JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
WORLD POWERS IN THE LAST DAYS (END OF AGE OF GRACE NOT THE WORLD)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
WORLD TERRORISM
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
UPDATE-APRIL 20,2017-03:45PM
A ISLAMIC-QURANIC TERRORISTS OR MORE. SHOT ONE POLICE OFFICER TO DEATH WHILE IN HIS POLICE CAR AT A STOP LIGHT. ANOTHER SHOOTOUT OCCURED. AND ANOTHER OFFICER WAS INJURED. AND AT LEAST ONE OF THE ISLAMIC-QURANIC TERRORISTS WERE SHOT AND KILLED. AND SENT TO HELL FIRE AND TORMENTS FOREVER FOR KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE. ITS THE POLICE IN PARIS THAT ARE SAYING THIS WAS A TERRORIST ATTACK. SO THE QURANIC MUSLIM MUST HAVE YELLED ALLU-AK-BAR AS HE SHOT INNOCENT PEOPLE. OR HE WAS ON A PARIS TERRORIST LIST. AND IF THEIR IS STILL TERRORISTS ON THE LOOSE. ITS NOT CONFIRMED BY POLICE YET. TRUMP GAVE HIS CONDOLENCES TO PARIS AND SAID ITS ANOTHER TERRORIST ATTACK.
Champs Elysees shooting: Isil's quick claim of responsibility points to directed attack-[The Telegraph]-Josie Ensor-YAHOONEWS-21 April 2017
Karim Cheurfi. A gunman opened fire on police on Paris' iconic Champs-Elysees boulevard Thursday night, April 20, 2017.Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed the shooting at Champs Elysee within hours, suggesting the jihadist group knew the gunmen and could have directed the attack.Isil described the attacker, named as Karim Cheurfi, as one of the group’s “fighters” Abu Yussuf al-Belgiki “the Belgian”, in a statement release by its official Amaq news agency.Cheurfi, 39, shot three police officers near the Paris tourist site, killing one and injuring two.It could be that the French national spent time in Belgium to earn the nickname, much like Brahim Abdeslam, who took part in the November 2015 Paris attacker. The Belgium-to-Paris terrorist route is well-established.The Isil statement was unusually specific and was released just two and a half hours after the shooting, a record speed for claim of responsibility of attacks on Western targets.Some who kill in Isil’s name have simply pledged allegiance to the group and acted on its general call to arms, while others have had guidance on everything from the target, to the method and the timing.In the case of the Istanbul bombing last New Year’s Eve, the assailant was coached by Isil handlers, who funded and helped plan every stage of the attack on a popular nightclub.In other instances, such as the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Florida, the connection was much more tenuous.Experts say attackers are rarely operating in isolation.“Even the inspired attacks have tended to occur within the context of a network—in other words, accomplices, which means by definition they are not "lone",” says Kyle Orton, Middle East analyst at The Henry Jackson Society think-tank.The downplaying of Isil's direct role in the European attacks had deadly consequences last year when the connections between a series of plots in France were missed, and the diversion of the security forces helped open the way to the Nov 13, 2015 attacks in Paris that struck at the Stade de France with suicide bombers, shot-up restaurants, and slaughtered concert-goers at the Bataclan, leaving 130 people dead.Thirty-one of the 38 Isil-related European plots have seen either online or in-person direction by Isil.It is unclear if Cheurfi had travelled to Iraq or Syria, but the majority of attacks carried out in Isil’s name have been by homegrown terrorists.As Isil comes under threat in the so-called caliphate they have encouraged foreign supporters not to travel but to carry out attacks at home.
