Charlie Hebdo attacks: suspects on US terrorist watchlist ‘for years’

Pressure is mounting on the French authorities to explain how Islamic extremists alleged to have carried out the deadly attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were not prevented despite being well known to the intelligence services.

US officials claimed that both of the suspects had been on a US terrorist watch list “for years” and one had travelled to the Yemen, possibly for training with an al-Qaida linked group, as recently as four years ago.

Cherif and Said Kouachi, who are alleged to have murdered 12 people in Paris on Wednesday, were both flagged in a US database as terrorism suspects, and were also on a no-fly list, meaning they were barred from flying into the US, American officials said.

The two men are the subject of a massive manhunt involving nearly 90,000 police personnel. The focus of the pursuit shifted from the streets of the capital to the woods and marshes of rural Picardy yesterday. With helicopters buzzing overhead, black-uniformed members of the police special counter-terrorist unit, Raid, rolled along the country roads in armoured cars, combing the wooded hills of the area and going on foot from house to house in a cluster of villages east of the town of Villers-Cotterêts, 70 miles north-east of the capital. Residents in the villages of Longpont and Corcy were told to stay at home while the hunt was under way.

But questions are mounting over the country’s counter-terror strategy as more details emerged of the suspects’ pasts. One official told the Agence France-Presse that according to French intelligence, Said, the older of the two brothers, traveled to Yemen in 2011, where he received training from al-Qaida’s affiliate there in small arms combat and marksmanship.

Authorities were already struggling to explain how they had lost track of the after it was revealed that Cherif, 32, had been imprisoned for 18 months for his role in a network sending volunteers to fight alongside al-Qaida militants in Iraq between 2003 and 2005 and had also been investigated after being implicated in a plot to break a jailed militant leader out of jail in 2010.



cant actually link to the article since is is from the supplied news feed in windows 8

however it is from
Jason Burke


The Guardian - ‎09‎ ‎January‎ ‎2015



so the state actually DID fail...and badly......

Well yes, it's all very well saying they were on a list, but we're the French authorities supposed to be watching their every move 24/7?
Not sure what you're saying darkness

Welcome to the forum btw

eddie wrote:Well yes, it's all very well saying they were on a list, but we're the French authorities supposed to be watching their every move 24/7?
Not sure what you're saying darkness

Welcome to the forum btw

thank you for your welcome eddie

in answer to your question, well, given their apparant status to the US authorities, and their known associates i really do think Yes they SHOULD have had them under 24/7 surveillance.
Either THAT or given their known record they should have been in preventitative detention.
Or...of course they could have quietly "left the country, destination unknown" ...if you see what I mean.

I see what you're saying and in an ideal world we could "follow" every terrorist and paedo thereby stopping them in their tracks, but let's face it, that just can't happen darkness.
There simply isn't enough manpower for one thing.

eddie wrote:I see what you're saying and in an ideal world we could "follow" every terrorist and paedo thereby stopping them in their tracks, but let's face it, that just can't happen darkness.
There simply isn't enough manpower for one thing.

in which case option 3 seems to be the best....just sayin.....