12 Dead in Daytime Paris Attack at Satirical Magazine

[David Guyatt]

On middle eastern matters I think Thierry Meyssan has an edge. The following is his view based on all available facts. Note the link at the very bottom of the article: "According to McClatchy, Mohammed Mehra and the Kouachi brothers are linked to the French secret services."

Interesting that, these outrages and those tagged as responsible always do seem to be linked to the intelligence services. It's like a signature fact, in actual fact.

A FRENCH SEPTEMBER 11TH?
Who ordered the attack against Charlie Hebdo?

by Thierry Meyssan

While many French react to the attack against Charlie Hebdo denouncing Islam and demonstrating in the streets, Thierry Meyssan points out that the jihadist interpretation is impossible. While it would be tempting for him to see it as an Al Qaeda or Daesh operation, he envisages another, much more dangerous hypothesis.

VOLTAIRE NETWORK | DAMASCUS (SYRIA) | 10 JANUARY 2015

In this report, France 24 edited the video so that we do not see the attackers execute a fallen police officer.On January 7, 2015, commandos erupted in Paris, in the premises of Charlie Hebdo and murdered 12 people. 4 more victims are still in serious condition.On the videos, the attackers are heard shouting "Allah Akbar! and "avenge Muhammad". One witness, a Coco designer, said they proclaimed affiliation with al-Qaeda. That's all it took for many French to denounce it as an Islamist attack.However, this assumption is illogical.The mission of this commando had no connection with jihadist ideology

Indeed, members or sympathizers of the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda or Daesh would not be content to just kill atheist cartoonists; they would have first destroyed the archives of the newspaper on site, following the model of all their actions in North Africa and the Levant. For jihadists, the first duty is to destroy the objects that they believe offend God, and to punish the "enemies of God."Similarly, they would not have immediately retreated, fleeing the police, without completing their mission. They would rather have completed their mission, were they to die on the spot.In addition, videos and some evidence shows that the attackers are professionals. They wielded their weapons expertly and fired advisedly. They were not dressed in the fashion of the jihadists, but as military commandos.How they dispatched a wounded policeman who posed no danger to them, certifies that their mission was not to "avenge Muhammad" because of the crass humor of Charlie Hebdo.The video censored by French TVThis aims to create the beginning of a civil war

The fact that the assailants speak French well and are probably French does not necessarily indicate that this attack is a Franco-French episode. Rather, the fact that they are professional forces one to distinguish them from possible sponsors. And there is no evidence that these are French.It is a normal reflex, but intellectually wrong to consider, when one is a victim of an attack, that one knows his attackers. This is most logical when it comes to normal crimes, but it's wrong when it comes to international politics.Sponsors for the attack knew it would cause a divide between French Muslims and French non-Muslims. Charlie Hebdo had specialized in anti-Muslim provocation and most Muslims in France have been directly or indirectly their victims. Though the Muslims of France will surely condemn this attack, it will be difficult for them to experience as much pain for the victims as felt by the readers of the newspaper. This will be seen by some as complicity with the murderers.Therefore, rather than seeing this as an extremely deadly Islamist attack of revenge against the newspaper that published the Mohammed cartoons and multiplied front page anti-Muslim headlines, it would be more logical to consider that it is the first episode of a process to trigger a civil war.The strategy of "the clash of civilizations" was designed in Tel Aviv and Washington

The ideology and strategy of the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda and Daesh does not advocate the creation of civil war in the 'West', but on the contrary to create it in the "East" and hermetically separate the two worlds. Never has Sayyid Qutb, nor any of his successors, called to provoke confrontation between Muslims and non-Muslims in the territories of the latter.On the contrary, the strategy of the "clash of civilizations" was formulated by Bernard Lewis for the US National Security Council then popularized by Samuel Huntington not as a strategy of conquest, but as a predictable situation. [1] It aimed to persuade NATO member group populations of the inevitability of confrontation that preventively assumed the form of the "war on terrorism".It is not in Cairo, Riyadh or Kabul that one advocates the "clash of civilizations", but in Washington and Tel Aviv.The sponsors of the attack against Charlie Hebdo did not seek to satisfy jihadists or the Taliban, but neo-conservatives or liberal hawks.Let's not forget the historical precedents

We must remember that in recent years we have seen the US or NATO special services:
Testing the devastating effects of certain drugs on the civilian population in France [2];
Supporting the OAS to try to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle [3];
Carrying out false flag attacks against civilians in several NATO member states . [4]We must remember that since the break-up of Yugoslavia, the US joint chiefs of staff practiced and honed its "dog fight" strategy in many countries This consists of killing members of the majority community, and also members of minorities, then placing the blame on each of them back-to-back until everyone is sure they are in mortal danger. This is the way Washington caused the civil war in Yugoslavia as well as recently in Ukraine. [5]The French would do well to remember also that it is not they who took the initiative in the fight against the jihadists returning from Syria and Iraq. To date, moreover, none of them has committed any attack in France, where the case of Mehdi Nemmouche is not that of a lone terrorist, but of an agent tasked with executing two Mossad agents in Brussels [6] [7]. It was Washington who, on February 6, 2014, convened the interior ministers of Germany, the US, France (Mr. Valls was represented), Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom in order to make the return of European jihadists a matter of national security. [8] It was only after this meeting that the French press addressed this issue, and that the authorities began to react.John Kerry spoke in French for the first time to send a message to the French. He denounced an attack against freedom of expression (while his country since 1995 has continued to bomb and destroy the television stations that were dissing him in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya) and celebrated the struggle against obscurantism.We do not know who sponsored this professional operation against Charlie Hebdo, but we should not allow ourselves to be swept up. We should consider all assumptions and admit that at this stage, its most likely purpose is to divide us; and its sponsors are most likely in Washington.

