Both attacks have been blamed on homegrown terrorist brothers and provide lessons for law enforcement.
People gather around and on top of the Republique Plaza statue during the solidarity demonstration in Paris, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2015. Scattered gunfire and explosions shook France on Thursday as its frightened yet defiant citizens held a day of mourning for 12 people slain at a Paris newspaper. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
(TNS) — There are chilling similarities between the deadly Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris and the Boston Marathon bombings, with lessons to be drawn for law enforcement, terrorism experts say.
Both attacks have been blamed on homegrown terrorist brothers — in each case with a brother who had drawn law enforcement attention for Islamic radical ties before. In both cases, both police and citizens were targeted with equal cold-blooded vigor.
“I think what you’re going to see is governments going through their watch lists to see how many names appear identical. They should have added worry when you have two or three members of the same family giving prior warning, governments should be taking a second and third look at them,” said Victor David Hanson of the Hoover Institution. “When you are dealing with familial relations, it means there are fewer people who have privileged information about the ongoing plotting and the secret is reinforced by family ties ... it’s going to be much harder for Western intelligence to break into them.”
French police yesterday were searching for the Kouachi brothers — Cherif and Said, the Paris-born sons of Algerian parents — for the attack Wednesday that killed 12 people at Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly that lampooned radical Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad.
Cherif Kouachi appeared in a 2005 documentary on Islamic extremism and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008 for trying to join up with jihadis in Iraq. Said Kouachi is believed to have trained with al-Qaeda in Yemen. Both brothers were known to U.S. authorities and were on the U.S. no-fly list.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, killed in a shootout with police four days after the 2013 marathon bombings, had been flagged in 2011 to the FBI by Russian intelligence because of links to Islamic extremists in Dagestan. The FBI questioned and cleared him. His younger brother Dzhokhar survived the shootout and is now on trial for murder.
Former terrorist hunter Fred Burton, now with Stratfor, a global intelligence firm, said as in Boston French authorities are tracking the two fugitive siblings through their personal histories, places they’ve lived, relatives, places they’ve visited, as well as chasing down tips.
“They’re breaking down grids based upon intelligence and the likelihood of them being in a specific area,” Burton said. “You have to hope you’re ready for them, when they make a move. I really don’t think this is going to end well. Much like what we saw in Boston. These folks are cop killers. They also killed some of their own.”
©2015 the Boston Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Both attacks have been blamed on homegrown terrorist brothers — in each case with a brother who had drawn law enforcement attention for Islamic radical ties before. In both cases, both police and citizens were targeted with equal cold-blooded vigor.
“I think what you’re going to see is governments going through their watch lists to see how many names appear identical. They should have added worry when you have two or three members of the same family giving prior warning, governments should be taking a second and third look at them,” said Victor David Hanson of the Hoover Institution. “When you are dealing with familial relations, it means there are fewer people who have privileged information about the ongoing plotting and the secret is reinforced by family ties ... it’s going to be much harder for Western intelligence to break into them.”
French police yesterday were searching for the Kouachi brothers — Cherif and Said, the Paris-born sons of Algerian parents — for the attack Wednesday that killed 12 people at Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly that lampooned radical Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad.
Cherif Kouachi appeared in a 2005 documentary on Islamic extremism and was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008 for trying to join up with jihadis in Iraq. Said Kouachi is believed to have trained with al-Qaeda in Yemen. Both brothers were known to U.S. authorities and were on the U.S. no-fly list.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, killed in a shootout with police four days after the 2013 marathon bombings, had been flagged in 2011 to the FBI by Russian intelligence because of links to Islamic extremists in Dagestan. The FBI questioned and cleared him. His younger brother Dzhokhar survived the shootout and is now on trial for murder.
Former terrorist hunter Fred Burton, now with Stratfor, a global intelligence firm, said as in Boston French authorities are tracking the two fugitive siblings through their personal histories, places they’ve lived, relatives, places they’ve visited, as well as chasing down tips.
“They’re breaking down grids based upon intelligence and the likelihood of them being in a specific area,” Burton said. “You have to hope you’re ready for them, when they make a move. I really don’t think this is going to end well. Much like what we saw in Boston. These folks are cop killers. They also killed some of their own.”
©2015 the Boston Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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