Paris shootout, explosions, casualties

[sToRmR1dR]

France's state of emergency could be extended indefinitely

_http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/frances-state-of-emergency-could-be-extended-indefinitely-a6758686.html

France's parliament has already voted to extend the country's state of emergency following the Paris attacks for three months.

Emergency powers given to French police could be extended indefinitely, despite warnings from human rights groups.

France's parliament has already voted to extend the country's state of emergency following the Paris attacks for three months, giving the police powers to keep people in their homes without trial, search the homes of people without a warrant from a judge and block any website deemed a problem.

A draft law, seen by news agency Agence France-Presse, could extend France's state of emergency beyond the current three month extension.

The measures mean anyone suspected of posing a threat to security can be placed under house arrest for 12 hours a day to restrict their movement.

Under the laws, public demonstrations are banned and groups inciting acts which could seriously affect public order can be dissolved.

"Right now the protection of the population from further imminent attack is rightly the number one priority," John Dalhuisen, Director of Amnesty International's Europe and Central Asia Programme said.
But the emergency powers currently being rushed through parliament provide for a sweeping extension of executive powers at the expense of essential human rights safeguards.
"They must be used only when strictly necessary and should not become a permanent addition to France’s anti-terror arsenal.

When the state of emergency was extended, French Prime Minister Emmanuel Valls told parliament: "This is the fast response of a democracy faced with barbarism. This is the effective legal response in the face of an ideology of chaos.

He said the measures were "modern and effective tools to fight the terrorist threat".

 

[loreta]

I will not be afraid for the security of these "important" people now in Paris. It is again The Comedia del Arte. A spectacle. They will never, ever be sacrificed.

 

[goyacobol]

An article on the Fort Russ website has an article by Yakov Kedmi former head of "Nativ" special service. He pulls no punches in criticizing even Israel as to why the "war on terrorism" is not working.

Nativ or officially Lishkat Hakesher or The Liaison Bureau, is an Israeli liaison organization that maintained contact with Jews living in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War and encouraged aliyah, or immigration to Israel.

Yakov Kedmi: "If you use terrorists, you’ll have to live with them afterwards."

By Tatzhit. December 5th, 2015.
This interview with a former head of "Nativ" special service, Yakov Kedmi, a famous anti-Soviet protester, a soldier and a diplomat, appeared on Israeli news channel "ITON-TV" soon after the Paris attacks *.
I think it's still relevant, and its main point will remain relevant for at least a decade - "If you use terrorists, you’ll have to live with them afterwards."

Interviewer: "Do you think ISIS was avenging [recent bombing raid] ... or did they simply declare war on everybody? .."

Kedmi: "I want to ask - why this hysteria, all of a sudden? French blood - it is more red? Does it have a different composition? Is it more valuable?

Three hundred thousand people have been killed in Syria! [In a war] supported by the French, and most of the countries who are weeping today.

A Russian plane recently exploded. We’re not totally sure it was a terrorist attack, but everyone treated it as one. Where was the hysteria? And there, more people died, more women and children.

What's the matter, then? Is this the first terrorist attack in Paris? This is the second terrorist attack in Paris? This is the tenth act of terrorism in Europe? Why does everyone care all of a sudden?"

Interviewer: "Such a massive loss of life in Europe..."

Kedmi: "And what about NATO bombing of Belgrade? When Bosniaks slaughtered Serbs, Serbs - Bosniaks, Croats - both of those, and Albanians added to the mess? How’s that for massive?

Why is terrorism such news? [Here in Israel], we have lived with terrorism for how many decades.

The same professional mourners ... what did they say about terrorism which affected us? And how did they react to to Beslan? Or to Nord-Ost?!"

Interviewer: "Yes, Nord-Ost is very similar to what happened".

Kedmi: "Yes, it is. But the reaction isn’t similar. The attitude isn’t. No one blames the French president for this. But they blamed the Russian president back then. Both for Beslan and Nord-Ost**."

Near the end of this article I couldn't help but reflect on a reference to comparing terrorism with a "Golem" turning on it's creators.

*** When Chechen "caliphate" was defeated, many of the terrorists were allowed to hide in the West. Since then, they have been coming back to fight the same fight - in Ukraine, or in Syria. Or simply fighting the infidels in their new homelands.

