Deadly Raids End Terror Spree in #ParisAttacks

Don't miss this phenomenal photo roundup at London's Daily Mail, "Carnage at Paris kosher grocery: Terrified hostages - including women and children - run for their lives as 'at least four' captives die in dramatic end to siege."

Actually, reports indicate that the four hostages were killed before the police stormed the market.

See the Wall Street Journal, "Police Kill Two Suspects in Magazine Massacre; Ally Shot Dead After Four Killed at Kosher Grocery":

PARIS—France’s capital was transformed into a war zone as a three-day manhunt for militants who attacked the magazine Charlie Hebdo ended Friday when security forces in simultaneous raids killed three men suspected in the slaying of 17 people, including four hostages at a kosher grocery.

The carnage played out in a multifront battle that frayed the nerves of a nation already on edge over the state of its security and social cohesion.

By the time the smoke cleared, police had killed Said Kouachi, 34 years old, and his brother Chérif Kouachi, 32—the two gunmen suspected of Wednesday’s attack on the French magazine. Authorities had cornered the French-born brothers at a printing facility near the capital’s main airport.

On the city’s eastern edge, meanwhile, police stormed a kosher grocery where an alleged confederate of the two brothers held several people hostage at gunpoint. The man, Amedy Coulibaly, 32 years old, was killed. Officials said they believed he killed four hostages before police raided the store.

On Thursday, Mr. Coulibaly allegedly shot and killed a female police officer in a southern suburb of Paris. Authorities continued searching Friday for a woman, Hayat Boumediene, in connection with the officer’s killing.

As the violence unfolded Friday, France saw three native sons, hailing from one of Europe’s largest Muslim populations, attacking their countrymen on behalf of terrorist groups a continent away.

Political fallout from the attacks risks deepening the alienation of France’s five million-strong Muslim minority—a social and economic rift that has long made the country a powder keg for unrest.

“France isn’t finished with the threats facing it,” President François Hollande said in an address to the nation. “Unity is our best weapon.”

While under siege Friday, the gunmen conducted phone interviews with French television. Chérif Kouachi said he had trained in Yemen and had received financing by an al Qaeda faction to launch attacks in France. Mr. Coulibaly allegedly told French TV he was acting on behalf of the terror group Islamic State.

The terror crisis began in the early hours of Wednesday morning as two men wearing balaclavas, military fatigues and carrying AK-47 rifles walked into the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo and opened fire. The barrage left 11 people dead, including the publisher and some of France’s most celebrated cartoonists.

Fleeing the scene, the brothers evaded several police cars and killed one officer at point-blank range. In an abandoned getaway car, the brothers left behind Molotov cocktails, a GoPro camera and an important piece of evidence—the national identity card of Said Kouachi.

That clue led investigators to Mr. Kouachi’s brother, Chérif, who had been convicted in 2008 for belonging to a terrorist group. Prosecutors said Chérif Kouachi had also traveled to Yemen in 2011.

The slaughter at Charlie Hebdo sparked anger around the world. The magazine had for years stirred outrage and death threats with its caricatures lampooning Islam, just one of its many targets of satire.

On Thursday, a policewoman directing traffic around a car accident in the southern Parisian suburb of Montrouge was shot and killed. Police homed in on Mr. Coulibaly after recovering a balaclava that contained his DNA.

Mr. Coulibaly later claimed responsibility for the killing, saying he had “synchronized” the move with the Kouachi brothers.

Keep reading.

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters: Exterminate the Terrorists and 'Leave Behind Smoking Ruins and Crying Widows...' (VIDEO)

Too bad Colonel Peters isn't seeking the 2016 GOP nomination!

God I love this guy. Watch:

ABC's Terry Moran: The French People, Friends Around the World, 'Will Take Stock of What It Means to Deal, Right Now, with This Infection, This Virus of Radical Jihadist Terror...' (VIDEO)

Well, good thing he didn't say the French, and friends around the world, "will take stock of what it means to deal with this domestic overseas contingency workplace violence situation."

