12 Dead in Daytime Paris Attack at Satirical Magazine

[Lauren Johnson]

My guess on this attack: false flag all the way, until positively proven otherwise. France has pissed off Israel. It has been a little wobbly on the helicopter ship being built for Russia. And now Russia is wooing European countries to ditch the Empire.

France is being tuned into a spectacle. Want this to happen to you? Just get out of line just once.

New article from GlobalResearch:

With information just breaking that the United States has been air dropping arms, food and medical supplies to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) forces in Iraq, supposedly the world's latest terrorist enemy on steroids, what has been suspected all along is now being confirmed.

To add fuel to the fire, this news comes just as warmonger Senator McCain got busted for secretly and illegally entering Syria to meet with ISIL to coordinate strategy on that warfront.

Clearly the ISIL is an ally to the US government in both Iraq and Syria. The command headquarters operating out of the US Embassy in Baghdad has been overseeing the US military airdrops of war supplies to our purported latest enemy in various provinces throughout Iraq. Back in October the US lied about an accidental dropping of supplies that went to the Islamic State jihadists instead of to the Kurds. The strategy in Iraq is to prolong the "war" against ISIL in order to ensure that permanent US military bases there get established, something recently deposed Iraqi President Maliki refused. It wasn't so much Maliki's poor leadership that spearheaded persecution and killing of so many Sunnis during his reign of terror that caused Washington to finally pull the plug on him. It was his kicking Americans out of his country entirely at the end of 2011 that brought his US orchestrated removal from power several months ago.

Just as the US Empire created al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden back in the 80's to finish off the Russians in Afghanistan, then backed al Qaeda's ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo and Bosnia, paving the way for bin Laden to play the heavy in collusion by Saudi-Israeli assistance to pull off the coup d'etat of the century on 9/11, it all became false pretext to wage permanent war on terror. Now that the US government has torn the Middle East asunder into multiple war ravaged failed states, with these latest revelations coming out of Iraq, the US cover has been completely blown ISIL turns out to be just another axis-of-evil Empire creation by the US-Israeli-Saudi governments. Based on these latest on the ground accounts filtering in through Iranian and Iraqi intelligence sources, those previous reports from months ago on how the United States was covertly financing and training this "new and improved" brand of Islamic State terrorism again created by the US turns out to be absolutely true.

Like al Qaeda in the 1990's Balkans, ISIL is the latest US mercenary terror on the ground fighting the US proxy war in Syria against Bashir al Assad's forces and then seven months ago when ISIL invaded Iraq, it created the perfect excuse to deploy once again US troops on the ground in Iraq, remove former US puppet Melawi, set the stage for balkanizing Iraq into three separate entities (Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis) and fight a fake war against ISIL long enough to regain a military foothold in the country while following through with the overall longtime agenda to thoroughly destabilize the entire region.

And then with the menace of ISIL committing ethnic cleansing of Christians and moderate Moslems in both Iraq and Syria, the US once again masterminded another thinly veiled excuse for air strikes on Syrian soil, something Obama was not allowed to do the year before with the chemical weapons false flag. Of course instead of taking out ISIL, in recent months both Israeli and US military air strikes have been destroying Syria's infrastructure, taking out oil refineries and food storage silos that hurt the Syrian people, not the supposed enemy ISIL.

In reaction to last September's international spectacle of the ISIL beheadings of American and British journalists, which have been speculated to be fake, President Obama was grandstanding with his usual self-righteous acting job, pretending to be enraged and shocked by the latest US made Frankenstein monster, vowing to chase the latest declared enemy down,root them out and destroy them, wherever they may be, in both Iraq and Syria. Now we all know it was more theater, the imperial wizard behind the Empire curtain mimicking his rehearsed lines on the international stage, indignantly placating the world as a wannabe good guy. Seems that everything our commander-in-chief utters is fake, disingenuous and for show only. If in fact the US truly wanted to defeat ISIL, with technological capacity and precision as the world's most powerful killing machine, within a month the US could easily locate and destroy ISIL forces.

Long ago even prior to 9/11 the neocon game plan still being acted out today was to wreak havoc in the Middle East and North Africa, taking down one regime after the next, plundering oil rich lands for Exxon, Shell and BP, carving up and devising chessboard pipelines to Europe while isolating and cutting off Russia and Iran oil and gas routes, waging the blood for oil conquest for global hegemony at the murderous expense of the darker skinned human population that happens to be Moslem.