**** For example, French jets destroyed Gaddafi's convoy, leaving the wounded ruler to be killed by extremists.
Worth noting that under him, Libya was by far the most prosperous country on the continent, according to UN data. And until NATO intervention under false pretenses, his army was winning the war against islamists and foreign proxies.
After the country was destroyed, many were left without a way to support themselves and turned to living by the gun. Libyan mercenaries and weapons flooded into neighboring Syria, where ISIS was formed - and soon, that Golem came after its creators.

 

[Windmill knight]

Someone did win something from the Paris attacks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/07/world/europe/frances-far-right-national-front-gains-in-regional-elections.html?_r=0

France’s Far-Right National Front Gains in Regional Elections

PARIS — The far-right party of Marine Le Pen was poised to make major gains after the first round of voting in regional French elections on Sunday in the wake of terrorist attacks that traumatized the country last month.

When the votes were counted, Ms. Le Pen’s National Front party was pulling far ahead in two of France’s 13 regions and leading in four others. Trailing were the right-leaning parties, including the Republicains, led by former President Nicolas Sarkozy. Even further behind were the Socialists, whose best-known figure is President François Hollande.

Appearing before her supporters, Ms. Le Pen called it a “magnificent” result, saying the National Front was “the only party that can reconquer the lost territories of the republic, of Calais, where we won 50 percent of the votes, or of the suburbs.” What Ms. Le Pen described as “lost territories” were the French city of Calais on the English Channel, which now has more than 4,000 migrants on its doorstep hoping to reach Britain, and the suburbs of major French cities, many of which have sizable Muslim populations.

The National Front “is the only party to defend an authentically French republic,” she added, and to be dedicated to “the preservation of our way of life.”

With 100 percent of the votes counted, the turnout nationwide was 50 percent, which was somewhat higher than in the last regional elections, in 2010.

The National Front received 41 percent of the vote in the northern region known as Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie, as well as in the southern region of Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, and members of the Le Pen family were at the top of the ballot in both regions.

Ms. Le Pen headed the group of National Front candidates in the north and her niece Marion Maréchal Le Pen headed the list of candidates in the south. In the eastern region of Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine, Florian Phillipot, who is Ms. Le Pen’s top lieutenant, took 36 percent of the vote.

The second round of voting next Sunday will determine the final results. In the last several elections the National Front has done well in the first round but found it harder to sustain gains in the second, when other competing parties have united or withdrawn to keep the far right from winning.

However, this time the high numbers for the National Front in a number of places suggest that the old political calculus may not hold, especially if the more traditional conservatives led by Mr. Sarkozy refuse to join with the Socialists to form a bloc.

Mr. Sarkozy announced after his party’s second-place showing that its candidates would not join with other parties or withdraw from the race.

In contrast, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, the head of the Socialist Party, said that its candidates would withdraw from the elections in the two regions where the National Front did best, and that elsewhere it would join with other parties.

“The party of the extreme right threatens many regions of France,” Mr. Cambadélis said.

“The left is, then, the last rampart of Republican France against the xenophobic extreme right,” he said, calling on all the left-leaning parties to join together to defeat the National Front.

Ms. Le Pen and her party have thrived on an anti-immigration message that has verged on anti-Muslim, as well as a call for re-establishing European borders. These notions had already found traction as France faced an influx of Muslim immigrants from war-afflicted areas of the world. But she gained even more momentum after the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13, in which 130 people were killed.

However, several analysts said it was important not to overplay the recent attacks in explaining her success. Rather, they see a long-term trend in which the National Front has gained ground in election after election. It has done so even more rapidly since Ms. Le Pen took leadership of the party from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2011.

“The dynamic in favor of the National Front is not a superficial reaction of the French electorate in a situation of crisis after the attack,” said Bruno Cautrès, a political analyst and public opinion specialist at the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po.

“It is something more long lasting in the French political system,” he said.

The outcome will be read here as a forecast of the politics of the presidential election in 2017, but already Ms. Le Pen has changed the tenor of political debate in France. Across the political spectrum, politicians are taking a harder line on immigration, and there is a newfound willingness to reconsider the rules that govern the open borders among European Union countries.

