12 Dead in Daytime Paris Attack at Satirical Magazine

[David Guyatt]

Paris attacks: Jean-Marie Le Pen says French terror attacks were work of Western intelligence



Front National founder gives credence to conspiracy theories in an interview with virulently anti-western Russian newspaper

JOHN LICHFIELD

PARIS

Saturday 17 January 2015

The Charlie Hebdo massacre may have been the work of an "intelligence agency", working with the connivance of French authorities, according to Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the far right Front National.

In an interview with a virulently anti-Western Russian newspaper, Mr Le Pen, 86, gave credence to conspiracy theories circulating on the internet suggesting that the attack was the work of American or Israeli agents seeking to foment a civil war between Islam and the West.
His comments only partially retracted in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde today provoked outrage amongst French politicians. They will also infuriate Marine Le Pen, his daughter, and successor as leader of the FN, who has been trying to distance the party from her father's extreme and provocative remarks.
Mr Le Pen stood down as FN leader three years ago but remains President-for-life. He made the comments in an interview withKomsomolskaïa Pravda , a newspaper which had already blamed the United States for the terrorist mayhem in France.
Charlie Hebdo: Mourning in Paris
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"The shooting at Charlie Hebdo resembles a secret service operation but we have no proof of that," the newspaper quoted Mr Le Pen as saying. "I don't think it was organised by the French authorities but they permitted this crime to be committed. That, for the moment, is just a supposition."
To justify his comments, Mr Le Pen pointed to the fact that one of the Kouachi brothers, who carried out the Charlie Hebdo massacre, left his identity card in a crashed getaway car. He compared this to the "miraculous fact" beloved by conspiracy theorists that one of the passports of the 9/11 hijackers was found on the ground in New York after two planes collided with the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in 2001.

Mr Le Pen made two other provocative remarks in the interview. He said that the 1,500,000 who marched "against hatred" in Paris last Sunday were not "Charlies" but "Charlie Chaplins" (ie clowns). He also said that there were 15,000,00 to 20,000,000 Muslims in France three or four times the generally accepted figures of 5,000,000 people who are practising Muslims or have Muslim backgrounds.
In an interview with Le Monde today, Mr Le Pen repeated his suspicions about the identity card but said he "could not recall" talking about "secret services" to the Russian newspaper.
Mr Le Pen's original quoted remarks run directly counter to the official line of his daughter and his party. They have suggested that the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket are the final proof that France faces an "enemy within", which has been created by immigration and open EU borders.
Conspiracy theories of the kind espoused by the elder Le Pen sprang up on the internet within hours of the Charlie Hebdo attacks. They have been repeated in recent days by some not all - young Muslims in France, torn between identifying with the Kouachi brothers and insisting that they were stooges of the French authorities, Washington and Israel.
The French "pope of conspiracy theories", Thierry Meyssan, now based in Damascus, insisted that the Charlie Hebdo massacres were "ordered by US neo-cons and liberal hawks". An American conspiracy site, McLatchy, has claimed that the Kouachi brothers were working for French intelligence.

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[David Guyatt]

Should we expect these arrests to slowly die away in comparative silence in due course? "Association with terrorism"?

Paris attacks: Four men charged with links to terrorist attacks by Amedy Coulibaly



The four men have been charged with offences including helping to plan terror attacks and possession of weapons

ROISIN O'CONNOR

Wednesday 21 January 2015

Four men have been charged with links to the terrorist attacks in Paris that occurred earlier this month, the prosecutor's office has said.

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said that the men were handed preliminary charges overnight of association with terrorism. The men are 22, 25, 26 and 28 years old and are suspected of providing logistical support to Amedy Coulibaly, one of the terrorists killed by police. They are being held in custody until further investigation.
Three of the four had criminal records while at least one met Coulibaly in prison, M. Molins said.
He said that authorities in France are working with other countries to search for other possible suspects, and added that investigators are trying to uncover who was responsible for the posthumous video of Coulibaly, which was edited and released days after he and the Charlie Hebdo gunmen Said and Cherif Kouachi were killed by police.
In the video, Coulibaly pledges allegiance to the Islamic State group and details how the attacks were coordinated by the three men.
Police probing the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters and a kosher grocery in eastern Paris arrested 12 people on the night of 15 January and in the early hours of the following day.
Under French law, they will be held in custody while an investigating magistrate builds a case. The other suspects have all been released.
Nine men and three women were questioned on suspicion of providing logistical support to the killers, the Interior Ministry announced at the time of the attacks.
France is currently still on the highest alert and has deployed over 120,000 police and soldiers across the country to protect vulnerable buildings such as schools and train stations.

