Skip to main content

tv   The Cycle  MSNBC  January 7, 2015 12:00pm-1:01pm PST

12:00 pm
can to help them bring to justice the perpetrators of the atrocity that happened in paris. >> what has happened in paris is an appalling terrorist outrage. we must never allow the values that we hold dear of democracy, of freedom of speech to be damaged by these terrorists. we must stand against what they have done. >> i'm ari melber joined by krystal ball and toure. a massive manhunt continues all across france. america's oldest ally. two police officers and ten journalists are now dead murdered in this morning's terror attack on the headquarters of the satirical magazine charlie hebdo, known for controversial cartoons of political and religious leaders, including prophet muhammad. the three terrorists are on the run as france raises its terror
12:01 pm
alert to the highest level. this extremely grave barbaric action is also an attack against democracy and the freedom of the press. video from the scene shows a professional planned attack and the brutality is extreme. at one point one gunman approaches a fallen officer and executes him point blank. so far top u.s. counterterror officials say they have no confirmation who is behind this attack the deadly inside france in two decades. now, this hour we have the developments covered from all angles. we will be on the ground in paris. we'll talk to experts who hunt down these kind of terrorists. we'll examine what today's attack means for the international attack against terror and we're gathering new reactions from the white house and capitol hill. so, for this busy hour we begin with nbc's cassandra leading our coverage from paris where it is now 9 p.m. what can you tell us about what you're seeing there on the ground and this ongoing manhunt? >> reporter: well, ari, there's
12:02 pm
still very heavy police presence here in the neighborhood. we're not far from the batiste. forensic teams are still at the scene. we've seen them remove some items from the building but i'm not really clear what. the manhunt, however, is under way. french president francois hollande said tomorrow will be a national day of mourning in france. flags will be lowered at half-staff. these perpetrators will be hunted down and severely punished. >> thank you for that report from paris. we're going to turn now directly to nbc news justice correspondent pete williams who's been covering this story from the very beginning. good day to you, pete. what can you tell us at this hour? >> arry, ryari, you put your finger on it. they don't know who did this because the people who did it have not been captured or otherwise identified. there is no strong indication of what organization, if any, was behind it. some witnesses have said the gunmen claimed they were al qaeda. people from the isis terror group have claimed credit. but there's no way to verify any of that so they still don't
12:03 pm
know who or what is behind that. who these people were how long they planned it whether they had help and all those other questions. there doesn't appear at this point, based on what little is known about this to be any connection to any -- anything in the u.s. no -- none of the checks they've done on previous intel have indicated any connection or any indication that this was a planned attack. there's no plan to raise the terror threat level in the u.s. because there's no indication of any credible threat to attack the u.s. there's been some increase in security on the street in new york around diplomatic facilities. that's a precaution new york city police decided to take on their own. on the other hand, there's no noticeable increase in security here in washington at any of the french diplomatic outposts here. not the embassy, not the ambassador's residence. so at some point homeland security will probably put out what it usually does after an
12:04 pm
event like this. remind the nation's law enforcement agencies of what has happened here, urge them to keep a close eye. at this point, the theory is that this was an attack against this target because of its -- what it's written and said about the prophet muhammad and about islam and about islamic jihadist leaders, so there doesn't appear to be anything beyond that at this point, based on what they know ari. >> pete n your expertise, how do u.s. officials evaluate that kind of claim from isis? >> they just have no way to know whether it's accurate or not. these claims are being made on websites where known isis officials have posted things in the past. but they were posted of course after the shootings. so they don't seem to give us inside information that anybody watching news reports wouldn't know, so it's simply impossible to verify whether they're accurate or just people saying
12:05 pm
they support what happened. >> pete williams reporting from washington, thank you very much. president obama just landing in detroit for a planned economic address. now, before boarding air force one, he spoke about assisting the response to this attack. at the white house, the president advisers have been huddling since early this morning. nbc's kristin welker is on the north lawn. what can you tell us? >> reporter: intelligence national security officials have been in contact with their counterparts in france throughout the day. as pete just said at this point in time, it's too early to know who is specifically behind this attack. but they point out that isis al qaeda, have tried to recruit sympathizers to their cause. now, president obama, secretary of state john kerry condemned the attack in the strongest possible terms. they've offered the full support of the united states to france as it continues this investigation to try to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. here's a little bit of what white house press secretary josh earnest had to say earlier today. take a listen. >> this is a terrible act of violence and one we condemn in the strongest possible terms. what i can tell you is that the