From today's Good Morning America's broadcast, "Paris Terror Attack: 4 Hostages Killed Before Police Staged Final Assault." (Hat Tip: Memeorandum.)

Obama Should Have Called Paris Market Attack What It Is: Anti-Semitism

Yeah, Obama "should have" done a lot more today. See earlier, "President Obama's 'Hilarious' Comments on #CharlieHebdo at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee — UPDATE: Video Added."

And now here comes Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary:

This week’s bloody events in France have shocked the civilized world. But shock and sadness are not a sufficient response from those entrusted with the responsibility to defend us against Islamist terrorism. That’s why President Obama’s initial statement in response to today’s news was so disappointing. The conspicuous absence of any acknowledgement of the motive of the terrorists or their targets made his remarks empty platitudes rather than a meaningful call for solidarity against a common enemy. The continued refusal of the president to identify Islamist ideology as the foe is undermining efforts to combat this dangerous virus. But the fact that he also failed to label the attack at the Parisian kosher market where four hostages were slaughtered was a case of anti-Semitism sent exactly the wrong signal to a world that is looking to the U.S. for leadership in this struggle and getting precious little of it from this president...

Well, yeah.

January 20, 2017, can't get here fast enough.

RTWT.

Hayat Boumeddiene: From Bikini Babe to France's Most Wanted Woman

At London's Daily Mail, "From bikini babe to burka-clad jihadi fighter with a crossbow: 'Wife' of Kosher supermarket killer becomes France's most wanted woman after going on the run."

And at the Other McCain, "TERROR IN FRANCE: POLICE KILL MUSLIM FANATICS IN STANDOFFS; UPDATE: HUNT FOR FEMALE TERRORIST BOUMEDDIENE."

French President François Hollande Says #CharlieHebdo Attacks 'Have Nothing to Do With Muslim Religion...'

Well, I guess this is ironic, considering how I was just praising the French counterterrorism operations, but the French president is the elected (and temporary) leader of the nation. Members of the the GIGN (National Gendarmerie Intervention Group) are career professionals carrying out policies and procedures that are often decades in the making.

Hollande has been criticized as "weak and indecisive" vis-à-vis homegrown jihad, and boy, it shows. Via CNN:

“Those who committed these acts have nothing to do with the Muslim religion,” Pres. Hollande says of #ParisAttacks. http://t.co/7Bxdhozq4H
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) January 9, 2015

'Rocket 88'

According to Wikipedia, "'Rocket 88' was credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, who were actually Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm."

And why am I blogging about "Rocket 88," you might ask? Well, I was over at Legal Insurrection and I was listening to William's "Video of the Day," Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary."

Interestingly, I was just thinking about the song the other morning while listening to the radio. John Fogerty is both lead singer and lead guitarist on "Proud Mary." While skimming around on Wikipedia, I saw the discussion of Ike and Tina Turner's cover, which then reminded me of the movie "What's Love Got to Do with It." Thinking about that reminded me of how much I loved "Rocket 88" from the film, and so I googled that, heh.

In any case, here you go. The song's generally considered the very "first rock-and-roll record":

President Obama's 'Hilarious' Comments on #CharlieHebdo at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee — UPDATE: Video Added

You know, there are times when leadership requires that we not make light of grave circumstances. President Obama was horribly disrespectful of those killed in France in his remarks today from Knoxville. He joked about college, had the audience all laughing hardy har har. And as soon as his comments were completed --- not even 5 seconds after he'd finished speaking on France --- he broke into another round of jokes.

Sometimes, in some moments, the circumstances call for solemnity. Today is one of those times.

Here's the president's statement delivered today from Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, via the Guardian UK:

Obama: "I want to take a moment out from my comedy routine up here to say something about the terrorism in France (hardy har har, lol!)."
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 9, 2015

“The United States stands with France,” President Barack Obama has said in a speech from Tennessee, cautioning “the French government needs to stay vigilant” as it confronts new threats.