Police said that the DNA of one of those arrested was found on a weapon used by Amedy Coulibaly: who killed a police officer in a Paris suburb on 8 January and then murdered four hostages at a kosher grocery store in the Porte de Vincennes, eastern Paris, the next day.
DNA of another man was found in the car Coulibaly drove to the grocery, Europe1 radio reported.
The three gunmen were killed in almost simultaneous assaults by the police on 9 January.
Police are still investigating the degree of coordination between the two attacks.

[David Guyatt]

I missed this SLOG post at the time. All the points have been covered here previously, but it's good to see the Slog on the same page. But who's to know what a "genuine terrorist" is these days, or who they work for?

CHARLIE HEBDO ATTACKS: NOT SO MUCH A FALSE FLAG AS A FREE HAND

BY JOHN WARD JANUARY 12, 2015 COP SUICIDE FALSE COP EXECUTION FLAK JACKETS HOW WAS HEBDO EDITORIAL MEETING KNOWN?ORCHESTRATED MASS LEADERS RALLY IN 3 DAYS FLAT SEVEN DEADLY HEBDO DOUBTS TERRORIST ID CARDS UNDER SURVEILLANCE OR NOT?

THE SEVEN DEADLY DOUBTS THAT SHOULD LEAVE EVERY OBJECTIVE OBSERVER PUZZLED

I still think the morons who carried out the various Paris attacks were "genuine" terrorists (see Slogpost of last week) but that doesn't stop one from amassing a body of evidence to suggest that the authorities both knew the attack was going to happen….and turned a blind eye when it did. Some of the facts pointing in that direction have been completely ignored by a Western press set that has adopted the usual robotic Stepford Wife unanimity from Day 1. In the light of what follows, it's hard to see why they should be believed:
Doubt 1: The security cop who killed himself
The Charlie attack began around 11.30 am (CET) on 7 January 2015
Immediately, a specialist cop with relevant experience Helric Fredou was assigned to the case. He had been an anti-terrorist Special Branch (SRPJ) police officer since 2011.
He worked all day assessing film, recordings, identity details. He stopped for neither lunch nor dinner, but (I'm told) did phone one family member and "express concerns" about some of the stuff he'd seen. Just after 1 am the next morning, he died from a bullet wound to the head. He had "a history of depression" the authorities quickly established. The verdict was suicide.
Just two months earlier, he'd found an immediate colleague dead in similar circumstances.The verdict was suicide.
Doubt 2: The missing frames from the France 24 video of cop being killed'
This clip of film was clumsily edited before publication. The missing bit in slowmo and close-up looks to me conclusive: the killer who finishes off' officer Ahmed Merabet with an AK47 from close range misses the cop, the bullet ricochets off the pavement. From that range, a successful shot to the head would've blown Merabet's brains up and down the street. There is no sign of any such effect.
We've been told Ahmed Merabet died from that shot. He didn't. Do we have a body? Will there be an autopsy?
Doubt 3: Flak jackets on the roof.
One Paris contact says some of this film too has been edited since the incident. This person (and others on French blogs) claim they can clearly discern flak jackets on some of the observers.
That too suggests pre-warning of the attack.
Doubt 4: Establishment of terrorist identity
Although I've tried already to establish that the two perpetrators were near brain-extinct, not even a martyr with an IQ in single figures would leave his identity card in the getaway car for the cops to find: frankly, anyone with an ounce of sense would leave all IDs at home (or destroy them) and rip all tabs out of their clothing.
Doubt 5: They were already under surveillance
At the risk of pressing a tad too hard on the sarcasm pedal, having terrorists under surveillance kind of loses its attraction as a policy if they're still free in broad daylight, in the capital city to mosey on downtown to the offices of the most offensive BD-mag in France, don face balaclavas, enter the wrong address, take a hostage and then gain effortless access to the building.
There are only two conclusions possible here: either the French security services are at a level in the basement below useless', or they turned a blind eye. For reasons that both precede and follow, I favour the latter.
Doubt 6: No idea of the address, but fully briefed on it being weekly editorial meeting from 11am onwards
Turning this same coin over, we are being asked to believe that two slogan-screaming idiots (who didn't even case the joint before driving there) nevertheless had an espionage network capable of discovering the exact time of Charlie Hebdo's weekly editorial meeting….but not which floor it took place on.
I think there's a very good chance they were helped on the timing information.
Doubt 7: Mass rally of world leaders' in three days flat
It's obvious to most people (with the probable exception of Con Coughlin) that the Hypocrisy Happening in Paris at the weekend was given the nature of censorship applied by these sociopaths across the planet these days likely to result in a rush on anti-seasickness pills, what's less obvious is how Hollande managed to round up almost every Swinging Dick on Earth to turn up that quickly.
The whole event seemed to me carefully orchestrated.