“She had won before the vote,” said Joël Gombin, a political analyst at the Observatory for Radicalism at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, a think tank.

“The old themes and proposals of the National Front have been reprised in the political debate, not only on the right but also, more and more, on the left and in particular in the voice of the executive branch, and that legitimizes the National Front,” he said.

Both Mr. Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls have evoked more nationalistic themes recently and taken a particularly hard line on security issues. Although the government is leans left, its leaders have begun to discuss extending the state of emergency, which gives law enforcement extraordinary powers, beyond its current duration of three months.

Public figures from different sides of the political spectrum urged voters to go to the polls on Sunday, not least of all because of worries from both the Socialist party and the Republicains that they would lose ground.

Aurelien Breeden and Lilia Blaise contributed reporting.

 

[sToRmR1dR]

Paris attacks: Third Bataclan suicide bomber identified as EU citizen Fouad Mohamed-Aggad

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-attacks-third-bataclan-suicide-bomber-identified-as-as-eu-citizen-mohamed-fouad-aggad-a6765936.html

89 people were shot dead during a gig by the American band Eagles of Death Metal

A third suicide bomber has been identified following the deadly terror attack on Le Bataclan concert hall in Paris in which 89 people died.

French media have reported that Fouad Mohamed-Aggad, 23, was part of a gang who carried out a series of assaults claimed by the so-called Islamic State (Isis), on November 13 in the French capital.

The attacks, which killed 129 people and wounded hundreds more, were masterminded by Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was himself killed in a police raid in Saint-Denis a few days later.

Following the assaults, there was some intense speculation as to the identities of the suspects, with claims that a surge in the number of refugees entering Europe from Syria had allowed jihadists to sneak into France, Germany and Belgium.

The Independent revealed last month that, contrary to belief, eight of the terror suspects who had been named at the time were not refugees, and all had EU passports. French investigators said that a passport seeming to show the identity of one of the attackers as Syrian may have been 'planted' at the scene of the bombings at the Stade de France as part of a sophisticated propaganda plan by Isis to infiltrate and exploit the refugee crisis.

And now Le Parisien claims that rather than entering Europe as part of a wave of asylum-seekers earlier this year, Mohamed-Aggad was actually born and raised in Strasbourg, on the border of France and Germany.

The French newspaper reports that he came from a family of four children, and lived in a small town on the Lower Rhine. His mother, who is originally from Morocco, said that after travelling to Syria in 2013, Mohamed-Aggad sent money home regularly.

He then returned to France from Syria to carry out the attacks.

His older brother, Karim, 25, is said to be currently in Syria after travelling there between December 2013 and March 2014.

Two other suspects who blew themselves up at the music venue have been identified as Frenchmen Omar Ismail Mostefai, 29, and Samy Amimour, 28.

 

[Ellipse]

A new information surface: The Bataclan was known as a target since 2010.

The case dates back to February 22, 2009. That day, a bomb attack in Cairo, Egypt, target a group of French students. The attack killed one, Cecile Vannier, a French, and 24 are wounded. Soon, a young woman, also French, Dude Hoxha, is arrested.

Extradited to France, she tells investigators that one of his friends project was to "explode the Bataclan". In his diary, as of 28 July 2009, the young woman wrote that "the boss is a Jew who is financing the Israeli army." At the time parties to support Tsahal were actually organized in the hall recalls the weekly satirical newspaper.

"The French court opened a criminal investigation and appoint an investigating judge to investigate the planned attack at the Bataclan," explains Louis-Marie Horeau, editor of Le Canard enchainé to LCI. Farouk Ben Abbes, the friend mentioned by Dude Hoxha, was indicted and jailed, but for lack of evidence, the judicial investigation ended September 14, 2012 by a dismissal. Two years later, Mr. Olivier Morice, the lawyer of the family of Cecile Vannier requests access to the file. He wrote to the judges, but sees himself raised an objection of inadmissibility.

On December 14, on the advice of the former anti-terrorist judge Marc Trévidic, Me Morice, now the lawyer of some victims of Bataclan, seeks to join the Cairo folder with the investigation into the attack on the Bataclan. Because of the links between the two cases. Farouk Ben Abbes is indeed a close Fabien Clain, the French who claimed the attacks last month on behalf of Daech.

