Islam - This Day in History > Nov 13, 2015 - Islamic Jihadists Massacred 130 Parisians - 90 at the Bataclan

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Survivors describe the horror of the massacre at the Bataclan

Not for the faint at heart

They survived Paris terror attack to face agony, doubt

By LORI HINNANT

today

FILE - In this Nov.15, 2015 file photo, pictures of victims are placed behind candles outside the Bataclan concert hall in Paris.For more than two weeks, dozens of survivors from the Bataclan concert hall in Paris have testified in a specially designed courtroom about the Islamic State’s attacks on Nov. 13, 2015 – the deadliest in modern France. The testimony marks the first time many survivors are describing – and learning – what exactly happened that night at the Bataclan, filling in the pieces of a puzzle that is taking shape as they speak. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena, File)

PARIS (AP) — They were animals, many of them say. Prey that had lost all sense of time. Targets who were no longer human to either their hunters or themselves.

For more than two weeks, dozens of survivors from the Bataclan concert hall in Paris have testified in a specially designed courtroom about the Islamic State group’s attacks on Nov. 13, 2015. They stand just a few steps away from 14 men accused in the bloodshed — the deadliest in modern France.

The testimony marks the first time many survivors are describing – and learning – what exactly happened that night at the Bataclan, filling in the pieces of a puzzle that is taking shape as they speak. For most, it is their first public reckoning with a night they describe, one after another, day after day, in haunting words that are startlingly similar.

In all, 130 people died that night at the Bataclan, at France’s national stadium and in neighborhood restaurants and bars. Hundreds more were injured in body and soul, 90 of them at the Bataclan, in the three-hour series of attacks.

Holding a laser pointer in trembling hands, witness after witness faces a courtroom screen with the Bataclan’s floorplan — a floorplan that the technical director handed to police the moment they arrived to locate the doors and windows. The shaking dot of light finds where they were when the attack started, and sometimes where they ended up.

Some of the survivors were in the concert hall for just a few minutes after the shooting started before fleeing outside into the streets. Others remained behind for hours, beneath dead bodies on the dance floor, nested in fiberglass in the ceiling, crammed into a janitor’s closet with only a broom to bar the door. Silent, praying that the three men bent on killing them wouldn’t find them.

This combination image shows survivors testifying from Wednesday Oct.6, 2021 to Friday Oct.8 2021 during the Paris Attacks trial in Paris. For more than two weeks, dozens of survivors from the Bataclan concert hall in Paris have testified in a specially designed courtroom about the Islamic State’s attacks on Nov. 13, 2015 – the deadliest in modern France. The testimony marks the first time many survivors are describing – and learning – what exactly happened that night at the Bataclan, filling in the pieces of a puzzle that is taking shape as they speak. (Noelle Herrenschmidt via AP)

All nine attackers died that night or in the days that followed. The lone survivor of the IS cell, who fled the city after his suicide vest malfunctioned, is among those on trial. The others are accused of helping with logistics or transport.

On the night of Nov. 13, 2015, the American rock group Eagles of Death Metal was playing to a full house in the storied concert hall in central Paris. It was unseasonably warm, and temperatures rose in the dance pit as the second set swung into action.

Clarisse, then 24, was in the coatroom with a friend, getting ready to run out to a nearby convenience store for beers in the time-honored subterfuge of the young and broke. When the shooting started at the entrance at 9:47 p.m., there was only one place to go: Back inside, into the dance pit.

But the gunmen followed close behind.

“And I’m ready,” Clarisse says. “I’m expecting to get shot in the back. And I think, will it hurt? Will I lose consciousness? Die immediately?”

Edith was at the bar near steps leading down toward the pit. She, like nearly every other survivor, told the judge she didn’t want her last name to be publicly released.

