Gun attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo kills 11

[conniption]

vineyardsaker.net
I am NOT Charlie
January 08, 2015
218 Comments

[cptmarginal]

I understand the points being made but that was a pretty crappy, self-defeating article. I am not "Charlie" either, vehemently so, but it still made me cringe. No offense to you conniption, I frequently appreciate your posts.

[cptmarginal]

Nordic, good call in bringing up Pepe Escobar. I find that his Asia Times articles are helpful in putting geopolitics in perspective; his analysis has been spot-on over the years IMO. He usually can be counted on to not cry false flag "wolf!" just because it would be satisfying to make such assumptions.

So it has me paying attention when he writes a piece like this one:

Who profits from killing Charlie?

Putin did it. Sorry, he didn't. In the end, it was not Russia "aggression" that attacked the heart of Europe. It was a pro-style jihadi commando. Cui bono?

Careful planning and preparation; Kalashnikovs; rocket-propelled grenade launcher; balaclavas; sand-colored ammunition vest stuffed with spare magazines; army boots; piece of cake escape in a black Citroen. And the icing on the lethal cake; faultless Paris-based logistical support to pull that off. A former top French military commander, Frederic Gallois, has stressed the perfect application of "urban guerrilla technique" (where are those notorious Western counter-terrorism "experts" when one needs them?)

They might have spoken perfect French; others said it was broken French. Anyway, what matters is that they uttered the magic word; "We're al-Qaeda." Better yet; they told a man in the street, "Tell the media that this is al-Qaeda in Yemen", which means, in American terror terminology, al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP), which had Charlie Hebdo's editor/cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier ("Charb") on a hit list duly promoted by AQAP's glossy magazine Inspire. Accusation: "Insulting the Prophet Mohammed."

And just to make sure everyone had the perpetrators implanted on their brain, the killers also said, "Allahu Akbar"; "We have killed Charlie Hebdo"; and "We have avenged the Prophet."

Case closed? Well, it took only a few hours for French police to identify the (usual?) suspects; French-Algerian brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi. The third man - the driver of the black Citroen, 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad - then turned himself in with an ironclad alibi. So the third man remains a cipher.

They all wore balaclavas. The Kouachi brothers have not been captured. But the police seem to know very well who they are. Because they found an abandoned ID in the black Citroen (oh, the troubles of being a command in a rush ...) How come they didn't know anything before the carnage?

Right on cue, Cherif Kouachi's bio was splattered all over. He was on a global watch list. Along with six others, he was sentenced in May 2008 to 3 years in prison for "terrorism"; in fact unloading a dozen young Frenchmen via madrassas in Egypt and Syria to none other than Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the killed-by-an-American-missile former head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the spiritual father of Daesh/ISIS/ISIL.

Also right on clue, a full narrative was ready for mass consumption. The key point; French police privileges the hypothesis of "Islamic terrorism". According to their "experts", this could be an attack "ordered from abroad and executed by jihadis coming back from Syria that have escaped us", or it could be "suburban idiots that radicalized themselves and concocted this military attack in the name of al-Qaeda."

Scrap option two, please; this was a pro job. And staying with option one, this points right at - what else - blowback. Yes, they could be Daesh/ISIS/ISIL mercenaries trained by NATO (crucially, France included) in Turkey and/or Jordan. But it might get even false-flag nastier. They could also be former or current French special forces.

Blast Islam, will travel

Predictably, Islamofascism peddlers are already having a field day/week/month/year. For simpletons/trolls/hordes exhibiting an IQ worthy of sub-zoology, when in doubt, demonize Islam. It's so convenient to forget that untold millions from Pakistan's tribal areas to street markets across Iraq continue to feel pain devastating their hearts and lives as they are expendable victims of the jihadi mindset - or "Kalashnikov culture", as it is known in Pakistan - profiting the "West", directly or indirectly, for decades now. Think ritual droning of Pakistani, Yemeni, Syrian, Iraqi or Libyan civilians. Think Sadr City witnessing carnages over 10 times worse than Paris.

What French President Francois Hollande defined as "an act of exceptional barbarism" - and it is - does not apply when the "West", France in the front line, from King Sarko to General Hollande himself, weaponizes, trains and remote-controls assorted mercenaries/beheaders from Libya to Syria. Oh yeah; killing civilians in Tripoli or Aleppo is perfectly all right. But don't do that in Paris.

So this, in the heart of Europe, is what blowback feels like. This is what people feel in the Waziristans when a wedding party is incinerated by a Hellfire missile. In parallel, it's absolutely impossible that the oh so sophisticated Western intel network had not seen blowback coming - and was impotent to prevent it (how come the scapegoats du jour, the Kouachi brothers, were not in the gallows?)

