velopments here live on cnn. thanks for watching. my colleague wolf blitzer starts right after this break. hello. i'm wolf blitzer. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. we start with breaking news this hour. an attack on freedom of speech. it happened in paris as gunmen launched a terror attack a brutal one, on a french magazine. 12 people are now confirmed killed in the attack ten journalists, two police officers. 11 others injured. the target was a french satire magazine called "charlie hebdo" that in the past printed cartoons on its cover depicting the prophet muhammad. some of the shooting was caught on tape by eyewitnesses. watch and listen.

>> [ speaking foreign language ]. gazine office. what you didn't see was the point-blank execution of a police officer who was wounded and lying on the ground with his hands up. our producers on the ground have listened to the tapes and they heard the gunmen say, "charlie hebdo" is dead a reference to the name of the magazine. the gunmen also said they had avenged the prophet muhammad and they were also heard saying

allah al akbar or "god is great." >> [ speaking foreign language ]. >> a nationwide manhunt in france now under way for the two gunmen and a third person also involved in the attack. a little while ago, we heard this from president obama. >> the fact that this was in fact on journalists, it's an attack on our free press, also underscores that these terrorists fear freedom of speech and freedom of the press. but the one thing i'm confident about is that the values that we share with the french people our universal belief in the freedom of expression is

something that can't be silenced because of the senseless attack on freedom. so our counterterrorism cooperation with france is excellent. we will provide them with every bit of assistance that we can going forward. it's important for us to make sure that we recognize those kinds of attacks can happen anywhere in the world. >> france's interior minister says at least two gunmen right now are on the loose and that police are doing everything they can to track down the terrorists. let's go to paris. atika shubert is standing by. first of all, atika, what if anything do we know about these gunmen? >> reporter: well all we know at this point is exactly what you've seen on those videos. it appears that two of the gunmen went into the offices of

"charlie hebdo," opened fire apparently targeting those cartoonists. it does appear there was a third person involved as well, possibly driving the getaway car. but we are waiting for confirmation on those details from french authorities. what we know is that they got into a black citroen. you can see it in some of that video. they then went to the 19th mall north of here they ditched the car and hijacked another vehicle. this is why police are now asking for witnesses to come forward to give them as much detail as possible so they can try and track down these men, figure out who they are and where they went. where i am now is just a short distance from the scene of the attack. this is the closest police will let us go. over there is where forensic police are now combing through the scene, looking for any clues that might help them to locate -- to tell them exactly who these gunmen were and where they may be headed. >> right in the heart of paris. what about the level of security

at that buildings, atika? >> reporter: we're seeing a very high level of security. i should point out that "charlie hebdo" has been on the target list for al qaeda and other islamist groups for some time. very controversial because they published satirical pictures of the prophet muhammad. they were fire-bombed in 2011. they were on al qaeda's most wanted list. they'd been threatened by isis. so this is a group that was known to have threats against them. for that reason they had a number of police and security at the building usually at all hours. so there has already been heightened security for the organization. but now a heightened security alert for the entire city and country. in fact it's been put up to its highest level. there's extra security around train stations airports but also places of worships schools closed a bit early today. so there's definitely a nervousness, especially knowing those gunmen are still on the loose. >> at least two, maybe three. and there could have been other

accomplices if this was a broader cell. there's a massive manhunt under way in france right now. atika, we'll get back to you. jim sciutto is our chief national security correspondent. he's here with me. you're getting new information? >> despite the fact that this group, this publication had been generally threatened in the past i'm told by a senior u.s. official that there was no specific threat of warning of this attack in paris. quoting from the senior u.s. intelligence official while it is true that "charlie hebdo" has been the subject of extremist threats over the past several years, none have been recent nor can they be immediately linked to this attack. so, again, a u.s. counterterrorism official saying that there was no specific credible warning that this attack was going to come today despite the fact that it had been listed in the most recent edition of "inspire" magazine put out by aqap. this u.s. official goes on to say, we are working with the international community and our foreign partners in identifying the perpetrators as well as