Champs-Elysees gunman had shot at French police before-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 21, 2017
PARIS — The Champs-Elysees gunman who shot and killed a police officer just days before France's presidential election was detained in February for threatening police but then freed, two officials told The Associated Press on Friday. He was also convicted in 2003 of attempted homicide in the shootings of two police officers.The French government pulled out all the stops to protect Sunday's vote as the attack deepened France's political divide."Nothing must hamper this democratic moment, essential for our country," Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after a high-level meeting Friday that reviewed the government's already heightened security plans for the two-round presidential vote that begins Sunday."Barbarity and cowardice struck Paris last night," the prime minister declared, appealing for national unity and for people "not to succumb to fear."Investigators believe at this stage that the gunman, 39-year-old Frenchman Karim Cheurfi, was alone in killing one police officer and wounding two others and a female German tourist on Thursday night, a French official who discussed details of the investigation with the AP said on condition of anonymity.The attack came less than 72 hours before the polls open.Police shot and killed Cheurfi after he opened fire on a police van on Paris' most famous boulevard. Investigators found a pump-action shotgun and knives in his car. Cheurfi's identity was confirmed from his fingerprints.Cheurfi had been detained toward the end of February after speaking threateningly about police but was then released for lack of evidence, according to that French official and another, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the probe.The policeman killed Thursday was identified as Xavier Jugele by Flag!, a French association of LGBT police officers. Its president, Mickael Bucheron, told AP the slain officer would have celebrated his 38th birthday at the beginning of May.Jugele was among the officers who responded to the gun-and-bomb attack on Paris' Bataclan concert hall on Nov. 13, 2015, among a wave of assaults in the French capital that killed 130 people, he told People.com .He was also there a year later when the venue reopened with a concert by Sting, saying how happy he was to be "here to defend our civic values.""This concert's to celebrate life. To say 'No' to terrorists," the media outlet quoted Jugele as saying.The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack in an unusually quick statement that sowed confusion by apparently misidentifying the gunman.Municipal workers in white hygiene suits were out before dawn to wash down the sidewalk where the assault took place — a scene now depressingly familiar after multiple attacks that have killed more than 230 people in France over two years. Delivery trucks were out on early morning rounds. Everything would have seemed normal if not for a row of TV trucks parked along the boulevard that is a must-visit for tourists.A key question was how the attack might affect French voters, since campaigning is banned starting Friday at midnight.Inserting himself into the debate, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that the attack "will have a big effect" on the election and that "the people of France will not take much more of this."The two top finishers Sunday advance to a winner-takes-all presidential runoff on May 7. Two of the main candidates, conservative Francois Fillon and centrist Emmanuel Macron, cancelled campaign events Friday.The attack brought back the recurrent campaign theme of France's fight against Islamic extremism, one of the mainstays of the anti-immigration platform of far-right leader Marine Le Pen and also, to a lesser extent, of Fillon.Le Pen, speaking at her campaign headquarters, urged the outgoing Socialist government to immediately re-establish border controls. Cazeneuve, the Socialist prime minister, accused the National Front leader of seeking to make political hay from the assault.After Le Pen spoke scathingly Friday of the government's fight against extremism, Cazeneuve noted that Le Pen's party in 2014 voted against an anti-terrorism law and, in 2015, against a law that beefed up resources for French intelligence services.He said: "She seems to be deliberately forgetting everything that has been done over five years to make people forget that she opposed everything, without ever proposing anything serious or credible."Fillon, for his part, pledged to maintain the state of emergency that has been in place since the November 2015 attacks."The fight for the French people's freedom and security will be mine. This must be the priority," he said.Asked if the assault would impact voting, the centrist Macron said "no one knows" and appealed for cool heads."What our attackers want is death, symbolism, to sow panic (and) to disturb a democratic process," the 39-year-old former investment banker said.Macron said he cancelled campaign stops out of a sense of "decency" and to allow police to concentrate resources on the investigation. Said by polls to be running neck-and-neck with Le Pen, he tore into her claims that previous attacks wouldn't have happened under her watch."She won't be able to protect our citizens," Macron said.The two police officers injured in the attack are out of danger, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said. National police spokesman Jerome Bonet, also speaking on BFM television, said thousands of people were out on Paris' iconic boulevard when the gunman opened fire and that the rapid response of officers who shot and killed him avoided possible "carnage."Elena Worms, who was walking her dog near the Champs-Elysees, called the attack "destabilizing" and said she fears it will "push people to the extremes." She said her plans to vote for Fillon, a former prime minister, remain unchanged.Investigators searched a home early Friday in an eastern suburb of Paris believed linked to the attack and detained three of the gunman's family members for questioning.The attack appeared to fit a pattern of European extremists targeting security forces and symbols of state to discredit, take vengeance on or destabilize society. It recalled two recent attacks on French soldiers providing security at prominent locations around Paris: one at the Louvre museum in February and one at Orly airport last month.For Sunday's presidential vote, the government is mobilizing more than 50,000 police and gendarmes to protect the 70,000 polling stations, with an additional 7,000 soldiers also on patrol.___Sylvie Corbet, Angela Charlton and Raphael Satter in Paris, Jeff Schaeffer and Nadine Achoui-Lesage in Chelles, France, and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.Lori Hinnant And John Leicester, The Associated Press.
