTLEJOHN says it is time Britain stopped being such a soft touch Daily Mail Online

I do not see why anyone would feel that I was being sarcastic. Those pics indeed were touching; especially the one, where Merkel is putting her head on the shoulder of Hollande.

 

[Vikrant]

PARIS: France ordered prosecutors around the country on Wednesday to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism, announcing that 54 people had been arrested for those offenses since the Paris terror attacks.

The order came as Charlie Hebdo's defiant new issue sold out before dawn around Paris, with scuffles at kiosks over dwindling copies of the satirical newspaper fronting the Prophet Muhammad.

Like many European countries, France has strong laws against hate speech and especially anti-Semitism in the wake of the Holocaust. In a message distributed to all French prosecutors and judges, the justice ministry laid out the legal basis for rounding up those who defend the Paris terror attacks as well as those responsible for racist or anti-Semitic words or acts.

Among those detained was Dieudonne, a controversial, popular comic with repeated convictions for racism and anti-Semitism.

The attacks that left 17 people dead are prompting France to tighten security measures but none of the 54 people detained have been linked by authorities to the attacks. That is raising questions about whether the government is impinging on the freedom of speech that Charlie Hebdo so vigorously defends.

The core of the irreverent newspaper's staff perished a week ago when gunmen stormed its offices, killing 12 people. It was the opening salvo of three days of terror and bloodshed in the Paris region, ending when security forces killed all three gunmen on Friday.

A top leader of Yemen's al-Qaida branch claimed responsibility Wednesday for the Charlie Hebdo attack, saying in a video the massacre was in "vengeance for the prophet." Charlie Hebdo had received repeated threats previously for posting caricatures of Muhammad and was firebombed in 2011.

Those who survived last week's massacre worked out of borrowed offices to put out the issue that appeared Wednesday with a print run of 3 million - more than 50 times the usual circulation. Another run was planned, one columnist said.

The justice ministry said 54 people, including four minors, have been detained for defending or verbally threatening terrorism since the Charlie Hebdo attack. Several have already been convicted under special measures for immediate sentencing.

The government is also working on new phone-tapping and other intelligence efforts against terrorism that it wants nailed down by next week, government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said Wednesday.

The government is also launching a deeper project to rethink education, urban policies and its integration model, in an apparent recognition that the attacks exposed deeper problems of inequality both in France and especially at its neglected, often violence-ridden suburban housing projects.

French police say as many as six members of a terrorist cell that carried out the Paris attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket may still be at large, including a man seen driving a car registered to the widow of one of the gunmen. The country has deployed 10,000 troops to protect sensitive sites, including Jewish schools and synagogues, mosques and travel hubs.

Dieudonne, a comic who popularized an arm gesture that resembles a Nazi salute and who has been convicted repeatedly of racism and anti-Semitism, is no stranger to controversy. His provocative performances were banned last year but he has a core following among many of France's disaffected young people.

The Facebook post in question, which was swiftly deleted, said he felt like "Charlie Coulibaly", merging the names of Charlie Hebdo and Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who seized a kosher market and killed four hostages, along with a policewoman.

In a separate post Monday afternoon, the day the investigation was opened into Dieudonne, the comic wrote an open letter to France's interior minister.

"Whenever I speak, you do not try to understand what I'm trying to say, you do not want to listen to me. You are looking for a pretext to forbid me. You consider me like Amedy Coulibaly when I am not any different from Charlie," he wrote.

In a posthumous video, Coulibaly had claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group. Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, who stormed Charlie Hebdo, had told survivors they were sent by al-Qaida in Yemen.

In an 11-minute video on Wednesday, Nasr al-Ansi, a top commander of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP as the branch is known, says Yemen's al-Qaida branch "chose the target, laid out the plan and financed the operation."

Solidarity for Charlie Hebdo, although not uniform, was widespread in France and abroad. Defending his caricature of Muhammad on the cover, Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Renald Luzier, also known as Luz, argued that no exceptions should be made when it comes to freedom of expression.

He said that when Charlie Hebdo drew threats and attacks in the past, the reaction was often: "Yes, but you shouldn't do that (publish cartoons of Muhammad). Yes, but you deserved that."

