French Police Name Three Suspects in Terror Attack
French police officials have identified three men as suspects in a deadly attack against newspaper offices that killed 12 people and shook the nation on Wednesday.
Two officials named the suspects as French brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, and 18-year-old Hamyd Mourad.
Around noon, three masked men armed with AK-47 automatic weapons stormed the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had just published a cartoon mocking the leader of the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.
Those who witnessed the incident said they heard the terrorists shouting "Allahu Akbar!" in Arabic ("God is greatest!") as they entered the building.
"It was if we were in a state of war," one witness said.
Ten magazine staffers and two police officers were killed in Wednesdays terror attack, the deadliest in France in more than two decades.
Will this attack lead France and Europe to stand up against radical Islam? Dan Kochis, with The Heritage Foundation, explains more following Gary Lane's report.
What motivated this attack? CBN's Dale Hurd, who has covered the growth of radical Islam in France and across Europe, explains how strong it is Paris.
It wasn't the first time Islamic terrorists attacked the Charlie Hebdo offices. In 2011, the building was firebombed after the magazine featured a caricature of Islams Prophet Mohammed on one of its covers.
Editor Stephane Charbonnier was killed in Wednesday's attack. In 2012, he insisted he would not back off from doing Islamic satire.
"We can't live in a country without freedom of speech, he said at the time. "I prefer to die than to live like a rat."
French President Francois Hollande rushed to the scene shortly after the attack and described it as "an act of exceptional barbarity." He promised to bring those responsible to justice.
It isn't known at this time if the perpetrators have any connection to the Islamic State. If so, they may have also been motivated by the magazine's recent satirical depiction of the Islamic State caliph.
Author Joel Rosenberg just released a new book The Third Target, a fictional account about ISIS operatives obtaining and unleashing chemical weapons.
"It's clearly radical Islamic terrorism, he said of the Paris attack. The question is whether it's ISIS itself."
He said Western governments need to respond more aggressively to the growing danger of radical Islam.
Why the lack of serious response?
"Part of it is exhaustion," Rosenberg explained. "Part of these leaders are just 'Listen, we've been dealing with this since 2001' and they feel tired. They feel like we've got to move on. But that's a complacency; that's a misreading of the danger."
While U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stopped short of labeling the Paris attack Islamic terror, he called it "horrific" and "murderous." He said the American people are standing with the French at this time.
"We stand with you in solidarity and in commitment both to the cause of confronting extremism, and in the cause which the extremists fear so much--and which has always united our two countries: freedom," Kerry said.
President Barack Obama pledged to assist the French in bringing the terrorists to justice.
Meanwhile, Rosenberg suggested the Paris attack may be a precursor of a violent year ahead.
"I'm very concerned about the lack of leadership coming from the White House," Rosenberg said.
He warned that "2015 could be a very dangerous, and possibly a deadly year both in the Middle East, Europe, and possibly here in the United States."
