ONE WORLD ORDER CLIMATE CHANGE PACT APPROVED BY 200 NATIONS: (AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH)

#‎parisagreement‬

ONE WORLD ORDER CLIMATE CHANGE PACT APPROVED BY 200 NATIONS: (AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH)

"PARIS AGREEMENT" IS NOT REALLY ABOUT REDUCING CARBON EMISSIONS.

GOOD-BYE FOREVER TO THE MIDDLE CLASS.

~ Climate change pact adopted by delegates of nearly 200 nations

LE BOURGET, France -

Nearly 200 nations adopted the first global pact to fight climate change on Saturday, calling on the world to collectively cut and then eliminate greenhouse gas pollution but imposing no sanctions on countries that don't.

The "Paris agreement" aims to keep global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and 2100, a key demand of poor countries ravaged by rising sea levels and other effects of climate change.

The countries pledge to limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100.

Achieving such a reduction in emissions would involve a complete transformation of how people get energy, and many activists worry that despite the pledges, countries are not ready to make such profound and costly changes.

The deal now needs to be ratified by individual governments - at least 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions - before taking effect.

The White House is calling the Paris accord "the most ambitious climate change agreement in history" and says it establishes "a long-term, durable global framework" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is praising the new accord on global warming as a deal that will save the world for generations to come, saying "it's a victory for all of the planet and for future generations."

Kerry told fellow negotiators Saturday in Paris that "it will help the world prepare for the impacts of climate change that are already here and also for those that we already know are on our way inevitably." He added the pact would "prevent the worst most devastating consequences of climate change from ever happening."

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore says "years from now, our grandchildren will reflect on humanity's moral courage to solve the climate crisis. And they will look to December 12, 2015, as the day when the community of nations finally made the decision to act."

Nicaragua's U.S.-born climate envoy, Paul Oquist, told climate negotiators that his country is "not able to support the consensus." He said the agreement does not go far enough and leads to twice as much global warming as the stated goals.

South African environment minister Edna Molewa calls the pact "the best we can get at this historic moment."

She says it "can map a turning point to a better and safer world" but she added that developed countries still have to cut emissions more and help poorer nations to counter the effects of global warming.

Post Sources: AP, WTHR, PBS, YouTube

MILLIONAIRE TAX: France's Pres Francois Hollande Keeps His Campaign Promise ("FAIR SHARE")

#MillionaireTAX

MILLIONAIRE TAX: FRANCE MAKES RICH PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE

PRES HOLLANDE KEEPS HIS CAMPAIGN PROMISE (WHERE'S PRES OBAMA??)


"France's 75% Millionaire Tax To Become Law"

French President François Hollande had been pushing for a 75% tax on the super-rich since his 2012 presidential campaign.

France's controversial "millionaire tax" is set to become law, allowing the government to levy a 75% tax on companies that pay salaries in excess of €1 million.

The tax was approved by France's constitutional council on Sunday after an earlier version was deemed unconstitutional last year.

President François Hollande introduced the tax as a way to force the rich to help France shrink its massive budget deficit and support the sagging economy.

It had originally been created as a tax on individuals, but was eventually shifted to a tax on companies paying high annual salaries.

According to the constitutional council, employers must pay the levy on salaries exceeding €1 million ($1.4 million) a year.

The tax will apply for two years -- 2013 and 2014 -- and will not be allowed to surpass 5% of a company's annual revenue.

Hollande has said the new tax is "symbolic" and designed to make a political statement about economic fairness.

The tax is not ultimately expected to be a big money-maker, with the French government estimating the tax will affect roughly 470 companies.

"This tax was born in the heat of Hollande's [2012] presidential campaign," said James Shields, a professor of French politics at Aston University in the U.K. "It's only a tax for two years. It's temporary. So yes, this is highly symbolic."

The tax proposals prompted a severe backlash from high-profile business people, movie stars and soccer clubs.

Earlier this year, French soccer clubs had threatened to boycott a number of matches after learning they would not be exempt from the tax, though the boycotts were later called off.

The initial tax proposal also prompted famous French actor Gerard Depardieu to take up Russian citizenship to protest against the tax.

Source: CNN Money

Mohammed Merah Shot Dead By French Police! Was On U.S. "No-Fly" List

Suspect in French Killings Slain as Police Storm Apartment After 30-Hour Siege

Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old former garage mechanic who claimed responsibility for the brutal slayings of four men and three children, was shot dead on Thursday when security forces stormed the apartment where he had barricaded himself for more than 30 hours.

The death of Mr. Merah brought a violent end to a series of events that transfixed France, but also left unsettling questions about potential lapses by intelligence services, and the lives they may have cost.

Mr. Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian descent who claimed ties to Al Qaeda but apparently acted alone, was struck in the head by a bullet in the final moments of a fierce firefight, said François Molins, the prosecutor who led the investigation into the killings. Mr. Merah was found dead on the ground after leaping from the apartment through a low window, still firing, according to the interior minister, Claude Guéant. A Colt .45 pistol was found near him, with just two rounds remaining and an empty magazine nearby.

The authorities said they had hoped to take Mr. Merah alive, seeking information about homegrown terrorists and his shadowy path to Islamic radicalism. While the difficulty in preventing attacks by such “lone wolf” killers is widely acknowledged, Mr. Merah, who had traveled to both Pakistan and Afghanistan, was in fact well known to the French police and intelligence services.

The foreign minister, Alain Juppé, told French radio before the raid on Thursday morning: “I can understand that one might wonder if there was a lapse or not. We need to bring clarity to this.”

Mr. Molins and other officials seemed at pains to explain why Mr. Merah had failed to attract the attention of investigators earlier, especially before he killed his final four victims, including three children, at a Jewish school on Monday.

“He’s not an individual who went to Afghanistan and Pakistan by taking the usual paths, which are obtained by certain facilitators and monitored by specialized services,” Mr. Molins said. “He figured it out all on his own.”