Using terrorist mercenaries comes in handy to fight US Empire's proxy wars where bulk deployment of more American troop invasions from a war-weary nation would not be tolerated. So 1400 US military "advisors" to coordinate the fake war against ISIL in Iraq also becomes the flimsy excuse to go after Syria after all. Taking down Assad in Syria is still the flimsy excuse to then go after Iran, the final Middle East conquest. Of course taking down Iran remains the ever so worn out excuse to also go after cold war enemy Russia [again]. This deceptive strategy and bottom line agenda masquerades as the actual US presence throughout the Middle East. Only by now the world is onto US Empire aggression. The humanitarian rhetoric of lies will no longer work as that game hand's been played too many times before. No one will be fooled any more, not even the Americans.

Notice how every time the US government is about to be fully exposed in another boldface lie, this one being that ISIL is our sworn enemy, another wag the dog "terrorist" incident suddenly comes along to divert world attention. This time it was three heavily armed and trained gunmen in Paris attacking the office of the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, tragically killing twelve people. Of course like the US, France is notorious for arming and funding al Qaeda terrorists. The French foreign minister just accompanied McCain to Syria in their meeting with the ISIL "enemy" there. Questions of speculation over the government's potential involvement in another false flag are being raised.

Not only does the attack temporarily take the heat off another sinister US foible being unraveled, it also gives strength to the war on terror, pumping up the rationale for creating yet more anti-terror laws, more totalitarian oppression in the name of national security and more anti-Moslem hatred around the globe. Though today's attackers were French citizens, the anti-immigration and anti-Islam sentiment raging throughout the Western nations seems ready to boil over. All this of course conflict and violence is just what the oligarchs have ordered, using their age old winning formula of divide and conquer, always to blind people into hating and blaming other groups as scapegoats. The latest current events sweeping the headlines are part of the banking cabal's design to create war, destabilize and destroy nations and economies and impoverish, kill and reduce the global population.

[R.K. Locke]

The strategy of tension in the 21st century.

Faceless and nameless killers and 24 hour news channels with their scripts and cinematics all in place ala sandy hook.

As always you have to ask Cui Bono? That's deep political science student basics.

When you see there hasn't been an attack on Europe in a while, France's deal with Russia for the warboats, the reluctance to back more Russian sanctions and the recognition of Palestine.

The picture becomes clearer

France is being punished by them.

And at the same time the public perception gets another big push towards restlessness at the "bloody muslims".

Even though the vodka drinking, strip club attending mercenaries of ISIS aren't anything resembling a genuine muslim.

I concur with this analysis.

[Paul Rigby]

The strategy of tension in the 21st century.

Faceless and nameless killers and 24 hour news channels with their scripts and cinematics all in place ala sandy hook.

As always you have to ask Cui Bono? That's deep political science student basics.

When you see there hasn't been an attack on Europe in a while, France's deal with Russia for the warboats, the reluctance to back more Russian sanctions and the recognition of Palestine.

The picture becomes clearer

France is being punished by them.

And at the same time the public perception gets another big push towards restlessness at the "bloody muslims".

Even though the vodka drinking, strip club attending mercenaries of ISIS aren't anything resembling a genuine muslim.

I concur with this analysis.

I, too, agree, but would add that something akin to a pre-emptive Atlanticist securocrat coup appears to have been initiated in anticipation of a Le Pen election victory. In this synthetic climate, one superficially profoundly favourable for the Front National, her assassination - pre- or post-election - will appear retaliatory.

[David Guyatt]

That is the sound of inevitability, Mr. Anderson...

:: I just watched The Matrix AGAIN last night.

If you've not seen LUCY, I recommend it. In the same line of futuristic, thinking films, but different.

[Lauren Johnson]

From the[URL="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/01/09/alwaki-paris/"] Intercept by Jeremy Scahill
[/URL]

UPDATED A source within al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has provided The Intercept with a full statement claiming responsibility for the attack against the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris:

Some ask the relationship between Al-Qaeda Organization and the (brothers) who carried out the #CharlieHebdo operation. Was it direct? Was the operation supervised by the Al-Qaeda wing in the Arabian Peninsula?

The leadership of #AQAP directed the operation, and they have chosen their target carefully as a revenge for the honor of Prophet (pbuh)

The target was in France in particular because of its obvious role in the war on Islam and oppressed nations.

The operation was the result of the threat of Sheikh Usama (RA). He warned the West about the consequences of the persistence in the blasphemy against Muslims' sanctities.