Security dominates French election after shooting-[Reuters]-By Leigh Thomas and Marine Pennetier-YAHOONEWS-April 21, 2017
PARIS (Reuters) - The killing of a policeman by a suspected Islamist militant pushed national security to the top of the French political agenda on Friday, two days before the presidential election, with leading candidates clashing over how to keep citizens safe.With the first round of voting in the two-stage election to take place on Sunday, far-right leader Marine Le Pen, an anti-EU politician who wants to ditch the euro, seized on the Paris shooting to push her policies on national security.Le Pen - narrowly trailing frontrunner Emmanuel Macron in opinion polls - said she would take steps to beat "Islamist terrorism" if elected, including introducing tougher immigration and border controls.Macron, a former economy minister in the government that Le Pen has criticized repeatedly for its security record, said the solutions were not as simple as she suggested. The centrist candidate, a political novice compared with his opponents, said there "no such thing as zero risk" and anyone who said otherwise was irresponsible.There are four leading candidates in a race that is still too close to call. Sunday's round of voting will be followed by a second-round runoff on May 7 between the top two candidates.Macron is in the lead with 24 percent of the first-round vote, ahead of Le Pen who had fallen back slightly to 21.5 percent, according to an Elabe survey of voter intentions taken before the shooting.Conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister, and the far left's Jean-Luc Melenchon were snapping at their heels with 20 and 19.5 percent respectively.The attack on Thursday night on the Champs Elysees boulevard added a new source of unpredictability to a closely contested election that will decide the management of France's 2.2 trillion euro economy, which vies with Britain for the rank of fifth largest in the world.The outcome could also have a bearing on France's place in Europe and the world. Should Le Pen win, it could deal a hammer blow to the European Union, which is still reeling from Britain's decision to leave the bloc.All the candidates are seeking to woo the high proportion of people that are undecided about who to vote for - 31 percent according to an Ipsos poll on Friday.Fillon also seized on the attack, which was claimed by Islamic State, saying the fight against "Islamist totalitarianism" should be the priority of the next president. "It's us or them," he said.-TRUMP TWEET-Financial markets though shrugged off the latest twist in the presidential campaign with French bond yields hitting a three-month low on Friday.The Champs Elysees shooting is the latest in a series of attacks by Islamist militants on France in recent years in which more than 200 people have been killed. A truck ploughed into people in Nice on Bastille Day last year killing more than 80 people while coordinated attacks across Paris including the Bataclan concert hall claimed about 130 lives in November 2015. There have also been attacks on a Jewish school, a satirical weekly and a kosher market.U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter that the shooting would influence the French election."Another terrorist attack in Paris. The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!" he said.However previous attacks that have taken place soon before elections, including the November 2015 attacks in Paris ahead of regional polls and the shooting in a Jewish school before the 2012 presidentials, did not appear to change the course of those ballots in favor of those espousing tougher national security.An assault on a soldier in February at the Paris Louvre museum by a man wielding a machete also had no obvious impact on this year's opinion polls, which have consistently said that voters see unemployment and trustworthiness of politicians as bigger issues.-SECURITY FORCES ON ALERT-A French policeman was shot dead and two others were wounded in Thursday night's attack in central Paris.After an emergency meeting of security officials, Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said security forces, including elite units, were on alert to back up the 50,000 police earmarked to ensure citizens' safety during the election."The government is fully mobilized. Nothing must be allowed to impede the fundamental democratic process of our country," Cazeneuve told reporters. "It falls to us not to give in to fear and intimidation and manipulation which would play into the hands of the enemy."Controls on immigration and national security are cornerstones of Le Pen's National Front agenda and on Friday she said she would reinstate border checks and expel foreigners who are on watch lists of intelligence services.Macron was quick to respond to his rival's comments."I've heard Madame Le Pen saying again recently that with her in charge, certain attacks would have been avoided," he said on RTL Radio. "There's no such thing as zero risk. Anyone who pretends (otherwise) is both irresponsible and deceitful."