This piece will doubtless go into the files as more NVE from The Slog and conspiracy theory that will serve me jolly well right. It is neither; it's nothing more than seven things that don't make sense. The onus is now on Them to prove me wrong or explain how and why my research is wrong.

[R.K. Locke]

James Corbett and Sibel Edmonds talking about Paris, Xinjiang and Gladio B:

[David Guyatt]

What are French Politicians and Journalists Afraid of?

by Voltaire Network

The astonishing Press campaign currently being waged in France, in the name of freedom of expression, against all those who have been questioning the January attacks in Paris, has spread progressively to all the NATO countries. As from now, the use of a critical mind may become a criminal offence punishable by prison.

VOLTAIRE NETWORK | GENEVA (SWITZERLAND) | 26 JANUARY 2015 FRANÇAIS ITALIANO فارسى DEUTSCH

On the sidelines of the "Je suis Charlie" event of January 11, 2015, 56 heads of state and government gathered on a side street of the procession and posed a few minutes for the cameras before returning home. Based on these images, they were presented as leading a demonstration in which they never joined.The attacks of January 2015 in France gave rise to a massive public demonstration (« Je suis Charlie ») and, immediately afterwards, a campaign of denunciation of any writers who asked questions about their meaning. Almost all the major media gave space to comments or articles which, instead of presenting and discussing the facts, chose to demonize anyone who disputed them.The aim of this campaign was clearly exposed by the political director of France2, Nathalie Saint-Criq, who explained on the national news, the 12th January - « ...it's precisely those who aren't "Charlie" that we have to pinpont, those who refused the minute of silence in schools, those who 'speak out' on the social networks, and those who do not feel that this is their fight. Well, those are the ones we have to identify, treat, and integrate or re-integrate into the national community ».Nathalie Saint-Criq's McCarthy-ist CallNathalie Saint-Cricq is the companion of Patrice Duhamel, who was CEO of France Télévision in charge of antennas, that is to say, chief censor of the public television service. The latter is the brother of columnist Alain Duhamel. These three journalists have for many years expressed the consensus of the French ruling class.From whence comes the worries that are moving through the French press?Since the publication of The Big Lie and the global discussion surrounding it, a growing faction of the population, not only in France but in all NATO member states -and only among them- , no longer trusts the mainstream media to inform. By 2002 and in the years that followed, the credibility of the printing press and radio had fallen to 44%, that of television to 53%. Over time, it had risen to 50% for the clipboard, 55% for radio and 58% for television. [1]It will be observed that for the ruling class, the media's credibility is measured by media category, not its contents, indicating an almost complete lack of pluralism of ideas.The publication of an article by Thierry Meyssan [2] in the hours that followed the attack against Charlie Hebdosuddenly reopened the debate on confidence in the media. From his Syrian exile, the journalist pointed that the terrorists' procedure had no resemblance to that of jihadists, but rather was comparable to that of military commandos. Therefore, according to him, the important thing was not so much whether the terrorists were Muslims and if they had had contact with authentic jihadists but who had commissioned them to accomplish their crime. This article has been widely adopted in France by many websites, relayed by mailing lists and consulted in three days more than 800 000 times in the French part of the Voltaire Network website.Strangely, this issue, which has been treated by many foreign media, including BBC and CNN, has not been taken up by the mainstream press in France. Worse, the campaign waged against those who raise questions often quoted Thierry Meyssan's article without ever addressing his arguments.In this same article, the exiled journalist observes that the attack against Charlie Hebdo was aimed at re-igniting the « war of civilisations », a strategy which has never been stated either by the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaëda, or Daesh, but only by the United States neo-conservatives and liberal falcons. That was all it took to draw accusations of « antisemitism ». And let's remember that the neo-conservatives were initially a group of Trotskyist journalists who edited the Jewish and Zionist magazineCommentary [3].Although this accusation is absurd, it probably aimed to show that the ideas of Thierry Meyssan were widely reported, discussed and commented by members of Réconciliation nationale, the political party newly created by Alain Soral and Dieudonné. Now, as the name suggests, this course aims to bring together citizens of different political origins, including members of the extreme anti-Semitic right.The French press faces two simultaneous challenges. The first is the world challenge to the Anglo-Saxon domination that Thierry Meyssan leads and, on the other hand, the emergence of a new political movement challenging the French "treason elite "around Dieudonné and Alain Soral.Speaking in Parliament about the attacks, Prime Minister Manuel Valls also designated the comedian Dieudonné as a priority target to shoot down. "And what a terrible coincidence, what an affront to see a repeat hate offender presenting his show in packed halls at the same time on Saturday night when the Nation, at the Porte de Vincennes, took stock. Let us never overlook these facts and may justice be implacable toward those preachers of hate! I say this emphatically here in the gallery of the National Assembly! " [4]. The next day, the comedian was arrested and placed in custody. He is accused of mocking the "Je suis Charlie" mobilization by ridiculing it with the words "Je suis Charlie Coulibaly" (the name of one of the terrorists), which would be a call to anti-Semitic hatred.Thus, in France today, the defense of freedom of expression means that we send a comedian to prison.