monitoring of any threat that might warn of a subsequent attack. but u.s. counterterrorism officials say there was no warning -- >> no specific warning in the past few days or even weeks. but over the years, there have been warnings to this satirical magazine? >> there have been threats made to this magazine. but the u.s. counterterrorism official makes the point that none were recent and none tied to the specific day. >> there was a fire-bomb against this magazine back in 2011. >> true. they knew there was danger to this organization paris police had at times posted police presence out there. but you know how intelligence works. you have a lot of general threats. oftentimes you don't have specific and credible threats. >> what's curious in this particular case that police presence in front of the magazine that was gone over the past few weeks. and maybe that led these terrorists to think this is a good time to go ahead and attack. >> looking into that right now. >> jim, stick around.

let's get more now on this terror attack. the target what comes next. i'm joined by our global affairs analyst, bobby go ghosh and christiane amanpour our cnn military analyst, retired general mark hertling. this is startling but shouldn't be surprising given some of the threats and the actual attacks against this magazine over the years. >> yes, indeed. and the publisher of the magazine famously said he'd rather die than live like a rat. when he said that he was very conscious that that was a possibility, that he was under this attack. he personally was put on a al qaeda hit list on a wanted list by al qaeda in that magazine that jim sciutto was referring to "inspire" magazine, in 2013. so yes, this magazine was in

the crosshairs and its publisher particularly was -- had a target on his back for a long time. >> the editor as you point out, stefan was killed. wolinski cabu were killed. christiane, you've spoken with those cartoonists over the years. what did they say to you? >> after the provocative cover they had, i spoke with them which led to them being fire-bombed and the increased police presence around them. i asked them about the environment we find ourselves in right now, how difficult tostit is. how did they feel about constantly satireizing the very person of the prophet in these

times? and he said our job is not to insult or shock but we are poking fun with satirizing the absurd ends to which the extremists and violent militants go to. bobby quoted one of the editor's sayings. here is what he also said. he told a newspaper, i don't feel as if i'm killing someone with a pen. i'm not putting lives at risk. where activists need a pretext to justify their violence, they always find it. that really does have to be taken into account. there are all sorts of conflicting claims of responsibility or semi-claims and half claims. it is obviously too early to tell. but this group, "charlie hebdo," were as they said pursuing a long and venerable french tradition over the last several hundred years of poking fun at

power, at the absurdity of extremism and this is what they were doing despite the risk to themselves. >> and they obviously -- ten of those people who worked at the magazine ten journalists, are now confirmed dead, two police officers as well. general hertling you've had a chance to study the video. the operations pretty closely. looked like these terrorists were specifically trained for a mission and they wanted to escape with their lives. this was not a suicide attack. >> we don't know, wolf. what i will tell you, any military person that views these tapes will point out some very specific things which are a little bit troubling. first of all the uniform. it's reported that they're all wearing black. but what hit me was they seem to be bulky. that tells me underneath their black coats, they probably either have body armor or a suicide vest. they also have what's called a three-point or two-point sling over at least one of the gunmen. that tells me they know how to

use weapons. they're going single shot not doing the typical jihadi pray and spray technique where they shoot as many rounds as they can. but they have that weapon close to their body in that sling. and they have the vest with the ammunition perhaps even grenades inside those vests, too. and they're precise marksmen. you see that police car with that very tight shot group of bullets through the window. that tells me there are no spraying going on but this was single shots to kill that police officer in the car itself or to at least hit them. the next thing you see is what we in the military call buddy drills. fire and maneuver. hiding behind a wall and then moving forward while the other person covers them. all of that takes a lot of training with buddy teams and a lot of techniques that you have to focus a lot of attention on. the reconnaissance of the site this is noon in paris and you look at that street and there's no car in it. anybody that's been in paris