“Events have been fast moving, I just spoke to my counterterrorism advisor, we have been in close touch with the French government. … Since the moment that this tragedy began we directed all of our enforcement and counterterrorism to providing whatever our ally needs.

“We’re hopeful that the immediate threat is now resolved [but] the French government needs to stay vigilant, the situation is fluid.”

Obama then made a broader remarks about what the attacks mean for the France and US going forward:

“France is our oldest ally. I want people of France to know that the United States stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have been directly impacted. We grieve with you. We fight alongside you to uphold our values, the values that we share – universal values that bind us together as friends and as allies.

“In the streets of Paris, the world has seen once again what terrorists stand for. The have nothing to offer but hatred and suffering. We stand for freedom and hope and the dignity of all human beings. That is what the city of Paris represents to the world and that spirit will endure forever, long after the scourge of terrorism is banished from this world.”

UPDATE: Obama speaks after the Bidens, at about 18 minutes, and then tries out a few jokes before attempting, but failing, to be serious about the terrorist attacks in France.

Media Cowards and the Cartoon Jihad

Once again, from the incomparable Michelle Malkin:

I have never laughed so bitterly as I did while reading Thursday’s lead editorial by the great pretender-defenders of free speech at the New York Times.

Paying obligatory lip service to the 10 cartoonists and staffers of the Paris satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo who were slaughtered for offending Islam, the Times intoned: “It is absurd to suggest that the way to avoid terrorist attacks is to let the terrorists dictate standards in a democracy.”

My GPS tracker of journalistic hypocrisy immediately identified the Times editorial board’s high-altitude location—ensconced atop their own Mt. Everest of absurdity and self-unawareness.

The Fishwrap of Record priggishly refuses to print any of the Islam-provoking art that cost the brave French journalists their lives. In case you forgot (as its own editorialists have), the Times cowered in 2005-2006 when the Mohammed Cartoons conflagration first ignited. And the publication is capitulating again.

Behold this groveling bow to terrorists dictating democracy’s standards:

“Under Times standards,” a newspaper spokesman said in a statement to iMediaEthics.com this week, “we do not normally publish images or other material deliberately intended to offend religious sensibilities. After careful consideration, Times editors decided that describing the cartoons in question would give readers sufficient information to understand today’s story.”

So says the paper that blithely published a Catholic-bashing photo of the Virgin Mary covered in elephant dung and defended the taxpayer-funded “Piss Christ” exhibit thusly: “A museum is obliged to challenge the public as well as to placate it, or else the museum becomes a chamber of attractive ghosts, an institution completely disconnected from art in our time.”

While they feign free-speech fortitude, what Times editorialists really don’t want to see is their heads completely disconnected from their necks. Neither do editors at the Boston Globe, ABC News, NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC, who won’t publish any possibly, remotely upsetting images of Mohammed, either.

But these quivering double-talkers aren’t even the most laughable of Cartoon Jihad cowards.

The Associated Press wins the pusillanimity prize after invoking the sensitivity card to explain why it refrained from publishing “deliberately provocative” Mo toons—even though the media conglomerate had been selling deliberately provocative “Piss Christ” photos on its website. After the Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney pointed out the double standards, AP tried to cover its tracks by yanking the pic.

More absurdity? The New York Daily News pixelated a Mo toon carried by Charlie Hebdo as if it were pornography. CNN did the same in 2006, when it explained it was censoring the offending images “in respect for Islam” and “because the network believes its role is to cover the events surrounding the publication of the cartoons while not unnecessarily adding fuel to the controversy itself.”
And therein lies the cartoon capitulationists’ grand self-delusion. This isn’t about cartoons.

