Published: November 15, 2015
Who: A terrorist group claiming to be ISIS rained for the operation that hit six locations, a concert, a stadium, and some restaurants and bars. The attacks killed upward of 129 people and wounded 350, 99 of them seriously. ISIS had 24 people involved, 19 were attackers and 5 others handled the planning of the operation.
What: The associated press corroborated evidence from multiple sources confirming that Belgian police had one of the organizers of the attacks, Salah Abdeslam in custody during a traffic stop and released him. He is now an at large fugitive.
Where: He was stopped at the Belgium border, but the attacks he helped plan took place in Paris, France. One of his two brothers acted as a suicide bomber and killed himself at the Bataclan Theater, where a concert was taking place that was interrupted by gunfire. His other brother crossed into Belgium with him, but is now in police custody.
Why: ISIS considered these acts to be retaliation for coalition bombings in Syria. The attacks in Paris were intended to strike the psyche of the French people by occurring in everyday locations such as restaurant, stadiums, and concert halls. Salah Abdeslam is at large because the authorities failed to recognize that he was a person of interest when he went to cross the border. He was identified because of a Belgian parking ticket found in the rental car used to drop the attackers off at the Bataclan theater.
When: The attacks occurred on Friday the 13th, but the suspect wasn’t considered at large until November 15th.
Summary: Paris was attacked in several locations, the attacks were premeditated. The Bataclan concert hall was one of the locations with the most casualties. The gunman were reported by witnesses saying "Allah akbar” which means God is Great, before opening fire. Deadly shots were also fired at restaurants and bars. The gunman did not enter the restaurants but appeared to drive by, stop, unload one clip and then go for a second round. A bombing also occurred as part of the attacks outside of the Stade de France about 16 minutes into a French versus German soccer game. Twenty-four terrorist were involved in this operation, nineteen carried out the attacks, and seven were suicide bombers, an 8th was gunned down by police.
Bias: The New York Times, despite being known for a liberal bias seemed to present the same details as other news organizations in publishing the story. However, in terms of social bias, it seems that the border guards may not have detained Salah Abdeslam because they did not want it to appear that they were engaging in bias and simply holding in custody all men of arab origin who were crossing the border. This seems to have worked against the efforts of law enforcement.
Democratic Values: Freedom of the Press and the ability to protect their sources is the democratic values. The Associated Press has received multiple accounts of the suspect having been released, but they are protecting the names of all of those sources because the information was provided to them anonymously. They are exercising the press’ right to not identify a source.
The Image above shows the scene of where the attacks happened. This was one of the restaurants that was hit in drive-by fashion. Salah Abdeslam is said to be responsible for driving the car in the attacks as well as helping to plan and carry out the actual attacks in Paris on the 13th.
-Rachel Chillé
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