Ludovic, left, and Faustine testify Friday Oct. 8, 2021 during the Paris Attacks trial in Paris. For more than two weeks, dozens of survivors from the Bataclan concert hall in Paris have testified in a specially designed courtroom about the Islamic State’s attacks on Nov. 13, 2015 – the deadliest in modern France. The testimony marks the first time many survivors are describing – and learning – what exactly happened that night at the Bataclan, filling in the pieces of a puzzle that is taking shape as they speak.  (Noelle Herrenschmidt via AP)

The laser dot swings wildly on the screen as her shaking hands point to a stairwell she took on an instinct she describes as “something animal, almost reptilian.” In the balcony, she dived beneath a folding chair. A giant of a man lay next to her, both of them breathing as quietly as their panicked bodies would allow.

At first, the firing came in long bursts.

“Then one at a time it begins. A cry. A shot. A phone ringing. A shot. Someone pleading. A shot. There is no way out,” Edith tells the judges, her hands twisting as she pulls rings off her fingers and replaces them one by one.

Jérôme, at the concert with six friends, was just below, close to the sound console. They were trapped, lying on the ground during what he described as the “calm cleanup.”

He heard the shooter’s steady breaths behind him as he fired on one of Jérôme’s friends. And then a pause. They were out of bullets.

“As soon as they stopped to reload, there was no sound. It was like being in a cathedral, absolute silence,” Jérôme says. By then, the smell of blood and powder was rising, an odor engraved in the memory of all who made it out that night.

Thibault and his wife were near the stage, on the ground. He peeked behind him and saw one of the gunmen. “His face is uncovered and I understand that he’s not going to flee,” he says. “He’s going to end this with the police. And it’s at that moment that I understand that I’m going to die.”

His cold comfort: “At least I’m not going to leave an orphan.”

By now, about five minutes after the three gunmen burst into the Bataclan, the floor was wet with blood. The gunmen seemed to move away, and people surged toward the stage.

Clarisse was among dozens to take a back staircase up as far as they could go. They ended up in a dead-end room with a toilet in the corner. She stood on the toilet and smashed the ceiling, breaking through to a snarl of electric wires and fiberglass.

Thibault and Anne- Laure testify Thursday Oct.7, 2021 during the Paris Attacks trial in Paris. For more than two weeks, dozens of survivors from the Bataclan concert hall in Paris have testified in a specially designed courtroom about the Islamic State’s attacks on Nov. 13, 2015 – the deadliest in modern France. The testimony marks the first time many survivors are describing – and learning – what exactly happened that night at the Bataclan, filling in the pieces of a puzzle that is taking shape as they speak.  (Noelle Herrenschmidt via AP)

Thibault and his wife, Anne-Laure, joined the crowd but lost sight of each other running upstairs. The pipes broke and water started flooding the room. Still, person after person climbed on the toilet and then reached down from the crawlspace for someone below.

Anne-Laure did not. “I fled for a hiding space like an animal,” she testified. “I was so angry with myself about that afterward.”

Thibault eventually found her nested in the fiberglass and curled around her to wait. “It’s going to end this way, either the terrorists will find us or the police will, but I’ll be with my wife.”

Dozens of wounded and dead still lay in the pit. Among them were Pierre-Sylvain and his girlfriend, in the middle of the room. He felt a flash at the first burst of gunfire and knew he was hit, and so was she.

When the attackers went upstairs, he shook the people on the ground next to him. None moved. He lifted his bleeding girlfriend, who seemed to weigh nothing, and looked around.

The first thing he saw was the blinding light of the stage spots, turned in every direction. Then the horror struck.

“The entire pit was covered in bodies, and you couldn’t distinguish the living from the dead. I was in a concert hall but what I had in front of me was a mass grave.” He stepped over the bodies, on the bodies, to get out.

Pierre-Sylvain realized only then that he’d been shot through the face. The bullet exited beneath his eye. His girlfriend was hit in the head and then the projectile splintered. Both survived. Between them, they’ve undergone more than 20 operations.

“I didn’t understand why I stayed conscious. I was later told the body sends out endorphins to dull the pain and adrenaline to flee,” he tells the judge, his face expressionless.

