The Dope-Smoking, Rapping, 'Loser' Brothers Turned Mass Killing Commandos:
-Paris Terrorists were Orphan Petty Criminals Before Being Radicalised ...........
and 'Sent to Yemen Al Qaeda Training Camp'
- Brothers Said, 34, and Cherif Kouachi, 32, are being hunted by police
- Pair lived life of failure and petty crime before being trained as killers
- Cherif worked as pizza deliver driver and used cash to buy cannabis
- He was also featured on French TV in 2005 while posing as a rapper
- Brothers radicalised by Paris Imam who 'gave them sense of importance'
- Known to police after being arrested over links to terror group in 2005
- Said believed to have been living in Reim with partner and two children
- Cherif thought to live in Gennevilliers on fourth-floor flat with his wife
- Police found radical videos and child porn in Cherif's home, it is claimed
Daily Mail UK, 8 January 2015
The two French brothers on the run from police after massacring 12 people in Paris were drug-taking petty criminals before being radicalised and sent to Yemen to train as killers.
Said Kouachi, 34, and sibling Cherif, 32, are orphans who were brought up in a care home in Brittany, northern France, before turning to a life of crime and then ultimately mass murder.
Cherif’s own lawyer once described him as an ‘apprentice loser’, a hashish smoking pizza delivery driver who didn’t know what to do with his life. A video has also surfaced of him rapping in 2005.
Meanwhile, a Facebook page under the name of Safid Kouachi has been uncovered. It was created in April 2014, and while it cannot be verified, it contains posts relating to radical Islam, along with images of bullets and weapons.
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Hunted: Police are still tacking brother Said Kouachi, 34, and Cherif, 32, today after they murdered 12 people in cold blood in Paris yesterday, as details of their past were revealed
Losers: The brothers were once described as 'failed commandos', while Cherif's lawyer called him an 'apprentice loser' after he was arrested in 2005. Here he is the same year in a video posing as a rapper
Drug addict: Cherif was once described as a hasish-smoking pizza deliver man who used all his money to buy drugs. In this 2005 video he appears to repent for his crimes, but was arrested again just a year later
Deadbeat: At one time or another Cherif worked as a delivery driver, a fishmonger, a fitness instructor and a rapper, before being taken in by radical Imams who 'gave him a sense of importance'
In one picture, captioned le frero which translates as 'the brother', a man is shown training with an AK-47 rifle, the same used during the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices yesterday.
The page has now been taken down after it was widely circulated online and attracted abuse. It is not immediately clear who removed the page.
It has also been revealed today that officers searching the home of Cherif in Gennevilliers have found extremist material, videos by hate preachers, and child pornography, according to Le Point.
Cherif and Said were both known to police after a series of arrests over links to terror groups dating back to 2005, before they staged their attack yesterday.
Their brother-in-law, Hamid Mourad, 18, a student, was accused of acting as their driver but has since handed himself in to a police station in Charleville-Mezieres.
Said and Cherif, both orphans, were born in Paris but grew up in foster care in Renne, Brittany.
They returned to Paris aged 18, when they moved to a council estate in Paris's 19th arrondissement. During this time Cherif was arrested for both drug dealing and theft.
With no direction or aspirations, the pair were quickly taken in by a gang known as Buttes-Chaumont, run by two Imams from northern Paris, one of whom was Farid Benyettou, a janitor-turned-preacher.
Louis Caprioli, former deputy director of the anti-terror unit at the French intelligence agency, described the gang as 'young hoodlums who became radical. They organised a network to get people to Iraq,' according to The Times UK.
The brothers were known to have been radicalised some time around 2003 after the second Iraq War, apparently infuriated by Western troops and jets killing Arabic soldiers.
Cherif has since said he was outraged by images of Iraqi inmates being tortured at the Abu Ghraib prison run by the US in Iraq.
They were arrested over their connection to the gang in 2005 amid rumours they were training to go to Iraq, though in reality all this involved was a daily jog.
Cherif's lawyer presented him in court as a man taken in by people 'who gave him the feeling of being important.'