Yet, Mr. Molins said on Wednesday that Mr. Merah was arrested some years ago in Afghanistan by the Afghan police and turned over to the American military, which transferred him to the French authorities. He had also been on the United States government’s no-fly list for “some time,” an American law enforcement official said on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be identified discussing national security matters. It is not clear whether the United States authorities shared that information with their French counterparts.

Asked why Mr. Merah had not been under closer scrutiny in France, Mr. Molins said that “thousands” of French people travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan, explaining that France does not have the resources to monitor all of them.

Several terrorism experts disagreed, saying that Mr. Merah appeared to have been overlooked or underestimated, and adding that only about 15 to 30 men with a similar profile travel from France to the region each year.

“We’re not good enough at detecting them,” said Laurent Montet, a director and instructor at the Institute of High Studies in Criminology.

Mr. Molins also acknowledged that Mr. Merah was known to have “jihadist sympathies,” and had been questioned by intelligence services as recently as November, after returning from two months in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The officials apparently accepted his explanation that he had been there as a tourist.

Mr. Merah procured a prodigious stock of firearms and ammunition — including several automatic weapons, which are rare in France — activity that is most likely to have involved contact with criminal groups and ought to have drawn the attention of French intelligence, said Mr. Montet, the criminologist.

There were also suggestions that more effective data analysis might have led the police to Mr. Merah in time to prevent his last murders. He was identified as a suspect only Monday afternoon, after the final four killings, according to Mr. Molins. Yet investigators had been in possession of the evidence that led them to him — an Internet trail that connected him to the first killing — since Saturday.

“Something might have been possible, here one can wonder a bit, in effect,” said Alain Bauer, a criminologist with the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers.

French law is highly protective of personal privacy, Mr. Bauer noted, and French intelligence services are restricted in their ability to mine databases for potential threats, and take a more qualitative approach.

“In the United States, it’s the system that counts,” the antiterrorism magistrate Marc Trévidic said in an interview last year. “In France, it’s the men.”

Mr. Merah killed with shocking coldness, witnesses said, shooting each of his seven victims with a round to the head at point-blank range and filming his exploits, Mr. Molins said. According to the prosecutor, in the first recording Mr. Merah can be heard telling his victim, a soldier, “You kill my brothers; I’m killing you.”

In a video from the second shooting, which left two paratroopers dead and one critically wounded, Mr. Merah departs from the scene on a powerful motor scooter shouting, “God is great!”

Just before noon on Thursday, officers entered Mr. Merah’s apartment through a front door and windows, said Mr. Guéant, the interior minister. As the police reached the bathroom, Mr. Merah surged out “firing with extreme violence,” Mr. Guéant said.

More than 300 rounds reportedly were discharged in the firefight. One officer was slightly wounded, and two others were in shock.

Over the course of the siege, which began in the predawn darkness, Mr. Merah made a series of disclosures, officials said, claiming the seven killings and saying he had planned at least three more. The killings, he said, were meant to avenge the suffering of Palestinian children and to protest French intervention abroad as well as the banning of the full Islamic veil in France.

While he had earlier indicated that he hoped to live, just before 11 p.m. on Wednesday, Mr. Merah told the police he did not fear death. “I will go to paradise,” he said, according to Mr. Molins. At that point, he ceased communicating with negotiators. The raid began just under 12 hours later.

The authorities found ammunition of various calibers in the apartment, along with materials for gasoline bombs and several empty bullet clips. At his death, he wore a bullet-proof vest, a black djellaba, or traditional robe, and jeans, Mr. Molins said.

Investigators will now seek to determine if Mr. Merah indeed acted alone, as he insisted. Mr. Merah’s brother Abdelkader, 29, whom the authorities have described as a known Islamist radical with connections to jihadi networks, remains in police custody, along with his mother and a friend. Explosives were found in a car belonging to Abdelkader.

Earlier in the investigation, the authorities suspected both Merah brothers of potential involvement.

On Tuesday, the two were identified as primary suspects in the case, Mr. Molins said.

Plans were made late that night to arrest them, along with their mother. Even then, however, investigators had been unable to determine which of the two brothers was the man they were seeking.

It was not until Mr.Merah opened fired on the police agents sent to capture him that he became the prime suspect.


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Sources: CNN, NY Times, Russia Today, Youtube, Google Maps

Mohammed Merah: Lead Suspect In France-Based Jewish School Assassins (Al Qaeda Jihadist)

Who is French shootings suspect Mohammed Merah?

Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old man described by French authorities as a self-styled al Qaeda jihadist, has been named as the chief suspect in a series of shootings that have left seven people dead.

As a standoff with security forces in Toulouse continued Wednesday, a picture emerged of a man who was already known to the police and had apparently sought out Islamist jihadists in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"He claims to be a jihadist and says he belongs to al Qaeda," Interior Minister Claude Gueant told reporters in Toulouse. "He wanted to avenge the Palestinian children and take revenge on the French army because of its foreign interventions."

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the suspect told the officers surrounding his apartment that he had acted alone -- and that he had intended to carry out more attacks on police and a soldier Wednesday.

His only regret was that he was not able to kill more people, the prosecutor said.

But, Molins added, Merah indicated he was not on a suicide mission. He "does not have the soul of someone who would commit suicide, does not have the soul of a martyr. He would prefer to kill and to live," the prosecutor said.

A French national of Algerian origin, Merah had been under surveillance by French intelligence for a couple of years, having "already committed certain infractions, some with violence," Gueant told CNN affiliate BFM-TV.

Merah has spent considerable time in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the minister added.

Lawyer Christian Etelin, who represented Merah in connection with previous minor offenses, said his client went to Afghanistan two years ago.

He had become suddenly radicalized, Etelin told CNN affiliate BFM-TV, and wanted to become more involved politically.