knows that traffic is everywhere. and so they must have reconned this street reconned the building known when the editorial staff was going to meet and based their operation on that. and the other thing is their speed, the way they went in and out of the cars how they went after the police officers and killed them after they wounded them. the precise targeting of what they were going after. and then the last thing i'd say that we haven't seen yet, and that is the jihadist filming of this event. usually when a terrorist strike occurs you're going to have someone filming it to use on social networking. i wouldn't doubt that we might see a filming of this attack later on. >> we haven't heard an official claim of responsibility or credit as they like to say, at least not yet from any of these various terror organizations. i want all of you to stand by. we have much more on the paris

terror attack coming up including much more on the offices of this french publication, this magazine "charlie hebdo." they've been targeted by extremists now for some time. one time the editor was put on al qaeda's most wanted list for crimes against islam. also the united states was quick to condemn the attacks, quick to respond by beefing up security right here in the united states. we're going to update you on what's going on lots more on this developing breaking news story. we'll be right back. ring ring! progresso! i can't believe i'm eating bacon and rich creamy cheese before my sister's wedding well it's only 100 calories, so you'll be ready for that dress uh-huh... you don't love the dress? i love my sister... 40 flavors. 100 calories or less. (son) oh no... can you fix it, dad? yeah, i can fix that. (dad) i wanted a car that could handle anything.

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let's get back to the breaking news. the deadly terror attack in paris. gunmen attacked the offices of the magazine "charlie hebdo," killing ten journalists and two police officers. i'm joined once again by cnn global affairs analyst bobby ghosh, our chief international correspondent christiane amanpour joining us from london and our cnn military analyst, retired lieutenant general mark hertling. christiane the reaction in europe not on in france but in britain, germany, elsewhere in europe, must be devastating given the open boerdzrders, if you will that folks that have an eu passport can mull around as easily as possible. >> well, there's that.

but the reaction also is we've all felt this over the last several years. in england, you remember in 2005 i think it was, or 2007 we had a massive attack on the public transportation system. and that is when suicide bombers actually went and detonated backpack-laden suicide belts and killed more than 50 people on the underground and on buses. we remember madrid in 2004 when they did something similar on the trains there. we remember these attacks going on in many parts of europe. even now, there are all sorts of cross-currents and very difficult situations going on. in germany, for instance angela merkel has had to speak out against this rise in islamophobia in germany. and actually there there's been a press-led backlash. people have come out to protest

this anti-islamic insurgency. and in france tonight, we've seen in the center of paris, hundreds if not thousands of people gathering with the moniker, we are all "charlie hebdo" today. so this is something that is really rocking europe. we've had prime minister cameron with angela merkel in london today. they were going to talk about eu reform. now they've turned to this terrible situation in paris and said they stand not just with the french, not just with the fight against terrorism but with the defense of the freedom of the press. and i think we should really, really make no mistake about it. this was a deliberate attack on freedom of speech freedom of expression and the freedom to satirize even in some corners where some people might hold this to be terribly offensive. >> and, bobby, if you believe the eyewitnesses they say they

heard at least one of these terrorists shout in french we have avenged the prophet. and then you heard a few times, at least if you believe these eyewitnesses the shouts of allahu akbar, god is great. >> many muslims, the majority of muslims will probably retort that what these people have done have actually blackened the name of the prophet and of their faith by claiming to kill innocent people in his name. but, yeah i think all the fingers are pointing in the direction of some radical islamist group, whether they were local or whether they were influenced at least from outside the country, we're going to find out pretty soon, i think. one of the things that you know the nature of terrorism, is that

the group responsible will take responsibility for it. they will -- you don't conduct an operation like this and then simply give up what they would regard as the bragging rights. they may not give the names of the people who actually did it. but somebody pretty soon in a matter of days perhaps even hours, will be claiming responsibility for this attack. >> and the fact that they covered their face they were wearing masks, bobby, they clear lip don't want to be known. if they do release a video, i assume that video will have one of these terrorists talking with a mask on his face. >> yes. >> would that be a fair assumption? >> yeah we've seen that movie literally very very often over the past few years, wolf. that's very much the nature of these things. there will probably be a statement. there will be some pronouncements and exaggerated claims of what this thing was all about. but we really should judge these men by their actions rather than their pronouncements and the actions are plain to see.