-TIGHT RACE-In the Elabe poll, which was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, both Fillon and Melenchon were seen narrowing Macron and Le Pen's lead over them.Should Macron and Le Pen make it to the second round, the former economy minister was projected to win the runoff - and thus the presidency - with 65 percent against 35 percent for Le Pen, the survey for BFM TV and L'Express magazine showed.Fillon, who has slowly clawed back some ground lost after being hit by a fake jobs scandal, saw his score in the first round rise half a percentage point to 20 percent.Melenchon, who would hike taxes on the rich and spend 100 billion euros ($107 billion) of borrowed money on vast housebuilding and renewable energy projects, gained 1.5 points to 19.5 percent as he built further on momentum he has seen after strong performances in television debates.If Melenchon makes it to the runoff, he is projected to beat both Le Pen and Fillon by comfortable margins although he is seen losing to Macron 41 percent to 59 percent.(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, Ingrid Melander, Laurence Frost, Bate Felix, Jean-Baptiste Vey; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Pravin Char)
Paris police say officer and attacker shot, killed-[Associated Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 20, 2017
PARIS (AP) -- Paris police say a gunman has killed a police officer and wounded another before being killed himself in an attack on the Champs-Elysees shopping district.Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press that the attacker targeted police guarding the area near the Franklin Roosevelt subway station Thursday night at the center of the avenue popular with tourists.The attack came three days before the first round of balloting in France's tense presidential election. Security is high preceding the vote after police said they arrested two men Tuesday in what they described as a thwarted terror attack.The incident recalled two recent attacks on soldiers providing security at prominent locations around Paris, one at the Louvre museum in February and one at Orly airport last month.A witness identified only as Ines told French television station BFM that she heard a shooting and saw a man's body on the ground before police quickly evacuated the area where she works in a shop.A French television station hosting a televised event with the 11 candidates running for president briefly interrupted its broadcast to report the shootings.None of the candidates immediately commented.
Police officer killed, another wounded in Paris shooting-[Reuters]-By Julien Pretot-YAHOONEWS-April 20, 2017
PARIS (Reuters) - One policeman was killed and another wounded in a shooting incident in central Paris on Thursday night, a police source said.A person who fired on police on the Champs-Elysees shopping boulevard just days ahead of France's presidential election has been killed, the source said. A police source also said there had been two assailants, and a witness told Reuters that one man got out of a car at the scene and began shooting with a machine gun.Police authorities called on the public to avoid the area.A Reuters reporter saw a helicopter flying low over central Paris, apparently part of a follow-up police operation.French TV channel BFM broadcast footage of the Arc de Triomphe monument and top half of the Champs Elysees packed with police vans, lights flashing and heavily armed police shutting the area down after what was described by one journalist as a major exchange of fire nears a Marks and Spencers store.The incident came as French voters prepared go to the polls on Sunday in the most tightly-contested presidential election in living memory.France has lived under a state of emergency since 2015 and has suffered a spate of Islamist militant attacks that have killed more than 230 people in the past two years.Earlier this week, two men were arrested in Marseille whom police said had been planning an attack ahead of the election.A machine gun, two hand guns and three kilos of TATP explosive were among the weapons found at a flat in the southern city along with jihadist propaganda materials according to the Paris prosecutor.(Reporting by Richard Balmforth; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Leigh Thomas and Andrew Callus)
EUROPEAN UNION-KING OF WEST-DAN 9:26-27,DAN 7:23-24,DAN 11:40,REV 13:1-10
EGYPT-KING OF THE SOUTH-DAN 11:40
RUSSIA-KING OF THE NORTH-EZEK 38:1-2,EZEK 39:1-3
CHINA-KING OF THE EAST-DAN 11:44,REV 9:16,18
VATICAN-RELIGIOUS LEADER-REV 13:11-18,REV 17:4-5,9,18
