Jeremy Scahill on Al-Qaida’s Link to the Paris Attack

An estimated 3.7 million people rallied across France on Sunday in response to the Charlie Hebdo attack that left 17 people dead. Jeremy Scahill talks Monday about the “heartening” display of people in the streets and the “circus of hypocrisy” performed by the world leaders who attended.

Scahill also talks about the attackers’ connections to al-Qaida. “Democracy Now!” reports:

The gunmen who attacked Charlie Hebdo staff, Chérif and Said Kouachi, were killed by French police on Friday following a three-day manhunt. Shortly before his death, Chérif Kouachi told a French television station he received financing from the late Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a U.S. drone in Yemen in 2011. Both brothers reportedly traveled to Yemen that same year and had weapons training in the deserts of Marib, an al-Qaeda stronghold. Meanwhile, a video released over the weekend shows Amedy Coulibaly — the gunman who killed four hostages at a kosher supermarket in Paris — pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. In a statement to The Intercept, a source within al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), claimed responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attack, saying: “The leadership of #AQAP directed the operation, and they have chosen their target carefully as a revenge for the honor of Prophet … the target was in France in particular because of its obvious role in the war on Islam and oppressed nations.” We speak to the reporter who broke this story, The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill, about al-Awlaki’s background and the Paris shooters’ claims of militant ties.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.