But this is not the only link between the two cases: Christophe Teissier, who had led the criminal investigation, is now in charge of the investigation into the killing of Bataclan.

http://fr.sott.net/article/27123-On-savait-depuis-2010-que-le-Bataclan-etait-menace

 

[angelburst29]

The US has refused to respond to French inquiries regarding terrorist funding sources, according to sources in the French Finance Ministry.

US Refuses to Tell France Who Financed Paris Terror Attacks
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20151217/1031911588/us-france-terror-financing.html

United States authorities have yet to respond to multiple requests from France on sources of funding for Daesh terrorists tied to the November 13 Paris attacks, a French Finance Ministry source told Reuters.

The US and the European Union signed an agreement called the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program in 2010, which allowed EU countries to rely on the US for information on terrorist groups' finance flows. Prior to the Paris attacks, the US turned down requests from France to reveal the financial flows funding the January 7 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a Jewish supermarket, saying France "did not provide enough details."

"I don't think that they will dare use this argument for the latest request concerning very specific people identified as being behind the Paris attacks," the source told Reuters.

According to the source, information regarding financing of terrorist groups has been made available to countries, which, the source told Reuters are "more Anglo-Saxon than us." Although the SWIFT international payments company's servers are mainly based in Europe, the information in the system is only available to the US, which negotiated access to the system with the EU.

"It's clearly a politically sensitive situation. But at the same time we cannot be satisfied that the information is available to some but not for European countries," another finance ministry source told Reuters.

France now seeks to access SWIFT data on a European servers, which the European Parliament blocked for EU countries, but not the US, over privacy concerns.

 

[goyacobol]

The US has refused to respond to French inquiries regarding terrorist funding sources, according to sources in the French Finance Ministry.

US Refuses to Tell France Who Financed Paris Terror Attacks
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20151217/1031911588/us-france-terror-financing.html

United States authorities have yet to respond to multiple requests from France on sources of funding for Daesh terrorists tied to the November 13 Paris attacks, a French Finance Ministry source told Reuters.

The US and the European Union signed an agreement called the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program in 2010, which allowed EU countries to rely on the US for information on terrorist groups' finance flows. Prior to the Paris attacks, the US turned down requests from France to reveal the financial flows funding the January 7 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a Jewish supermarket, saying France "did not provide enough details."

"I don't think that they will dare use this argument for the latest request concerning very specific people identified as being behind the Paris attacks," the source told Reuters.

According to the source, information regarding financing of terrorist groups has been made available to countries, which, the source told Reuters are "more Anglo-Saxon than us." Although the SWIFT international payments company's servers are mainly based in Europe, the information in the system is only available to the US, which negotiated access to the system with the EU.

"It's clearly a politically sensitive situation. But at the same time we cannot be satisfied that the information is available to some but not for European countries," another finance ministry source told Reuters.

France now seeks to access SWIFT data on a European servers, which the European Parliament blocked for EU countries, but not the US, over privacy concerns.

Good catch, angelburst29. If no one is watching they won't even notice the effort to obscure the real players and the nefarious connections that are just a bit embarrassing to explain. I don't know how you find the time and energy to keep on keeping on, but I do appreciate it.

I will keep trying to follow your example of keeping the nose to the grind stone so to speak. Even if nobody seems to be paying attention, I think any efforts will make a difference to the bigger picture. This is just my own perspective after many years of collecting bits and pieces of information in the hopes that one day maybe "somebody" will benefit from my efforts.

I think one of the biggest obstacles to all of us is the feeling that we have nothing to contribute or "what can you do?". Quite a few years ago I decided for myself that you can do "something" or you can do "nothing" and I just decided that I will do "something". That something may be small for sure but I will just do it anyway (like "butterfly wings").

If only people would wake up and decide like the finance ministry that "..."we cannot be satisfied that the information is available to some but not for European countries," another finance ministry source told Reuters."

Of course, I am not holding my breath but I still hope that information will be available for all who really seek it and this wild card may still be "open".

 

[sitting]

I don't know how you find the time and energy to keep on keeping on, but I do appreciate it.