Coordinated attacks targeting Parisian nightlife killed 130 people in a matter of minutes including an attack at the Bataclan Theater. Twenty people now face trial.

The Bataclan floor plan

Sandrine was just next to the stage and fell to the ground at the first mass exit. She was trampled, her lungs crushed, and blacked out.

When she regained consciousness, she pushed herself up, uncomprehending when the floor gave way. “It wasn’t the floor I was pushing on, but bodies, lifeless bodies.”

She hardly remembers her feet touching the ground as she left the building. She felt something hard in her boot and reached into the toe, hoping it was the necklace that had fallen off in the chaos. “But it’s not a necklace, it’s a bullet.”

Amandine, whose leg and arm were shattered, waited still longer, wishing for unconsciousness. She was on the floor when the first two officers arrived at 9:56 p.m., armed only with handguns.

One of them hit an attacker just before he executed a hostage on stage. His suicide vest detonated.

“Pieces of flesh fell on me were that were our tormentor’s, and feathers, I imagine, from his jacket.” The officers asked anyone who could walk to exit, but she couldn’t move. “And so there I stayed, with the gravely injured and the dead.”

Finally, after two hours, an officer dragged her out by her good arm. When she made it to the hospital “everyone looked at me for what I didn’t realize I was, which is a survivor.” Despite repeated surgeries, she still leans on a crutch around her forearm and grips the sides of the podium with her good hand.

Edith, hidden beneath a balcony seat, was evacuated around 11:30 p.m. Those in the balcony walked down single-file, past the pit and the bar, led by a police officer who told them, don’t look. It was impossible not to.

“The sheer volume of all these bodies that two hours ago were dancing,” she says, trying fruitlessly to stop the shaking of her hands. “It’s narrow and we try to step around them but we can’t always … All those who saw it, understand.”

Upstairs, the two remaining attackers rounded up 11 men and women into a narrow hallway. One gunman fired out a window into the alley below. “Got him,” he exulted.

FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2016 file photo, a woman lays flowers next to the memorial plaque for the 90 victims at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris. For more than two weeks, dozens of survivors from the Bataclan concert hall in Paris have testified in a specially designed courtroom about the Islamic State’s attacks on Nov. 13, 2015 – the deadliest in modern France. The testimony marks the first time many survivors are describing – and learning – what exactly happened that night at the Bataclan, filling in the pieces of a puzzle that is taking shape as they speak. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

They ordered a hostage to sit with his back to the door leading to the balcony and describe the victims outside moaning in pain. Another captive stood watch out the windows.

The gunmen started negotiations with police using one of the hostage’s phones. Suddenly, the doorway started to cave. A gunshot whistled between the heads of two hostages.

An enormous 90-kilogram (200-pound) black shield impervious to Kalashnikov bullets rolled through the entry, pushed by police, as big as the door itself. The shield teetered on the steps and fell on a female hostage. Two concussion grenades filled the room with gunpowder and dust.

One of the attackers emptied his clip, and the other blew himself up in the back staircase. The entire building shook. Both attackers were dead; and all 11 hostages were alive, stunned, but not one struck by a bullet. It was 12:18 a.m.

One by one, the former captives were led away through the pit downstairs. As they walked through the bodies, David wondered in anguish “did I collaborate? Did I participate?” The same thought flashed through the mind of Sébastien, who testifies in the same flannel shirt he wore that night.

“I changed my job, I changed my life. I changed my girlfriend, without wanting to obviously. My new companion is herself a survivor,” he says.

It took more than an hour for police to find the survivors hidden in closets, on the roof. Those in the ceiling were the last to come out.

The judge asks Clarisse if she realized she had saved many lives that night.

“So I’m told. But I truly don’t realize it. For me, it was out of the question to die without doing everything I could to get out.”

But, she discovered, getting out was just the beginning. She turns to the defendants.