Sheikh Usama (RA) said in his message to the West: If there is no check on the freedom of your words, then let your hearts be open to the freedom of our actions.

The Organization delayed to claim responsibility due to the executors' security reasons. Nevertheless, the operation carries a number of important messages to all the Western countries.

One: Touching Muslims' sanctity and protecting those who make blasphemy have dear price and the punishment will be severe.

Two: The crimes of the Western countries, above them America, Britain and France will backfire deep in their home.

Three: The policy of hitting the snake's head followed by the Al-Qaeda organization under the leadership of Adhawahiri is still achieving its goals; until the West retreats.

Four: The inspiring media policies of the Mujahideen of Al-Qaeda especially of Inspire Magazine has greatly succeeded in identifying its targets and collecting powers.

One of the cartoonists' name and photo were put down in Inspire's wanted poster, dead or alive. The Western regimes should wait for harm and destruction by the Might of Allah.

I hope the brothers will distribute these tweets and translate them so that they reach the greatest audience. {And Allah has full power and control over His Affairs, but most of men know not.}

Arabic-language excerpts from the statement are being circulated widely on Twitter. AQAP has not made any claims of responsibility through its official communication channels. A prominent AQAP cleric released an audio recording today praising the attack, but made no reference to AQAP playing an operational role.

Earlier in the afternoon, a source within al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula gave The Intercept a separate message praising the attack on Charlie Hebdo. "The lions of Jihad have stood. The followers of Muhammad peace be upon him have never forgotten," the message declared. "Do not look for links or affiliation with Jihadi fronts. It is enough they are Muslims. They are Mujahideen. This is the Jihad of the Ummah. So France, are you ready for more attacks?"

The source, who demanded anonymity because the group had not yet released an official statement, also told The Intercept that two images in the latest issue of its publication, Inspire, published in December, contained a clue foreshadowing the attack on Charlie Hebdo. One image (at right, click to enlarge) shows a Muslim kneeling in prayer with a cooking pot similar to the one used by the Boston marathon bombers. "If you have the knowledge and inspiration all that's left is to take action." On the page immediately below it is a picture of a French passport. Throughout the day, several AQAP members have been praising the attack on social media and discussion sites. An AQAP source pointed The Intercept to a recording they claim is Cherif Kouachi, one of the suspects, acknowledging that his trips to Yemen in 2011 were "financed" by U.S.-born radical imam Anwar al Awlaki and that he was sent to Yemen by AQAP.

The full message provided by the AQAP source, which references Inspires previous threats to attack media outlets that publish demeaning pictures of the Prophet Muhammad, is here:

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech! Journalist! Newspaper! It is a war on freedom of speech. It is a war on journalism. These words kept belching out of many mouths. All are well aware of what this magazine published. "It was just satirical," some argued. I find it funny how this type of people think. "It is a crime for a journalist to be killed," they claim … I would like to pose some questions to them:

Was it a crime to kill Sheikh Anwar Al-'Awlaki for his da'wah?

Was it a crime to kill Samir Khan for being a member of Inspire Team?

Was it a crime to kill Fuad Al-Hadhrami, the brother who accompanied journalists in S.Yemen?

Charlie Hebdo's editor-in-chief Gerard Biard remarked he didn't "understand how people can attack a newspaper with heavy weapons. A newspaper is not a weapon of war." Isn't Inspire a magazine? Are we to conclude that drones and missiles aren't heavy weapons?

Where are your values in that regard?

The Charlie magazine team deserved what they got. Many warnings have been given before, but they were persistent. They had the freedom to use cartoons in their magazine, and we have the freedom to use bullets from our magazines. As the Wanted List' stated: A bullet a day, keeps the kaffir away. Yes, Charb is no more. The lions of Jihad have stood. The followers of Muhammad peace be upon him have never forgotten. As Sheikh Anwar Rahimahullah put it: The Dust Will Never Settle Down.

Do not look for links or affiliation with Jihadi fronts. It is enough they are Muslims. They are Mujahideen. This is the Jihad of the Ummah. So France, are you ready for more attacks; Weren't you asked by Inspire Magazine immediately after the Wanted List:

So, why is France so thick in learning from its past mistakes? Is it leaving Paris undefended once again? Woe upon you from tens of Muhammad Merah!
You come third in the target list, after US and Britain. If I were the latter, I would rather pull my sleeves up.

