Wednesday’s attack must have been carefully planned and based on some inside information. For it came precisely as Charlie’s weekly editorial meeting was under way with a maximum turnout of writers, cartoonists and editors.
The attack also came only hours after the weekly’s new issue went on sale with a cover inspired by a new novel by Michel Houelbeque, which envisions the election of a Muslim as France’s president in 2022.
3 French law enforcement had provided security details to protect the paper's top editors.
The government had provided police protection for four of the weekly’s key editors. The assassination of three of them on Wednesday suggests the protection may have been more formal than real.
4 One of the killers was a known terrorist who had been captured just a few years ago and then freed.
One of the officials... told The Associated Press that the men were linked to a Yemeni terrorist network. Cherif Kouachi was convicted in 2008 of terrorism charges for helping funnel fighters to Iraq's insurgency and ... sentenced to three years in prison, 18 months of which were suspended.
5 The Jihadist killers asked for their victims by name.
...the men targeted those magazine employees who had created or published cartoons showing Muhammad — asking for their victims by name. They executed editor and cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier, popularly known as Charb; Bernard Maris, a Bank of France economist who was a columnist for the magazine; and three cartoonists... A security officer and a guest were also gunned down. As they fled, they killed a second police officer. Eleven other people were injured, four of them critically, officials said.
6 The current issue of the weekly featured a cartoon with a caption
Inside, a cartoon by Charb [Stéphane Charbonnier] reads “Still no attacks in France” above a drawing of a jihadi with an automatic weapon. The jihadi says, “Wait, we have until the end of January to extend our wishes.” In France, the tradition is to offer New Year’s greetings through January.
7 The operation had the hallmarks of collaboration with professional criminals and safehouses in an area near Paris with a heavy Muslim population.
The style of the attack and the getaway, the weapons employed and the safe haven — probably set up in Seine-Saint Denis, a suburb of Paris with a large Muslim population — indicate some input from professional armed bandits who appear to have reached a coordination agreement with jihadists.
8 In 2012, the Obama administration attacked the newspaper for publishing controversial cartoons and exercising freedom of speech.
“We don’t question the right of something like this to be published, we just question the judgment behind the decision to publish it,” [White House spokesman Jay] Carney said.
9 NBC News suspects that the Tea Party and Sarah Palin may not be behind the attacks.
Because the masked, black-clad gunmen attacked with militaristic precision and left the scene with shouts of "Allahu Akbar," the killers were suspected to be well-trained Islamic extremists.
10 Barack Obama, Eric Holder, and Ben Affleck -- to name but a few -- are the true nation of cowards for refusing to name the sick, insane philosophy motivating this endless series of attacks on civilization.
This just in: CNN's Wolf Blitzer does not believe in freedom of speech.
This also just in: Piers Morgan has been strangely silent about France's draconian gun control laws.
Hat tip: BadBlue News.
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