“You stole from me the pleasure of carefree evenings, the pleasure of walking down the street without panicking, the pleasure of going to the movies, the pleasure of living at ease and without anguish.”

Thibault, who credits her with saving him, describes returning to his humanity as he exited the building. But, he adds, “The sense of guilt is extremely strong. Why did I survive when so many didn’t?”

He and his wife have been unable to have children. A small woman with a pixie haircut that frames her fragile cheekbones, she weeps as she says that night left her too fragile emotionally and physically. Then she apologizes because others have suffered more.

Edith also says her testimony feels almost illegitimate for leaving the Bataclan alive and physically unharmed. But that night left her a shell of the woman she once was. Among the many tattoos that enlace her limbs is one of the Bataclan, on her left forearm.

“We are still trapped in Nov. 13,” she says.

Pierre-Sylvain, whose face will be forever scarred, is hopeful that the trial will help.

“That this is happening in a sanctified space, it allows victims to speak,” he says. “It can ease the burden on each of us. ... Many people saw this as an end. I see it as a beginning.”

Islam - Current Day > Afghan Women's Sports; Denmark Insists Migrant Women Work; Bataclan Terrorist Goes to Trial; Obama's Dumb Deal

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‘Islam doesn’t allow them to be seen like this’: Taliban official says

‘not necessary’ for Afghan women to play sports

8 Sep, 2021 18:26

FILE PHOTO: Members of Afghanistan's first national women's cricket team

take part in a training session in Kabul. © AFP

The Taliban government has suggested that it is "not necessary" for women to play sports in their new regime, including cricket, per a statement from the deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission.

So, now, the question is, is it necessary for men to play sports?

Speaking to Australian broadcaster SBS, Ahmadullah Wasiq suggested that it would be inappropriate for women to take part in sporting activities under the new Taliban government in place following the fall of Kabul on August 15.

Wasiq stated that the women's cricket team will not be "allowed" in a ban which is expected to extend towards all women's sports.

"I don't think women will be allowed to play cricket because it is not necessary that women should play cricket," Wasiq said.

"In cricket, they might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this.

"It is the media era, and there will be photos and videos, and then people watch it. Islam and the Islamic Emirate [Afghanistan] do not allow women to play cricket or play the kind of sports where they get exposed."

So, it just doesn't fit with a first-millennium culture where women must be invisible in public.

The dictum from the Taliban leadership appears to contradict prior statements made by the group following the offensive last month which saw them seize control of the country in which they stated that women's rights would be secured in the country under their rule.

However, an interim Taliban government which began work on Wednesday contains figures thought to be loyalist hardliners – with not a single woman among them in spite of promises from the group to form an inclusive administration. 

Cricket is by a distance the most popular sport in Afghanistan and has significant support within the country, regularly being featured on domestic television and among the most participated-in activities in the region.

Last November, the Afghanistan Cricket Board awarded 25 female players with central contracts as they sought to form a team to compete in International Cricket Council (ICC) tournaments – and in April of this year the ICC gave permanent test and one day international (ODI) status to women's teams in Afghanistan. 

The EU, meanwhile, has railed against the Taliban leadership, criticizing them for the lack of inclusion apparent in their early moves in power.

"Upon initial analysis of the names announced (in the Taliban government), it does not look like the inclusive and representative formation in terms of the rich ethnic and religious diversity of Afghanistan we hoped to see and that the Taliban were promising over the past weeks," they said in a statement. 

These calls are now likely to grow louder amid the newly-announced stance on women's sports.

The Afghanistan cricket board say that they have not yet been informed of any policy changes related to women's cricket – but the program for female players is currently suspended.

Dozens of sportswomen, including cricketers are either in hiding in the country or have fled altogether in the weeks since the Taliban takeover.

Last month it was reported that a plane carrying 75 female football players, officials and relatives had left the country for Australia after the country opened its doors in response to calls from athlete advocates and human rights lawyers.