>> i know there's a massive manhunt under way in france right now, maybe spilling over into other neighboring countries in europe as well. these guys once they take off their masks, they throw away the weapons that they had and they start mulling around how difficult will it be to find them? >> it's extremely difficult, wolf. i think we've seen that already with the transfer of the cars getting rid of the car they conducted the attack in getting another one. we don't know if they've transferred that one again, too. all part of a planned operation. what's critically important is all of our state departments have intelligence -- all of our embassies have intelligence teams within their country team, you know that. so they're quickly trying to gather information to share it with other u.s. facilities in europe while at the same time you have the nation of france attempting to share some of the information with the two other critical countries who are probably very interested in this. that's germany and italy. plus you have european command, military headquarters that's in brussels.

and they are trying to gather a lot of information through their different means. so there's a plethora of people trying to get intel right now and share it. and luckily our embassies and our military in europe are probably on high alert doing exactly some of those. >> we know there's a lot of closed circuit tv on the streets in paris and elsewhere in france and throughout europe. i'm sure people are going through those videotapes even as we speak looking for any clues, who might have been in that vehicle that escaped. guys, thanks very much. general hertling christiane amanpour bobby ghosh, thanks for your expertise. the attack in france is raising serious concerns here in the united states. still ahead, we're taking a closer look at how u.s. counterterrorism agencies are responding. much more on the breaking news right after this. sir, we're loaded and getting ready to go... ...we're going to need you on the runway. (vo) don't let

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we're following the paris terror attack. the breaking news coming out of

france. today here in washington president obama strongly condemned this terror attack in paris calling it evil and cowardly. he also vowed to help france bring those gunmen, the terrorists, to justice. the secretary of state of the united states john kerry who met with the president in the oval office earlier in the day reiterated that message in a statement he made at the state department. >> i would like to say directly to the people of paris and of all of france that each and every american stands with you today, not just in horror or in anger or in outrage for this vicious act of violence though 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.

>> and to underscore his personal solidarity with the people of france he later made a statement in french as well. meanwhile, the homeland security secretary of the united states jeh johnson, has been talking to our own dana bash up on capitol hill about this terror attack, the u.s. response. dana, what did you hear from the secretary? >> reporter: he was very sober, as you can imagine. but talked a lot about how this is indicative of how the nature of threats in the western democracies in particular are changing. listen to what he said. >> i do want to take the opportunity to stress what i believe to be the evolving nature of the terrorist threat that we potentially face here in our homeland and overseas. it is becoming a more and more complex terrorist threat. it is evolving in that there are

more affiliates' adherence to core terrorist organizations and lone wolf actors actors who may lurk within our society that could strike with little notice commit an act of violence because they have been inspired by things that they see on the internet social media, in literature without accepting a direct order from a command and control terrorist organization. so it is very important in my judgment that the united states government work closely with state and local law enforcement enforcement -- it's important that the public itself be involved in our homeland security efforts. >> mr. seshgcretary, are you considering raising the terror

threat level in this country? >> we continually put out bulletins to state and local law enforcement authorities, to state and local govlternments about what we are seeing in terms of homeland security threats. we do that on a routine basis. i'm sure we'll be doing more of that in the short term in the coming days. one other thing i want to say, i just had a very good meeting with some congressional leadership here. it's important that the department of homeland security be funded through an appropriations bill. we cannot continue through the course of the year to function on a continuing resolution. that poses real risk to the homeland. >> reporter: are you saying you're hampered -- that you're not in a position to keep this country safe from the kind of attack we saw in paris because you don't have appropriate budget? >> i'm saying that a continuing resolution is not the way to go

and that as long as we're operating on -- have real challenges in funding the things that need to be funded for homeland security across the spectrum, whether we're talking about the secret service, coast guard, border security funding pay increases for our people funding additional resources for homeland security that we cannot do. >> reporter: wolf let me just put in context that statement at the end there. the entire u.s. government was funded at the end of last year with new priorities except for one agency and that is the department of homeland security. republicans wouldn't allow that to be done for a long-term basis because they were trying to sort of hold their fire on how they want to retaliate against the president on his immigration executive order. so for that reason the funding for homeland security first of all, runs out in about two