Etelin last saw Merah, whom he described as having a "complex" personality, on February 24, when he appeared in court accused of driving without a license and causing an accident with injuries.

Merah was sentenced to a month in prison and was to appear before the judge again in early April to determine where he would serve that sentence, the attorney said.

But a series of clues, some relating to a scooter used in the attacks, instead led investigators to the apartment in Toulouse where he holed up under siege for hours, Molins said.

The shootings have revealed a ruthless and determined killer.

All seven victims were shot in the head, most at point-blank range, and authorities said they were carefully targeted because of their religious and ethnic backgrounds.

The gunman's first victims were three soldiers of North African origin who had recently returned from Afghanistan, who were shot dead in two separate incidents.

Days later, the killer struck again, killing a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school Monday.

Merah claims to want to bring France "to its knees," Molins said.

He told police he had trained with al Qaeda in Pakistan's Waziristan region, bordering Afghanistan, Molins said.

He was sent back to France after being picked up at a traffic stop by Afghan police who reported his presence to international forces, the prosecutor said.

Although his neighbors describe him as being a quiet man, at home Merah had watched violent jihadist videos online, including footage of decapitations, Molins said.

He was sentenced 15 times by a Toulouse juvenile court when he was a minor, the prosecutor added.

The French defense ministry said Merah had twice tried to join the country's armed forces.
The first time, in the northern city of Lille, he was turned down because of his prior convictions.

The second time, in July 2010, he attempted to sign up for the Foreign Legion in Toulouse but left during the first round of testing, the ministry said.

As the net closed on the suspect early Wednesday, two police officers were wounded as shots were fired from the apartment where he is holed up.

Gueant said authorities found weapons in the suspect's car, which was parked near the building.

Police tracked Merah down via his brother's computer IP address, which was apparently used to respond to an advertisement posted by the first victim, Gueant said.

His brother Abdelkader Merah has been detained, and police are questioning other family members, including his mother, Zoulika Aziri, Molins said.

She lives in the Toulouse suburb of Mirail, BFM-TV reported.

Merah's activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan led to him being placed under surveillance by France's domestic intelligence agency, the Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence, for suspected involvement as a radical Salafist, Gueant said.

But little is known about what might have triggered a radicalization.

He was born in Toulouse in October 1988, according to Elisabeth Allanic, magistrate at the prosecutor's office in Paris, and at one time he worked in a garage in a Toulouse suburb.

Lawyer Etelin told BFM-TV he had represented Merah since 2004 or 2005, when his client was a minor, mostly over accusations of theft.

He said Merah had been "polite and courteous" and had shown no signs then of a tendency toward radicalization.

That might have changed after his trips to Pakistan and Afghanistan, but Etelin said he didn't notice a big difference.

"I never discussed his political ideas with him. I knew he was politically active but he never spoke to me about this. He didn't want to talk about this," Etelin said.

"He was very discreet on this. But I never had the impression that he was an individual radically different from the one I knew in the beginning. I always knew him as being someone very flexible in his behavior, courteous, polite, soft and certainly not rigid to the point of being led by a certain fanaticism."

Etelin has mainly been in contact with Merah's older sister, who, along with their mother, he recounted, was "exasperated" with Merah's minor crimes and said "it was not possible to see him being serious."

Merah grew up in a northern suburb of Toulouse called Les Izards, which Etelin described as an area with some drug-related activity.

Merah was never mixed up in drug-related incidents but rather with robbery, he said.
Etelin has not spoken to Merah since he was named as the suspect in the killings in Toulouse and Montauban but fears the siege of his apartment will end in further violence.

"There is no situation more terrible than the one he is in now, where he will die or will commit suicide," Etelin said.

French authorities continue to negotiate with the suspect as they seek to take him into custody alive.


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French Jewish School Assassin Is Islamic Extremist Linked To Jihadist Group

French Police Say They Have Cornered Suspect in School Shooting

A 23-year-old man suspected in the methodical killings of four men and three children in this region over the past 10 days barricaded himself in a small apartment building in Toulouse early Wednesday as negotiators tried to secure his surrender.

In a standoff that stretched past 12 hours, he fired several heavy volleys at the hundreds of police officers ringing the building, injuring two, though neither seriously. At one point the suspect threw a .45-caliber pistol from the window, the same kind used in each of the three attacks.

Officials identified the man in French media reports as Mohammed Merah, a French national of Algerian descent. Interior Minister Claude Guéant, speaking at the site, said the man told negotiators that he belonged to Al Qaeda and that the attacks were meant to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children and to protest French military deployments abroad.

Investigators believe the suspect was the motorcyclist behind the killings of three paratroopers in Toulouse and the nearby city of Montauben, all three of Arab descent, over the past 10 days ago. They also believe he conducted an attack on Monday outside a Jewish school that killed a rabbi, two of his young children, and an 8-year-old girl. The gunman held the girl by the hair to execute, pausing to switch to a 9-millimeter gun when his .45 jammed. Investigators believe he was wearing a camera around his neck at the school to record his murders.

The chief editor of France 24 said in a televised interview that she had spoken by telephone to a man who claimed to be the shooter in the hours before the police surrounded his building. “He was calm, was speaking in very good French and punctuated by Arabic expressions,” said the editor, Ebba Kalondo. She said he spoke of planning more attacks and that he intended to post video of his killings online.

The suspect had traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan and called himself a mujahedeen, or freedom fighter, and had been under surveillance by the French domestic intelligence service for several years, Mr. Guéant said, “though nothing whatsoever allowed us to think he was at the point of committing a criminal act.” He became a suspect on Monday afternoon, after investigators traced an IP address, used in connection with the killing of the first paratrooper 10 days ago, to the suspect’s mother, according to Pierre-Henry Brandet, a spokesman for Mr. Guéant.