12:06 pm
french have been stalwart allies as we have undertaken a strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy isil. there are french pilots flying alongside american pilots. we're working very closely with them on this effort. that also includes the effort to combat foreign fighters. you'll recall the president at the u.n. jejgeneral assembly meeting this fall chaired a uns security council meeting where they talked about the need to coordinate internationally, to confront and combat foreign fighters. our allies in france have been very cooperative in that effort very supportive in that effort. we'll continue to work closely with them on it. i can tell you -- one last thing i'll tell you is throughout this campaign, the french people have shown tremendous bravery and courage as we've -- as the world -- the international community has confronted the threat from isil. we know they will not be cowed by this terrible act of violence. >> reporter: prime minister
12:07 pm
david cameron tweeting earlier today, we stand with the french people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press. he made similar comments publicly standing next to german chancellor angela merkel who said earlier today that the shooting is not only an attack on french citizens but on freedoms of the press and free speech. vladimir putin of russia said putin resolutely condemns terrorism after paris -- after the paris newspaper attack. so, strong reaction really from the united states and its allies across europe. president obama, as you pointed out, just landed in detroit. he is embarking on a three-day, three-state tour. he'll be talking about the economy, previewing his state of the union address. but clearly now, ari, the calculation has changed to some extent and this terrorist attack in france will undoubtedly be a large part of his conversation behind the scenes as he continues to get brief on the investigation. back to you. >> kristin welker, thank you very much. joining us now we turn to tom sanderson, co-director of transnational threats at center for strategic and international
12:08 pm
studies. hello to you. >> hello. >> let's start with a very basic way to think about what's happened here. the concerns and sometimes murderous, criminal behavior related to the depiction of the prophet muhammad is a very old issue and an old problem and an old problem in the region, in europe. isis is relatively new. is this more about the new problem of isis or is this more about an old long-standing religious issue? >> well i think there's certainly some overlap here. it looks like these fighters terrorists, directly targeted this newspaper in paris, but they did it in the context of a broader battle, in the middle east shia but also against a coalition that includes the french, that includes the americans, is led by the americans. and we have to recall that the isis spokesman said in
12:09 pm
september, he called on muslims to attack americans and europeans, especially the french when he made that call. this is not a surprise. i think have you a lot of overlap here between those who are fighting alongside isis or al nusra who are targeting french as part of the broader worldwide coalition of counterterrorism forces and those who see the denigration of prophet muhammad by newspapers in denmark, in norway in france, so it's difficult to separate them. >> tom, this is josh. what do you make of the tactics used by the attackers here? particularly this was a small arms attack. it was not a bombing. does that tell us anything about who they may have been, where they may have trained? >> sure. one thing we've been following very closely for a couple of years now is the foreign fighter phenomenon which is nothing new. we feared this issue back during the u.s. war in iraq. now, france has upwards of 1,000
12:10 pm
fighters, people who are in syria and iraq fighting. i'd also point out that these guys as you have carried out this attack in a skillful and steady manner. they brought heavy weapons with them, which indicates they are likely returning fighters or fighters who had experience on some of battlefield. this could be mali could be algeria, it could be libya it could be syria. even if they did not fight in those places they certainly had some degree of training i believe, in some place around the world where they actually became very comfortable with the use of these weapons. and the fact they had a well-planned operation with different cars indicates there's some resources behind these individuals. >> given all that it sounds like this is beyond the parisian police force and into the french military to have to deal with this threat right now. so we have three professional seeming killers on the loose in paris, highly trained, very dangerous individuals. two questions.
