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L awrence J ournal -W orld - USA TODAY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2015
MASSACRE IN PARIS VOICES
A Paris changed by attacks is my big fear Angela Waters
Special for USA TODAY
BERLIN In my four years studying in Paris, security alerts warning of possible terrorist attacks were a regular occurrence. When they took place, I would avoid certain places in the city: the Champs Élysées, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre or any other tourist lure where some misguided extremist might try to make a statement. It would never have occurred to me to stay away from the Canal St. Martin — near the scene of Friday’s devastating attacks — because I never considered myself a terrorist target, or this area either. The canal area is often filled with young people sitting on the riverbank with guitars and bottles of wine. In the district’s pubs, people down pints. Couples dine in the cafes while clubgoers line up at the entrances of rock venues. A large part of the Canal St. Martin experience involves sitting outside on terraces, which are like courtside seats to the city’s pedestrian spectacle. That’s why cafe tables aren’t set up with the chairs facing each other — they are side-by-side, looking outward like bleachers. And on the weekends, they are packed full. It isn’t the Paris of fashion week, the diplomat set or the
MIGUEL MEDINA, AFP/GETTY IMAGES
People mourn the dead at a makeshift memorial near the Bataclan concert hall in Paris on Sunday, two days after a series of deadly attacks. city’s movers and shakers — it’s just normal people going out on a Friday night, like I used to. While the attack on Paris’ Charlie Hebdo newspaper in January felt symbolic, the Nov. 13 shootings and explosions felt personal. In my university years, I hung out with a crowd that would have attended the Friday concert at the Bataclan. Had I been in Paris that night, I don’t think I would have been far from the violence. As a result, I spent the hours
It’s also troubling that the attacks focused on an area that is far from the tourist draws: It means the targets were people who actually lived there.
after the attacks glued to the computer, checking to make sure that people I know were OK. I was relieved every time my friends marked themselves “safe” on the Facebook crisis app but knew that there were many who wouldn’t be providing this reassurance. People posted pictures of those not yet accounted for. I found myself scrolling through, hoping that I didn’t recognize any of the faces, and that the comments would reveal that my
friends and acquaintances had been out of the country or safe somewhere. I received calls on Friday from friends in San Francisco and New York who knew people who had been at the club. I was lucky enough not to know any of the casualties, but as more information came out about the attacks, my friends weren’t — some of their friends died in the carnage. It’s deeply unsettling that the attackers looked like my friends and me. They were young men in sweatshirts and baseball caps, who obviously knew the city well enough to pick places where they could maximize casualties. It’s also troubling that the attacks focused on an area that is far from the tourist draws: It means the targets were people who actually lived there. Some Parisians say it will be a while before they feel safe going out again. Many spent the weekend inside, which is understandable, especially with the Islamic State threatening more violence. But other people went to work the next day, opening their shops and cafes to keep the city life going. Still, while the randomness of the events can make you feel unsafe almost anywhere, when I go back to Paris next week, there is something I’m even more scared of than terrorists: clubs without lines, empty cafe tables and streets that go quiet after sundown. Waters, who graduated last year from the American University of Paris, is a reporter based in Berlin with Associated Reporters Abroad.
Obama vows to hunt down Paris terrorists Barry Wood
FRANCE, ON EDGE, MOURNS LIVES LOST, CONDEMNS TERROR
Special for USA TODAY
DAVID RAMOS, GETTY IMAGES
Crowds gather at Notre Dame Cathedral for a service to honor victims of the terrorist attacks. Kim Hjelmgaard USA TODAY
The bells of Notre Dame Cathedral pealed as France began three days of mourning Sunday for the lives lost in multiple terrorist attacks with appeals for the nation’s three major religions to remain united against extremists who commit brutality. “It’s war. We know that, but it’s not against a specific group or religion. It’s against a way of life, the French way of life,” said George de Gaulmyn, a volunteer at the Abbey of Saint Germain des Pres, a Catholic Church on the Left Bank of the River Seine. “We live in a dangerous world, all of us accept this, but we should not have to accept such acts of terror. They are not and never can be in the name of any religion.” France, a mostly Catholic country, and Germany have the largest Muslim populations in Europe, with just less than 5 million each. France also has the largest Jewish population in Europe, nearly 500,000, most of them residents of Paris. The church held regular Mass services Sunday. De Gaulmyn said that Andre Vingt-Trois, the Archbishop of Paris, had requested that churches across the capital refrain from engaging in other activities that would draw attention, in the interest of security. The archbishop, who presided over a special service at Notre Dame honoring the victims and survivors, released a message to parishioners in advance: “Our country knows the pain of mourning and must face barbarity propaPARIS
gated by fanatical groups.” During the service, a brief panic erupted when word spread that gunmen were on the loose outside the church. It turned out to be one of many false reports across the city that alarmed Parisians on Sunday as they struggled to regain a sense of normalcy. At the Place de la Republique, a large square that has become a meeting place for mourners, police sent hundreds scrambling for cover in a Metro station beneath the square when they mistook fireworks for gunfire. Earlier, outside the Grand Mosque of Paris, Abd Wahdid, a Parisian of Algerian descent, shook his head in dismay at the barbarity of the rampage. The Islamic State, a radical group seeking to establish a “caliphate” across the Middle East based on a strict interpretation of Islam, claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks, the worst in Paris since World War II. Wahdid said he was frustrated by portrayals of Muslims in the French media as heartless murderers bent on destroying whole civilizations. “Islam did not do this,” he said. He said his personal allegiance is “always (to) both: France and Algeria.” Regular services were closed at the Grand Synagogue of Paris. In the USA, rallies and vigils were held across the country. In Boston, hundreds ralied in support of France. Some people in the somber crowd held posters reading “Je suis Paris” (“I am Paris”). Speaking to the crowd, Valery Freland, the Consul General of France, thanked Boston “for the solidarity and support.”