months but also is based on priorities that are a couple of years old. that's why he said it is imperative not just that it is funded but that it is funded in a way that allows the department to address some new threats and do so by moving around money that they simply can't do right now because of what congress has done. >> we'll see what the new congress does in these coming weeks. they have to fund the department of homeland security. dana thanks very much. the secretary of homeland security jeh johnson, will be my guest later today in "the situation room." that's coming up later today. still ahead, the attack in france was coordinated and well planned. we're taking a closer look at the wide list of who could be behind it. stay with us. new information coming in. ♪ ♪ ♪

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welcome back to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. we're following the breaking news a terror attack in paris. ten journalists, two police officers murdered. three terrorists are believed to be at large, a massive manhunt is under way right now. our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr, is getting new information about how the u.s. is responding to this attack in paris. barbara, what are you learning? >> reporter: wolf first up the department of homeland security

saying that it will if needed raise any alert levels here in the united states. we're already seeing some reaction of course in new york city which generally moves very quickly to increase security in these types of situations. there's no information right now that indicates any specific immediate threat in the united states. but clearly security and intelligence officials, very concerned because the fact is at this hour they do not know who is responsible for this attack. there are several markers in this attack that concern them considerably. first, of course is that there were multiple attackers. we have generally seen lone wolf type attacks. we have seen suicide bombers, people who go in and know that they're going to die in these attacks. that is not what happened here. this is very different. you have multiple attackers going in preplanned very heavily armed, knowing exactly what they wanted to do and they had a getaway car. they had a getaway plan.

they had every intention of getting out of this alive and going on the run. and now of course french authorities urgently looking for them. and u.s. officials saying that is the top priority. everyone wants these people found before they can cross into european borders, before they can disappear even further. the u.s. scouring all the intelligence it has looking for any indicators about who may have been behind this. wolf? >> they're looking back u.s. intelligence french intelligence other intelligence agencies they're looking to see if they missed some tip that might have prevented this attack, right? >> reporter: that's exactly right. it's what you would expect them to do. they're going back through everything from communication intercepts cell phone calls, imagery, any intelligence reports that they might have had, any eavesdropping, looking at reports from the people that they generally watch. what we know is that there's

been huge concern in the united states intelligence services and the european counterparts about people going from these areas to iraq and to syria to fight and then coming back into europe potentially to launch attacks. so they've been keeping a very close eye on these so-called foreign fighters. we don't know at this point that these people today were foreign fighters. we need to be very clear. the information is sketchy to the point of being nonexistent about exactly who these people were. but this is one of the trails that the intelligence services around the world have been following in recent weeks and months who is out there, who's been going into iraq and syria? could these people have been loyal to isis to al qaeda, to al qaeda in yemen, the top tier bad actors in the world? could they have been self-radicalized inside france? these are all the questions. right now what u.s. officials

are saying is they have no intelligence current -- very recent intelligence if you will that indicates to them there was a specific threat against this magazine although it was well-known because of the magazine's reputation for very pointed satire that this magazine was a target. but they don't have anything recent. wolf? >> barbara, thanks very much. barbara working her sources over at the pentagon. still to come french police and the french government they're now working feverishly to try to find these terrorists as the country's security alert remains right now at its highest possible level.