Aviv Zonabend, the vice president of the local branch of the Crif, France’s most prominent Jewish organization, who met with Mr. Guéant on Wednesday morning, gave a slightly different account, saying that investigators apparently had been unable to locate the suspect before the shootings on Monday.

The police action started shortly after 3 a.m. on Wednesday after lengthy planning late Tuesday night, officials said.

The suspect’s mother was taken to the building by police in the hope that she would help persuade the man to surrender, Mr. Guéant said, but she declined to speak to him, saying that he had refused to listen to her in the past. The suspect’s brother, who was known locally for his radical religious ideology, was detained with a friend outside Toulouse for questioning on Monday, Mr. Guéant said, without giving details. The mother was also being questioned Wednesday afternoon, according to the prosecutor leading the investigation.

President Nicolas Sarkozy presided over a funeral service for the three paratroopers in nearby Montauban on Wednesday. A fourth paratrooper was critically wounded in the attacks in that city; he was black.

The bodies of those killed at the school were flown overnight to Israel for burial. They were Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, a religious instructor; his two sons, Arye, 6, and Gabriel, 3; and Miriam Monsonego, 8, the daughter of the school’s principal. Rabbi Sandler was a French citizen; the three children had dual French-Israeli nationality.

Mr. Sarkozy had ordered the region’s security alert to the high level of “scarlet,” giving security forces wide powers that include the authority to close some public places, halt and search buses and trains and deploy combined patrols of police officers and soldiers. Police officers were ordered to guard Muslim and Jewish schools and places of worship across the region.

A French lawyer in Toulouse told the BFMTV broadcaster that he had represented a teenage Mr. Merah multiple times for relatively petty crimes. The lawyer, Christian Etelin, said, “I defended him multiple times in juvenile court for thefts and for violence, for the kinds of delinquency that is common in these neighborhoods.”

Before the authorities said on Wednesday that their prime suspect claimed ties to Al Qaeda, many analysts had speculated that he might have been motivated by extreme right-wing passions coinciding with the presidential elections.

After the shootings on Monday, the main candidates in the French presidential campaign, including Mr. Sarkozy, suspended their campaigns as political debate swirled around whether the killings were somehow inspired by anti-immigrant rhetoric. The campaign has been long and heated, and Mr. Sarkozy has been trying to win back voters who drifted to the far-right National Front party.

It remained unclear what the effect of the killings would be on the election, which is only a few weeks away. Nor was it clear whether they would further stoke anti-Muslim rhetoric in the country. Muslims complain widely of feeling vilified by some political elements, on the right in particular, and the anti-immigration far right has been gaining unprecedented popularity in recent months. Some analysts have suggested that the deaths could cause a calming of the political discourse.

In Paris on Wednesday morning, Mr. Sarkozy met with Jewish and Muslim leaders and called for restraint and solidarity among the populace. “We must be united,” he said in a brief address. “We must yield neither to easy falsehoods nor to vengeance.”

Before meeting with Mr. Sarkozy, Richard Prasquier, the national head of Crif, the Jewish organization, said: “It is absolutely excluded that we confuse this character — and the Islamist, jihadist, Al -Qaeda-linked movement he represents — and the Islam of France, which is a religion like all other religions.”

“These acts are in total contradiction with the foundations of this religion,” said Mohammed Moussaoui, the president of the French Council for the Muslim Faith, who also met with Mr. Sarkozy.


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Jewish Synagogues & Schools In NYC On Alert Following Shootings In France Targeting Jewish Communities

Gunman Reportedly Filmed Lethal Shooting Spree at French Jewish School

A day after an attack outside a Jewish school here killed a rabbi and three young children, the French authorities offered fresh details on Tuesday of an assault that has stunned the nation and terrorized the city, saying the lone gunman seemed to be filming his actions as he coolly shot his victims to death.

Claude Guéant, the interior minister, told a French radio station that surveillance footage from the school’s security cameras showed what appeared to be a video camera strapped to the gunman’s chest — adding a lurid detail to the most deadly attack against Jews in France in 30 years.

With the nation’s terrorism alert at its highest level — “scarlet” — the French authorities pursued a broad and high-profile search on Tuesday for the assailant, but Mr. Guéant said little was known about him.

The attack has been linked to two earlier shootings of French paratroopers, with the police saying that the same gun, a .45-caliber automatic pistol, was used in all three assaults. The authorities have also said that the methods were the same — a man on a powerful motorbike, also the same in each instance, who killed and then fled.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has called the shooting a “national tragedy” and ordered a minute’s silence at schools across France at 11 a.m.

The bodies of at least three of Monday’s four victims were to be flown Tuesday to Israel for burial, said Nicole Yardeni, who leads the regional branch of the Crif, France’s most prominent Jewish association. Mr. Sarkozy will preside over a funeral service on Wednesday for the three soldiers killed in the earlier attacks.

The “scarlet” alert level, one step short of a formal state of emergency, gives security forces wide powers that include the authority to close some public places like railroad stations and deploy mixed patrols of police officers and soldiers, news reports said.

On Monday, Mr. Sarkozy also said he had sent gendarmes and riot police officers to guard all Jewish and Muslim schools and places of worship in the region until the killer is stopped.

The local prosecutor, Michel Valet, said that a religious instructor, his two children and another child, the daughter of the school’s director, were killed in Monday’s attack and that a 17-year-old boy was seriously wounded. The killer “shot at everything he could see, children and adults, and some children were chased into the school,” Mr. Valet said.

The suspect pursued his last victim, an 8-year-old girl, into the concrete courtyard, seizing and stopping her by her hair, said Ms. Yardeni, who viewed surveillance footage of the killing.

His gun appeared to jam at that point, Ms. Yardeni said. Still holding the girl, the killer then changed weapons, from what police identified as a 9-millimeter pistol to the .45-caliber. He shot her in the head and left, never removing his motorcycle helmet.