One attacker had history of petty crimes CHARTRES , FRANCE Police describe a terrorist who blew himself up at the Bataclan concert hall as a petty criminal from France who had several run-ins with the law and was once considered a highpriority target for radicalization, according to Paris prosecutor François Molins. The worst carnage of the attacks was at the Bataclan, where gunmen entered during a concert by an American band and opened fire on hundreds in attendance, leaving 89 dead. One gunman, Omar Ismael Mostefai, was identified by a print from a severed finger found at the scene. Mostefai, 29, once lived in the suburbs of Chartres 90 minutes south of Paris. Mostefai had eight convictions in France for petty crimes from 2004 to 2010 but served no jail time, according to Molins. No direct link to terrorist activity was ever established by police. Ben Ayak Karim, vice president of an association for a mosque near his home, said Mostefai would pray there. “He was normal. Nothing was off,” Karim said.
Maya Vidon, special for USA TODAY
Attacks loom as Syria, refugees top G-20 summit
ANTALYA , TURKEY President Obama joined other world leaders for a summit at this Mediterranean resort Sunday, vowing to join French authorities in hunting down the terrorists responsible for the worst attack on Paris since World War II. “The skies are darkened by the horrific attacks that took place in Paris,” Obama declared after meeting with Turkish President Recep Erdogan ahead of the opening of a two-day meeting of leaders representing the world’s top 20 economies. “We stand in solidarity with them in hunting down the perpetrators of this crime and bringing them to justice.” “The killing of innocent people based on a twisted ideology is not just an attack on France, not just an attack on Ankara, but an attack on the civilized world,” Obama said, referring to Friday night’s Paris attacks that killed 132 people, and bombings in the Turkish capital in October that killed more than POOL PHOTO VIA AFP/GETTY IMAGES 100. Obama and Russian Vladimir Putin met for 35 minutes off to the side of Russian the summit, the White House said. The two leaders President mentioned the progress in Syria talks in Vienna, in- Vladimir cluding the areas of agreement outlined in the In- Putin meets ternational Syria Support Group’s statement of with PresiNov. 14. dent Obama “Specifically, President Obama and President Pu- on the sidetin agreed on the need for a Syrian-led and Syrian- lines of the owned political transition, which would be preced- G20 summit ed by U.N.-mediated negotiations between the on Sunday in Syrian opposition and regime as well a ceasefire,” Antalya, the White House said. Turkey. “As the diplomacy continues, President Obama welcomed efforts by all nations to confront the terrorist group ISIL and noted the importance of Russia’s military efforts in Syria focusing on the group,” it said. Obama said he and Erdogan, the summit’s host, discussed fortifying the borders between Syria and Turkey, redoubling efforts to bring about a peaceful end to the four-year-civil war in Syria and eliminating the Islamic State, the radical group that claimed responsibility for the Paris attacks. The Syrian war has unleashed millions of refugees, most winding up in Turkey and raising concerns that Islamic State terrorists may be among those crossing into Turkey and migrating from there to Western Europe. That concern has been heightened by the discovery of a Syrian passport near the body of one of the Paris terrorists. Obama said the United States stands with Turkey and Europe in reducing the flow of migrants there. Hundreds of thousands of them have entered Europe this year.