let's get back to the breaking news. right now, a massive manhunt is under way in france for at least three terrorists who staged an attack this morning on the paris office of the satirical magazine "charlie hebdo." 12 people were killed, 11 others were wounded. some of them in critical condition right now. gunmen entered the office as they were having an editorial meeting, opened fire and killing

these people. the fbi director here in the united states james comey, just confirmed his agency is working with the french government to try to bring the killers to justice. joining us now from west newton massachusetts, cnn's national security analyst julia kiam and tom fuentes, also a former assistant director of the fbi. tom, i know there's a massive search under way in the paris area right now. but these three terrorist, we never saw their faces, at least we don't know what their faces look like. they could be anywhere by now, right? >> they could be here. the amount of time that's passed we don't have their face descriptions, they could have changed clothes, changed clothes, dumped the weapons. they're a flight away from the united states with european passport if they're french citizens and have a european passport, they can fly here without a visa. they can also cross into any other european country with no passport based on the agreement

that allows going from france to germany or belgium is like going from new york to pennsylvania or virginia. they could be on their way to sweden or denmark to finish off the cartoonists there that in the last five or ten years also drew what islam considered offensive cartoons. we had our own american home-grown jihad jane who in 2009 was trying to put together a team to go to sweden and hack to death with machetes and butcher knives one of the cartoonists that drew -- >> you're saying this manhunt that's in the paris area should be widened to go a lot bigger than just in france? >> it would have been from the beginning. the relationship precedes 9/11. a lot of americans aren't aware that the fbi worked with seven european countries including the french authorities and the authorities in united arab

emirates in dubai. all those subjects were arrested and later prosecuted because of our attack being so horrific here on 9/11 it didn't get any publicity here. so that working relationship has gone on for decades. >> julia, you used to work in the department of homeland security here in the united states. what are they doing? maybe worrying about copycats or other operations that could be in the planning stages not only in europe but here in the united states? >> yeah and they're also the border enforcement agency. the passport issue is a big deal. so the border components the transport security agency but you have the coast guard and border patrol are going to be on higher alert because of concerns about who's traveling here as well as as you said the copycats. local and state law enforcement agencies and first responders will also be on higher alert.

it's not really a technical term, on the watch outoutout. but i have to believe because of the nature of the attack the escape was as well-planned as the attack itself. that these guys do not want to be found at this stage and therefore are probably going to be hiding under the radar in europe. so this is not just a french manhunt. this is probably the largest european manhunt going on in history. >> i think you're probably right, juliette. i want our viewers to look at some dramatic video of the scene. it shows two masked gunmen spraying the streets with gunfire. we later see them getting into their getaway car and driving off. tom, let me start with you. you see these images. and we'll show it to our viewers once again right now. we can learn about their tactics, their m.o. maybe possibly a little bit about their background, right? >> right. as general hertling mentioned earlier, the fact that this does

look like people that may have had some military training. there's a degree of precision. but also we have bank robbery crews in this country that show about that much precision in doing a robbery and escaping and switching cars and having -- of course we've got more weapons than any other country in the world that are in the hands of the public. so you have the threat that there is military training. but not necessarily. >> what do you make, juliette -- there was a cartoon in this satirical magazine and a tweet went out making a little fun of the leader of isis, abu bakr al baghdadi. i don't know if it had noi connection any connection to today's attack. this wasn't just a random inspired attack. it was a well-coordinated operation. but the fact that they're making fun of abu bakr al baghdadi making fun of the prophet muhammad clearly there's an incentive for these extremists to go ahead and go after this kind of magazine. >> exactly.

i agree with you, wolf that an attack like this like we saw on september 11th they are so well prepared and so targeted. the terrorists are setting the calendar not some facebook post or publication. this date was chosen possibly because this is when all the editors were going to be together. so it had mass casualty effect. we don't know if it's isis or al qaeda or some other entity. and that's why we need to catch them. that's why the manhunt is so important. but you are right that these attacks on the messenger, that's exactly what it is the media attacks are to amplify not only the terrorists' victimizing of everyone or terrorizing everyone, it's also to kill the messenger. and that's very scary for journalists. it is very scary for anyone in the media business because it has that amplifying effect that

you really don't see in a lot of other terrorist attacks. i will say, this was an assassination that caused terror. this was so targeted so focused on who they were getting. so in that way, we are in a different stage. this is not either 9/11 which is big but in some ways anonymous, nor is it the sort of lone wolf whoever they can get walking down the street. this is a new type of attack and that's why we're all sort of taking it seriously. >> taking it very seriously. juliette and tom, thank you very much. in the minutes and hours following the shooting social media trends started growing, one of which a particular hashtag. support for the paper coming in from around the world. we'll update you on what's going on. much more right after this. you're driving along, having a perfectly nice day, when out of nowhere a pick-up truck slams into your brand new car.