“It is unbearable that someone could dehumanize children to this point,” Ms. Yardeni said, choking back tears.

Antiterrorism magistrates arrived from Paris to take charge of the investigation into all three shootings on Monday, officials said, working under the belief that a single person carried out the attacks.

On Monday, the killer arrived and fled on a motorbike, following the same approach used in the two previous attacks. In those shootings, a man wearing a motorcycle helmet killed three French paratroopers and critically wounded another. The soldiers were all Arab or black, and appeared to have been targeted specifically, witnesses said.

“We know that it is the same person, the same arm that killed the soldiers, the children and a teacher,” Mr. Sarkozy said Monday night.

“We are faced with an individual who targets his victims specifically,” said Élisabeth Allannic, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor’s office, which is handling the investigation. “He targets his victims for what they represent.” The interior minister, Mr. Guéant, said it was worrying that the gunman seemed to act with impunity and coldness, and that he clearly had a sophisticated knowledge of weapons.

Immediately after the shooting Monday morning, leading politicians and Jewish community leaders descended on the school, Ozar Hatorah, a low-slung brick and stucco complex in a quiet warren of residential streets known as La Roseraie, or the Rose Garden, just outside downtown Toulouse. A tall, white corrugated metal wall fences the school off from the street; six bullet holes, numbered by the police, were visible in the wall.

Officials identified the victims as Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, a religious instructor at the school; his two sons, Arye, 6, and Gabriel, 3; and Miriam Monsonego, 8, who is the daughter of the school’s principal, Yaacov Monsonego.

Rabbi Sandler came to Toulouse from Jerusalem with his family in July to teach at the school, a friend said. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the rabbi was a French citizen but that his wife was Israeli and that their children had dual nationality. Israel announced that in accordance with the wishes of the families, the victims would be flown to Israel on Tuesday for burial.

Another student, 17, a boy, was said to be wounded and in critical condition at a hospital.

“The community is in shock,” said Arié Bensemhoun, a Jewish leader in Toulouse. About 20,000 Jews live in Toulouse, Mr. Bensemhoun said, a tightknit network confronted with what he characterized as regular anti-Semitic violence and vandalism in recent years in this area of southwest France, where there are also many Muslim immigrants.

Security cameras were installed at Ozar Hatorah about 10 years ago, after a string of anti-Semitic incidents, apparently linked to the second Palestinian intifada, recalled Alain Assraf, 53, whose children were students there at the time.

About 550,000 Jews are estimated to live in France, the largest Jewish population in Europe.

There has been no claim of responsibility for any of the murders, though there has been some speculation that the killings might be tied to the court-martial several years ago of a group neo-Nazi soldiers who had been members of the 17th Parachute Transport Regiment. Three of the four soldiers attacked in recent days were members of that unit.

The shooting on Monday was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in France since 1982, when the Chez Jo Goldenberg restaurant in Paris was bombed at lunchtime, killing 6 people and wounding 22. In 1980, a terrorist group attacked a Jewish synagogue on the Rue Copernic in Paris, killing 4 people and wounding about 40.

The French authorities ordered heightened security and surveillance for all religious schools after the shooting. Mr. Sarkozy and his main rival for the presidency, François Hollande, both broke off their political campaigns to rush to the scene.

On Monday evening, Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Hollande joined numerous other political leaders and public officials at a memorial service at the Nazareth Synagogue in Paris. The congregation sang psalms, but the politicians did not speak.

Ozar Hatorah is a Jewish society promoting religious education among young people, especially in the Middle East, northern Africa and among Sephardic Jews in France.

The authorities have been hunting for the gunman since the soldiers were killed last week, and the military has told soldiers not to wear uniforms in public.

The wave of killings has stunned and infuriated France, prompting tense speculation about its cause. Even before the shooting on Monday, there was discussion about a possible racial or ethnic component to the attacks. Speculation over the motives for the killings ranged from anger at Muslims fighting in Afghanistan — the unit of three of the soldiers has been deployed there — and anti-Semitism, to a hatred of immigrants.

Leaders from across the globe condemned the killings, including representatives of the Vatican and the White House. The Israeli ambassador to France, Yossi Gal, also traveled to Toulouse from Paris on Monday.

The front page of Tuesday’s Libération, the leftist daily national newspaper, showed only the names and ages of the seven victims, as well as the dates they were killed, against a black background.

Le Figaro, the rightist daily newspaper, also devoted its front page to the killings on Tuesday, with a page-width headline reading, “France Horrified.”


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Nafissatou Diallo's PR Campaign Garners Public Support; Stops Character Assassination

Let's Hear It For Nafissatou Diallo! Alleged Rape Victim Of Former IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Ms. Diallo's Decision To Come Forth To The Public, Defend Her Name & Give An Extremely Detailed Account Of What Happened In DSK's Lavish Manhattan Hotel Room Has Garnered Her Much Support From Women & Common, Everyday Citizens Well Aware Of How Frequently People With Great Wealth Are Allowed To Simply Walk Away After Committing Crimes.

I Admire Ms. Diallo For Boldly Speaking Out Despite The Manhattan D.A.'s Office Attempt To Destroy Her Character.

Had She Not Come Forth To The Public Soon, Cyrus Vance's Office Would Have Totally Destroyed Her & Dismissed The Case Like Yesterday.

Just Because Ms. Diallo Is A Victim Of Life's Circumstances, Does NOT Mean She's A Liar Or Gold Digger!

You Go Girl!!




The Real DSK Maid Tape

The lawyer for the hotel maid who has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault tells The Daily Beast that tape recordings in the possession of prosecutors capture her describing her alleged attack to an incarcerated friend less than 24 hours after it occurred in a manner consistent with what she told police and prosecutors.

The tapes also show a much different conversation about lawyers and money than what was leaked by authorities earlier this month in a newspaper report, attorney Kenneth Thompson said late Wednesday night after listening to the audio recordings for the first time.