I will keep trying to follow your example of keeping the nose to the grind stone so to speak. Even if nobody seems to be paying attention,

I greatly appreciate angelburst29's efforts as well (my earlier suggestion notwithstanding.)

My best guess is that everyone is paying attention. And in that way, moving us into better & better timelines hopefully. This timeline effect (highlighted by C's) has been the most encouraging thing for me to discover -- that even us "small fries" -- can be a tiny tiny little bit like Putin the Magnificent.

FWIW.

PS
My good friend, please do not ever forget the significance of silent acknowledgements, so take heart.

 

[goyacobol]

Heightened alerts are being issued.

Europe terror alert: Security heightened in cities following threat of New Year attacks

Security has been stepped up in several European cities following a "friendly" intelligence service alert regarding suspected terrorists who could launch attacks between Christmas and New Year. According to the warning, terrorists could use explosives or guns to carry out the attacks.

"In the lead-up to Christmas, a friendly intelligence service sent a warning to numerous European capitals saying potential bomb or gun attacks could take place in areas with large crowds between Christmas and New Year," the Vienna police said in a statement. The tip-off contains several names of potential attackers. The police, however, have not divulged which cities were under threat.

"Overall, this is a lead, which stipulates a higher than general abstract state of danger," the police said. "We do not know if these people exist in real life or if they are only names with no real person behind them," Christoph Pölzl, a spokesman for the Vienna police, told the Guardian.

"We have no evidence they are in Vienna, and we have no evidence they are even in Europe," he added. Investigations into the names have so far not yielded any concrete results, the police said.

After the warning was issued, Vienna police and other forces in Europe have increased surveillance at public places. The Vienna police, however, said that upcoming events in the city would go ahead as planned.

Following the 13 November Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed, several European cities have heightened security. France has deployed 48,000 police officers to avert potential threats during the holiday season. Last week, French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve told police and security forces to be vigilant, especially during church services.

 

[sToRmR1dR]

Isil leader Charaffe al-Mouadan linked to Paris attacks ringleader killed by US drone in Syria

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/12073398/Isil-leader-Charaffe-al-Mouadan-linked-to-Paris-attacks-ringleader-killed-by-US-drone-in-Syria.html

Al-Mouadan with "direct" links was killed on Christmas Eve in Syria, where he was plotting further acts of terror, accoridng to the Pentagon

An Isil leader with "direct" links to the alleged ringleader of the Paris attacks was killed in a Christmas Eve air strike in Syria where he was plotting additional acts of terror, said the Pentagon.

Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for the US-led coalition that is bombing Isil in Syria and Iraq, named the man as Charaffe al-Mouadan on Tuesday.

He said Mouadan had a “direct link” with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Belgian jihadist who is believed to have masterminded attacks on restaurants, a concert hall and sports stadium in Paris on November 30, before being shot dead by police days later.

“Al Mouadan was actively planning attacks against the west. We will hunt Isil leaders working to inspire attacks against the US and our allies,” Col. Warren wrote on his Twitter account.

He said US-led air strikes had killed 10 Isil leaders during the past month, including “several external attack planners, some of whom are linked to the Paris attacks”.

One was named as Abdul Qader Hakim, who Col. Warren said facilitated Isil’s external operations and had links to the Paris attack network. He was killed in Mosul on December 26, Warren said.

 

[sToRmR1dR]

Paris attacks ‘coordinated from Belgium’ by unknown terror leader

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/12074660/Paris-attacks-coordinated-from-Belgium-by-unknown-terror-leader.html

Investigators believe at least one terrorist leader in Brussels directed the attacks in Paris last month, maintaining contact with the gunmen by mobile phone

The Paris attacks may have been coordinated by phone from Belgium by at least one terrorist leader whose identity remains a mystery, it emerged on Wednesday from the ongoing investigation.

The French newspaper Le Monde has been given access to some 6,000 reports and documents compiled by investigators, showing that the terrorists in Paris were being commanded and controlled by mobile phone from the Brussels area “in real time” while the attacks were being carried out.

Three teams of attackers launched a coordinated onslaught against different targets in the French capital, slaughtering 130 people on November 13.