Denmark says female migrants from ‘non-western’ backgrounds

must do work to get government benefits

8 Sep, 2021 16:41

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. © AFP / Tobias SCHWARZ

Danish Prime minister Mette Frederiksen has said some migrant workers will be required by the state to work 37 hours a week to receive welfare benefits, with the rules apparently aimed at women from non-western backgrounds.

Frederiksen said the new rules are to help migrants assimilate into Danish society, but they are also in line with the country’s pursuit to reduce asylum-seeker applications to zero.

The new restrictions will be imposed on those who have been receiving welfare benefits from the Danish government for three to four years, but who haven’t achieved a certain level of proficiency in Danish.

"For too many years we have done a disservice to a lot of people by not demanding anything of them," said the PM, who added that the rules were particularly aimed at women living on the benefits, who weren’t working and were from “non-western” backgrounds.

The Danish government says six out of 10 women from Turkey, North Africa and the Middle East are not employed.

"It is basically a problem when we have such a strong economy, where the business community demands labor, that we then have a large group, primarily women with non-Western backgrounds, who are not part of the labor market," Frederiksen said.

Despite often being thought of as a migrant-friendly, ‘Nordic socialist’ country, Denmark has one of the toughest stances on immigration within the EU.

In June, it passed a law by a 70-24 vote, allowing it to deport asylum seekers and process applications while they are outside of the country.

Last week, Denmark’s former immigration minister Inger Stojberg went on trial in the country’s rarely-used Impeachment Court. The “hardline” ex-minister was accused of illegally separating asylum-seeker couples in which wives were underage.

How can it be illegal to separate them when it is illegal to have a child as a wife?

Responding to the government plan on Wednesday, Mai Villadsen, a spokeswoman for the left-wing Red Green Alliance, told TV2 she feared the new rule could end up as “state-supported social dumping” that was “sending people into crazy jobs.”

Last surviving Bataclan terrorist suspect goes on trial for

murder of 130, one of 20 charged over 2015 Paris attack

8 Sep, 2021 12:50

The Bataclan Cafe adjoining the concert hall, Paris (FILE PHOTO) © REUTERS/Charles Platiau

A 31-year-old French-Moroccan, thought to be the last surviving member of a group of gunmen that killed 130 people and wounded many more during the 2015 Paris attacks, has arrived at court for his long-awaited trial.

On Wednesday, Salah Abdeslam, a Belgium-born French-Moroccan, arrived at a Paris court as one of 20 men on trial for their involvement in the 2015 rampage that killed 130. There was a sizable police presence around the Palais de Justice courthouse in central Paris for his arrival.

Abdeslam is believed to be the last surviving gunman from November 13, 2015, when jihadists conducted a coordinated attack on six bars and restaurants, the Bataclan concert hall and a sports stadium. The 31-year-old, who arrived at the courtroom dressed all in black and with a black face mask, proceeded to tell those present that he was a soldier of the Islamic State. The Islamist terrorist group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.

Abdeslam was arrested in the Brussels district of Molenbeek in March 2016, having fled the scene of the Paris attack. It was understood from a note written by the suspect, found on a laptop hardrive, that he'd intended to die in 2015 alongside his "brothers." His suicide vest failed to detonate.  

And, of course, he didn't have an extra bullet!

Abdeslam reportedly remained silent during the investigation and failed to cooperate with the authorities. Of the remaining defendants, 11 are already in jail pending trial and six will be tried in absentia – most of them are believed dead.

Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti has described the trial, which will last nine months and involve around 1,800 plaintiffs and more than 300 lawyers, as an unprecedented judicial marathon.

The events of November 13, 2015, are some of the bloodiest in modern French history and started when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the Stade de France where some 80,000 were watching a football match.

It was followed by drive-by shootings and suicide bombings across the 10th and 11th arrondissements, while 89 more people died when the jihadist stormed the Bataclan concert venue. 

