CFR Update 1/9 Top of the Agenda French Police Close in on Newspaper Attack Suspects

Top of the Agenda French Police Close in on Newspaper Attack Suspects Police have surrounded a printing house (Reuters) in northern France where two suspects  in Wednesday’s attack on the satirical paper Charlie Hebdo have reportedly taken a  hostage. The town, Dammartin-en-Goele, has been sealed off, and early reports suggest authorities have established phone contact (AP) with the suspects. American and French officials confirmed (NYT) that at least one of the suspects, Said Kouachi, had received military training from Al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen. In the wake of the attacks, officials across Europe have implemented (WSJ) stricter security measures and enhanced surveillance of potential targets. Meanwhile, the shooter behind the separate killing of a policewoman on Thursday, who has been linked to the Charlie Hebdo attackers, has allegedly taken hostages (BBC) at a kosher grocery in Paris. Analysis "Confronting the plague of Islamic radicalism, which has been greatly inflamed by the fighting in Syria and the rise of ISIS, is imperative. The Islamic threat may have the effect of forcing European leaders to work together more closely rather than feud with each other, as is often their wont," writes Jacob Heilbrunn in the National Interest. "In many ways, the rise of jihad is as much a civil war among Muslims as it is an East–West confrontation: the great divide runs across religions and societies, as well as between them. After an outrage such as the one we have just witnessed in Paris, that can be hard to remember, but it mustn’t be forgotten," argues John Cassidy in the New Yorker. "The death of Ahmed Merabet should provide a way to understand Wednesday's horrific shooting in Paris. Merabet, one of the two policemen shot and killed in Charlie Hebdo massacre, was a French Muslim man who died defending the laws that allow satirists to mock his religion," explains Adam Chandler in the Atlantic.