Two of the teams were in contact with two different Belgian mobile phone numbers during the evening of the attacks. Both phones were at the same location in the Brussels area that evening, phone records show.

Meanwhile, the third team, which targeted the national stadium in the suburb of Saint-Denis, maintained phone contact with at least one of the other two terror squads, who gunned down people at cafes, bars and at the Bataclan concert hall in central Paris.

Investigators have concluded that “at least one man was overseeing the operations” from Brussels, Le Monde reported. “This suspect has not yet been identified.”

DNA from two of the attackers was found on a Samsung mobile phone dumped in a bin near the Bataclan, where 90 people were massacred.

At 9:42 pm, two minutes after the gunmen arrived at the concert hall, a text message was sent from the phone to a Belgian number saying, “We’ve left, we’re starting.”

The Belgian number was registered to the only surviving Paris attacker, Salah Abdeslam, who fled to Belgium and possibly then to Syria after the attacks, evading capture despite a massive manhunt in Brussels, where he grew up.

In the hours preceding the attacks, the phone was used to consult photographs showing the layout of the Bataclan, and to search online for the American rock band that was playing that night, Eagles of Death Metal.

CCTV footage from the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek shows Abdeslam, 26, his brother Brahim, 31, and a third Paris attacker, Mohamed Abrini, two nights before the attacks. They were apparently preparing to leave for Paris in two cars, a Renault Clio and a Seat. On the way, they stopped in the Belgian town of Charleroi, where they spent several hours in an area “known for weapons and drugs”, Le Monde reported.

By then, a third car, a Volkswagen Polo, had joined the convoy, carrying four other men. Two have been identified as Bataclan attackers Ismaël Mostefaï, 29, and Samy Amimour, 28, both French. Another was Bilal Hadfi, who blew himself up with a suicide belt at the Stade de France.

The fourth man, who was wearing a black cap and sunglasses, has not been formally identified but investigators believe he was Foued Mohamed-Aggad, 23, who took part in the slaughter at the Bataclan.

Investigators are intrigued by the discovery that on the night of the attacks, the Clio was driven to the main Paris aiport, Charles de Gaulle, where it was parked near a passenger terminal for an hour. Bilal Hadfi’s mobile phone was at that location at the time and investigators are trying to find out if the trip was made to pick up an accomplice.

 

[Chad]

the video doesn't show much - article below:

Published on Jan 1, 2016

Several people were injured after a military patrol guarding a mosque opened fire on a car whose driver attempted to ram them, in Valence, southeastern France, Friday.

http://<iframe width="560" height="...Co" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

France mosque attack: Soldiers open fire on car 'attempting to ram mosque'
Three soldiers were reportedly injured, there also appear to be injuries among worshippers at the mosque in Valence, Drome
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-soldiers-open-fire-on-car-attempting-to-ram-mosque-a6793131.html
Samuel Osborne
1 hour ago

French soldiers fired on the car when it refused to stop @Islametinfo/Twitter

Several people have been injured after French soldiers fired on a car which attempted to ram them outside a mosque.

The driver of the car did not stop when ordered, Le Parisien reports, leading the soldiers guarding the mosque in Valence, Drome, to open fire.

The driver and another person in the car were injured.

#URGENT Drôme Le conducteur gravement touché. 3 militaires et un passant légèrement blessés à #Valence (@ledauphine) pic.twitter.com/9VRE4gMeui
— Dominique Lang (@dlang57500) January 1, 2016

Pour éviter toute équivoque : Fusillade #Valence Birbach n'est pas le président des musulmans de la Drôme @France3tv pic.twitter.com/NgGlSFL06Y
— Islam&Info (@Islametinfo) January 1, 2016

Three soldiers were reportedly injured, there also appear to be injuries among worshippers at the mosque.

A stray bullet hit one of the worshippers, the mosque confirmed.

The driver has been detained - his motives are currently unclear.

A local journalist for the Dauphiné Libéré newspaper claimed the man is aged 30 and is originally from Lyon.


Communiqué de la mosquée de Valence.Agression contre les militaires du dispositif SentinelleA Valence, le 1er ...
Posted by Abdallah Imam Dliouah on Friday, 1 January 2016

Abdallah Dliouah, the mosque's imam, released a statement on Facebook to say: "Those who run the Valence mosque and those loyal to it are profoundly shocked by this act.
Read more

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"The soldiers charged with the protection of the mosque are appreciated by worshippers and we denounce this act of aggression against those who assure our safety."