All the French were not involved in the mobilization

In this context, of challenges to the media and political power, studies have been conducted to determine who resisted the French public discourse and what would be their impact on the future of political parties.First, a strong regional disparity appears: the rate of citizen participation in the "Je suis Charlie" demonstrations reached 71% in Grenoble or Rodez, but drops to 3% in Havre or Henin-Beaumont [5].Mobilization "I'm Charlie"Source: IfopAccording to Ifop, the fracture line corresponded to that of the National Front vote, but it could also match that of the "No" vote in the 2005 referendum on the European Constitution. After review, the Institute rejects the hypothesis of a correlation with religious affiliation to Islam.The National Front vote in the presidential election of 2012.Source: IfopThe "No" vote in the 2005 referendum on the European ConstitutionSource: Frédéric SalmonIn other words, the challenge to the unanimity of "Je suis Charlie" corresponds to the aspirations of the National Front voters, but would be susceptible to grow to match that of the voters opposed to an anti-Republican and anti-democratic European Union..The penetration rate of critical thinking, called "conspiracy theories", was measured by Ifop for Sud Ouest. [6]The newspaper explains what one "must" retain in an interview with the political scientist Emmanuel Taïeb. This sociologist, professor at Lyon Political Sciences, was previously known as a specialist on the death penalty. Although he has never written a scientific paper on "conspiracy theories", he is presented, since the attack against Charlie Hebdo, as a leading expert and is questioned by many media.By "Conspiracy theories" we must understand here an "adherent to theses" challenging the consensual versions of political facts". Emmanuel Taieb states that these "theories" are not "rumors" (term used during the 2002 campaign), but are produced by identified persons (he quotes Jean-Marie Le Pen, Thierry Meyssan and Lyndon LaRouche) who would not be journalists (though Thierry Meyssan legally holds a press card and is editor of several newspapers papers in different countries). He states that, ultimately, "Most conspiracy theories are merely new forms of anti-imperialism and anti-Zionism."Logically the newspaper starts from the issue of Sept. 11 to get to that of "Je suis Charlie." For 21% of respondents "it's not really certain that these attacks [11 September 2001] were planned and carried out solely by the al-Qaeda terrorist organization." This drops to 16% for the attacks in January 2015.Ifop and Sud Ouest of 25 January 2015.Survey of a sample of 1,051 people representative of the French population aged 18 and older, conducted by self-administered online questionnaire from 21 to 23 January 2015.Of course, the formulation of questions partially induced responses. Anyway, 16% is already a significant political issue.Ifop continues the study by observing that the Sept. 11 protesters are spread throughout the electoral spectrum with an over-representation in the National Front. But lo and behold, about "Je suis Charlie," they are more numerous in the Front de gauche and the UMP than in the Socialist Party and the National Front.So the rhetoric equating dissent to an extreme right origin with a waft of anti-semitism collapses. The "complotistes" are actually citizens who rebel against the system on behalf of the values of the Republic and democracy. This has been understood very well by the National Front largely evolving over the past decade from a far-right party to a patriotic party, the Left Front, and now Réconciliation nationale, although these three parties do not relate to each other.

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[R.K. Locke]

Shortly after the Charlie Hebdo attack it was reported that one of the Rothschilds had bought the magazine only weeks or months before. Does anyone know if this claim was ever substantiated?

