Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/602616
ByGregKellerandRaf Casert TheAssociatedPress PARIS France identified a 27-year-old Belgian who once boasted about killing "infidels" and fought for the Islamic State group in Syria as the mastermind of the Paris attacks, and Pres- ident Francois Hollande vowed Monday to forge a united coalition capable of defeating the jihadists at home and abroad. Addressing lawmakers after France observed a minute of silence honor- ing the 129 people killed and 350 wounded, Hol- lande said the victims came from at least 19 nations, and the international com- munity, led by the United States and Russia, must overcome their deep-seated divisions over Syria to de- stroy Islamic State on its home turf. 'Acts of war' "Friday's acts of war were decided and planned in Syria. They were orga- nized in Belgium and per- petrated on our soil with French complicity with one specific goal: to sow fear and to divide us," Hol- lande told Parliament in a rare joint session convened at the Palace of Versailles. "Syria has become the biggest factory of terrorism the world has ever known and the international com- munity is still too divided and too incoherent." As he spoke, thousands gathered around candlelit memorials at the Place de la Republique square and beneath the Eiffel Tower, which like many top at- tractions in one of the world's most-visited cit- ies reopened for business Monday in a defiant spirit. The tower was bathed in red, white and blue flood- lights of the French tri- color, with the city's centu- ries-old slogan — "Tossed but not sunk," suggesting an unsinkable city braving stormy seas — projected in white lights near its base. French and other West- ern intelligence agencies face an urgent challenge to track down the surviv- ing members of the three Islamic State units who in- flicted the unprecedented bloodshed in France and, perhaps more importantly, to target their distant com- manders in IS-controlled parts of Syria. A French security offi- cial said anti-terror intel- ligence officials had identi- fied Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian of Moroccan de- scent, as chief architect of the Friday the 13th attacks on a rock concert, a soccer game and popular night- spots in one of Paris' trend- iest districts. The official cited chat- ter from IS figures that Abaaoud had recom- mended a concert as an ideal target for inflicting maximum casualties, as well as electronic commu- nications between Abaaoud and one of the Paris attack- ers who blew himself up. Abaaoud came to pub- lic attention last year by boasting in an IS propa- ganda video about his pride in piling the dead bodies of "infidel" enemies into a trailer. Anti-terror agencies previously linked him to a series of abortive shoot- ing plots this year in Bel- gium and France, includ- ing a planned attack on a passenger train that was thwarted by American pas- sengers who overpowered the lone gunman. French police have used emergency powers to con- duct 168 searches since Sunday night that netted 127 arrests and 31 weapons. French Interior Minis- ter Bernard Cazeneuve said police seized a Kalashnikov assault rifle, three auto- matic pistols and a bullet- proof vest from a suspected arms dealer with jihadist sympathies, and a rocket launcher and other mili- tary-grade gear from his parents' home. But police have yet to announce the capture of anyone suspected of direct involvement in Friday's slaughter. Seven attackers died — six after detonat- ing suicide belts and a sev- enth from police gunfire — but Iraqi intelligence offi- cials told The Associated Press that its sources in- dicated 19 participated in the attack and five others provided hands-on logisti- cal support. French police acciden- tally permitted the sus- pected driver of one group of gunmen, 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, to avoid arrest at the border Satur- day and cross to his native Belgium. TERRORIST ATTACKS FranceIDstopParisattacks figure, seeks unity to defeat IS GUILLAUMEHORCAJUELO French President Francois Hollande, center, flanked by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, right, and French Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, center le , stands among students during a minute of silence in the courtyard of the Sorbonne University in Paris on Monday. SUSAN WALSH — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS President Barack Obama waves as he concludes his news conference a er the G-20Summit in Antalya, Turkey. By Julie Pace The Associated Press ANTALYA, TURKEY Pres- ident Barack Obama on Monday firmly rejected calls for a shift in U.S. strategy against the Is- lamic State following the Paris attacks, saying Re- publicans who want to send ground troops into the vol- atile region are "talking as if they're tough" but fail to understand the potentially grave consequences. "Folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do," Obama said in a news conference wrapping up a two-day summit of world leaders in Turkey. "If they think that somehow their advisers are better than the chairman of my Joint Chiefs of Staff and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them. And we can have that debate." In a stinging rebuke, the president condemned Re- publicans who have sug- gested U.S. assistance to ref- ugeesfleeingtheMiddleEast should focus on Christians, not Muslims. GOP presiden- tial candidates Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz have made such suggestions, while some Re- publican governors want to ban all Syrian refugees from their states. "That's shameful," he said. "That's not American. It's not who we are." Republican National Committee Chairman Re- ince Priebus called