Earlier in the day, the French government announced that the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo massacre have been killed following a stand-off at a printing plant outside of Paris. U.S. and French intelligence agencies are aggressively investigating the travel history and associations of the two brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi. The brothers both claim to have spent time in Yemen. Agence France Press reports that Said traveled multiple times to Yemen from 2009-2013 and studied at Sana'a's Iman University, founded by radical preacher Abdel Majid al-Zindani.

A senior Yemeni intelligence official told Reuters that Said traveled to Yemen in 2011 and met with Awlaki, who was infamous for his sermons and writings calling for Muslims in Western countries to conduct terrorist attacks. Anonymous U.S. officials have alleged in various news reports that Said received training from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and a witness to the shooting told French media that one of the shooters claimed that they were from AQAP. "We do not have confirmed information that he was trained by al Qaeda but what was confirmed was that he has met with Awlaki in Shabwah," the Yemeni official told Reuters. Awlaki, along with another U.S. citizen, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in northern Yemen ordered by President Obama in September 2011.

A senior Yemeni official told The Intercept that the French government has not yet formally requested the Yemeni government's assistance or cooperation in their investigation. "France has not approached us in any official way yet," the official said. "The [Yemeni] government is waiting for a French inquiry."

The Intercept granted the Yemeni official anonymity because he is not authorized to speak about the matter absent an official French inquiry and because anonymous U.S. and Yemeni officials are making contradictory claims. The official said that many French nationals have traveled to Yemen, sometimes on passports from other nations.

Awlaki was very public in his calls for assassinating cartoonists and attacking media outlets that published demeaning images of Prophet Mohammed.

***
In June 2010, AQAP published its first issue of an English language publication, Inspire. "Allah says: And inspire the believers to fight,'" read the opening line of the letter from Inspire's unnamed editor. "It is from this verse that we derive the name of our new magazine." Inspire, the editor wrote, was "the first magazine to be issued by the al-Qaeda Organization in the English language. In the West; in East, West and South Africa; in South and Southeast Asia and elsewhere are millions of Muslims whose first or second language is English. It is our intent for this magazine to be a platform to present the important issues facing the ummah [community] today to the wide and dispersed English speaking Muslim readership."

The issue of Inspire featured an "exclusive" interview with the head of AQAP, Nasir al Wuhayshi, also known as Abu Basir, as well as translated works from bin Laden and Zawahiri. It also included an essay praising Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the failed underwear bomber. The magazine was well produced, with a layout that resembled a typical U.S. teen magazine, though without fashionably dressed women and celebrities. Instead, it featured photos of children alleged to have been killed in U.S. missile strikes and pictures of armed, masked jihadis. An article written under the byline "AQ Chef" and titled "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom" provided instructions on how to manufacture explosive devices from basic household goods. Another article gave detailed directions on how to download military-grade encryption software for sending e-mails and text messages.
Perhaps most disturbing, the magazine contained a "Hit List" of people who it alleged had created "blasphemous caricatures" of the Prophet Muhammad. In late 2005, the Danish publication Jyllands-Posten commissioned a dozen cartoons of the Prophet, ostensibly to contribute to a debate about self-censorship within Islam. It had enraged Muslims across the world at the time, sparked massive protests and resulted in death threats and bomb threats against the newspaper. The hit list published by Inspire included magazine editors, anti-Muslim pundits who had defended the cartoons, as well as the novelist Salman Rushdie. But it also included Molly Norris, a Seattle-based cartoonist who initiated "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day." Norris said she did it in response to the U.S. Comedy Central network's decision to edit out a scene in its popular animated program South Park that addressed the controversy, after receiving a threat.

Inspire's hit list was accompanied by an essay penned by Awlaki encouraging Muslims to attack those who defame the image of Mohammed. "I would like to express my thanks to my brothers at Inspire for inviting me to write the main article for the first issue of their new magazine. I would also like to commend them for having this subject, the defense of the Messenger of Allah, as the main focus of this issue," Awlaki wrote. He then laid out a defense for assassinating those who engaged in blasphemy of Mohammed. "The large number of participants makes it easier for us because there are more targets to choose from in addition to the difficulty of the government offering all of them special protection." He continued:

"But even then our campaign should not be limited to only those who are active participants. These perpetrators are not operating in a vacuum. Instead they are operating within a system that is offering them support and protection. The government, political parties, the police, the intelligence services, blogs, social networks, the media, and the list goes on, are part of a system within which the defamation of Islam is not only protected but promoted. The main elements in this system are the laws that make this blasphemy legal. Because they are practicing a "right" that is defended by the law, they have the backing of the entire Western political system. This would make the attacking of any Western target legal from an Islamic viewpoint….Assassinations, bombings, and acts of arson are all legitimate forms of revenge against a system that relishes the sacrilege of Islam in the name of freedom."