Thompson and the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, 32, met Wednesday with the New York District Attorney’s Office for the first time in nearly a month after the relationship between the alleged victim and prosecutors fell apart over questions about her credibility.

The meeting came just days after Diallo described the attack in an exclusive interview with NEWSWEEK.

Strauss-Kahn was the head of the International Monetary Fund and a leading candidate for French president before Diallo accused him of attacking her and forcing her to have oral sex after she entered his luxury suite to clean it May 14 at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan.

After being arrested, Strauss-Kahn resigned his IMF post and has pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and attempted rape in a case that has fascinated two continents and taken several dramatic turns.

After steadfastly standing by Diallo, prosecutors disclosed late last month they had serious reservations about her credibility after learning she lied to them about an earlier rape in her home country of Guinea, filed a false tax return, and lied on her application seeking asylum in the United States.

During an eight-hour session Wednesday, the prosecutors grilled Diallo about her conduct and contacts after the alleged attack, and they allowed her to listen for the first time to a tape-recorded conversation she had 24 hours after the alleged attack with Amara Tarawally, an illegal immigrant convicted on drug charges and being held in an Arizona detention center.

The call became a critical and tantalizing piece of evidence in the case after The New York Times reported July 1 that law-enforcement sources claimed the tape captured Diallo making a comment to the effect that her alleged attacker was rich and she knew what she was doing. The leak has since been used to suggest that Diallo may have schemed with her incarcerated friend to make money off Strauss-Kahn.

Diallo and Tarawally, in interviews with , also disputed the leaked version of the call.

Thompson said the tape was played Wednesday for Diallo in her native Fulani language and an interpreter explained what was on it. In all, the imprisoned friend called Diallo at least three times in the aftermath of the attack, according to Thompson.

“The tape they played today does not capture Nafi Diallo being recording as saying, ‘He has a lot of money and I know what to do,’ as was leaked to The New York Times,” Thompson said. “Instead it shows there were at least three calls over several days.

“In the first call on the day after the attack, Ms. Diallo clearly reported to her friend in prison that ‘a man tried to rape me on my job. He is big and powerful. I did not know who he was when he attacked me. Because he couldn’t take off my clothes, he put his penis in my mouth.’ And she explained she tried to stop him,” the lawyer said in an interview.

Thompson said that in a later call, the prisoner called back to check on his friend after learning more about the man who allegedly attacked her. During that call, there were discussions about Strauss-Kahn’s wealth and the fact that Diallo had gotten a lawyer, but the quote attributed to Diallo in the leaked report was not on the tape, he said.

At one point, the tape shows Diallo learned after the fact that the man she accused was politically powerful and wealthy. She also acknowledged hiring an attorney, Thompson said.

“Later in the call the prisoner makes a statement like ‘you could get money from this.’ I take this to mean he was referring to a lawsuit,” Thompson explained as he related what the translator told him was on the tape. “Nafi Diallo’s first reaction is ‘wait, wait, wait,’ suggesting she wasn’t worried about that. She then makes a comment like ‘he can deal with it,’ which I took to mean her lawyer could deal with the issue.”

Thompson said he was angry after learning the tape recordings are different from what was leaked and that he conveyed his concerns to prosecutors during Wednesday’s meetings.

“For nearly a month, information has been leaked to the media that falsely portrays Ms. Diallo as scheming to take Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s money a day after he attempted to rape her,” Thompson said. “But what I heard today shows that Ms. Diallo has been telling the truth from the very beginning, that she was sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn while doing her job at the Sofitel.”

Prosecutors were not immediately available for comment late Wednesday. They are continuing to investigate the evidence in the case as they try to determine whether to proceed to trial despite their concerns about the maid’s credibility or drop the charges. A decision is expected in weeks.






Strauss-Kahn’s Accuser Meets the Press and Thanks Supporters

Nafissatou Diallo continued her transformation from anonymous accuser in a headline-grabbing criminal case to a public figure, making a brief statement on Thursday afternoon at a Brooklyn church.

Ms. Diallo’s appearance came just days after she first revealed her identity to the public, and the day after she walked past reporters to discuss the case with lawyers at the Manhattan district attorney’s office. While brief, her comments suggested that she was prepared to be a highly visible presence as the case moves toward possible resolution in the coming weeks.

Before a throng of journalists and supporters from her native Guinea, Ms. Diallo, who has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault, thanked supporters and spoke about her case in the lobby of a megachurch in East New York, Brooklyn, shortly after noon.

“I’m here because I had people call me a lot of bad names,” Ms. Diallo said softly at the Christian Cultural Center on Flatlands Avenue. “A lot of things they said about me was not true.”

Before being introduced by the Rev. A.R. Bernard, senior pastor at the center, Ms. Diallo, 32, dressed in a dark suit, rubbed her fingers together slowly, blinking often as she gazed out the windows of the lobby, past the bank of cameras and reporters.

“Me and my family, we are going through a lot,” she said. “We cry every day.”

Ms. Diallo, a housekeeper at a Midtown hotel, made her accusation in May against Mr. Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, but has watched the case crumble around questions of her credibility. She said her 15-year-old daughter had seen her crying recently, prompting a plea from the girl.

“She said: ‘Please stop crying. Be strong for me,” Ms. Diallo said at the church. “I told her, ‘I will be strong for you and for every other woman in the world.’”

Ms. Diallo, working without a script or notes, spoke for less than five minutes at the event on Thursday and did not take questions from reporters before being escorted from the lectern. Her lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, and other supporters remained at the microphone and spoke with reporters, as did Mr. Bernard.

Khadijah Shakur, a member of the New Black Panther Party, was among the roughly two dozen supporters who joined Ms. Diallo near a small stage in the lobby, assembled behind red velvet rope.

“She is being blamed, but she is the victim,” Ms. Shakur said before the news conference.