12:11 pm
how do you find three such people in a very large city and how do you protect the rest of the city without just shutting it down? >> sure. the french have superb law enforcement and intelligence capability. of course, this demonstrates you can get attacks conducted in anyplace. nonetheless, the french have very, very good networks. among their police force, they draw from populations in the cities who are second and third generation nationals from north africa, in the middle east who have settled in europe settled in paris. they have very very good insight as to what's going on. they have their finger on the pulse. i think they will eventually within days get some indication of who these people are and where they are. now, it may go beyond what the parisian police are capable of handling but the french have higher capabilities than that and they will bring those to bear against these individuals. >> tom as you know, charlie hebdo's chief editor had previously been listed on an al
12:12 pm
qaeda hit list of sorts in their "inspire "magazine. does that detail tell you anything or do you read anything into that detail in terms of the nature of this attack? >> well, that could then indicate that aqap al qaeda in arare yan peninsula could have carried out the attack if he was listed, as you indicate inside inspire magazine which is their magazine down in yemen. so, we know from past foiled attacks as well as successful attacks that aqap has been a very expeditionary affiliate or arm of al qaeda's broader global network. they've been able to get an individual abu mutallab on a flight. they are very good at getting people overseas to conduct attacks. they have very good networks. that's an indicator they are potentially behind this. >> tom sanderson, thank you very much. we have all the angles of this developing story covered for you today. the plot, a military-style
12:13 pm
assault. the place, france. all the political implication at here at home and around the world as our breaking cycle coverage continues after a break. [cheering] everything okay? we're here because you're about to have a heart attack. pete's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. colourists know roots take colour one way, and previously coloured hair another. new vidal sassoon salonist. first, brush roots then, blend through lengths.
12:14 pm
our most advanced system outside the salon. it's more than colour. it's a work of art. moderate to severe crohn's disease is tough but i've managed. except that managing my symptoms was all i was doing. and when i finally told my doctor he said humira is for adults like me who have tried other medications but still experience the symptoms of moderate to severe crohn's disease. and that in clinical studies the majority of patients on humira saw significant symptom relief. and many achieved remission. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection.
12:15 pm
ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible.
12:16 pm
the search for a trio of terrorists continues in france tonight, hours after that lunchtime attack on the satirical magazine charlie hebdo. it has a long history of publishing provocative images. this isn't the first time it's been targeted for doing so. the magazine's building was fire-bombed in 2011 after it published a cartoon of the prophet muhammad. in this case it's pretty clear today it was an attack on the freedom of speech. for more on the motivation let's bring in evan coleman, nbc news
12:17 pm
terrorism expert. it seems like a trivial thing with these cartoons. why is it something that creates such a reaction. >> it's trivial to us, from a western perspective. if you look at isis and al qaeda propaganda in general, there's been a constant string and focus on this issue going back to 2006. every single al qaeda or isis faction you can think of even homegrown extremists, have come out very emphatically about this issue. they put it in the context of saying, look in germany you're not allowed to assume holocaust didn't exist. how can you say it's illegal to hey the holocaust didn't happen yut you're allowed to blasphemy muhammad. we don't equate those two things. in their mind they feel, if you ban one, you should ban both because it's insulting to everybody. they believe this is part of a conspiracy against islam. it's a conspiracy to defame the prophet of islam. they believe it's an issue of honor. in order to defend the honor of their faith, to defend the honor
12:18 pm
of the tenets of their belief system, they need to go out and punish the people that are making fun of them. and, you know again it's just charlie hebdo. there are several different newspapers in denmark and sweden that have been targeted. the cartoonist larks in sweden has been targeted. it's gotten to the point where isis put a bounty of millions of dollars on the head of one of these cartoonists. put out a bounty in cold. it's incredible to think it's that significant. yeah it's significant in the minds of loenl wolf extremists and significant in the minds of even senior al qaeda or isis leaders. >> you lived in france for a long time up. understand the french side and the terrorist side. so, someone who's at the office when the attack happened said they were speaking fluent french and they said they were from al qaeda. now, who knows whether or not that's true. but this is a -- if it is al qaeda or isis this is a strange target for a group of that size
12:19 pm
toment to go after, right? >> you look at aqap al qaeda and the arabian peninsula. this is a group two weeks ago put out a magazine they allege they have developed an explosive device they can sneak on board an airplane through airport security, no problem, 100% guaranteed. now, the national question is if you have a group that's capable of that, why would they do this? this is like several layers beneath this. now, look, these guys demonstrated some degree of sophistication. they show they know how to use weapons. they show that they know how to carry out an attack. but you don't need to receive instructions from a terrorist group to figure that out. and everything we've seen here so far, it's within the capability of individual lone wolf extremists be it with experience of firearms. maybe they've been on a front line, been to syria, iraq or yemen or boss knee, yeah one of