WORLD TERRORISM
GENESIS 6:11-13
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.(WORLD TERRORISM,MURDERS)(HAMAS IN HEBREW IS VIOLENCE)
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence (TERRORISM)(HAMAS) through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
GENESIS 16:11-12
11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her,(HAGAR) Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael;(FATHER OF THE ARAB/MUSLIMS) because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
12 And he (ISHMAEL-FATHER OF THE ARAB-MUSLIMS) will be a wild (DONKEY-JACKASS) man;(ISLAM IS A FAKE AND DANGEROUS SEX FOR MURDER CULT) his hand will be against every man,(ISLAM HATES EVERYONE) and every man's hand against him;(PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM BEING BEHEADED) and he (ISHMAEL ARAB/MUSLIM) shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.(LITERAL-THE ARABS LIVE WITH THEIR BRETHERN JEWS)
ISAIAH 14:12-14
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,(SATAN) son of the morning!(HEBREW-CRECENT MOON-ISLAM) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I (SATAN HAS EYE TROUBLES) will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.(AND 1/3RD OF THE ANGELS OF HEAVEN FELL WITH SATAN AND BECAME DEMONS)
JOHN 16:2
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.(ISLAM MURDERS IN THE NAME OF MOON GOD ALLAH OF ISLAM)
UPDATE-APRIL 20,2017-03:45PM
A ISLAMIC-QURANIC TERRORISTS OR MORE. SHOT ONE POLICE OFFICER TO DEATH WHILE IN HIS POLICE CAR AT A STOP LIGHT. ANOTHER SHOOTOUT OCCURED. AND ANOTHER OFFICER WAS INJURED. AND AT LEAST ONE OF THE ISLAMIC-QURANIC TERRORISTS WERE SHOT AND KILLED. AND SENT TO HELL FIRE AND TORMENTS FOREVER FOR KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE. ITS THE POLICE IN PARIS THAT ARE SAYING THIS WAS A TERRORIST ATTACK. SO THE QURANIC MUSLIM MUST HAVE YELLED ALLU-AK-BAR AS HE SHOT INNOCENT PEOPLE. OR HE WAS ON A PARIS TERRORIST LIST. AND IF THEIR IS STILL TERRORISTS ON THE LOOSE. ITS NOT CONFIRMED BY POLICE YET. TRUMP GAVE HIS CONDOLENCES TO PARIS AND SAID ITS ANOTHER TERRORIST ATTACK.
Champs Elysees shooting: Isil's quick claim of responsibility points to directed attack-[The Telegraph]-Josie Ensor-YAHOONEWS-21 April 2017
Karim Cheurfi. A gunman opened fire on police on Paris' iconic Champs-Elysees boulevard Thursday night, April 20, 2017.Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed the shooting at Champs Elysee within hours, suggesting the jihadist group knew the gunmen and could have directed the attack.Isil described the attacker, named as Karim Cheurfi, as one of the group’s “fighters” Abu Yussuf al-Belgiki “the Belgian”, in a statement release by its official Amaq news agency.Cheurfi, 39, shot three police officers near the Paris tourist site, killing one and injuring two.It could be that the French national spent time in Belgium to earn the nickname, much like Brahim Abdeslam, who took part in the November 2015 Paris attacker. The Belgium-to-Paris terrorist route is well-established.The Isil statement was unusually specific and was released just two and a half hours after the shooting, a record speed for claim of responsibility of attacks on Western targets.Some who kill in Isil’s name have simply pledged allegiance to the group and acted on its general call to arms, while others have had guidance on everything from the target, to the method and the timing.In the case of the Istanbul bombing last New Year’s Eve, the assailant was coached by Isil handlers, who funded and helped plan every stage of the attack on a popular nightclub.In other instances, such as the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Florida, the connection was much more tenuous.Experts say attackers are rarely operating in isolation.“Even the inspired attacks have tended to occur within the context of a network—in other words, accomplices, which means by definition they are not "lone",” says Kyle Orton, Middle East analyst at The Henry Jackson Society think-tank.The downplaying of Isil's direct role in the European attacks had deadly consequences last year when the connections between a series of plots in France were missed, and the diversion of the security forces helped open the way to the Nov 13, 2015 attacks in Paris that struck at the Stade de France with suicide bombers, shot-up restaurants, and slaughtered concert-goers at the Bataclan, leaving 130 people dead.Thirty-one of the 38 Isil-related European plots have seen either online or in-person direction by Isil.It is unclear if Cheurfi had travelled to Iraq or Syria, but the majority of attacks carried out in Isil’s name have been by homegrown terrorists.As Isil comes under threat in the so-called caliphate they have encouraged foreign supporters not to travel but to carry out attacks at home.