Of course the ultra-elaborate Western counter-terrorism expert network - so proficient at strip-teasing us all at every airport - saw it coming; but in shadow warland, portmanteau "al-Qaeda" and its myriad declinations, including "renegade" Daesh/ISIS/ISIL, are used as much as a mercenary army as a convenient domestic threat "against our freedoms".

Who profits?

US Think Tankland, also predictably, is busy spinning the drama of an "intra-Muslim" split which provides jihadis a lot of geopolitical space to exploit - all this sucking the Western world into a Muslim civil war. This is absolutely ridiculous. The Empire of Chaos, already during the 70s, was busy cultivating jihadi/Kalashnikov culture to fight anything from the USSR to nationalist movements all across the Global South. Divide and Rule has always been used to fan the flames "intra-Islam", from the Clinton administration getting cozy with the Taliban to the Cheney regime - helped by Persian Gulf vassals - advancing the sectarian Sunni/Shi'ite schism.

Cui bono, then, with killing Charlie? Only those whose agenda is to demonize Islam. Not even a bunch of brainwashed fanatics would pull off the Charlie carnage to show people who accuse them of being barbarians that they are, in fact, barbarians. French intel at least has concluded that this is no underwear bomber stunt. This is a pro job. That happens to take place just a few days after France recognizes Palestinian statehood. And just a few days after General Hollande demanded the lifting of sanctions against the Russian "threat".

The Masters of the Universe who pull the real levers of the Empire of Chaos are freaking out with the systemic chaos in the racket they so far had the illusion of controlling. Make no mistake - the Empire of Chaos will do what it can to exploit the post-Charlie environment - be it blowback or false flag.

The Obama administration is already mobilizing the UN Security Council. The FBI is "helping" with the French investigation. And as an Italian analyst memorably put it, jihadis don't attack a vulture hedge fund; they attack a satirical rag. This is not religion; this is hardcore geopolitics. Reminds me of David Bowie: "This is not rock'n roll. This is suicide."

The Obama administration is already mobilized to offer "protection" - Mob-style - to a Western Europe that is just, only just, starting to be diffident of the pre-fabricated Russian "threat". And just as it happens, when the Empire of Chaos mostly needs it, evil "terra" once again rears its ugly head.

And yes, I am Charlie. Not only because they made us laugh; but because they were sacrificial lambs in a much nastier, gruesome, never-ending shadowplay.

Here's something that I just typed before seeing that it wasn't actually Banksy that drew those pencils:

"Disappointed in Banksy for letting himself be used, too. Is "he" even a single person really, or just a revolving persona-by-committee like what Andrew W.K. was accused of a few years ago?"

LOL

[cptmarginal]

Is there currently some historical anniversary of particular importance to far-right sympathizers? Because it's been feeling a lot like ultranationalist Golden Week for the past few days, for a variety of reasons...

[justdrew]

Is there currently some historical anniversary of particular importance to far-right sympathizers? Because it's been feeling a lot like ultranationalist Golden Week for the past few days, for a variety of reasons...

on this day in history...

1973 – Mark Essex fatally shoots ten people and wounds 13 others at Howard Johnson's Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, before being shot to death by police officers.
1979 – Third Indochina War: Cambodian–Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

[cptmarginal]

There's all sorts of interesting things that have happened around the date of the attack to flare up some hilarious apophenia, just by looking at Wikipedia. I bring up this topic of dates as somewhat of a lark, but also because I know that from my limited knowledge, nationalists tend to be big on traditions and anniversaries. It has to be something quite specific.

All I can come up with is the Christian Epiphany feast - Germany (of very recent right-wing racist rally notoriety) has January 6 as a public holiday. It's also the birthday of Joan of Arc.

Some members here will obviously be far more knowledgeable about this, I'm just an interloper:

The 600-year struggle for the soul of Joan of Arc

05 January 2012

Almost six centuries after she was burnt by the English, President Nicolas Sarkozy will lead a commando operation tomorrow to free Joan of Arc from captivity.

Not from English captivity but from her status as a foreigner-bashing, official heroine of the French far right. Friday marks the 600 anniversary of Joan’s birth. Mr Sarkozy will take time out from rescuing the French and European economies to attend a series of events in her native village of Domrémy-la-Pucelle in the Vosges. He will also visit Vaucouleurs in Meuse, where Joan or Jeanne or Jehanne (1412-1431) spent the early part of her brief career as a religious visionary and resistance leader.