12:20 pm
these front line places. but that doesn't mean they were dispatched by a terrorist group. and i think if there was an organized terrorist group behind this it's a legitimate question to ask, why did they aim so low, especially given the fact they have people willing to carry out suicide attacks and they did this? >> we say that obviously with no disrespect to charlie hebdo, a very important institution. >> oh, no, no. >> obviously, not the most strategic. >> you had an attack the other day by a lone wolf extremist who went after the canadian parliament building. you look at the level -- gerngs there's no doubt that charlie hebdo and cartoonists have been a big target and a target for a variety of different jihadist groups. a pakistani state-supported terrorist group, they engaged in a plot with an american from chicago to target the cartoonists that were behind these cartoons in europe. so, there's a variety of different groups that have been involved in these kind of things. i don't know that we can necessarily say right now it's
12:21 pm
isis or aqap or lone wolfs but there is that question that if it was an organized terrorist group, why aim this low? >> evan these three terrorists are now on the loose in paris. is there potentially a community there that would shelter them? >> there are -- there's not a community but individuals who would shelter them. a lot of people have talked about the economic disenfrance chis -- disenfranchisement of those who live in paris. when you look at the uprise in paris a few years ago, that didn't lead to a ground swell of french muslims joining al qaeda or becoming jihadists. what seemed to be the thing that has pushed a lot of french nationals towards these ideas is really the growth of isis in iraq and syria. particularly the outreach that isis has done to french nationals. we all know about the english language propaganda isis puts out, but it's english and french, are their two main languages, aside from arabic
12:22 pm
their stuff comes out in. they were recruiting teenagers. recruiting young girls. they were recruiting everyone to come there. if you look at the history of what's happened in france in the last few months the last two years, you've had several different incidents that have occurred. they all fit in the exact same pattern. they're individuals who have been trained in syria, who have been motivated by what's going on in syria, who have no ties no explicit ties no explicit instructions from any direct group, and yet they've been capable of murdering innocent people and generating international headlines. i think we don't know whether or not a group was behind this but it's important to recognize that this -- but are doing this according to what they've seen on the internet according to what they believe in their hearts is the right thing to do according to their philosophy. >> you spoke about this sort of muslim extremist perspective and
12:23 pm
the frustration that in some of these european nations you do have speech restrictions that they see as protecting certain groups and certain issues and not theirs. >> correct. >> and less extreme muslims would say there is a longstanding and genuinely held prohibition and deep feeling about not depicting muhammad. >> correct. >> if that's right, though is there any kind of sliding geographical scale here? they seem as upset when this happens in the united states where free speech protectors do say that neo-nazis have the right to march and people have the right to say what they want about the holocaust and not go to jail for it. we have those protections. it seems to me if it's all true, they're not consistent about it intellectually. >> to be honest if you look at charlie hebdo, they don't just make fun of islam. they make fun of religion. the philosophy of charlie hebdo, secularism. it's a tradition in french secularist philosophy.
12:24 pm
at times this can be very cutting against religion. part of that has to do with the history of france and the role religion played in the history of france. not great things happening. so, some of this is part of that. but look i think we need to understand here there has to be the ability for people to be critical of other religions, of other ideas and whatnot. there has to be that ability. at the same time look we have to also respect islam and we should not deliberately go out and poke our fingers in other people's eyes you know. there is -- everyone should have the right to critique islam, but at least we should do it with some sense of respect so that people don't get the idea that this is islamas phobia or the same we would apply to christianity, judaism. look, it's worthy of critique and debate. >> thank you for that. more breaking news coverage coming next. the hunt for the killers
12:25 pm
continues right now in the streets for paris. what can we learn about the terrorist from their military style attacks. we have two lieutenants here next. this is the equivalent of the sugar in one regular soda. and this is one soda a day over an average adult lifetime. but there's a better choice. drink more brita water. clean, refreshing, brita. ♪ welcome to the most social car we've ever designed. the all-new nissan murano. nissan. innovation that excites.
12:26 pm
12:27 pm
12:28 pm
we are back with our breaking coverage on the terrorists behind the attack in paris knew what they were doing. they had a plan. they had precise targets. they had ak-47s and knew how to use them. we have two military experts on how these operations work. michael kay is a retired colonel from british air force and doug olivant, senior fellow at new america. good day to both of you. doug, let's start with the basic idea here. we're seeing a very sophisticated style attack although one that is relatively decentralized, looks like terrorism, been called terrorism by all these governments. is there any division of labor here? is this a more sophisticated style of operation or even people, the people we see on that video, than we have been accustomed to in these cartoon-type attacks beforehand, previously?