Champs-Elysees gunman had shot at French police before-[The Canadian Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 21, 2017
PARIS — The Champs-Elysees gunman who shot and killed a police officer just days before France's presidential election was detained in February for threatening police but then freed, two officials told The Associated Press on Friday. He was also convicted in 2003 of attempted homicide in the shootings of two police officers.The French government pulled out all the stops to protect Sunday's vote as the attack deepened France's political divide."Nothing must hamper this democratic moment, essential for our country," Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after a high-level meeting Friday that reviewed the government's already heightened security plans for the two-round presidential vote that begins Sunday."Barbarity and cowardice struck Paris last night," the prime minister declared, appealing for national unity and for people "not to succumb to fear."Investigators believe at this stage that the gunman, 39-year-old Frenchman Karim Cheurfi, was alone in killing one police officer and wounding two others and a female German tourist on Thursday night, a French official who discussed details of the investigation with the AP said on condition of anonymity.The attack came less than 72 hours before the polls open.Police shot and killed Cheurfi after he opened fire on a police van on Paris' most famous boulevard. Investigators found a pump-action shotgun and knives in his car. Cheurfi's identity was confirmed from his fingerprints.Cheurfi had been detained toward the end of February after speaking threateningly about police but was then released for lack of evidence, according to that French official and another, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the probe.The policeman killed Thursday was identified as Xavier Jugele by Flag!, a French association of LGBT police officers. Its president, Mickael Bucheron, told AP the slain officer would have celebrated his 38th birthday at the beginning of May.Jugele was among the officers who responded to the gun-and-bomb attack on Paris' Bataclan concert hall on Nov. 13, 2015, among a wave of assaults in the French capital that killed 130 people, he told People.com .He was also there a year later when the venue reopened with a concert by Sting, saying how happy he was to be "here to defend our civic values.""This concert's to celebrate life. To say 'No' to terrorists," the media outlet quoted Jugele as saying.The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack in an unusually quick statement that sowed confusion by apparently misidentifying the gunman.Municipal workers in white hygiene suits were out before dawn to wash down the sidewalk where the assault took place — a scene now depressingly familiar after multiple attacks that have killed more than 230 people in France over two years. Delivery trucks were out on early morning rounds. Everything would have seemed normal if not for a row of TV trucks parked along the boulevard that is a must-visit for tourists.A key question was how the attack might affect French voters, since campaigning is banned starting Friday at midnight.Inserting himself into the debate, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that the attack "will have a big effect" on the election and that "the people of France will not take much more of this."The two top finishers Sunday advance to a winner-takes-all presidential runoff on May 7. Two of the main candidates, conservative Francois Fillon and centrist Emmanuel Macron, cancelled campaign events Friday.The attack brought back the recurrent campaign theme of France's fight against Islamic extremism, one of the mainstays of the anti-immigration platform of far-right leader Marine Le Pen and also, to a lesser extent, of Fillon.Le Pen, speaking at her campaign headquarters, urged the outgoing Socialist government to immediately re-establish border controls. Cazeneuve, the Socialist prime minister, accused the National Front leader of seeking to make political hay from the assault.After Le Pen spoke scathingly Friday of the government's fight against extremism, Cazeneuve noted that Le Pen's party in 2014 voted against an anti-terrorism law and, in 2015, against a law that beefed up resources for French intelligence services.He said: "She seems to be deliberately forgetting everything that has been done over five years to make people forget that she opposed everything, without ever proposing anything serious or credible."Fillon, for his part, pledged to maintain the state of emergency that has been in place since the November 2015 attacks."The fight for the French people's freedom and security will be mine. This must be the priority," he said.Asked if the assault would impact voting, the centrist Macron said "no one knows" and appealed for cool heads."What our attackers want is death, symbolism, to sow panic (and) to disturb a democratic process," the 39-year-old former investment banker said.Macron said he cancelled campaign stops out of a sense of "decency" and to allow police to concentrate resources on the investigation. Said by polls to be running neck-and-neck with Le Pen, he tore into her claims that previous attacks wouldn't have happened under her watch."She won't be able to protect our citizens," Macron said.The two police officers injured in the attack are out of danger, Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said. National police spokesman Jerome Bonet, also speaking on BFM television, said thousands of people were out on Paris' iconic boulevard when the gunman opened fire and that the rapid response of officers who shot and killed him avoided possible "carnage."Elena Worms, who was walking her dog near the Champs-Elysees, called the attack "destabilizing" and said she fears it will "push people to the extremes." She said her plans to vote for Fillon, a former prime minister, remain unchanged.Investigators searched a home early Friday in an eastern suburb of Paris believed linked to the attack and detained three of the gunman's family members for questioning.The attack appeared to fit a pattern of European extremists targeting security forces and symbols of state to discredit, take vengeance on or destabilize society. It recalled two recent attacks on French soldiers providing security at prominent locations around Paris: one at the Louvre museum in February and one at Orly airport last month.For Sunday's presidential vote, the government is mobilizing more than 50,000 police and gendarmes to protect the 70,000 polling stations, with an additional 7,000 soldiers also on patrol.___Sylvie Corbet, Angela Charlton and Raphael Satter in Paris, Jeff Schaeffer and Nadine Achoui-Lesage in Chelles, France, and Raf Casert in Brussels contributed to this report.Lori Hinnant And John Leicester, The Associated Press.