He added: "Pending the results of an investigation, we would like to reaffirm that this act, while serious, will not prevent our determination to promote our life together, as we have always done."

France is on high alert after the 13 November terror attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people. The soldiers are part of reinforced security guarding places of worship and other sensitive sites.

This article will be updated as more information becomes available

 

[loreta]

Something happened some hour ago in Paris, a man was killed by the polices, in a sort of a terrorist attack:

-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/12086901/Paris-police-shoot-dead-knife-wielding-man-live.html

Paris shooting: terrorist wearing fake suicide belt shot dead outside police station on Charlie Hebdo anniversary
Man reportedly tried to enter police station shouting Allahu Akbar on the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attack

What we know so far
By Henry Samuel in Paris
Police in Paris shot dead a man wielding a meat cleaver and a fake suicide vest outside a police station while shouting Alahu Akbar, a year after Islamists killed 12 at Charlie Hebdo’s offices.
The assailant, described as “threatening” by police sources, was gunned down as he tried to force his way into the police station of Paris’ 18th arrondissement. He was found to be wearing a pouch taped to his coat with wires dangling from it. However, it later proved to be a “fake” suicide belt.
The dead man was carrying a mobile phone and a note on which figured the black Isil flag and an "unambiguous statemenent" in Arabic, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.
Police ordered passers-by to take shelter in shops in the road and stores were closed. Children were confined to the nearby school while bomb disposal experts and dogs combed the street to search for booby trapped vehicles. Stretches of nearby Paris metro lines were also briefly closed.
“I heard something like four shots,” Lydie Quentin, president of local association A la Goutte-d’Or, situated near the police station. “I opened the door and the police asked me not to come out. That’s the only thing they asked us to do. Around here, all the shops have closed,” she told Le Monde.
The dead suspect reportedly had “no papers on him” and has not been identified.
The apparent foiled attack took place just as President François Hollande was paying tribute, elsewhere in Paris, to three police officers among the 17 dead in the attacks last January, which ended after two days of bloodshed in the Paris region.
Mr Hollande said officers die in the line of duty “so that we can live free”.
Following the January attacks, the government announced it planned to give police better equipment and hire more intelligence agents.
France has been on high alert ever since, and was struck again November 13 by extremists in attacks claimed by Isil that killed 130 people at the Bataclan concert hall and in bars and restaurants.

Lately the French government is thinking on putting the present state of emergency indefinitely. So.... hmmm

Again, and sorry for my sarcasm, another Comedia del Arte. In the link of the newspaper you can see a stream video. I tried to put it here with no avail.

 

[sToRmR1dR]

Something happened some hour ago in Paris, a man was killed by the polices, in a sort of a terrorist attack:

-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/12086901/Paris-police-shoot-dead-knife-wielding-man-live.html

Paris shooting: terrorist wearing fake suicide belt shot dead outside police station on Charlie Hebdo anniversary
Man reportedly tried to enter police station shouting Allahu Akbar on the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attack

What we know so far
By Henry Samuel in Paris
Police in Paris shot dead a man wielding a meat cleaver and a fake suicide vest outside a police station while shouting Alahu Akbar, a year after Islamists killed 12 at Charlie Hebdo’s offices.
The assailant, described as “threatening” by police sources, was gunned down as he tried to force his way into the police station of Paris’ 18th arrondissement. He was found to be wearing a pouch taped to his coat with wires dangling from it. However, it later proved to be a “fake” suicide belt.
The dead man was carrying a mobile phone and a note on which figured the black Isil flag and an "unambiguous statemenent" in Arabic, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.
Police ordered passers-by to take shelter in shops in the road and stores were closed. Children were confined to the nearby school while bomb disposal experts and dogs combed the street to search for booby trapped vehicles. Stretches of nearby Paris metro lines were also briefly closed.
“I heard something like four shots,” Lydie Quentin, president of local association A la Goutte-d’Or, situated near the police station. “I opened the door and the police asked me not to come out. That’s the only thing they asked us to do. Around here, all the shops have closed,” she told Le Monde.
The dead suspect reportedly had “no papers on him” and has not been identified.
The apparent foiled attack took place just as President François Hollande was paying tribute, elsewhere in Paris, to three police officers among the 17 dead in the attacks last January, which ended after two days of bloodshed in the Paris region.
Mr Hollande said officers die in the line of duty “so that we can live free”.
Following the January attacks, the government announced it planned to give police better equipment and hire more intelligence agents.
France has been on high alert ever since, and was struck again November 13 by extremists in attacks claimed by Isil that killed 130 people at the Bataclan concert hall and in bars and restaurants.