On the same subject, read: "According to McClatchy, Mohammed Mehra and the Kouachi brothers are linked to the French secret services", Voltaire Network, January 9, 2015.

I have used Google to translate the French language content of the above link about Mehra and the Kouachi bothers being linked to the French secret services via David Drugeon. The translation rendered is below.

According to McClatchy, Mohammed Mehra and Kouachi brothers would be linked to the French secret services
VOLTAIRE NETWORK INTERNATIONAL | January 9, 2015

The US newspaper McClatchy announced that Kouachi and Mohammed Mehra brothers were recruited by Artificer subgroup Khorasan Al Qaeda.

Last year, the same newspaper had revealed the existence of the French Drugeon David (pictured) and his role in al Qaeda in Syria. He claimed that the young man was a member of the French secret services. Then, the Pentagon confirmed consider it as a priority target. The French Ministry of Defence was then strongly reversed Drugeon that ever worked for him.

On 6 November 2014, Fox News announced that David Drugeon had been killed by a US drone Sarmada (Syria). The chain reiterated the charge that he was working for the French secret service.

In an article by its correspondent in Iraq, Mitchell Prothero, McClatchy analyzes the images and videos of the killing of Charlie Hebdo. It concluded that Kouachi Brothers probably had a war experience or at least have received military training. The article reiterates the charge of belonging to David Drugeon to the French secret services. He suggests a possible liability of the French secret services in Mehra and Kouachi business.

This article appeared in the internal Pentagon press review, dated January 8.

So, the following is the McClatchey report referred to by Meyssan:

]Videos show Paris gunmen were calm as they executed police officer, fled scene

BY MITCHELL PROTHERO
McClatchy Foreign StaffJanuary 7, 2015

IRBIL, IRAQ The gunmen who attacked the Paris editorial offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday appeared to be focused professionals who'd carefully prepared the assault.
Video showing two of the assailants suggests they were well trained, striking their target during its weekly editorial meeting, when most of the publication's journalists would be gathered in one place.
Other evidence suggests they could be linked to a top French al Qaida operative, David Drugeon, who's been the target at least twice of U.S. airstrikes in Syria over the last four months.
Witnesses inside the magazine's offices told the French newspaper L'Humanité that both attackers spoke perfect French and claimed to be members of al Qaida.
Drugeon, who many experts believe was a French intelligence asset before defecting to al Qaida, is alleged to have masterminded a 2012 "lone wolf" attack on French soldiers and Jewish targets in the southern French city of Toulouse. That attack killed seven people before the perpetrator, a French citizen named Mohammed Merah, who French intelligence believes had been trained by Drugeon, was killed by a police sniper after a long, violent standoff with security forces.
Wednesday's attack killed at least 10 journalists and two policemen, who'd apparently been assigned to guard the magazine because of previous threats made against the publication, including a firebombing in 2011.

Deadly Charlie Hebdo attack caught in video (HD)

NY Daily News




The gunmen escaped and were still at large hours after the attack. French authorities said they were seeking three people in the attack.
Witnesses speaking to French television reporters described the attackers as calmly entering the editorial offices of the magazine during its weekly editorial meeting, shooting the victims before declaring "Allahu Akbar" and "We have avenged the prophet," before quickly and calmly departing the scene before police could respond.
In three videos of the aftermath posted on the Internet by witnesses, two masked gunmen can be seen exiting the building with military efficiency, making coordinated and precise movements indicative of extensive experience and training. Commonly referred to by military professionals as "muscle memory," the movements reflect the kind of repetitive training that allows someone to efficiently execute tactical movements and maintain fire discipline and accurate marksmanship under the stress of combat.
In one series of photographs, a French police vehicle can be seen with its windshield riddled with bullets in a fairly tight cluster, a pattern that would be nearly impossible for a casually trained beginner to produce with the assault rifles the gunmen were carrying. Though simple to use, the rifles, a variant of the Russian AK-47, tend to be difficult to control when fired on full automatic. But the impact pattern on the police vehicle indicates not just a familiarity with the weapon, but at least a competent degree of marksmanship.
Another video underscores the likelihood that the two were experienced fighters. In it, two gunmen exit the building to board a waiting hatchback sedan when they notice a policeman down the block attempting to engage them as they escape. Without hesitation, the two gunmen shoot the officer, then calmly close on the wounded man as he lies in the street before one of the shooters fires a round into his head from pointblank range.
Again, the calm manner in which the wounded man is murdered before the pair return to the car suggests combat experience or at least extensive training. Both men move quickly but in a very controlled manner. At one point, the lead gunman appears to use a common infantry hand signal to summon his accomplice to his side.
The pair then drive away from the scene, but not before one of the gunmen picks up an object possibly a shoe that had fallen from the car as the door opened.
Prothero is a McClatchy special correspondent based in Irbil, Iraq. Email: mprothero@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @mitchprothero