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among the latest images coming out of paris, grim faced citizens holding signs. it translates into "i am

charlie." they show their resolve that they will not let terrorism intimidate free thought. ten employees of the magazine two police officers and the gunman are still on the loose. support for the victims also pouring in from around the world in the moments right after the attack the hashtag we just mentioned, i am charlie was trending on twitter. erin what are you seeing on social media? what are people saying? >> wolf we're seeing many world leaders who have gone online to express their condemnation of this terrorist attack. let me go through some of the examples of the tweets we've been seeing. from the vice president of the european union who tweeted, this is an attack on all of us. on our fundamental values on the freedoms eu societies are built on. we also heard from david cameron who called the murders sickening saying we stand with the french

people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press. we've also heard from the canadian prime minister stephen harper with canada experiencing their own terror attack last year saying he's horrified by the barbaric attacks in france. our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the families and also many on twitter saying they don't agree with the satire that this magazine often published but saying they stand up for freedom of speech with one twitter follower quoting the french writer saying i do not agree with what you have to say but i'll defend to the death your right to say it. we're also hearing from members of the muslim community quick to draw a distinction between these attackers and rest of the muslim world saying as a muslim i

refuse to apologize for this terrorist attack but as a muslim i demand justice for the victims. so outrage, condemnation and calls for justice online right now, wolf. >> certainly is. it's escalating even as we speak. erin thanks very much. the french magazine charlie hebdo no stranger to controversy. we'll take a closer look at what made this magazine so controversial. that's coming up next. hello... i'm an idaho potato farmer and our big idaho potato truck is still missing. so my buddy here is going to help me find it. here we go. woo who, woah, woah, woah. it's out there somewhere spreading the word about americas favorite potatoes: heart healthy idaho potatoes and the american heart association's go red for women campaign. if you see it i hope you'll let us know.

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the french magazine "charlie hebdo" where 12 people were killed in a terror attack has a long history of provoking outrage. the magazine and its staff have endured threats and lawsuits for nearly a decade start. in 2011 the magazine office was firebombed after the publication

named the prophet as editor in chief for its next issue. nobody was injured at the time but the incident was the first time the magazine was physically attacked. the editor who was among those killed in today's attack fueled more anger after posing amid damage with a cover depicting the prophet making facetious comment. there was a series of cartoons depicting the prophet again sparking more protests around the world. police were stationed in front of the magazine's headquarters to try to keep the peace. in 2013 the editor was placed under police protection after al qaeda placed him on their most wanted list for crimes against islam. even placing a price on his head. we should note that islam is not alone in being singled out by the magazine. the magazine prides itself on being an equal opportunity offender as published provocative cartoons features popes, world leaders, all religions going after

christians jews muslims and even atheists. that's it for me. i'll be back at 5:00 eastern in "the situation room." for our international viewers, "amanpour" is coming up next. for viewers in north america, "newsroom" with brooke baldwin starts right now. all right, wolf. thank you so much. great to be with you on this wednesday. i'm brooke baldwin. you're watching cnn's special live coverage of the terror attack in france. this is what we know right now. three terrorists are on the loose and 12 people are dead after a massacre at the offices of a controversial magazine. right now, we are watching crowds. look at all these people. in paris growing in size larger and larger. peaceful protests in support of free speech. some people as you see here holding up pens. all of this as we wait for french president to give an

update on this massive manhunt. we'll take that live as soon as we see the president take to the podium. let me back up. before vanishing today, at least two of these men dressed head to toe in black burst into the offices of a weekly satirical -- here's the president. >> translator: this shooting of extreme violence killed 12 people and wounded several others. people of great talent people who are very talented