12:29 pm
>> they clearly have some training. what i don't see in these videos or the discriminations from the victims is any indication they have a high level of sophistication of training. what we've seen here is what any young corporal in an infrantry squad would know how to do. this is not s.e.a.l. team 6 or asa style high commando tactics. just basic tactics. unfortunately, they work really really well against innocent untrained cartoonists. of course, our thoughts are with them and their families today. >> absolutely. mikey, if you could take that a step forward. looking at the video that we've all seen through the eyes of a military man what are the specific things you see here that are indicative of military-style training? >> i mean i agree, but i think everything is relative. if you look at the basic skill sets of those jihadists traveling to places like syria to pick up arms they're not very well trained at all. at least these perpetrators had the ability to hold a rifle up to the shoulder. they aimed it.
12:30 pm
what got me is they seemed ve fairly cool calm, collaborated in the whole thing. looked like there was no panic. for me events like this when you look at what happened they take time. there's been an element of training here. there's been an element of intelligence. i feel these people knew what they were going into. the magazine is published on a wednesday. they have a big meeting on wednesday. the editor who was tragically killed, he heads that meeting on wednesday. i feel they had actually been in there or knew someone that had been in there in order to be able to carry this out with such calculation. >> doug, obviously, mikey's right, that they seemed to know exactly when to go to get maximum impact although they did go to the wrong address for starters. so they have some information correct and some information incorrect. i wonder what you make of that. also usually in the west we're more used to seeing radical
12:31 pm
islam come at us with suicide attacks. this was clearly not a suicide attack. they wanted to get away. they planned how to get away. they very calmly moved to the car, not sort of feeling a need to even run. what do you make of all that? >> this was clearly not a suicide attack. they wanted to get away afterwards. had a plan to get away afterwards. i think we still don't know what this is. i've been saying for a while, there are three types of attacks we should be worried about. it's possible that we could -- this that this could be an al qaeda central or isis sponsored attack. i suspect that's not the case but that's very possible that someone from pakistan or from raqqa, syria directed this and had agents. this is also what i call the jihadist veterans of foreign war. people who have been, as evan was saying earlier, they come from yemen or mali or iraq or syria, they have some experience. they've returned to their home country. now they've banded together.
12:32 pm
may have they've tapped into their networks a little bit but central command al qaeda doesn't know anything about this. or it's possible these are lone wolves. these could be native born french citizens who have never left france who have police or army training and decided to use that because they've been radicalized in a mosque somewhere in paris. >> how do you take all that information and then try to come up with a theory of how to find these people? they seem to have some training maybe not that much training? it wasn't a suicide attack. where do you go for that information if you're the french authorities how to stop the next attack? >> it's a million dollar question. it's complex. the fact you don't need a passport to cross borders in the european union makes trafficking quite easy. whether it's the access of finance or access of ak-47s or training or pulling people in from syria. over 1,000 jihadists have gone from france to syria alone. the intelligence community has
12:33 pm
been worried about the effects of the training and the operational experience these jihadists get and coming back. let's not forget africa. france has a long history in northwest africa, in algeria. we know there is islamic jihadist activity in bali. france have a problem. france have an issue coming from the east and the south. that's what intelligence communities will have to deal with. >> thank you so much. we now want to go to capitol hill where today was supposed to be the first full day of work for the new-look congress but that's been overshadowed by the terror attacks in paris. congressman peter welsh is on the subcommittee on national security homeland defense. what's the reaction been on capitol hill today? >> horrified, really, at the loss of life. also this is because there was a publication exercising first amendment rights and then all these innocent people got slaughtered in a methodical way. there's a good deal of horror
12:34 pm
about it. the two things that are difficult, when something truly horrible happens like this there's an enormous pressure to try to come up with some solution that is going to guarantee it won't happen again. the bottom line is i think all of us realistically know if a lone wolf or if a group decides they want to do something really violent at their -- at a time and place of their choosing there's not a magic solution to make certain that doesn't happen again. but it puts a lot of pressure on members of congress to come up with some response to asuede people's legitimate anxiety that could this happen here? so it's a state of collective sorrow and sadness about what's happened in france. >> congressman, jay kearney was asked a question about charlie hebdo a couple years ago in a briefing. i want to play a clip of that. >> we don't question the right
12:35 pm
of something like this to be published. we just question the judgment behind the decision to publish it. >> so, this reaction not just from the white house but from many public officials at the time charlie hebdo was publishing these cartoons of the prophet muhammad strikes me from very different of what we've heard over the sony hacks. you had politicians saying sony ought to release "the interview" to demonstrate we won't be cowed. should they republish the charlie hebdo cartoons to ensure it wouldn't dampen free speech in the west? >> i wouldn't encourage people to do it but i wouldn't be discouraging them either. these are decisions editors have to make. the life blood of people who are in journalism is the right of free expression. they have a lifetime commitment to the importance of that in a democratic society. but in the real world f you're the editor and you're making