'Good body, shame it will be riddled with bullets:' This image was taken from a Facebook profile set up in April 2014 under the name of Said Kouachi. While it cannot be verified, it contains radical Islamic material, images of bullets and weapons training, and has attracted death threats since yesterday's attacks
My brother: Among the images is this picture, captioned le frero which translates as 'my brother', showing a man training with an AK-47 rifle, the same weapon used in yesterday's attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices
'Death for you and your brother': Among the other images on the page is this one of a bullet, which has attracted death threats in the comments section
Around this time he appeared on a French TV programme, apparently repenting for his crimes, and saying he had now become a rapper.
Footage, believed to be taken in 2005, shows Cherif wearing a cap, sunglasses, and performing music while dancing on stage alongside other artists.
However by 2008 he was back working as a fishmonger, and was again arrested trying to board a plane to Damascus while carrying an instruction manual on how to operate a Kalashnikov rifle, one of the weapons used in yesterday's attack.
He was sentenced to three years in jail, with 18 months suspended, but served only part of this sentence before being released.
During his trial he said he 'really believed in the idea' of jihad, and wanted to attack Jewish targets in France.
Shooting: Hooded gunmen flee the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris
Shocking: Gunmen shoot a wounded policeman (right) on the ground at point-blank range, outside the office
In 2010 he was implicated in a plot to free Smain Ait Ali Belkacem from jail. Belkman is the mastermind of the 1995 bombing of the St Michel metro station in Paris that killed eight people and wounded more than 100.
Cherif was again arrested, and Said's name also appeared in the police report. Although Cherif was held for four months, neither brother ended up being charged.
Cherif's current home address is a flat in Gennevilliers, a residential area around six miles outside of Paris.
He is believed to have lived in a fourth-floor apartment with his wife since 2006. Average rents in the area are around €500 a month and there is a large population.
Neighbours say that Kouachi's flat was raided at around 3pm yesterday.
The owner of the local bakery, who gave his name as Mr Salah, said Kouachi would visit most days to buy bread. He said he also saw him at the nearby Ennour mosque and also a local prayer room.
'He seemed very normal. He wore normal clothes, sports clothes,' he said.
'He seemed very nice, very polite. He had a wife who wore a headscarf and I sometimes saw them pushing a pram, though I don't know if it was their child.
'I was very shocked when I saw the news. I would not have expected him to do something like this. Everybody at the mosque was very shocked yesterday. I want to speak out and let people know not all Muslims are like this. This is not what Islam says'.
Armed gunmen faced police officers near the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris
French police officers and forensic experts examine the Citreon hatchback car used by the gunmen
Cherif is thought to have ties to French jihadist Djamel Beghal, who spent 10 years in prison for planning terrorist attacks
Cherif and Beghal were thought to have participated in militant training together.
Said Kouachi is said to have lived on the first floor of a tower block in the Croix Rouge quarter of Reims, where police raids took place last night.
At around 10.40pm yesterday armed police had blocked off areas of the neighbourhood and were seen entering the block of flats.
Said is believed to have lived with his partner and two children. Forensics officers were seen searching the apartment today, and the front door has been boarded up.
It is thought that both Said and Cherif may have been in Syria as recently as last year, while witnesses to yesterday's massacre said the brothers shouted they were from Al Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula, a group operating out of Yemen.
Intelligence officers have been told the brothers attended jihadi training camps in Yemen overseen by Al Qaeda - one is believed to have made two visits, stopping initially in the capital Sanaa.
They are said to be checking whether he went there to study.Al Qaeda operates several remote training camps in the east of Yemen that have been the target of US-led drone attacks and where trainers have taught Europeans, including Britons and French nationals.
Detectives are trying to confirm the information and seeking to check whether the brothers had received military training in Algeria with militant groups.
Another image taken from the Facebook page under Said Kouachi's name shows a pile of bullets as other users have been posing death threats and abuse on his wall
'God is great': Among the posts which appear on the profile is this news article detailing a successful ISIS attack on Kobane, which was put up with the caption Allahou akbar - meaning God is great
Support: Another news report posted is this one of a man taking his sons to fight with ISIS in Syria, this time captioned with Subhan'Allah which means 'God is glorious'
If the Yemen link is confirmed, it is likely the men were connected to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which the US President’s former counter-terror adviser once called ‘the most active operational franchise’ of Al Qaeda outside Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Chilling footage of the attackers firing a burst of shots on the run suggests they were well-trained.
At least two had Kalashnikov assault rifles, and one a rocket-propelled grenade. They wore paramilitary-style black uniforms and hoods.
