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Claire Berlinski follows up her eye-witness report from Paris on yesterday’s Ricochet Podcast with the latest developments from a full day of breaking news in France.
Claire suggests it’s time for tough questions to be asked and that it’s unbelievable for France to be so unprepared these attacks after years of warnings. She also persuasively argues why this is just the beginning of a new kind of terror strike. The Power Line crew also opens up the important conversation about the need for a muslim reformation.
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If you’re just catching up on the events of today — and are wondering how the double-hostage situation unfolded — The Independent has been updating a timeline of Friday’s events in France:
Friday
• The police-hunt for the two suspects linked to Wednesday’s attack on the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo enters its third day, with armed police focusing on the rural area in the Picardy region of France, north-east of Paris.
• 8:30am: Gunfire is reported near the Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris. A car chase ensues between police and the suspects in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele and shots are fired.
• 9am: The suspects enter a printing business just outside of Dammartin-en-Goele which is close to local schools. Residents are asked to stay indoors, stay away from windows and keep children at home.
• 10:20am: A spokesman for the French Interior Ministry reports they believe the Charlie Hebdo suspects are in the building. Reports emerge that the siege involves a hostage. French anti-terrorist forces surround the complex.
• 12pm: Dammartin town hall confirms one hostage has been taken at the printing building, the BBC reports.
• 12:30pm: Reports begin emerging of a separate shooting in a Jewish grocery store in the south-eastern area of Paris.
• 1pm: French media reports that hostages including women and children have been taken inside the supermarket in Vincennes. Police later confirm to The Independent that women and children are indeed among the hostages. Schools near to the supermarket are put into lockdown.
• 1:30pm AFP reports that two people in the hostage situation in the supermarket have died. Officials have not confirmed these reports.
• 1:40pm French police issue an appeal for witnesses to Thursday’s shooting where a policewoman died. People the police want to speak to in connection with the shooting are named as Hayat Boumeddiene, a female, and a man called Amedy Coulibaly.
• 1:44pm: Eyewitnesses describe the moment a hostage-taker allegedly opened fire in the supermarket: “People were buying things when a man came in with a rifle and started shooting in all directions. I ran out. The shooting continued for several seconds.”
• 2pm: Schools near the kosher supermarket where five hostages are being held remain closed.
• 2pm: Police name Coulibaly as wanted in connection with the siege at the supermarket. Le Monde reports that Boumeddiene, 26, has been Coulibaly’s partner since 2010 and lived in his home while he was serving a prison sentence.
3pm: The Associated Press reports a gunman in the grocery store has threatened to kill hostages if police storm the building where the Charlie Hebdo massacre suspects are holed up.
Europe 1 reports that the a daughter of a woman inside the store received a call from her mother, who said: “I am in the shop, I love you”.
• 3:45pm: It emerges that the Kouachi brothers were on a British watch and no-fly list to prevent them from entering the UK or passing through a British airport.
• 3:55pm: Gunshots are heard at the scene of the siege in Dammartin-en-Goele and smoke can be seen above the building.
• 4pm: AFP reports that official sources as saying police launched an assault on the printworks where the Charlie Hebdo suspects were.
• 4:10pm: Six loud and very quick explosions are heard at the kosher grocery store where the gunman is holding people hostage.
• 4:15pm: AFP reports that both the Kouachi brothers are dead, while the person held hostage by them has been freed. The suspects allegedly came out of the printworks building firing at security forces.
• 4:30pm: Several hostages at the Paris supermarket are also freed, AFP reports. Le Monde reports that the hostage-taker at the grocery store is also dead.
• 4:50pm: French security forces confirm the third gunman has been killed.
• 5pm: Reuters and French media report four hostages have died. These reports are not yet confirmed by police.
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Sorry folks a “Muslim Reformation” is not happening. Mohamed precluded that.
First the Koran is literally the dictated word of God to Muslims. How does one go about reforming THAT? Second Mohamed’s psychotic hallucinations that are the text of the Koran specify he is the LAST Prophet. Nobody gets to modify what he said.
So when the Koran says slay all the unbelievers, or they must submit, be slaves or pay the Islamic tax etc how exactly do you reform that?
I’m not convinced that a muslim reformation is in the cards either.
And also, if a reformation were to come about the results may not be to our liking, and the interim turmoil would be much worse than present.
Y’all should get Claire and Annika together on a podcast to debate why one is remaining in Europe and one is moving to Israel. I agree with Claire that France is still safer than Israel. But I can sympathize with Annika’s decision for the purpose of cultural solidarity.
“It’s amateur hour.”
I wouldn’t support any offensive (strategically speaking) military action by our government in the near future simply because I don’t trust them to implement the idea to lasting effect. However awesome our military training and resources are, the current political leadership can’t direct it to victory; and I’m not referring only to the Obama Administration.
From my sketchy memory, the muslim reformation (by moderates) happened like a thousand years ago. The reformers were killed.
In recent times we have seen a reformation in the other direction, toward more adherence to Koran and jihadism.
The reformers are not fans of nominal Muslims, which is why they move into an area and enforce Sharia law where it did not exist before.
Yeah. Despite all the contortions and self delusions in the West (mainly wishful thinking) about how the radicals have “hijacked Islam”, they are in fact the most pure practitioners of it.
What a personal feeling twaddle in Claire Berlinski part. Glad that James finally managed to turn her off.
I hate to say it. I agree with Claire’s grandfather. We have to burn a city. After World War Two neither the Germans or the Japanese suffered under the illusion that they had won the war. Both knew that they depended on the mercy of the victors. We have enjoyed 50+ years of peace with each. Until we convince Islam that war with the west is a recipe for disaster we cannot convince them that jihad is a bad response. I hate to point this out because it will sound barbaric but wars are not won by killing warriors. Wars are won by forcing a society to realize that destruction is price of continuing and that a sacrifice of some long held unprofitable abstract principle is worthwhile for cultural survival.
Claire, thank you for all your observations and willingness to be interviewed over and over. My view of events in Paris over these last days is that it might as well be our backyard. In the age of the internet there are no meaningful borders for worldwide terror and radical Islam. We have a global economy and we have a global war going on. One of these days we should start fighting it.
As for the connections between the 2 Kouachi brothers and the third terrorist from the kosher deli – Choulilaby. According to reports I read at the Telegraph blog, the women were in regular contact with one another, suggesting a longstanding and clubby association among the six:
Another comment I caught in passing was that Choulilaby told at least one witness he was a member of The Islamic State [ISIS], not Al-Q.
Also, the Finsbury Park Mosque pops up over and over and over as a point of intersection.
Here is the blog – just keep scrolling down:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11329976/Paris-Charlie-Hebdo-attack-live.html
You could do that. But it’s not a new argument, and you might want to ask whether you wish to get involved in one of the perennial Wars of the Jews.
“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”
– Winston Churchill
Reports are that it’s apocryphal, but it sounds right for WSC.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/winstonchu135259.html#WKpkZhKPSUr9y1Wu.99
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