The xenophobic National Front adopted Jeanne d’Arc as an icon of ultra-nationalism two decades ago. The NF will celebrate her 600 birthday with an open-air rally led by the party’s leader Marine Le Pen and its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in Paris on Saturday.

(Jan. 6, 2015 is also apparently the 100th anniversary of the birth of both Alan Watts and John Lilly! Er... off topic!)

[Nordic]

vineyardsaker.net
I am NOT Charlie
January 08, 2015
218 Comments

I can see his point. I sorta felt a similar thing in the pit of my stomach looking at those cartoons. Not that the violence is in any way justified, but that what they were doing was, like he said, sort of a Darwin Award activity.

It's weird because just a couple of days before this happened, by pure coincidence, I was trying to explain to my son (12) about this, because there was a South Park episode that portrayed Mohammed, and it was never shown, and was removed from the Comedy Central website, and anything to do with the show. Why? Well, because of this very thing. We looked up the episode anyway. It's out there on the internets, and you can watch it. In it, the prophet is a superhero in a league of diety superheroes. He flies around and shoots fire out of his hands.

But the people that made that obviously didn't want to get murdered.

It's distasteful, but he makes a point. That's all I'm saying. I respect his view, even though I also completely support the freedom of speech behind the satire.

It's like anything else. You are FREE to do whatever you want, but others are also FREE to give you consequences. I am a firm believer in all kinds of freedom.

[RocketMan]

The Guardian is posting live updates about the manhunt.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2 ... ?CMP=fb_gu

The village is in complete lockdown, as seems to be par for the course in these events after Boston, and cell phones are apparently no longer working.

L’Obs newsweekly is reporting that accoridng to several sources, mobile phones are no longer working in Dammartin.

Caoline Morais, who works in the mayor’s office in the town, has told Le Monde: “We are trapped inside, everyone has been shut inside. We are a bit like you, we’re following everything online.”

Also, Charles de Gaulle airport is partially closed. I mean WTF.

Charles de Gaulle airport is partially closed as the operation in Dammartin-en-Goele, roughly 8 miles away, continues the Air News Agency reports.

Some reports suggest that runways have been closed while others say that flights are being turned away.

Flightradar24 says that all runways at CDG are open but northern runways are being used for take-off only. Two flights, AF47 and AF1695, were prevented from landing at Charles-de-Gaulle airport, according to reports.

[Joe Hillshoist]

I thought andrew wk was just andrew wk tho.

[RocketMan]

Also, this:

France Info radio has obtained an extraordinary account from a salesman who said he shook one of the suspect’s hands when they arrived at the printing business at 8.30am this morning, writes Angelique Chrisafis in Paris.

The man, who would only gave his name as Didier, said he had an appointment with Michel, the owner of the printing and publicity material business. Didier said he shook one of the gunmen’s hands who he took to be police special operations officer. He was dressed in black and was heavily armed with at least one rifle.

He said when he arrived at the business his client came out to meet him with what he took to be a policeman, dressed in black combat gear, with a bullet-proof vest.

“We all shook hands and my client told me to leave.” Didier added that the man he took to be the policeman said: “Go, we don’t kill civilians”. He added “I thought was strange.”

He said: “As I left I didn’t know what it was, it wasn’t normal. I did not know what was going on. Was it a hostage taking or a burglary?”

http://www.franceinfo.fr/actu/faits-div ... ele-628841

France Info a pu joindre en exclusivité Didier, un commercial qui dit avoir croisé la route des frères Kouachi vendredi matin à Dammartin-en-Goële. Il raconte que l'un des deux frères lui a dit "C'est la police. Partez on ne tue pas les civils".

"J'ai croisé un terroriste et je lui ai serré la main", c'est le témoignage exclusif de Didier, un commercial qui dit avoir croisé vendredi la route des frères Kouachi suspectés d'être les auteurs de l'attentat contre Charlie Hebdo mercredi.

"Lorsque je suis arrivé, mon client est sorti avec une personne armée qui s'est présentée de la police, mon client m'a demandé de partir, donc je suis parti. La personne qui s'était présentée comme étant de la police m'a dit : 'Partez, de toute façon on ne tue pas les civils', c'est ce qui m'a énormément interpellé, et j'ai décidé d'appeler la police. Je suppose que c'était l'un des terroristes".

"Je ne les ai pas reconnus formellement, ils étaient habillés comme des policiers d'intervention, tenue noire, gilet pare-balles et fusil. Ça aurait pu être un policier s'il ne m'avait pas dit 'on ne tue pas les civils'. Ils étaient lourdement armés, comme des policiers qui interviennent avec des fusils type kalach. J'étais devant la porte de l'entreprise, j'ai serré la main de Michel et de l'un des terroristes. Il m'a dit 'je suis la police. Partez, on ne tue pas les civils'. Après je suis parti, et Michel a fermé le portail derrière moi. Je suis parti dans la foulée", raconte encore Didier.