12:36 pm
decisions that are going to affect people in your organizations, that's going to temper what you do. my view -- the politician shouldn't be weighing in on what the editors should or shouldn't do. i would respect a decision whether it was sony or whether it was this organization as to where they thought they could go in respect to the safety of their own people. >> congressman, democracy requires openness and attacks like this make us sort of retreat almost automatically. how should democracy respond in the face of attacks to clearly silence democracy? >> two things. i think we have to respect what has always worked for us. that's our constitution. so we've got to defend the first amendment right that citizens and news outlets have to publish. and in this case i mean it happened in france but obviously we will provide full cooperation to try to bring -- find these people and bring them to justice. second there's got to be some
12:37 pm
restraint here in washington because when something really bad happens, as they say there's a lot of pressure on politicians to act as though we have the silver bullet to make certain this doesn't happen again. and we've got to be vigilant with homeland security. we have good border protections in place. we don't have the pourous borders they have in the european community. let's protect our constitution. let's protect the first amendment. let's be vigilant about protecting our people. >> congressman peter welsh on capitol hill, thank you very much. next, in our rolling breaking coverage here the response, how will today's attack impact the ongoing fight against isis. our coverage continues next.
12:38 pm
you're driving along, having a perfectly nice day, when out of nowhere a pick-up
12:39 pm
truck slams into your brand new car. one second it wasn't there and the next second... boom! you've had your first accident. now you have to make your first claim. so you talk to your insurance company and... boom! you're blindsided for a second time. they won't give you enough money to replace your brand new car. don't those people know you're already shaken up? liberty mutual's new car replacement will pay for the entire value of your car plus depreciation. call and for drivers with accident forgiveness, liberty mutual won't raise your rates due to your first accident. switch to liberty mutual insurance and you could save up to $423 dollars. call liberty mutual for a free quote today at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance.men would curling up in bed with a favorite book is nice. but i think women would rather
12:40 pm
curl up with their favorite man. but here's the thing: about half of men over 40 have some degree of erectile dysfunction. well, viagra helps guys with ed get and keep an erection. and remember, you only take it when you need it. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing, upset stomach and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. ask your doctor about viagra. two update our breaking story, 12 people are dead in the terror attack in paris where night has fall. three terrorists remain at large in paris. intelligence officials are
12:41 pm
working to determine whether they have any connection to isis. france, of course is a major u.s. ally fighting isis in iraq and syria with us. what happened today have the french rethinking their role, perhaps, ramping it up? joining us at the table with his perspective is ambassador marc ginsberg former white house middle east ambassador and ambassador to morocco. ambassador, i wonder if these attacks, as we've seen several throughout the west do these attacks and work and quite often the answer s yes it makes us attack them but is that ultimately what aq and isis actually want? >> toure, you hit the nail on the head, really, by that question because president hollande has more than prime minister cameron of great britain, more than angela merkel he has been the stalwart ally against islamic extremism, against isis against al qaeda and magreb and also against
12:42 pm
mali. he's so unpopular at home and of all the issues he's seized upon to be his legacy it's probably his foreign policy counterterrorism struggle against islamic extremism. >> ambassador, we're going to get more to this in a little bit, but i know you've been spending a lot of time in france and in paris. talk to us about the political climate that has been in place there with respect to the large muslim minority population. >> there has been such a slew of attacks committed by islamic extremists against the jewish community over the last six months. not only in paris, but these lone wolf attacks that have been instigated not only because of heightened anger because of muslim attitude toward israel but also because of more islamic extremists calls to attack jews in paris. i was in paris this past summer. there were fire bombs against
12:43 pm
paris jewish business leaders. many of these parisians are now fleeing paris. secondly it's important to understand the french feel like they're being overrun by muslims. there's a backlash that's developed. the political context is very interesting. the number one politician right now in france is madame marie lapep lapenne, who leads the right wing paeshgts anti-immigration party. she is polling in the polls in france far more than sarkozy, who is thinking about running again, and hollande. there's a real backlash against immigration, against muslims. the french think former muslims inside than there are, but it is the largest muslim population and the least assimilated muslim population in europe. >> ambassador, thank you for joining us. >> sure. upon learning of the attack this morning, charlie hebdo's
12:44 pm