"There should be no more 'yes, but," he insisted.

On Wednesday, the new issue vanished from kiosks immediately. Some newsstand operators said they expected more copies to arrive Thursday. One kiosk near the Champs Elysees, open at 6am., was sold out by 6:05. Another, near Saint-Lazare, reported fisticuffs among customers.

"Distributing Charlie Hebdo, it warms my heart because we say to ourselves that he is still here, he's never left," said Jean-Baptiste Saidi, a van driver delivering copies well before dawn on Wednesday.

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve was among those to get a copy before they sold out.

"I rediscovered their liberty of tone," he told France-Inter radio, describing the issue as one of "tender impertinence."

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls prominently displayed a copy of the paper as he left a Cabinet meeting, but his hand carefully covered Muhammad's face.

France arrests 54 for defending terror announces crackdown - The Times of India

 

[Mindful]

The Hypocrisy of the Charlie Hebdo Critics

Really? All “Insultism” or just that which insults Muslims? Because as a Jew living in Israel, I am sick to death of seeing cartoons of hook-nosed, baby killing Jews in the Arab press. I am sick of seeing Muslim “scholars” on Arab television referring to Jews as Pigs and Monkeys. I am tired of the “documentaries” denying the Holocaust that are a staple of broadcast media throughout the Arab world.

Al Jazeera, where have all your condemnations on Anti-Semitism been?


The Hypocrisy of the Charlie Hebdo Critics HonestReporting

 

[Vikrant]

It is not over yet for France.

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PARIS: French and German authorities arrested at least 12 people today suspected of links to the Islamic State group and a Paris train station was evacuated, with Europe on alert for new potential terrorist attacks.

The police raids came the morning after Belgian authorities moved swiftly to pre-empt what they called a major impending attack, killing two suspects in a firefight and arresting a third in a vast anti-terrorism sweep that stretched into the night.

Visiting a scarr ..

Read more at:
Arrests in France Germany amid Islamic State-linked terrorist tensions - The Economic Times

 

[Vikrant]

PARIS: An armed man has taken several hostages at a post office northwest of Paris, an official at the city prosecutor's office told Reuters.

The man equipped with a military weapon had taken an unconfirmed number of hostages at the post office in the town of Colombes, not far outside the capital, French media reported earlier.

"I cannot confirm or deny whether it is linked to terrorism," the official said declining to give further details.

BFM TV, citing an unidenti ..

Read more at:
Gunman holds two hostage in French post office Police - The Economic Times

 

[Vikrant]

It looks like Charlie Hebdo is going to carry on. They published another edition depicting Mohammed. This time he is carrying a placard saying Je suis Charlie. The result was this:

Protests Over Charlie Hebdo Kill Four In Niger Demonstrations In Jordan India And Sudan

 

[Vikrant]

In addition to Pakistan, Niger too saw large scale rioting after new rounds of Mohammed cartoons were published by Charlie Hebdo. The magazine used to have only 60K subscribers prior to the attack which included its customer base in France, Canada and Belgium. Now it has order for 3-million copies.

Charlie riots Niger protesters burn churches

 

[Mindful]

Protests against Charlie Hebdo’s front cover have seen thousands more take to the streets – with students in Somalia declaring ‘Je Suis Muslim – and I love my Prophet’. Students marched through Mogadishu on Saturday morning, three days after the commemorative edition of the satirical magazine went on sale. The magazine features a cartoon of the Prophet Mohamed shedding a tear underneath the words ‘All is forgiven’, after 12 of Charlie Hebdo’s staff were killed in a massacre earlier this month. But the use of the Prophets image has angered many Muslims around the world, with protests taking place from Somalia to Niger, and Pakistan to Jordan.


From David Vance.

 

[Vikrant]

Protests against Charlie Hebdo’s front cover have seen thousands more take to the streets – with students in Somalia declaring ‘Je Suis Muslim – and I love my Prophet’. Students marched through Mogadishu on Saturday morning, three days after the commemorative edition of the satirical magazine went on sale. The magazine features a cartoon of the Prophet Mohamed shedding a tear underneath the words ‘All is forgiven’, after 12 of Charlie Hebdo’s staff were killed in a massacre earlier this month. But the use of the Prophets image has angered many Muslims around the world, with protests taking place from Somalia to Niger, and Pakistan to Jordan.