Lately the French government is thinking on putting the present state of emergency indefinitely. So.... hmmm

Again, and sorry for my sarcasm, another Comedia del Arte. In the link of the newspaper you can see a stream video. I tried to put it here with no avail.

Paris police station attacker lived in German refugee shelter

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/12091489/German-asylum-seeker-shelter-which-housed-Paris-police-station-attacker-raided.html

Revelation raises futher questions about country's liberal stance on refugees

Angela Merkel’s “open door policy” is under further pressure after it emerged a suspected terrorist who attacked a Paris police station last week had lived in an asylum-seeker shelter in Germany.

The man had stayed in refugee accommodation in Recklinghausen in the west of the country, and had reportedly painted a symbol associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) on a wall in shelter.

He was able to then travel to France undetected, where he tried to storm a police station in northern Paris, brandishing a meat cleaver and wearing a fake suicide vest, before being shot dead.

The assault took place exactly one year since the start of a series of jihadist attacks in France beginning with the killing of 12 people at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine on January 7 last year.

President Francois Hollande on Sunday led a memorial to honour the victims, laying a plaque in the Place de la Republique square.

The German link to the attacker in France risks fanning fears that would-be terrorists have been slipping into Germany amid a record refugee influx.

German investigators assisting the probe into the Paris police station attack raided the refugee shelter after it emerged that the man had been carrying a mobile phone with a German SIM card when he was shot dead.

French investigators have said the man’s identity is still being established, as it was revealed that the suspect may have used several different aliases while in Europe.

According to French media, his fingerprints match those of a homeless man convicted of theft in 2013 in the south of France, who gave his name as Sallah Ali and said he was Moroccan.

However, people presenting themselves as his relatives have come forward and have identified the man as a Tunisian called Tarek Belgacem. They denied that he was involved in terrorism.

The French authorities have not confirmed any name but the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said he was “undoubtedly” Tunisian.

The man had painted an Isil symbol on a wall in the refugee shelter in September, according to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. It is not yet known when authorities became aware of the painting.

The news magazine Spiegel Online reported meanwhile that the man, understood as having been registered as an asylum seeker, had already been classed by German police as a possible suspect after he posed at the refugee centre with an Isil flag, but he disappeared in December.

The man had given different nationalities at each registration, once saying he was Syrian, another time saying he was Moroccan, and on yet another occasion, Georgian.

The link to a refugee shelter in Germany, and the apparent ease with which the man was able to register with the authorities, risks further inflaming a debate over the 1.1 million asylum-seekers that the country took in last year.

Tensions were already running high in Germany after a spate of sexual assaults and thefts during New Year's Eve celebrations in Cologne, with police saying suspects of the crime spree were mostly asylum seekers and migrants.

Police said Sunday the number of cases filed over violence during the festivities in Cologne had reached 516, including 40 percent relating to sexual assault.

Heiko Maas, Germany’s justice minister, said on Sunday that he suspected that the attacks in Cologne that have left the country reeling were not the result of an opportunistic mob mentality but a planned attack.

"No one can tell me that it wasn't coordinated and prepared," he told newspaper Bild am Sonntag. "My suspicion is that this specific date was picked, and a certain number of people expected. This would again add another dimension [to the crimes]."

Police have detained for questioning a 22-year-old Tunisian, was registered at a refugee centre in a neighboring state, while two Moroccans aged 18 and 23, were apparently in the country illegally, according to their lawer.

"Our clients are modern nomads," Ingo Lindemann said. "They're not war refugees but more like grown street children who move with the flow of refugees across Europe."