Reminder: The First Mo Toons Wars were instigated in 2005 by demagogue imams who toured Egypt stoking hysteria with faked anti-Islam comic strips attributed to the Danish Jylland-Postens newspaper (whose actual cartoons criticizing Islam were far more innocuous). The real agenda: Islamist thugs were attempting to pressure Denmark over the International Atomic Energy Agency’s decision to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council for continuing with its nuclear research program. From Afghanistan to Egypt to Lebanon to Libya, Pakistan, Turkey and in between, hundreds died in insane riots under the pretext of protecting Mohammed from Western slight. Courageous journalists who stood up to the madness were silenced, jailed, and threatened with beheading.

Cartoons did not start militant Islam’s fire. Neither did the Bushes, Israel, the Satanic Verses, the Pope, beauty pageants, KFC restaurants in the Middle East, Mohammed teddy bears, or a YouTube video.

The Religion of Perpetual Outrage hates all infidels for all reasons for all time. The targeting of Mohammed cartoonists is a convenient excuse to feed the eternal flame of Islamists’ hatred of the West. If it isn’t cartoons, it’s always something else. The grudge is everlasting...

Still more.

France's Impressive Counterterrorist Operation

Well, the operation looked pretty impressive when I first saw the breaking news this morning at 1:00am.

And it appears more impressive still in the light of morning, with the terrorists killed and most of the hostages released unharmed. (There're reports that some hostages were killed; more on that in later updates.)

So obviously I'm on the same page as Max Boot, at Commentary:

If early reports are accurate, the GIGN (National Gendarmerie Intervention Group) pulled off a an impressive counterterrorist success in Paris today, even if it wasn’t as impressive as initially reported. Its commandos raided simultaneously two locations where a total of four jihadists–two of them the perpetrators of the horrific Charlie Hebdo massacre–were holed up with hostages. Apparently they killed three terrorists, while one female accomplice escaped. Sadly, early reports that all of the hostages were freed turned out to be premature; news soon arrived that a number of those held a kosher supermarket had been killed.

Sadly it is much harder to free hostages safely in real life than it is in the “reel life” of the movies and TV–especially when the hostage takers are fanatics seeking martyrdom. Under such circumstances the French forces did the best they could. It’s doubtful that any of the world’s other premier counterterrorist forces–notably SEAL Team Six, Delta Force, the British SAS, the German GSG-9, and the Israeli Sayeret Matkal–could have done any better. And others, notably the Russians, probably would have done much worse–their disregard for human life has become notorious.

The French certainly showed no lack of elan or aggressiveness. The French operators not only killed three terrorists but also the myth of France as a land of “cheese-eating surrender monkeys”–a cruel and crude stereotype born in 1940 when Hitler’s panzers overran the entire country in a few weeks and confirmed, in the minds of some Americans, when France refused to join the Iraq invasion in 2003. This rather ignores some salient facts, including the fact that France showed no surrender while fighting in Indochina and Algeria in the 1940s-’50s. Although France lost those wars, its warriors fought with as much heroism as any army in the world. Indeed, it is worth recalling that prior to 1940, France was a byword for military glory stretching all the way back to the days of Louis XIV and Napoleon.

More to the point, and more recently, France has emerged as a stalwart in the war on terror...

Still more at the link.

Definitely impressive, although I'm not quite as forgiving of France's collapse in 1940 (the French general staff literally just gave up after the Wehrmacht broke through the Ardennes.)

Two Staffers at Hardin County News-Enterprise Thought It'd Be 'Funny' to Write That Cops 'Have a Desire to Shoot Minorities...'

Okay, breaking away from jihad blogging, here's a brief excursion into the state of American journalism.

This really happened, via Jim Romanesko:

Two copy desk staffers [at the Hardin County News-Enterprise in Kentucky] – 23 and 32 years old – have been fired, I’m told. One wrote the “shoot minorities” line on the page proof as a joke and the second – in charge of the front page – put it in the story. One worked at the paper for about six years, the other less than a year.

Here's the newspaper's apology, from editor Ben Sheroan, "Apology: Error should not have happened" (via Memeorandum).