Ms. Diallo broke her public silence last week, granting interviews to Newsweek and ABC News.

At another prominent house of worship on the other side of Brooklyn, the Rev. Herbert Daughtry stood in the pulpit of the House of the Lord Church on Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill and called for prosecutors to aggressively pursue charges against Mr. Strauss-Kahn.

“I urge District Attorney Cyrus Vance not to drop the case but to pursue truth and justice and let the chips fall where they may,” Mr. Daughtry told a handful of reporters in an otherwise empty house.

In meetings on Wednesday at the district attorney’s office in Manhattan, Ms. Diallo and her lawyer, Mr. Thompson, listened to recordings of conversations Ms. Diallo had with a fellow African immigrant in an Arizona prison after the alleged attack.

Last month, law enforcement officials told Mr. Thompson and The New York Times that Ms. Diallo could be heard saying on the tape “words to the effect of: ‘Don’t worry, this guy has a lot of money. I know what I’m doing.’ ” After hearing the recordings on Wednesday, Mr. Thompson said his client’s statements, which were made in her native language, Fula, had been mischaracterized.


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DSK Rejects Plea Bargain! Wants To Walk Free Without Consequences!

Strauss-Kahn’s Lawyers Say He Won’t Plead Guilty


After meeting with Manhattan prosecutors on Wednesday, lawyers for Dominique Strauss-Kahn characterized the session as “constructive,” but stressed that he was unwilling to plead guilty even to minor charges.

William W. Taylor III, who along with Benjamin Brafman is representing Mr. Strauss-Kahn, said late on Wednesday that they did not discuss a plea bargain in the sexual assault case against their client.

“Mr. Strauss-Kahn will not be pleading guilty to anything,” Mr. Taylor said.

In a sign of the deteriorating relationship between the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the woman who made the accusation, her lawyer sent a letter to the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., requesting that he step aside and let a special prosecutor take over the case.

Mr. Vance promptly rejected the request. Prosecutors remove themselves only in extraordinary circumstances, generally when there is a personal stake in the outcome or a clear conflict of interest.

In the letter, the lawyer, Kenneth P. Thompson, said that Mr. Vance’s office had reached disturbing conclusions about his client based on a summary of a recorded phone conversation she had with a man in an immigration detention center.

Last week, prosecutors informed Mr. Thompson that the conversation raised “very troubling” questions about her credibility because she discussed the possible benefits of pursuing charges against a wealthy man.

But Mr. Thompson said on Wednesday that prosecutors had told him that they were basing their conclusions on “a digest of the conversation” rather than on the recording itself or a full transcript of it, which was in a dialect of the Fulani language of the woman’s native Guinea.

A law enforcement official, however, said on Wednesday that the recorded conversation between the woman and the man, who is accused of dealing drugs, was one of at least three in which she talked about the encounter with Mr. Strauss-Kahn and its aftermath. Investigators were continuing to review and analyze the conversations with Fulani interpreters, the official said.

In the letter, Mr. Thompson said that prosecutors had improperly maligned his client without access to the full conversation. He said they first described their understanding of the recorded conversation to him last Thursday, and then repeated it to The New York Times. Mr. Thompson cited The Times’s account of the conversation as one of several “damaging and prejudicial leaks” from prosecutors as part of the reason for requesting that Mr. Vance recuse himself.

The letter cited an e-mail that Mr. Thompson received on Tuesday from Mr. Vance’s chief assistant, Daniel R. Alonso, that read, “We at this point have only a digest of the conversation, so we need to have our interpreter prepare a complete transcript.”

Mr. Thompson said earlier this week that his client denied that she made the remarks that prosecutors have attributed to her. “She says it’s not true, that she didn’t say it,” Mr. Thompson said. “The way they’re describing the tape, she doesn’t agree with it.”

The law enforcement official said that after further translation and review, prosecutors were confident that the digest accurately reflected what she said.

The investigation has at points been hobbled by difficulties and delays in arranging for translators who were fluent in the dialect spoken by the woman, who accused Mr. Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her when she went to clean his suite at the Sofitel New York on May 14.

Mr. Thompson, in an interview, said his client complained during one early interview session with prosecutors that the interpreter at that session was not rendering her words accurately. His client “stopped the guy, and says, ‘He’s not translating correctly, he’s not from my tribe,’ ” Mr. Thompson said. “Her tribe speaks a very unique dialect of Fulani.”

Erin M. Duggan, a spokeswoman for Mr. Vance’s office, said that the office had not received the letter from Mr. Thompson but that copies had been provided by reporters.

“We strongly disagree with how the office and the work of the assistant district attorneys have been characterized,” she said. “Any suggestion that this office should be recused is wholly without merit.”


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How Dominique-Strauss Kahn Allegedly Attacked Hotel Maid (Details)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn goes free but prosecutors do not drop charges

A smiling Dominique Strauss-Kahn was sprung without bail Friday after red-faced prosecutors conceded his accuser is a serial liar with credibility problems.

They detailed how the midtown hotel maid told bald-faced whoppers to investigators and the grand jury, even shedding crocodile tears - making her a nightmare witness.

The staggering turn of events in the sexual abuse case returned $6 million to Strauss-Kahn's pockets and had his lawyer predicting the vilified Frenchman would be vindicated.

Despite the humiliating public collapse of their case, prosecutors refused to drop attempted rape and other charges against Strauss-Kahn - and the victim's lawyer insisted she told the truth.

"When she was fighting to get away, when she was on her knees and he was sexually assaulting her, after he finished, she got up and started to run to the door and started spitting Dominique Strauss-Kahn's semen out of her mouth in disgust," said lawyer Ken Thompson.

The graphic defense of his client came on a dramatic day in the topsy-turvy case, with Strauss-Kahn enjoying his biggest legal victory since the NYPD arrested him aboard a Paris-bound plane on May 14.