[Drew Phipps]

Article at:

http://main.vma.bz/insurance/post-charli...m-coverage

entitled, "Post-Charlie Hebdo: Reassessing Your Need for Terrorism Coverage."

explaining how affordable terrorism insurance is. I wonder how much new money will be made by insurers in the wake of this tragedy.

[Peter Lemkin]

Shortly after the Charlie Hebdo attack it was reported that one of the Rothschilds had bought the magazine only weeks or months before. Does anyone know if this claim was ever substantiated?

I'd not heard that...and find it very unlikely. What in the world would they want with a magazine that struggled...and after a new brief period of 'life', will again slip into near obscurity of a niche publication? Hard to believe, even if it is supposed to smell of oligarch foreknowledge.

[R.K. Locke]

The claims are still being published on a lot of conspiracy sites. As far as I can tell they all seem to link back to a Dutch economic magazine:

http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comme...ds_bought/

http://new.euro-med.dk/20150121-philippe...illion.php


Lots of "illuminati" bilge in the comments as you would expect.

Would be nice to be able to find another source for this story.

[Lauren Johnson]

From Veterans Today: Suicided Officers Family Denied Access to Autopsy

(1/25/2015 8:48 pm Paris time ) Exclusive! Panamza has contacted the mother of Helric Fredou the Police Commissioner charged with preparing a report on the family background of Charlie Hebdo who was found dead with a bullet in the head just hours after the attack.
I asked for the autopsy report and was told: "You won't get it."
Friday, January 16, Panamza published the disturbing testimony of the sister of police officer Helric Fredou, whose mysterious "suicide" continues to be ignored by the national media. Nine days later, it was the mother's turn to bring new revelations.
Fredou's Mother
Contacted by the author, she said that at first she was "enormously shocked" that Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve had not passed her his condolences. The Interior Minister maintained, she said, an excellent relationship with his deceased son. From 2010 to 2012, the two men were brought together to work at Cherbourg, one as deputy mayor of the city, the other in his capacity as chief commissioner. "I hope one day I cross paths with him to tell him how very disappointed I was," she added.
The Elysee was also (oddly) unresponsive. Helric Fredou had been responsible for among other localités Corrèze including Tulle, historic stronghold of Francois Hollande.
Panamza will soon return with the entirety of her testimony, collected through a telephone interview recorded Saturday, January 24. In the meantime, here are seven key points:
* 1 According to the mother of Helric Fredou, police officers with whom she spoke expressly advised that she would not have access to the autopsy report. The Code of Criminal Procedure, however, provides that in any case of legal autopsy (for suicide or suspicious death), any member of the family can make a request to the prosecutor. "Give it up" is the message being sent to a bereaved mother who "wants to know the truth."
2 * Helric Fredou's service weapon was not equipped with a silencer. Her mother has asked a basic question to his colleagues: "Why didn't you hear anything when he was shot at about midnight?" Laconic reply: "His office was well insulated."
3 * According to his mother, Helric Fredou wanted to make an important phone call after doing two things: debriefing "three investigators" who went out to question the immediate family of a victim of the attack on Charlie Hebdo (in this case, the relatives of Jeannette Bougrab Charb's self-styled girlfriend as was discovered and disclosed by Panamza) and then checking "social networks." It is at this point that Fredou would have made such an important deduction that he "wanted to keep working." Important point: the unidentified "commander" in the office that night wanted to take charge of debriefing investigators and writing the report, but Fredou insisted "It's my job." The direct superior of Helric Fredou is Gil Friedman, director of the Regional Criminal Police, Limoges.
4 * According to police, Helric Fredou raised the barrel of his revolver to his forehead and the bullet remained inside the skull.
5 * Helric Fredou's attending physician, with whom his mother spoke Thursday, January 22, refuses to accept the picture sketched by the handful of articles about Freidou's death that cited his alleged "depression" and supposed "burn-out".
* 6 The mother wanted to know who made the last call to her son. Police reportedly retorted "We are unable to say" before finally claiming that no such call had been made.
7 * "Four Directors" of the police, specifically from Paris, met Helric Fredou's mother to offer condolences and try to convince her that her son was a "suicide".
Finally, another odd fact deserves to be reported here: apart from the author of these lines, NO journalist has contacted from January 8th onward the mother or sister Helric Fredou to try to shed light on the case.
HICHAM HAMZA