More proof that ideological leftists both populate America's newsrooms while simultaneously destroying the institution of journalism.

As Trauma Grips France, Government Faces Questions Over Intelligence Lapses

At the New York Times (FWIW), "As Trauma Grips France, Government Faces Questions Over Intelligence Lapses":

PARIS — With twin hostage dramas at different ends of Paris by armed jihadists who have killed at least 13 people and traumatized France, the government faced gaping questions on Friday over the failure to thwart such brazen attacks, especially on a well-known target like the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

The French intelligence services knew that striking the newspaper and its editor, for their vulgar treatment of the Prophet Muhammad, had been a stated goal of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, through its propaganda journal, Inspire. And they had the Kouachi brothers, Saïd, 34, and Chérif, 32, on their radar as previously involved in jihad-related activities, for which Chérif went to jail in 2008.

The French apparently also knew, or presumably should have known, either on their own or through close intelligence cooperation with the United States, that Saïd had traveled in 2011 to Yemen, where news reports on Friday said he had met with the American-born Anwar al-Awlaki, a member and propagandist for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who was later killed by an American drone strike.

But Yemen has been an American, not a French priority, intelligence analysts said on Friday. And with French security concentrating on the 1,000 to 2,000 French citizens who have traveled to fight in Iraq and Syria against the Syrian regime or with the Islamic State, it was likely that the Kouachi brothers and their friends — including Amedy Coulibaly, the man said to be involved in the second hostage taking — were put lower on the priority list, the analysts said.

But such reasoning did not answer the basic questions about why the French had not monitored the Kouachi brothers more aggressively, what the brothers were doing between 2011 and now, and why Charlie Hebdo was not better protected. And it raised the question of whether there had been a spectacular failure in American-French intelligence cooperation.

“The problem we face is that even though there are not that many radicalized Muslims in France, there are enough of them to make it difficult to physically follow everyone with a suspicious background,” said Camille Grand, a former French official and director of the Foundation for Strategic Research, a Paris-based group. “It’s one thing to listen to the phone calls or watch their travel, but it’s another to put someone under permanent physical surveillance, or even follow all their phone conversations full time for so many people.”

There simply are not enough police and security officials to keep full monitoring on everyone who goes through prison, said Jean-Charles Brisard from the French Center for Analysis of Terrorism, who had spoken to French security officials. The authorities had Chérif Kouachi under surveillance “for a period of time, but then they judged that there was no threat, or the threat was lower, and they had other priorities,” he said...

Pathetic New York Times Handwringing Over 'Dangerous Moment' for Europe

So precious is the multicultural ideal that big journalistic institutions like the New York Times spew the "dangerous moment" propaganda as if it were Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

Let's get real: The danger facing Europe today is more and larger jihadist attacks like the massacre at Charlie Hedbo. The right wing parties likely to benefit politically are not "extreme." They're populist and they're anti-immigrant, for good reason. France has 751 "no-go" areas, which are radical Islamic enclaves in which sharia law has been imposed and French law completely abandoned. There is no assimilation. That's what's dangerous. The Times is pushing a paradigm of "sensitivity" and "inclusion" that reflects the politics of the second half of the 20th century. We're no longer in that time. Europe is at a crisis stage precisely because it hasn't managed the deterioration of its minorities policies. The socialist parties will kowtow to political correctness, and the result will be more bloodshed on a massive scale. Meanwhile, right wing populists will be the only force willing to stem the tide and preserve whatever is left of decent, determined Western culture on the continent.

It's a sad state of affairs.

At the Old Gray Lady, "‘Dangerous Moment’ for Europe, as Fear and Resentment Grow":

LONDON — The sophisticated, military-style strike Wednesday on a French newspaper known for satirizing Islam staggered a continent already seething with anti-immigrant sentiments in some quarters, feeding far-right nationalist parties like France’s National Front.

