Paris Remembers Victims on First Anniversary of Islamic State Attacks

France marked the first anniversary of the terror attacks that claimed the lives of 130 people last November, as French President François Hollande joined survivors and families of the fallen at all six of the places targeted by Islamic State.

Thousands of people gathered across the French capital on Sunday to hear the reading of the names of those who were killed when a group of terrorists ripped through the city on Nov. 13 last year.

While most of the deaths happened in the Bataclan nightclub (89) there were coordinated attacks at a soccer game with the French President attending and on open street restaurants. The seven attackers, divided into 3 teams to disrupt any response by the authorities to a single location. All of the attackers either detonated the bomb vests or were killed by responders in the nightclub.

In typical ISIS/ISIL fashion, the planner of the attack did not directly participate and was killed in a raid in a Paris suburb. Others were caught in a Brussels Islamic neighborhood.

Some further followup that applies to our own domestic politics.

President Obama had stated the previous day, November 12th, that ISIS had been 'contained' to the areas of Syria and Iraq where it was currently fighting. After the attack, he spoke at a press briefing to support the French People and Government but declined to echo the French in assigning blame to ISIS.

On the next day, November 14th, there was an international expression of sympathy in displaying national monuments in the colors of the French Tri-color (Blue-White-Red) from Sydney to San Francisco. Notable in absence was the US White House that, just months previous (June), displayed the Rainbow Colors to celebrate the Supreme Court striking down the Defense of Marriage Act.

Another followup with our own domestic terror attack just 19 days later!

On 2 December, 2015, in San Bernardino, CA, at a civic health facility training fair and holiday party, a husband and his immigrant wife attacked his co-workers with semi-automatic rifles and autoloader pistols. Syed Rizwan Farook, a US-born citizen and his Pakistani-born, Saudi Arabia resident wife Tashfeen Malik, in the space of 5 minutes, killed 14 and injured 22 at the party before fleeing. A chilling fact is that many of these same co-workers held a baby shower for the couple even while the couple were already planning the massacre. Before leaving for the attack, the then 6 month old baby daughter was left with the husband's mother.

After local police tracked them to their home, they fled by car until they were stopped and died while exchanging fire with the police. In the aftermath and investigation led by the FBI, it was decided that the couple met on the internet while the husband, Syed Rizwan was already researching radical Islamic teachings. After he went to Saudi Arabia and married Tashfeen Malik in 2014, they returned to the US and his job in San Bernardino. The FBI Director James Comey testified that they were deep into jihadism and to martyrdom from before their marriage.

While ISIS/ISIL praised their actions and claimed them as both 'supporters' and as 'soldiers of the caliphate', the US Government declared them to be 'self-radicalized'. Another note for the record was that the rifles used were illegally given to the couple by Enrique Marquez Jr., a relative by marriage of Syed.

One more note from the lately concluded election campaign which features Hillary's Campaign Chairman, John Podesta and was revealed in the Wikileaks dump. Upon discovering the name (and surmising the religion) of Syed, Podesta emailed "Better if a guy named Sayeed Farouk [sic] was reporting that a guy named Christopher Hayes was the shooter."

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