In trying to learn more about the Paris attacks, I haven’t come across much that I feel confident commenting on, but I’ve learned a great deal that sheds light on the matter. I’ve organized much of it here, along with links to references, many of which are repeated.

What follows should be taken with the normal stipulation that information is likely to change and that there’s likely a great deal that’s known by authorities but hasn’t been released.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud

• The mastermind of the attacks was well-known to both French and Belgian authorities, and had been publicly sought by name as a terror suspect since at least January of this year.
• He travelled, under his own name, from Germany to Turkey in January 2014, taking along his 13-year-old brother. Despite being on various watch lists, he was not detained. He and his brother subsequently arrived in Syria and joined ISIS, where Abaaoud worked as a recruiter and logistics man.
• The authorities’ last known contact with him was a series of calls he made to accomplices in Belgium, apparently from Greece. These calls were intercepted and listened to by Belgian authorities “for days,” but Abaaoud subsequently disappeared. Shortly thereafter, Belgian police raided his accomplices’ hideout and killed them during the ensuing gun battle. Abaaoud’s travels since have been a matter of speculation.
• He was subsequently the subject of a feature of an interview in the February 2015 edition of the Islamic State’s famously well-produced (but tediously-written) magazine. The article seems to imply that he had travelled back to Syria recently, but it’s vague, and there are clear lies throughout the piece. The article starts on page 72, but be aware that you’ll have to scroll past — among other things — hi-resolution pictures of the Jordanian pilot being burned alive.
• Abaaoud was involved in multiple attempted attacks in France and Belgium, most of which failed, including the train attack thwarted by American passengers back in August.
• Abaaoud is now believed to have been one of the gunmen who shot-up the restaurants from a car during the attacks. Chillingly, it’s also believed that he went back to view the butchery hours later and successfully mixed in the with crowd.
• Abaaoud was killed along with a female cousin a few days after the raid, after his cellphone number was identified and its location tracked (I wrote about this here). The identity of the third body found in his apartment is either unknown or has not been released.

The Abdeslam Brothers

• Most of the purchases and rentals (cars, apartments, etc.) for the Paris Attacks were made by Salah and Brahim Abdeslam who, like Abaaoud, grew up in the Molenbeek suburb of Brussels. One of them — most venues say Salah, though The New York Times reports it as Brahim — served time in prison with Abaaoud in 2010.
• Ibrahim owned a bar, where Salah worked, known to be a drug den. According to Le Monde, the authorities closed it after people had been caught smoking marijuana there. According to The Wall Street Journal, Brahim subsequently sold it and used the funds to finance the plot in its final days.
• According the same Le Monde article above, Brahim was arrested in May after robbing a convenience store (no word yet on whether he was described as a “gentle giant”). Amazingly, the event was captured on camera by a Belgian TV crew.
• Brahim was with Abaaoud during the drive-by shootings, and blew himself up with a suicide vest. Though he, Abaaoud, and possibly a third gunman murdered 39 people during their series of drive-bys, no one else died in the explosion (though there were injuries). Indeed, at least three of the suicide vests involved in the attacks killed no one but the attackers, and a fourth killed only a single other person.
• Salah is the only member of the cell believed to have escaped. He was last spotted fleeing from France into Belgium with the help of at least two others who have since been arrested. He is the subject of an international manhunt. During the attacks, it’s believed his job was to drive three other bombers to the stadium. It’s not clear why he didn’t participate more directly, or why he chose to run.

The Other Attackers

• The true identities of two of the suicide bombers at Le Stade de France is still in question, though it’s fairly clear that both posed as Syrian refugees who entered Europe through Greece. The identity of the third, a French national who ran off to join ISIS last year, was known almost immediately after the attacks.
• While there is no public information on the identity of one of the Bataclan killers, both of the others were known Jihadists and French citizens. Samy Amimour was the subject of an international arrest warrant, and was known to be in Syria fighting with ISIS late last year. His father’s (successful) attempt to find him but (unsuccessful) attempt to bring him home and un-brainwash him was the subject of a Le Monde feature from last December. How and when he returned to France is either unknown or unreported.
• The other Bataclan killer was Omar Ismail Mostefai, a petty criminal with a long record who became radicalized five years ago; so much so that his friends tried to notify French authorities. He travelled to Syria through Turkey in 2013 and came to the attention of Turkish officials, who notified French authorities about him twice. As with Amimour, it’s not clear how or when he returned to France.