“This is a dangerous moment for European societies,” said Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London. “With increasing radicalization among supporters of jihadist organizations and the white working class increasingly feeling disenfranchised and uncoupled from elites, things are coming to a head.”

Olivier Roy, a French scholar of Islam and radicalism, called the Paris assault — the most deadly terrorist attack on French soil since the Algerian war ended in the early 1960s — “a quantitative and therefore qualitative turning point,” noting the target and the number of victims. “This was a maximum-impact attack,” he said. “They did this to shock the public, and in that sense they succeeded.”

Anti-immigrant attitudes have been on the rise in recent years in Europe, propelled in part by a moribund economy and high unemployment, as well as increasing immigration and more porous borders. The growing resentments have lifted the fortunes of established parties like the U.K. Independence Party in Britain and the National Front, as well as lesser-known groups like Patriotic Europeans Against Islamization of the West, which assembled 18,000 marchers in Dresden, Germany, on Monday.

In Sweden, where there have been three recent attacks on mosques, the anti-immigrant, anti-Islamist Sweden Democrats Party has been getting about 15 percent support in recent public opinion polls.

Paris was traumatized by the attack, with widespread fears of another. “We feel less and less safe,” said Didier Cantat, 34, standing outside the police barriers at the scene. “If it happened today, it will happen again, maybe even worse.”

Mr. Cantat spoke for many when he said the attacks could fuel greater anti-immigrant sentiment. “We are told Islam is for God, for peace,” he said. “But when you see this other Islam, with the jihadists, I don’t see peace, I see hatred. So people can’t tell which is the real Islam.”

Keep reading.

Western Complacency and Denial to Remain Unscathed After #CharlieHebdo Attacks

From Melanie Phillips, at the Jerusalem Post, "As I See It: The Paris massacre and Western funk":

Is this a tipping point? Has the West finally been shaken out of its complacency? The horrific massacre in Paris, in which al-Qaida terrorists systematically targeted and gunned down journalists, cartoonists, and policemen at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in revenge for its mockery of Islam, has shocked Europe by its barbarism and its symbolism.

A core western value, freedom of expression, was snuffed out with contemptuous ease along with 12 innocent lives, among them some of France’s most iconic and beloved cartoonists.

The emotion behind the “Je Suis Charlie” demonstrations, as an expression of solidarity with the murdered Charlie Hebdo staff, was very understandable. But did anyone actually mean it? For what Charlie Hebdo did was what very few people have ever done. In continuing to publish its scurrilous images of Islam and Islamists, Charlie Hebdo had refused to be cowed by Islamist terrorism.

Plainly, therefore, very few people indeed mean “Je Suis Charlie,” since the media response to the massacre has been carefully to obliterate the images Charlie Hebdo published that so offended al-Qaida.

The French have also been declaring defiantly that free speech will never be surrendered. But there has been no free media expression about Islam ever since the 1989 Iranian fatwa calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie over his book, The Satanic Verses.

That was when the West sold the pass. In Britain, people supporting Rushdie’s murder were never prosecuted.

As his book was burned on British streets, establishment figures turned on the author for having offended Islam.

In 2006, riots following the publication of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons left scores dead around the world. But virtually every media outlet – except for Charlie Hebdo – refused to republish them.

In 2004, the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was murdered on a Netherlands street for making a film criticizing Islam. In 2012, Lars Hedegaard, who founded the Danish Free Press Society after the Muhammad cartoons affair,was shot point blank on his doorstep, although he miraculously survived.

To all these outrages, the West responded by blaming the victims for provoking their attackers. After this week’s Paris massacre, commentators on CNN observed that Charlie Hebdo had been “provoking Muslims” for some time. On The Financial Times website, Tony Barber wrote that “some common sense would be useful at publications such as Charlie Hebdo... which purport to strike a blow for freedom when they provoke Muslims, but are actually just being stupid.”

(That last clause was subsequently removed).