Security dominates French election after shooting-[Reuters]-By Leigh Thomas and Marine Pennetier-YAHOONEWS-April 21, 2017
PARIS (Reuters) - The killing of a policeman by a suspected Islamist militant pushed national security to the top of the French political agenda on Friday, two days before the presidential election, with leading candidates clashing over how to keep citizens safe.With the first round of voting in the two-stage election to take place on Sunday, far-right leader Marine Le Pen, an anti-EU politician who wants to ditch the euro, seized on the Paris shooting to push her policies on national security.Le Pen - narrowly trailing frontrunner Emmanuel Macron in opinion polls - said she would take steps to beat "Islamist terrorism" if elected, including introducing tougher immigration and border controls.Macron, a former economy minister in the government that Le Pen has criticized repeatedly for its security record, said the solutions were not as simple as she suggested. The centrist candidate, a political novice compared with his opponents, said there "no such thing as zero risk" and anyone who said otherwise was irresponsible.There are four leading candidates in a race that is still too close to call. Sunday's round of voting will be followed by a second-round runoff on May 7 between the top two candidates.Macron is in the lead with 24 percent of the first-round vote, ahead of Le Pen who had fallen back slightly to 21.5 percent, according to an Elabe survey of voter intentions taken before the shooting.Conservative Francois Fillon, a former prime minister, and the far left's Jean-Luc Melenchon were snapping at their heels with 20 and 19.5 percent respectively.The attack on Thursday night on the Champs Elysees boulevard added a new source of unpredictability to a closely contested election that will decide the management of France's 2.2 trillion euro economy, which vies with Britain for the rank of fifth largest in the world.The outcome could also have a bearing on France's place in Europe and the world. Should Le Pen win, it could deal a hammer blow to the European Union, which is still reeling from Britain's decision to leave the bloc.All the candidates are seeking to woo the high proportion of people that are undecided about who to vote for - 31 percent according to an Ipsos poll on Friday.Fillon also seized on the attack, which was claimed by Islamic State, saying the fight against "Islamist totalitarianism" should be the priority of the next president. "It's us or them," he said.-TRUMP TWEET-Financial markets though shrugged off the latest twist in the presidential campaign with French bond yields hitting a three-month low on Friday.The Champs Elysees shooting is the latest in a series of attacks by Islamist militants on France in recent years in which more than 200 people have been killed. A truck ploughed into people in Nice on Bastille Day last year killing more than 80 people while coordinated attacks across Paris including the Bataclan concert hall claimed about 130 lives in November 2015. There have also been attacks on a Jewish school, a satirical weekly and a kosher market.U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter that the shooting would influence the French election."Another terrorist attack in Paris. The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!" he said.However previous attacks that have taken place soon before elections, including the November 2015 attacks in Paris ahead of regional polls and the shooting in a Jewish school before the 2012 presidentials, did not appear to change the course of those ballots in favor of those espousing tougher national security.An assault on a soldier in February at the Paris Louvre museum by a man wielding a machete also had no obvious impact on this year's opinion polls, which have consistently said that voters see unemployment and trustworthiness of politicians as bigger issues.-SECURITY FORCES ON ALERT-A French policeman was shot dead and two others were wounded in Thursday night's attack in central Paris.After an emergency meeting of security officials, Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said security forces, including elite units, were on alert to back up the 50,000 police earmarked to ensure citizens' safety during the election."The government is fully mobilized. Nothing must be allowed to impede the fundamental democratic process of our country," Cazeneuve told reporters. "It falls to us not to give in to fear and intimidation and manipulation which would play into the hands of the enemy."Controls on immigration and national security are cornerstones of Le Pen's National Front agenda and on Friday she said she would reinstate border checks and expel foreigners who are on watch lists of intelligence services.Macron was quick to respond to his rival's comments."I've heard Madame Le Pen saying again recently that with her in charge, certain attacks would have been avoided," he said on RTL Radio. "There's no such thing as zero risk. Anyone who pretends (otherwise) is both irresponsible and deceitful."