editor-in-chief fired back saying, a newspaper is not a weapon of war. it's evident terrorists don't agree. for more on the rising targeting of journalists we bring in advocacy director at the committee to direct journalists. courtney, when we look in syria, it seems like isis has taken a specific strategy of targeting journalists in order to discourage media coverage and it's worked. there's basically a media blackout in syria. we've seen publications very reluctant to publish the cartoons that ran in charlie hebdo. is this strategy of attacking journalists, is it working and what can we do about it? >> i think, unfortunately, the attacks on journalists have been rising. we've seen over the past three years, have been the most dangerous on record for journalists. and this is the most deadly attack on journalists since 2009, the massacres in the philippines that left 30 journalists dead. in terms of what we can do about it, i think it's critical we maintain the right to express
12:45 pm
freedom and the freedom of expression. one of our guests mentioned it should be editors making decisions about whether to publish something, not politicians and certainly not armed gunmen. and it's very clear that this attack was designed to intimidate journalists throughout europe as well as globally. >> what is your response from the press freedom perspective to those who try to draw a distinction here and say, there is some difference between protection for individuals who are doing reporting and that kind of work and the kind of commentary or parody or satire that may actually according to some, be designed to incite a very response? >> i think that is a completely false dichotomy. the fact is the freedom of expression regardless of frontiers and regardless of platform is an internationally protected right under the universal declaration of human rights. this idea that somehow some forms of journalism of reporting
12:46 pm
are okay and others are not is completely false and actually, then, falls into and provides ammunition to governments and nonstate actors who would crack down on journalists who, you know try to comment on issues of public importance. i think we've seen this in egypt where yusuf, known as the john daly in egypt, has been forced off the air. we've seen this on attacks on editorial cartoonists around the world. journalism takes many forms and everyone has a right to express themselves. there is no more rights for a journalist on the front lines reporting in a straight news kind of this happened today versus analysis versus opinion versus you know editorial cartoons. so, i would push back against those people. i think that puts journalists in a bad position. and it's very difficult to see how anyone who takes that position could really call themselves a press freedom
12:47 pm
defender. >> thank you very much for that. any minute the president is scheduled to take the podium for a previously scheduled economic speech in detroit. we're watching to see if he has anything new to reveal about the attack. france has had a long and tumultuous relationship with its muslim population. how does that play into today's events? your dog's definitely got your back. but who's got your back when you need legal help? we do. we're legalzoom, and over the last 10 years we've helped millions of people protect their families and run their businesses. we have the right people on-hand to answer your questions, backed by a trusted network of attorneys. so visit us today for legal help you can count on. legalzoom. legal help is here. boy: once upon a time, there was a nice house that lived with a family. one day, it started to rain. the house tried to keep out all the water, but water got inside
12:48 pm
and ruined everybody's everythings. the house thought she let the family down. they just didn't think it could happen. they told the house they would take better care of her... always. announcer: protect what matters. get flood insurance.
12:49 pm
12:50 pm
right now president obama is in detroit to deliver an
12:51 pm
economic speech. we're learning he's receiving updates on that attack in paris. nbc senior white house correspondent chris jansing is traveling with the president. what's the latest you're hearing from your sources? >> reporter: yeah the president landed just a short time ago. while he was on air force one, krystal, he spoke with french president hollande, a brief call to offer condolences and help in any way the united states can possibly assist. already all throughout the day, since the early morning hours, members of his national security team have been talking to strong allies in the counterterror efforts, particularly in the close relationship really post-9/11, but certainly this year, since that fight began. i can also tell you that there
12:52 pm
have been conversations between u.s. and french officials about the security of americans. both on french soil and throughout europe and the middle east. and as you know there has been some concern in the past about some of the satire that has happened in france when there have been critics before. we know just a few years ago, the then-press secretary suggested that maybe there be some more thought given when these kinds of cartoons are out there. but strongly affirming their support for free speech. we're getting, if you can hear the crowd behind me, they're getting ready to introduce the president here at this ford plant. but we again, expecting to hear from the president. don't know if he'll make comments on this given that he did make comments this morning when he was in a meeting with john kerry. >> chris jansing in detroit, thank you so much. we'll bring the president to you live when he comes out. before today there were already
12:53 pm
concerns in france about a disinfranchisement disinfranchisement. an estimated one in ten frenchmen identify themselves as muslim. let's bring in fred burton vice intelligence firm, vat ford. thanks for being with us. >> my pleasure. thank you. do you expect these attacks will serve to further isolate and estrange an already somewhat disenfranchised muslim community in france? >> i think so. we wrote an analysis earlier today discussing the probability for additional attacks to occur. if you look at this in context from a counter-terrorism perspective, the french did everything right. they had police on site in this facility. the attack team factored them in and took them out first.