The fact is that Islamic terrorism and intimidation against the West have been going on for decades, matched by displays of Western weakness which merely encourage an enemy it refuses properly to identify.

Over and over again, the West denies that these attacks have anything to do with Islam. First it blamed poverty and exclusion among Muslims. Then it blamed grievances around the world – Bosnia, Chechnya, Kashmir, Palestine.

Then it blamed isolated madmen whose Muslim identity was irrelevant.

In France before Christmas, attacks in which cars were used as battering rams against crowds amid shouts of “Allahu akbar” were said by French authorities to be unconnected with each other.

Yet Muslim violence in France has clearly been out of control for years. Just look at the repeated Islamic pogroms against French Jews, which have driven thousands of them to emigrate. Yet none of those attacks provoked the kind of outrage that followed this week’s atrocity. Is free speech more important than the lives of French Jews? But the West refuses to join up the dots. The Charlie Hebdo attackers shouted “Allahu akbar” and “We are avenging the Prophet Muhammad.”

Yet Obama, Cameron, and Hollande condemned the attack as merely “terrorism,” carefully omitting to say what kind of terrorism this was.

This follows their absurd statements that the Islamic State terrorist group has “nothing to do with Islam” and that “no religion” condones that kind of barbarism.

Really? What links Islamic State, al-Qaida, Hamas, and Boko Haram? It’s a religion beginning with the letter I and ending with M.

A very senior British civil servant once told me that Islamist terrorism couldn’t be about Islam, because that would “demonize” all Muslims. This absurd non-sequitur was like saying the Inquisition had nothing to do with Catholicism, in order not to demonize Catholics.

For sure, many Muslims are not only opposed to Islamist terrorism but are its principal victims. But to pretend that it is not rooted in a legitimate interpretation of the religion, backed up by the historical evidence of centuries of aggressive and violent Islamic conquest, is ridiculous.

If the West cannot even bring itself to acknowledge what it is up against, then it will surely be defeated by it...

Still more.

Playboy Plus: Mash-Up Monday — Most Liked of 2014

Video, "As we welcome the New Year, let's take a look back at the most liked models of Playboy Plus in 2014."

Bill Maher: 'To be a liberal you have to stand up for liberal principles...'

Well, the pathology that's afflicted Western societies isn't any weakness of liberalism. It's political correctness that's a central byproduct of the radical leftist ideology that's seeped into the highest levels of Western power and institutional influence, like the mass media and academe. Conservatives are the true champions of liberalism in the classic sense, and in fact that's the heritage that Maher's referring to and it's the heritage that political Islam seeks to destroy. I don't particularly like Maher because he usually acts more like a leftist than he does a liberal. But the actual descriptive language of politics has been so mangled by nearly a century of leftist Orwellianism no one knows what the fuck they're talking any more.

Leftism and political Islam have in fact cemented an unholy alliance that's becoming more successful by the day in massacring the foundations of free societies.

In any case, for all that, it's an interesting discussion. From Jimmy Kimmel's on Wednesday night:



And at Jihad Watch, "Bill Maher: Hundreds of millions of Muslims support Charlie Hebdo jihad":

This Daily Beast report is clearly angry with Maher for breaking ranks with the Left and telling the truth about Islam and jihad. Maher deserves kudos for standing his ground and continuing to enunciate unpopular truths. I wonder how long it will take him to realize that the Left is not going to rush to his side on this issue.

“Bill Maher: Hundreds of Millions of Muslims Support Attack on ‘Charlie Hebdo,’” by Lloyd Grove, The Daily Beast, January 8, 2015...

French Police Fear #CharlieHebdo Attackers Planning Spectacular 'Martyrdom' Stand

Breaking news, which means take these reports with an abundance of caution.

At London's Daily Mail, "BREAKING NEWS: Shots fired in car chase with Charlie Hebdo killers amid fears they have taken hostages on 'martyrdom mission' towards Paris."