When Inspire was published, some within the U.S. intelligence community panicked. The first concern was protecting the people who had been identified as targets for assassination. The FBI took immediate precautions to guard the Seattle cartoonist, whom they feared could be murdered. She eventually changed her name and moved. Law enforcement agencies in other countries took similar measures.

***
If Awlaki met with Said Kouachi in Yemen, it would not be the first time he met with young Muslims who went on to attempt or conduct terrorist attacks. In the aftermath of the failed Christmas day attack on an airplane over Detroit, the young Nigerian man who attempted to detonate an explosive device sewn into his underwear was presented as an AQAP operative who had been sent on a suicide mission by Anwar Awlaki. Yemeni intelligence officials told the United States that Abdulmutallab had traveled to Awlaki's tribal area of Shabwah in October 2009. There, they say, he hooked up with members of AQAP. A U.S. government source said that the National Security Agency had intercepted "voice-to-voice communication" between Abdulmutallab and Awlaki in the fall of 2009 and had determined that Awlaki "was in some way involved in facilitating this guy's transportation or trip through Yemen. It could be training, a host of things. I don't think we know for sure," the anonymous source told the Washington Post.

A local tribal leader from Shabwah, Mullah Zabara, later told me he had seen the young Nigerian at the farm of Fahd al Quso, the alleged USS Cole bombing conspirator. "He was watering trees," Zabara told me. "When I saw [Abdulmutallab], I asked Fahd, Who is he?'" Quso told Zabara the young man was from a different part of Yemen, which Zabara knew was a lie. "When I saw him on TV, then Fahd told me the truth."

Awlaki's role in the "underwear plot" was unclear. Awlaki later claimed that Abdulmutallab was one of his "students." U.S. officials insist Awlaki played an operational role in the plot. Tribal sources in Shabwah told me that al Qaeda operatives reached out to Awlaki to give religious counseling to Abdulmutallab, but that Awlaki was not involved in the plot. While praising the attack, Awlaki said he had not been involved with its conception or planning. "Yes, there was some contact between me and him, but I did not issue a fatwa allowing him to carry out this operation," Awlaki told journalist Abdulelah Haider Shaye in an interview for Al Jazeera a few weeks after the attempted attack: "I support what Umar Farouk has done after I have been seeing my brothers being killed in Palestine for more than sixty years, and others being killed in Iraq and in Afghanistan. And in my tribe too, U.S. missiles have killed" women and "children, so do not ask me if al-Qaeda has killed or blown up a US civil[ian] jet after all this. The 300 Americans are nothing comparing to the thousands of Muslims who have been killed."

[Magda Hassan]

That is the sound of inevitability, Mr. Anderson... Page 9 of 9 First ... 6789 Quick Navigation Players, organisations, and events of deep politics T

:: I just watched The Matrix AGAIN last night.

If you've not seen LUCY, I recommend it. In the same line of futuristic, thinking films, but different.

I second that. Lucy is worth a watch.

[Peter Lemkin]

The strategy of tension in the 21st century.

Faceless and nameless killers and 24 hour news channels with their scripts and cinematics all in place ala sandy hook.

As always you have to ask Cui Bono? That's deep political science student basics.

When you see there hasn't been an attack on Europe in a while, France's deal with Russia for the warboats, the reluctance to back more Russian sanctions and the recognition of Palestine.

The picture becomes clearer

France is being punished by them.

And at the same time the public perception gets another big push towards restlessness at the "bloody muslims".

Even though the vodka drinking, strip club attending mercenaries of ISIS aren't anything resembling a genuine muslim.

I concur with this analysis.