Obama's statements "excuse-laden and defensive." Even before the Paris at- tacks, Obama was under pressure from allies and his own administration to show progress in the cam- paign against the Islamic State. The assault in the heart of Western Europe was part of a troubling pat- tern showing the group fo- cusing new attention on targets outside its base in Iraq and Syria. Obama conceded that the attacks in France marked a "terrible and sickening set- back" in the anti-Islamic State campaign. But he in- sisted his strategy of build- ing an international coali- tion to launch airstrikes, while training and equip- ping more moderate forces on the ground, is the best approach. "The strategy that we are putting forward is the strat- egy that ultimately is going to work," Obama said. "It's going to take time." The president has de- ployed more than 3,000 U.S. troops to Iraq to assist local security forces, and he re- cently announced plans to send 50 special operations forces to Syria. Obama rejects calls for shi in ISIS fight G-2O SUMMIT By Calvin Woodward The Associated Press WASHINGTON The Paris at- tacks are rapidly weakening U.S. support for bringing in thousands more Syrian ref- ugees, as pressure grows in Congress and the Republi- can presidential campaign to reverse course and gover- nors once open to resettle- ment now try to shut their states' doors. President Barack Obama held firm to current plans on Monday, appealing to Americans to "not close our hearts" to Syria's vic- tims of war and terrorism and denouncing calls from Republican candidates to favor Syrian Christians over Muslims in the refu- gee influx. His remarks, at a summit of world leaders in Turkey, seemed aimed at heading off a wave of anti- Muslim sentiment reminis- cent of the 9/11 era, as much as keeping open the path- way for refugees. America's vision of itself as a welcoming destination for the displaced was collid- ing with its recent memories of devastation caused by ter- rorists, all part of a quan- dary over what to do about the masses of people escap- ing the brutality of the Syr- ian conflict, perhaps with radicals in their midst. On Monday: • Republican lawmak- ers called for suspension of the Syrian refugee pro- gram and threatened to try to stop it in legislation that must pass by Dec. 11 to keep the government running. New House Speaker Paul Ryan neither endorsed nor ruled out that course. • Republican presidential candidates, already skepti- cal if not hostile to the ref- ugee-welcoming plan be- fore the attacks, stepped up their rhetoric against it. Donald Trump said the U.S. should increase surveil- lance of mosques, consider closing any of them tied to radicals and be prepared to suspend some civil liber- ties. He'd been among the first to warn that the refu- gee crisis could represent a "Trojan horse" with terror- ists infiltrating the ranks of innocent refugees. Calls by GOP rivals Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush to give preference to Christian refugees from Syria prompted a sharp re- buke from Obama. "Shame- ful," he said. "We don't have a religious test for our com- passion." • Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered his state's refugee resettlement program not to accept any more Syrians, and more Republican gov- ernors announced or sug- gested they were suspend- ing cooperation with Wash- ington on the program, at least until they are assured the newcomers were be- ing vetted effectively for security risks. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, also a presidential contender, is- sued an executive order in- tended to block Syrian ref- ugees from being resettled in his state. None of the gov- ernors, though, has the au- thority to prevent refugees from moving into a state. At the heart of the de- bate is the Obama admin- istration's decision to raise the nation's annual limit of 70,000 refugees by 10,000, with most of the new slots for Syrians, in the budget year that started Oct. 1. That potential Syrian influx pales in comparison with the masses coming to Europe and those being ac- cepted elsewhere. Canada, with just more than one- tenth of the U.S. population, plans to take in 25,000 Syri- ans in the next few months. But indications that at least one of the attackers who killed 129 people in Paris may have crossed into France with refugees have given critics of Obama's plan afootingto demandacutoff. "Until we can sort out the bad guys, we must not be foolish," Republican presi- dential contender Ben Car- son said after a Nevada campaign swing Monday. And he said of Syrians al- ready in the U.S: "I would watch them very carefully." Like Trump and others in the GOP race, Carson was critical of the resettle- ment program before Paris came under assault. But the attacks were persuasive to some who had been more open to the idea or on the fence. "It's not that we don't want to, it's that we can't," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Sunday. In September, he'd been "open to that" if effective screening could be assured. Bush, too, altered his tone, asserting the "focus ought to be on the Chris- tians who have no place in Syria anymore," because "they're being beheaded, they're being executed by both sides." Before the at- tacks, he had spoken of moderate Muslims also be- ing slaughtered in Syria, when arguing that the U.S. had a responsibility to pro- tect them, as well. WEAKENING SUPPORT US refugee quandary pits legacy of immigrants vs. Sept. 11-era fears MUHAMMED MUHEISEN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE A Syrian refugee child sleeps in his father's arms while they wait at a resting point on the Greek island of Lesbos. | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2015 8 A