"We are absolutely convinced that while today is a first giant step in the right direction, the next step will be for a complete dismissal of the charges," said renowned defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman.

The decision to release the Socialist pol came after a seemingly iron-clad case - with DNA evidence and a sympathetic victim's terrifying account - began imploding.

Brafman, who had promised to dish dirt about the accuser, arrived with a smile for the hearing before state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus.

His much-maligned client, accompanied by wife Anne Sinclair, was smiling, too, as the pair entered the Manhattan courthouse through a media circus.

Once inside, prosecutors acknowledged a laundry list of lies from the maid - including a phony tale of a gang rape in her native Guinea, bogus U.S. tax returns and inaccuracies in her story to investigators.

Thompson said she hyped up the asylum application because she suffered genital mutilation and wanted to save her daughter from the same fate.

Those lies shouldn't jeopardize the prosecution of a sexual predator, he said.

"It is obvious that this woman made some mistakes, but that doesn't mean she is not a rape victim," he said.

Thompson said his client suffered a torn shoulder ligament when Strauss-Kahn slammed her to the ground inside his 28th-floor hotel suite.

She also had a bruised vagina, and her stockings were torn as the naked Frenchman attacked her in the $3,000-a-night room, he said.

The victim intends to go public with her story in the near future, Thompson added.

Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said the case against Strauss-Kahn will continue, and he is due in court July 18.

"The fact of a sexual encounter was and is corroborated by forensic evidence, and the very brief time period inside the hotel suite strongly suggested something other than a consensual act," she said.

But in addition to the lies catalogued in a letter from the DA to the defense, the victim apparently has other credibility issues.

Just days ago, the DA's office learned of calls she made before and after the hotel incident to her boyfriend, a "high-end drug dealer," jailed in an Arizona lockup.

The maid "talks about the French pol's checkered past and how easy it would be to say he was abusive," the source said.

"The phone call ... and other calls, indicates she had a plan to entrap a rich guy," the source told the Daily News. "She knew his history and told her boyfriend not to worry, she was up for it."

The 32-year-old immigrant from West Africa also had $100,000 in secret bank accounts filled with cash by the drug dealer and others, the source said.

Thompson said the story about her drug ties was "a lie."

Perjury charges against the maid are a possibility, according to a source, because she lied to the grand jury about what she did after the incident.

She told the panel that after she fled Strauss-Kahn's suite, she stayed in a main hallway until her supervisor arrived.

She later admitted she actually went and cleaned another room - and even returned to clean Strauss-Kahn's empty suite - before reporting the incident.

The lies were revealed to the defense team on Thursday, and Strauss-Kahn wore a calm, almost serene look as he arrived for court yesterday in a black Lexus SUV.

Asked if he felt vindicated, the accused attacker glanced at reporters but said nothing.

After Obus released Strauss-Kahn on his own recognizance, ordering the government to return his $5 million bond and $1 million cash bail, he left holding his third wife's hand.

The former head of the International Monetary Fund and one-time front-runner in the French presidential race did not utter a word.



He and Sinclair returned to the $50,000-a-month Tribeca townhouse where he was held under house arrest for five weeks by an armed guard.

He is free to travel the city and the country at his whim - although prosecutors kept his passport, blocking a return to his homeland.

District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. acknowledged his office backed off the heavy-duty bail conditions imposed on Strauss-Kahn because the "strength of our case" was waning.




DSK accuser's checkered past doesn't mean she wasn't attacked, but tough sell for jury


Dominique Strauss-Kahn fairly cancanned out of Criminal Court after Judge Michael Obus freed him without bail on charges he sexually attacked a hotel maid.

He even gets his money back - or his rich wife's: $1 million in cash and a $5 million bond.

Just in time for Bastille Day, the French banking big has gone from "Les Miserables" to "Life Is Beautiful." He can even go out to eat at Bouley, instead of ordering in at the Tribeca townhouse where he's been under house arrest.

Isn't that how we treat all our accused? To paraphrase Mark Twain, steal a loaf of French bread, go to prison; make a lot of French bread, await trial in a mansion.

Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said she isn't dropping the case yet. It's just that it may be hard to convince a jury Strauss-Kahn is guilty because the maid who said "J'accuse" may be a shady character from a sunny place.

She told investigators from the Manhattan district attorney's office she'd been raped in her native Guinea - yet made no mention of it on her application for asylum.

They reportedly found several bank accounts with a total of almost $100,000 and wonder if she wasn't laundering more than bed linens.

She had a phone chat with a jailed guy who got caught with 400 pounds of pot in which she crowed about how much money she could make off the former International Monetary Fund chief in a civil suit. Of course, the whole jailhouse call was recorded, duh.

Okay, her credibility is as wobbly as a three-legged chair, but that doesn't mean she wasn't attacked.

Her shakiness as a witness doesn't change the fact that the horny Frenchman (wait, is that redundant?) left his DNA on her uniform.

She says he came running naked out of the bathroom and forced her to perform oral sex. Maybe he thought that's what "Room Service" meant.

Defense lawyer Ben Brafman said in court he'll prove it was consensual. Hard to imagine Dominique Strauss-Kahn is simply irresistible without a towel on.

As they like to say on Law & Order, "You can't pick the vic."

Her checkered past doesn't mean she wasn't attacked, though it could make it tough to convince 12 jurors to believe her beyond a reasonable doubt.

That's what happened in the "Rape Cops" case, where jurors cleared the cops because the Gap exec who said she was raped was totally drunk and couldn't remember everything.

Never mind that two of the jurors said later they believed the woman was raped, but wanted more forensic evidence.

It would be beyond horrible if this sends a message to rape victims that pressing charges is futile.

Meanwhile, Strauss-Kahn is free to travel anywhere in America this holiday weekend, stay anywhere he wants.

I wouldn't want to be the maid who walks into his hotel room.

Would you?


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