-TIGHT RACE-In the Elabe poll, which was conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, both Fillon and Melenchon were seen narrowing Macron and Le Pen's lead over them.Should Macron and Le Pen make it to the second round, the former economy minister was projected to win the runoff - and thus the presidency - with 65 percent against 35 percent for Le Pen, the survey for BFM TV and L'Express magazine showed.Fillon, who has slowly clawed back some ground lost after being hit by a fake jobs scandal, saw his score in the first round rise half a percentage point to 20 percent.Melenchon, who would hike taxes on the rich and spend 100 billion euros ($107 billion) of borrowed money on vast housebuilding and renewable energy projects, gained 1.5 points to 19.5 percent as he built further on momentum he has seen after strong performances in television debates.If Melenchon makes it to the runoff, he is projected to beat both Le Pen and Fillon by comfortable margins although he is seen losing to Macron 41 percent to 59 percent.(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, Ingrid Melander, Laurence Frost, Bate Felix, Jean-Baptiste Vey; Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Pravin Char)
Paris police say officer and attacker shot, killed-[Associated Press]-YAHOONEWS-April 20, 2017
PARIS (AP) -- Paris police say a gunman has killed a police officer and wounded another before being killed himself in an attack on the Champs-Elysees shopping district.Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press that the attacker targeted police guarding the area near the Franklin Roosevelt subway station Thursday night at the center of the avenue popular with tourists.The attack came three days before the first round of balloting in France's tense presidential election. Security is high preceding the vote after police said they arrested two men Tuesday in what they described as a thwarted terror attack.The incident recalled two recent attacks on soldiers providing security at prominent locations around Paris, one at the Louvre museum in February and one at Orly airport last month.A witness identified only as Ines told French television station BFM that she heard a shooting and saw a man's body on the ground before police quickly evacuated the area where she works in a shop.A French television station hosting a televised event with the 11 candidates running for president briefly interrupted its broadcast to report the shootings.None of the candidates immediately commented.
Police officer killed, another wounded in Paris shooting-[Reuters]-By Julien Pretot-YAHOONEWS-April 20, 2017
PARIS (Reuters) - One policeman was killed and another wounded in a shooting incident in central Paris on Thursday night, a police source said.A person who fired on police on the Champs-Elysees shopping boulevard just days ahead of France's presidential election has been killed, the source said. A police source also said there had been two assailants, and a witness told Reuters that one man got out of a car at the scene and began shooting with a machine gun.Police authorities called on the public to avoid the area.A Reuters reporter saw a helicopter flying low over central Paris, apparently part of a follow-up police operation.French TV channel BFM broadcast footage of the Arc de Triomphe monument and top half of the Champs Elysees packed with police vans, lights flashing and heavily armed police shutting the area down after what was described by one journalist as a major exchange of fire nears a Marks and Spencers store.The incident came as French voters prepared go to the polls on Sunday in the most tightly-contested presidential election in living memory.France has lived under a state of emergency since 2015 and has suffered a spate of Islamist militant attacks that have killed more than 230 people in the past two years.Earlier this week, two men were arrested in Marseille whom police said had been planning an attack ahead of the election.A machine gun, two hand guns and three kilos of TATP explosive were among the weapons found at a flat in the southern city along with jihadist propaganda materials according to the Paris prosecutor.(Reporting by Richard Balmforth; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Leigh Thomas and Andrew Callus)