From David Vance.

This magazine used to have a readership of only 60K. Now they have 3-million subscribers.

 

[Mindful]

A job half done and how apologists completed the work of the terrorists in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre
Guest Post, January 18th 2015, 7:11 am

This is a guest post by Yasmin Baruchi

Take a bow Mehdi Hasan, George Galloway, Nesrine Malik, Myriam Francois-Cerrah. Bravo Asghar Bukhari, Seumus Milne, Ibrahim Mogra, Tony Barber, Nabila Ramdani. and every other apologist who started even before the bodies of the murdered grew cold. I wonder if the Kouachi brothers knew they could count on you and the “BUT” brigade to complete their mission.

The Charlie Hebdo massacre was not a direct result of Muslims being offended- although this was the superficial reason given by the terrorists. Nonetheless that’s where you have chosen to focus the discussion. In fact until the slaughter most Muslims had not even heard of Charlie Hebdo. When the terrorists carried out their attack last week, they knew they were making the magazine world famous. They were willing to lay down their lives to do this.

The attack was an attack on the freedom of expression in the West. On France’s ability to ridicule one and all and not be bound to pay respect to any religion, ideology or individuals- including Islam and its figures. This is what galled the terrorists and continues to disturb and anger Islamists. The blasphemy and apostasy laws in place in Muslim countries are undeniable proof of this. The attacks were not revenge for the depiction of prophet as it’s now being presented- but an all out offensive on the foundation of our freedoms and human rights.

http://hurryupharry.org/2015/01/18/...ts-in-the-wake-of-the-charlie-hebdo-massacre/

 

[Vikrant]

TULLE (France): French President Francois Hollande stressed Saturday that France had "principles, values, notably freedom of expression" after violent protests against the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Niger and Pakistan.

Hollande recalled that "we have supported these countries in their fight against terrorism."

Earlier, thousands demonstrated across the world Friday and violent clashes erupted in Niger and Pakistan as Muslims vented fury over a new Prophet Muhammad cartoon published by French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

France defends freedom of expression after protests - The Times of India

 

[Vikrant]

PARIS: Four men are facing preliminary charges Tuesday on suspicion of links to a gunman involved in France's deadliest terrorist attacks in decades.

The Paris prosecutor's office said the four, who would be the first to face charges in the case, are suspected of providing logistical support to Amedy Coulibaly. Coulibaly shot a policewoman to death on the outskirts of Paris and then seized hostages inside a kosher supermarket, killing four before he was killed by police. It is not clea ..

Read more at:
Charlie Hebdo attacks Four suspects first to face charges - The Economic Times

 

[pismoe]

glad to see that France is sticking to its principles of a free press and that every thing is fine [well normal or as expected] in the world .

 

[Vikrant]

PARIS: The French government launched a new effort on Thursday to heal social and religious fractures by better teaching children about secular values and steering them away from extremist propaganda, after French-born Islamic radicals shocked the nation in three days of terrorist attacks.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls shocked many this week by referring to a "territorial, social, ethnic apartheid" that especially affects troubled suburbs or "banlieues," tinderboxes of discontent where values that bind the nation are often absent. They house France's poorest, especially minorities with immigrant roots, including many Muslims from former French colonies.

Valls convened a special government meeting Thursday to tackle this societal divide. The proposals that emerged focus on schools, which Valls calls an "essential link" in transmitting French values of tolerance and freedoms.

France tackles discrimination inequalities after attacks - The Times of India

 

[Vikrant]

It is sad to see France getting hit again.

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AINT-QUENTIN FALLAVIER, FRANCE: A severed head covered in Arabic writing was found at a US gas company in southeast France on Friday, police sources and French media said, after two assailants rammed a car into the premises, exploding gas containers.

Speaking from a European Union summit in Brussels, French President Francois Hollande described it as a terrorist attack and said all measures would be taken to stop any future attacks on a country still reeling from Islamist assaults in January.

One suspect had been arrested and was already known to French intelligence sources, Hollande said.

...

Terror attack in France severed head covered in Arabic writing found at factory - The Times of India