"Je ne savais pas s'il s'agissait d'une prise d'otages, d'un cambriolage. Je savais qu'il y avait quelque chose de pas normal. Je n'ai pas entendu de coup de feu". "Je pense que je vais aller voir mes collègues et jouer au loto, car j'ai eu beaucoup de chance ce matin".

[Joe Hillshoist]

“We all shook hands and my client told me to leave.” Didier added that the man he took to be the policeman said: “Go, we don’t kill civilians”. He added “I thought was strange.”

WTF? Who were the people they killed? The fucken foreign legion?

That said I'm kind of ambivalent about all this. French euro supremacists hanging bigoted shit on Muslims, many of whom they colonised, ripped off and shat on for centuries and who make up the poorest most marginalised section of French society ... then the whole world gives them sympathy after a couple of the 1.6 billion people they regularly insulted in the most offensive way possible snap and kill them. Your right to provoke people as much as you possibly can then expect them to have more self control than you did when provoking them doesn't actually exist, dead French douchebags.

[Hunter]

As someone who writes parody and satire for a living I really do not understand the uproar, it is supposed to be offensive, funny and make a statement all at the same time. No lines were crossed because those lines do not exist in the world of the satirist. People do this all the time with Jesus, the Buddha, et al and aint nobody getting killed or bombed for it.

However, I for one do not believe Muslims carried out these attacks to begin with so the point is moot. Everytime something good happens for the Muslim people, in this case France recognizing Palestine as a state, something like this occurs to make people question that good will. Sharon and Israel make concessions that benefit the Muslim people in a big way and a day later BOOM a bus is blown up in Tel Aviv. This is the same shit, the people responsible for this attack are not Muslims offended by comic strips and what is clearly satire, those responsible are the ones whose agenda it is to further villify Islam and make countries like France re-think their Pro-Palestinian support. Clear as day to me and I am shocked that more people dont see right through this.

[zangtang]

the consequences of provocation by ridicule are justifiable murder? - i know thats not what you're saying.....thats how it reads

personally, i think the 'murder as just retribution for ridicule' is exactly why we should ridicule this shit into a hole in the ground.with as much abject contempt
as we can muster without (neuro-physiologically) poisoning ourselves.
Not that i'm going to do that myself, in public.
cos i'm not fucking stupid.

[Hunter]

Show me how this is just not another false flag to further villify Muslims and get the rest of the world, including France, to rethink their position of sympathy and inclusion of Muslims in to their societies. I will listen to your argument but it better be a damned good one because this is as clear as day to me why this happened and who is really behind it, like clockwork every single time something good happens for Muslims something happens to sabotage that good will, are you suggesting the Muslims themselves are that stupid that when something good happens in their favor they have this immediate need to shit on it and make the world believe all the bullshit and lies that are already told about them.

This has state sponsored false flag written all over it and anyone who now disvows Muslims after speaking in support of them will come out smelling like roses.

[82_28]

As someone who writes parody and satire for a living I really do not understand the uproar, it is supposed to be offensive, funny and make a statement all at the same time. No lines were crossed because those lines do not exist in the world of the satirist. People do this all the time with Jesus, the Buddha, et al and aint nobody getting killed or bombed for it.

However, I for one do not believe Muslims carried out these attacks to begin with so the point is moot. Everytime something good happens for the Muslim people, in this case France recognizing Palestine as a state, something like this occurs to make people question that good will. Sharon and Israel make concessions that benefit the Muslim people in a big way and a day later BOOM a bus is blown up in Tel Aviv. This is the same shit, the people responsible for this attack are not Muslims offended by comic strips and what is clearly satire, those responsible are the ones whose agenda it is to further villify Islam and make countries like France re-think their Pro-Palestinian support. Clear as day to me and I am shocked that more people dont see right through this.

Yup. As someone who also writes satire this is totally a glaring bit of bullshit. I tried to get translations from a French speaking writer I write with, but he didn't want to get "into it" or something. I totally wanted to get the "play by play" since everything is being filtered now through media channels that use English.

A nice little bend in the road is now "they" have killed people and taken hostage two Kosher establishments as we speak. Ramp this shit up, scros! I think the internationality of this does not bode well. Totally trying to get the pulse on this. But I can't.

"Islam" must definitely have a cracker jack marketing team.