And Sky News has live updates, "Live: Police Chase Charlie Hebdo Killers."

Expect updates...

1:09am PST: See Guardian UK for live updates, "Charlie Hebdo: 'major operation' north-east of Paris in hunt for suspects – live updates."

1:25am PST: Also at Telegraph UK, "Terrorists take hostage 'and kill two people' as police surround 'war zone' industrial complex." Those reports of "two people" killed are not confirmed.

1:35am PST: More, "Watch the police car chase of Paris shooting suspects to industrial estate."

1:43am PST: A graphic from Joe Williams, at ABC News:

Siege at Dammartin-en-Goele close to Forêt de Rez where suspects last seen Thursday #CharlieHebdo (Map: @guardian) pic.twitter.com/EtQPM1VhaA

— Jon Williams (@WilliamsJon) January 9, 2015

#CharlieHebdo Attackers 'Have Long-Standing Ties to al-Qaeda...'

Ed Morrissey reports on yesterday's discussion of the attacks at CBS News This morning, which I was watching. See, "CBS: Charlie Hebdo assassins have “long-standing ties” to al-Qaeda."

And watch the segment, featuring former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morrell and the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller: "NYPD and CIA insiders on terror attack against French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo."

Jeannette Bougrab, Partner of Stéphane Charbonnier, Editor of #CharlieHebdo, Blames Massacre on Inadequate Security

"Inadequate" is putting it mildly. The police showed up unarmed against Islamist jihadists armed to the teeth. And there was one security officer at the newspaper's headquarters.

In any case, watch the clip at Euronews, "Charb's partner, Jeannette Bougrab, blames massacre on inadequate security."

French Manhunt Intensifies in #CharlieHebdo Massacre

At the Wall Street Journal, "Charlie Hebdo Attack: Police Actively Searching Area North of Paris: Thousands of Troops, Police Mobilized; Suspects Were on Terror Watch Lists":

PARIS—Tens of thousands of soldiers and police mobilized across France on Thursday amid a manhunt for two brothers who allegedly killed 12 people in a gruesome attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine, as anxious Parisians stopped for a moment of silence to honor the dead.

President François Hollande raised the terror alert in an area north of Paris where the search was concentrated, after two men matching the description of the suspects were spotted at a gas station. But the two—both of whom have been on watch lists of possible terrorists for years—remained at large.

U.S. and French intelligence believe that one of the two gunmen had received weapons training from an al Qaeda offshoot in Yemen in 2011, U.S. officials said. They added that they haven’t found any intelligence that the group, known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, directed, ordered or monitored Wednesday’s attack.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve invited top U.S. and European law-enforcement and counterterrorism officials to Paris this weekend to discuss terror threats, amid concerns that the gunmen appeared to have some military acumen.

Nine people, including relatives of the two suspects, were detained for questioning by police in relation to the investigation, Mr. Cazeneuve told a news conference in Paris, without elaborating.

The two suspects in Wednesday’s spree of violence were identified as 34-year-old Said Kouachi and his brother, Chérif Kouachi, 32, both French citizens. Mr. Cazeneuve said both were known to French security and were under surveillance, but no incriminating evidence had been gathered on them.

The minister said the elder brother had been formally identified from a photograph as one of the attackers. His national identity card was found in an abandoned Citroën that had been used as a getaway car.

While Said Kouachi had no police record, his brother had been sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008 for being part of a terror group, prosecutors said.

Both have been in a U.S. database of suspected terrorists—and on the U.S. no-fly list—for years as well. For the younger brother, that was due to his conviction in France, while the other’s name had surfaced in other terrorism-related probes, according to U.S. officials.

A third suspect identified by police turned himself in late Wednesday. His relationship to the others was unclear.

Helicopters buzzed across the region north of Paris early Thursday after two men resembling the Kouachi brothers were spotted near the town of Villers-Cotterêts, about 50 miles from the capital. But by midafternoon French television showed most of the police had left...

More.