12:54 pm
this was a well-orkchestrated attack that they put a lot of thought in. the attackers in all probability walked the route ahead of time. >> one of the things that you say are that attacks like this in the u.s. are much less likely because of the greater integration of the muslim community. if they get radicalized, they are unlikely to find people to conspire with them. what has been done in the u.s. that has made the situations much better. what can they do in france to better integrate the community? >> in essence, if you look at post 9/11 the fbi has done a wonderful job with the joint terrorism task forces identifying individuals that are predisposed towards this kind of activity and literally deporting them or conducting very aggressive counter terrorism operations. we also have a much stronger border in play. you look at what the europeans have to deal with the cross-border operations.
12:55 pm
that's a nightmare to is yoursurveil them. >> we were talking about the breath of islamaphobia. you have to expect that this major incident on french soul would only make that sentiment grow. >> without a doubt. it is certainly throwing a little bit of kerosene on to that fire. ambassador ginsburg related concerning the jewish community there. there was a car that was set on fire there in front of a synagogue this morning in paris, which i find very interesting in light of the attack that took place today. there is no shortage of problems for the french police and intelligence service to try to wrap their arms around.
12:56 pm
>> let me read from that analysis thinking about the magazine as an entity and organization that's been in the highest form of conflict with the various extremist groups. you are right, the magazine is largely known for lampooning islam and the prophet mohammed. the paris office destroyed by a molotov cocktail in 2011. but, the magazine editors declared they would not back down despite the past attack. i don't want to risk a very clumsy analogy. we have certainly talked a lot about the obligations of sony. . walk us through the geostrategic questions that are raised when you have an entity taking action or speaking in a way that brings on these kind of attacks and how the home country has to deal with it. then, it becomes all about france the u.s. and an international fight here.
12:57 pm
>> well at the end of the day, let's first realize that this was a brilliant terrorist attack where the operatives that put this plan together. they had a specific focus to kill the person behind these cartoons. that at a base level is what has occurred here. when you look at this in context, i can recall protecting ruchlt rushde when satanic verses came out. we were saddled to protect him. we had similar threats surrounding satanic verses in his travel. he lived under the alias in the u.s. these jihadists have a long memory. the fact they have attacked this location twice is no surprise to me either. it should be a wake-up call.
12:58 pm
it should be the kind of issue that everybody should take notice of and recognize we're living in a very dangerous world. >> is it with france or the organization? >> when you look at the specific targeting of the organization at the end of the day, this is what the terrorists were after to do. paris has a long history of terrorist-related activity going back to the black september days. the french will get through this. the bigger problem for the french is trying to surveil the volume of suspected jihaddys running loose throughout the country. >> thank you for your analysis. >> that does it for our show. "now" with alex wagner starts right now. a day of terror in paris. it is wednesday, january 7th and
12:59 pm
this is "now." terror strikes at the heart of paris. >> france's deadliest terror attack in more than two decades. >> a deliberate attack on a magazine that has a history of being provocative. >> two people in black with masks, with automatic weapons, shooting up an office of unarmed people. >> they came in with a mission to kill. >> we will do everything we can to help them bring to justice the perpetrators. >> this is a generational war. >> brave and decent people around the world will never give in to the intimidation and the terror. >> there have been a huge number of french citizens that have gone to fight for isis. >> is this our future? >> these terrorists, freedom of the speech and press.
1:00 pm
>> they may wield weapons. we share a commitment to a pen that represents an instrument of freedom. we are awaiting remarks from president obama, who will be speaking in detroit any moment now. first, as vigils are held across the world, three masked gunmen remain at-large after killing 12 at the offices of a weekly french newspaper. at about 11:30 a.m. paris time two of the men armed with ak-47s forces their way into an office and fired at staff in an editorial meeting. this lasted several minutes before the attackers fled by car