In the News
- Charlie Hebdo Paris attack – latest
- U.S. pols’ reax
- 40-hour work week showdown today
- Obama: On the road again
- Senate day 2: Democrats – sort of – adjust
- House day 2: “Bringing our team together”
- GOP plans to kill Obama’s executive action
- Sony hackers “got sloppy” – FBI
Charlie Hebdo Shooting – Latest
• There have been several arrests overnight, French PM Manel Valls has said, in the hunt for suspects in the deadly shooting Wednesday at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Twelve people died in the attack. France declared a national day of mourning today with a minute of silence at noon. Two armed suspects are on the run
• A shooting near a metro station in southern Paris today has killed a female French police officer and wounded another person. Police say it’s too early to draw a connection between this and the Charlie Hebdo attack. A BBC reporter from the scene says he has the impression police think it may be connected in some way – developing
• Two masked gunmen dressed in black and armed with Kalashnikovs entered the offices of Charlie Hebdo at 11.30 am Wednesday and opened fire on an editorial meeting. There are reports that they separated the men from the women. One of the cartoonists killed was a woman. All the other victims were men (BBC, AP, NYT, WSJ, me)
• The gunmen who attacked the magazine could be heard on video captured at the scene saying “Allah’u’Akbar,” “we’ve killed Charlie Hebdo” and “we’ve avenged the prophet.” Two eyewitnesses said they claimed to be from al Qaeda. One of them specified al Qaeda in Yemen
• Victims: Charlie Hebdo editor and cartoonist Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier, 47, who was under police protection; cartoonists Jean “Cabu” Cabut, 76, Bernard “Tignous” Verlhac, 57, Geroges Wolinski, 80, Philippe Honore, 73, and economist and columnist Bernard Maris, 68
• All 12 victims have been identified. The gunmen headed straight for the paper’s editor, Stephane Charbonnier – widely known by his pen name Charb – killing him and his police bodyguard – earlier threats – first. The men used fluent, unaccented French as they called out the names of specific employees. The dead included four celebrated cartoonists
• Two gunmen strolled out to a black car waiting below, one of them calmly shooting a wounded police officer in the head as he writhed on the ground. The precision with which the gunmen handled their weapons and moved in formation suggested they had received military training, the police said
• The attackers fled to northern Paris before abandoning their car and hijacking a second one, police say
• Charbonnier’s last cartoon for Charlie Hebdo featured an armed man who appeared to be a Muslim fighter with a headline that read: “Still no attacks in France. Wait! We have until the end of January to offer our New Year’s wishes.” There’s a long tradition of satire in France
• Raw vid: One of two gunmen shoots dead a French police officer who is lying wounded on the sidewalk outside the building (graphic). The officer, Ahmed Merabet, 42, was Muslim
• Police are hunting today for two heavily armed men, one with possible links to al Qaeda. One of the suspects, Cherif Kouachi, was already known to French intelligence services, with a history of funneling jihadi fighters to Iraq and a terrorism conviction from 2008. He and his brother, Said, should be considered “armed and dangerous.”
• Kouachi, now 32, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He said he was outraged at the torture of Iraqi inmates at the U.S. prison at Abu Ghraib near Baghdad and “really believed in the idea” of fighting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq
• A third man, Mourad Hamyd, 18, surrendered at a police station in a small town after learning his name was linked to the attacks. France raised its terror alert system to the maximum on Wednesday
• Both al Qaeda and ISIS have repeatedly threatened to attack France, which is conducting airstrikes against extremists in Iraq and fighting Islamic militants in Africa. Charb was specifically threatened in a 2013 edition of the al Qaeda magazine Inspire
• Victims: Caretaker Frederic Boisseau, 42, police officers Franck Brinsolaro (Charb’s bodyguard) and Ahmed Merabet (shot outside on ground), 42, proof-reader Mustapha Ourrad, Isa Cayat, psychoanalyst and columnist (only woman killed), Michael Renaud, visiting
• Dalil Boubakeur, the rector of the Grand Mosque in Paris, expressed horror at the assault. “We strongly condemn these kinds of acts, and we expect the authorities to take the most appropriate measures. This is a deafening declaration of war.” Pope Francis today tweeted “#PrayersforParis”
• By Wednesday evening, an estimated 35,000, young and old, gathered at Place de la Republique. Some chanted, “Charlie! Charlie!” or held signs reading, “Je suis Charlie” – “I am Charlie” – the message posted on the magazine’s website. Piles of pens – symbolizing freedom of expression – and candles were laid across the square
• Vigils of hundreds and thousands formed in many other cities including London, Berlin, Melbourne, New York and Washington DC
• Treasured by many, hated by some and indiscriminate in its offensiveness, Charlie Hebdo has long reveled in provoking. In 2011, the office of the weekly was badly damaged by a firebomb after it published a spoof issue “guest edited” by the Prophet Muhammad to salute the victory of an Islamist party in Tunisian elections
• Charlie Hebdo and its biting satire, explained in 9 of its most iconic covers (warning: this link leads to cartoon images of the Prophet Muhammad). The Economist tweeted Wednesday: “Many people died today for their drawings; to censor their life’s work is to kill them all over again” Agreed
U.S. Pols’ Reax
• President Obama, speaking in the Oval Office, vowed to “hunt down” those responsible for the “cowardly, evil attacks.” “The fact that this was an attack on journalists, an attack on our free press, also underscores the extent to which these terrorists fear freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” he said (Hill, NJ, me)
• SecState John Kerry said the cartoonists and journalists killed were “martyrs for liberty.” They
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