Quote:
You say to the media, it was Al Qaeda in Yemen
>What gunmen are claimed to have said inside office
|
Former US lieutenant-colonel Tony Shaffer, who was CIA-trained and worked with special forces in Afghanistan, said:
‘They were very professional, very organised. It was well-timed.
'You can’t pull off something like this without military training. Whoever they were, they were highly trained in military tactics.’
One man lost a shoe as he fled, but quickly picked it up, suggesting to anti-terror experts that his DNA might be on their ‘radar’.
Witnesses said they spoke perfect French without accents and their rapid getaway argued an intimate knowledge of the French capital.
Precise: The bullet groupings on this car windscreen, with nine rounds grouped into just a few inches of space to the left hand side, show the attackers were well trained with their weapons
Ambulances gathered in the street outside the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo's office in Paris
Masked gunmen shouting 'Allahu Akbar' stormed the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo
Police are studying CCTV taken in recent days around the magazine’s office, as they believe the cell must have carried out reconnaissance – and possibly operated with inside information, knowing there was an editorial meeting yesterday.
Last night, as the killers were frantically hunted, there were urgent questions over why the brothers were not being more closely monitored, and how they had been able to leave the country and travel to the Middle East.
A police source close to the manhunt said:
‘The enquiry is now focusing on the Belgium border region of France. Three men are being pursued.’
Like Britain, until yesterday France believed its greatest threat was posed by returning IS fighters.
In recent months, Islamic State has taken the title of most feared terror group from Al Qaeda – which has threatened major attacks against the West as a result.
Terrifying sounds of gunshots from rooftop above Paris offices;
French forensic experts and police officers examine evidence outside the office of the satirical newspaper
The gunman killed at least 12 people, including the paper's editor and a cartoonist, before escaping in a car
French intelligence believes more than 1,000 nationals and another 500 North Africans with links to France are currently with militants in Iraq and Syria.
There are at least five IS fighting units made up of French and Belgian nationals.
AQAP was established in 2003 in Saudi Arabia, but was forced to flee to Yemen, where a weak state allowed it to grow to 400 troops.
It was implicated in the 2009 underwear bomb plot, in which Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was discovered on a Detroit-bound plane trying to detonate liquid explosives in his underpants.
According to Stanford University, the group is currently led by the Yemeni Nasser al-Wuhayshi, an apprentice of Osama Bin Laden.
A bullet impact is seen in a window of a building next to the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo's office
French President Francois Hollande, third right front, flanked with security forces arrives outside the office
RELATED:
Massacre Suspect Had Been Jailed for Islamist Gang Role
The Telegraph, UK, 8 Jan 2015
Cherif Kouachi, left, and brother Said
One of the Paris massacre suspects is a gangster who has previously been jailed for his role in a group that incited young people to join Islamist movements
Cherif Kouachi, 32, from Paris, is wanted along with Said, 34, his brother, for allegedly carrying out the attack on the
Charlie Hebdo offices.
The family is of Algerian origin
An 18-year-old, Hamyd Mourad, from eastern France, is wanted for allegedly acting as their driver
Before an Extremist Cherif Kouachi Wanted to be a Rapper
UPDATE:
Paris Charlie Hebdo Attack:
Second Paris shooting kills policewoman after three suspect al-Qaeda gunmen attack offices of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine, with 12 dead
The Telegraph, UK, 8 Jan 2015
Policewoman killed in second Paris shooting
• Three suspects named; one, Hamyd Mourad, hands himself in
• Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi remain at large
• Seven 'friends and associates' of suspects arrested
• France’s worst terrorist attack in a generation leaves 12 dead
• World newspaper front pages on Charlie Hebdo attack, in pics
• Gunmen storm Charlie Hebdo magazine office, in pictures
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14.27, 08 Jan 2015 Paris; Two armed men have been reportedly spotted in the woods outside Villers-Cotterets.
Our photographer Heathcliffe O'Malley, who is on the N2 outside of Paris, near the village of Longpont, has just spoken to a man who was warned to leave a local restaurant "because the police were coming".
The restaurant owner said that he had been told "two armed men are in the woods".
Police are gathering in what looks like a farmhouse, outside the village......
Je suis CHARLIE -- I am CHARLIE
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