World View: France Officials Criticized for Not Stopping Charlie Hebdo Terror Attack

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• France officials criticized for not stopping Charlie Hebdo terror attack
• Al-Qaeda in Yemen claims to have directed Paris Charlie Hebdo attack
• ‘Anonymous’ declares war on terrorist web sites

France officials criticized for not stopping Charlie Hebdo terror attack

Massive rally in support of Charlie Hebdo victims in Marseille France on Saturday (AFP)

Criticism is mounting against French officials for not doing more to prevent Wednesday’s terrorist attack by means of closer surveillance of the two brothers who carried it out. One of them, Cherif Kouachi, had been convicted on terrorism charges in 2008, while the other, Said Kouachi, had traveled to Yemen in 2011 and was believed while there to have been trained in jihadist skills by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Both were on the U.S. no-fly list. When Said returned from Yemen in 2012, both Kouachi brothers were placed under close surveillance, but after a while the surveillance was reduced.

Some problems have no solution. You can prove mathematically that there’s no solution to the problem of squaring the circle. There’s no mathematical proof in this case, but there’s still no solution to the problem of preventing “lone wolf” terrorist attacks.

Thousands of young men from around the world have gone to Syria to learn terrorist skills from training by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (IS or ISIS or ISIL), almost 1,000 of them from France alone. Many, like the Kouachi brothers, return to their home countries to prepare terrorist attacks. If the Kouachi brothers and all others like them were to be kept under constant surveillance, it would take a virtual army of monitors, and even then many would be missed.

It’s believed that there are thousands of people across Europe on government surveillance lists. These lists include not only returning jihadists, but people suspected of financial crimes, sex crimes and other serious offenses. Hurriyet (Ankara)

Al-Qaeda in Yemen claims to have directed Paris Charlie Hebdo attack

A senior AQAP official, Harith al Nadhari, is claiming that “The operation was directed by the leadership of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).” He does not claim credit for the attack, but said that France in particular was targeted because of the cartoons portraying Mohammed.

As I’ve been reporting repeatedly, there is no Muslim war against the West. Even in the last week, when a score of people in Paris were killed, thousands were killed in Boko Haram massacres in Nigeria, while hundreds more were killed in Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and other countries. This is a massive and growing war of Muslims against Muslims that is both ethnic (tribe against tribe) and sectarian (Sunni and Shia against each other).

AQAP is embroiled in its own war, far from Paris. The Sunni jihadists in AQAP in Yemen are under attack by Shia Houthi militias thought to be supported by Iran. The Houthis have made substantial gains in the last six months, and are threatening the gains that AQAP made before that.

With so much on their plate in Yemen, one might ask why AQAP would even be interested in what’s going on in Paris. Apparently what’s going on is a competition between al-Qaeda and ISIS. If there are thousands of young men going to Syria to train with ISIS, those are thousands of young men who might instead have gone to Yemen to train with AQAP, which is what Said Kouachi did in 2012, before ISIS’s rise to prominence.

AQAP is fully involved with the war in Yemen, while ISIS is fully involved with the war in Syria and Iraq. Every war has both a military component and a public relations component, and the attack on Paris was part of AQAP’s public relations component.

It wasn’t long ago that al-Qaeda was Numero Uno in the terror business, but they’ve been eclipsed in the last year by ISIS. Maybe AQAP directed the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, maybe not. But claiming to have done so is a way of trying to return to prominence. Thus, the Paris attack is collateral damage in the real growing war between Muslims and Muslims, and we can expect more of the same. Guardian (London) and Fox News

‘Anonymous’ declares war on terrorist web sites

Cyber-terrorist group Anonymous, which has attacked many government, military and commercial web sites in the paste, is now naming terrorist web sites as their next target. According to a statement:

Message to the enemy of the freedom of speech.

January 7, 2015, freedom of speech has suffered an inhuman assault. Terrorists broke into the premises of the “Charlie Hebdo” newspaper and shot in cold blood several satirical cartoon artists, journalists and two policemen. The killers are still at large. Disgusted and also shocked, we cannot fall to our knees. It is our responsibility to react.

The statement was followed by a YouTube video directly confronting Al-Qaeda and ISIS on the Paris massacre. Russia Today and Pastebin and YouTube

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, France, Charlie Hebdo, Cherif Kouachi, Said Kouachi, Yemen, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, Harith al Nadhari, Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh, Nigeria, Boko Haram, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia, Houthis, Anonymous
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