I'm not convinced. Further, I would caution against seeing EVERY event as part of a grand conspiracy, especially for critical thinking skills as well as how it reflects on the research/monitoring community, such as this Forum. Yes, MANY events are false-flag and staged - not what they seem to be - however, NOT ALL are, and I think one must critically analyze which are and which are not using detailed critical thinking, not a reflex to seeing all as part of a grand conspiracy. It is easy in our gloom over the MANY to go overboard and see ALL as such. Not every plane crash, not every suicide, not every mass murder is the work of the hidden hands of secret governments, intelligence and Gladio-like organizations, even if I would agree that all too many have been. I think we loose our validity in the eyes of most if we are seen to view everything as a grand conspiracy.....again, even if many to more than not may well be. Each needs to be dissected and analyzed on its own merits and demerits, IMHO. To me, this seems to be more what it was presented as - even if I see elements of the Police lying about some things [such as who started the final firefight first]. The phone calls to journalists just before they died would not IMO be done by false-flag operatives. These men were reacting, if irrationally by most standards, to the many assaults on the Middle East and the Muslim world, generally. By NO means do I agree with the 'West's' analysis and reaction to events such as this. Yes, it plays into the hands of those leading the war OF terror - but once such 'wars' are set in motion [often with false flag ops and wars, etc.] things can take on a momentum of their own and not all actions and all persons acting are directly actors working for or controlled by those forces that set this situation in motion. While those in power will misuse this incident, at this time, I don't see it as a Gladio-type action. I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, if the evidence warrants. Many other operations I do see as provocations cooked up by elements of the ostensible 'targets', but not yet with this one. Boston bombing - most likely; 911 - definitely..etc..but here it seem to me most likely to be 'blowback' from earlier false-flag operations and wars, not one in and of itself [with the information we now have - this could change if, for example, I found out that French or other intelligence were baiting or leading on these men]. It is complex, as many in power thought they say this is their worst nightmare, really treasure such events to more quickly bring on their police state and greater political and economic control of their own and all societies. That said, some people and some actions are done for other reasons, even if they benefit those who on the surface, and to most unwary observers, are the targets. I may agree on 'who benefits' here...but that is a tool - not an acid test of who was the instigator. In the final analysis, I think there is a problem of over-simplifyication in the deep political community, as there is in our nemesis' propaganda. ::drwho::

[Magda Hassan]

One of the alleged Charlie Hebdo shooters called a French reporter. Here's what he said.

Updated by Libby Nelson on January 9, 2015, 3:14 p.m. ET @libbyanelson libby@vox.com




Saïd Kouachi, left, and Chérif Kouachi, right, the alleged perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo attack, were killed by police in a standoff in Paris. Handout/Getty Images

Chérif Kouachi, one of the alleged perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, spoke to a French journalist by phone at around 10 a.m. Paris time on Friday, according to the reporter. Shortly after, Kouachi was killed by police. In the call, he stated that he had been sent by al-Qaeda's Yemen-based branch.
"I was sent, me, Chérif Kouachi, by al-Qaeda of Yemen," he says in the call, mentioning Anwar al-Awlaki specifically.


He spoke to Igor Sahiri, a journalist from BFM-TV, who recorded the conversation. In a video clip above, the TV news channel plays part of the tape and discusses the call that yielded it. The channel chose not to broadcast the phone conversations because, at the time, Kouachi was still in a standoff with police.
According to BFM journalist Sarah-Lou Cohen, Koauchi went on to say that he was seeking revenge for the Prophet Mohammed.
"They explained as well that they deny having killed civilians," Cohen said, paraphrasing from parts of the call that were not played on-air. "That's important, because for them, the journalists at Charlie Hebdo were not civilians, they were targets," Cohen said. "Then he continued, very calmly, explaining that they did not come to kill women and children but it's us, the Westerners, he said, who are killing children in Iraq, in Afghanistan and in Syria."
"He spoke in a manner … that was very calm and very determined," Cohen said, "as if he had also prepared answers." It was "extremely troubling," she said. "The message was to pass along his claim of responsibility. He intended that his claims be publicly known."
In a separate interview slightly after 3 p.m. Paris time, the channel also spoke with Amedy Coulibaly. "That was a different situation, because we got a phone call," Cohen said. "He called us because in fact he was looking to contact the police."
"He claimed to be part of the Islamic State [ISIS] very clearly," Cohen said. "He said he had instructions from the caliphate. And then another very important element, evidently, as we were saying in the afternoon, he established a link with the Kouachi brothers."
Coulibaly told Alexis Delahousse, another BFM journalist, that he and the Kouachi brothers had planned their attacks together but had not been in touch since they began the operations. This detail has puzzled terrorism analysts, as al-Qaeda and ISIS are rivals rather than allies.
"Finally, he explained also why he did this: to defend oppressed Muslims, he said, notably in Palestine," Cohen said. "And finally he explained his target, why this kosher store: because he was targeting Jews."

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/9/7522015/cher...rlie-hebdo

[Magda Hassan]

[Lauren Johnson]

I guess my logic is this: anyone sent by AQ, etc. is a patsy working ultimately for those who run AQ. Period.

That has to be the working hypothesis.