Four Guantanamo inmates swapped for ‘deserter’ Bowe

Bergdahl named as ministers in Taliban government

8 Sep, 2021 12:38

Abdul Haq Wasiq (L), Norullah Noori, Mohammad Fazl, Khairullah Khairkhwa. © Wikipedia

Four former Guantanamo inmates, released as part of a swap for court-martialed soldier Bowe Bergdahl, have been named as high-ranking acting ministers in the Taliban’s new Afghan government.

On Tuesday, the Taliban announced its first interim government for the war-torn nation, which is now under the group’s control. However, many of those named in the government are known to the US and its allies, but not for good reasons. Four of those announced as ministers were previous inmates at the US high-security facility in Guantanamo Bay.

All four were traded for captured soldier Bowe Bergdahl in 2014 by the administration of former US President Barack Obama. The fifth Taliban member swapped for Bergdahl has been a prominent figure since the militant group’s takeover of Afghanistan but does not feature in the interim government. 

As reported by Afghanistan’s ToloNews on Tuesday, Abdul Haq Wasiq is now acting director of intelligence; Mullah Noorullah Noori is acting minister of borders and tribal affairs; Mullah Mohammad Fazil is deputy defense minister; and Mullah Khairullah Khairkhah has been named acting minister of information and culture. 

All four, who were deemed dangerous hardliners by the US government, took part in direct talks with Washington in Doha last year. Information and US defense documents made available by WikiLeaks and other organizations demonstrate why the US was so concerned by these individuals.

According to the Guantanamo Files, published by WikiLeaks, Wasiq was previously a Taliban intelligence chief and fought alongside Islamist militant groups. Wasiq “arranged for Al-Qaeda personnel to train Taliban intelligence staff in intelligence methods” according to the leaked documents. An administrative review in 2007, citing a source, claimed that Wasiq was also “an Al-Qaeda intelligence member.” 

Noori had served as the governor of Balkh and Laghman provinces during the Taliban’s last stint in power, and according to documents shared by WikiLeaks he was wanted “for possible war crimes including the murder of thousands of Shiite Muslims.” He said that “he never received any weapons or military training,” but reports suggest he was central to the fight against the Northern Alliance, a US-backed grouping of anti-Taliban factions.  

Meanwhile, Fazil is no stranger to the role of deputy defense minister, having previously held it more than two decades ago. He was accused of war crimes during Afghanistan's civil war in the 1990s and, like Noori, he was wanted in connection with the murder of thousands of Shiites during the conflict. “When asked about the murders, he did not express any regret and stated they did what they needed to do in their struggle to establish their ideal state,” a WikiLeaks document says. 

New Culture Minister Khairkhah previously served as interior minister and governor of Herat province during the Taliban’s 1996-2001 administration, according to CNN, citing official documents. He was labelled a “major opium drug lord” and allegedly was a direct associate of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda's Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. 

The WikiLeaks documents on Wasiq, Noori, and Fazil cite them as being a “high” risk to the US and its allies, as well as being of high intelligence value.

Bergdahl, who deserted his post in 2009 before being captured by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has not matched the lofty heights achieved by the ‘Guantanamo Five’ since his release. He avoided jail time but was given a dishonorable discharge. 

So, was that trade really worth it? Why did they want him so badly?

While few were convinced that the Taliban would deliver on their promise of an inclusive government, the new administration appears to be a real concern for the US and its allies. Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani is wanted by the FBI, with a $5 million (£3.6 million) bounty on his head. 

“We also are concerned by the affiliations and track records of some of the individuals,” a US State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday evening.

Last week, Deputy Leader Abdul Ghani Baradar promised to form an “inclusive” government, and the Taliban believe they have done their best to do so. Talking to Sputnik Afghanistan, Taliban official Bilal Karimi claimed the new government brings together people from across the nation.

However, the State Department appears to be unsatisfied with the Taliban’s definition of inclusivity. On Tuesday, Washington pointed out the absence of women in the new cabinet, along with the fact it consists exclusively of Taliban members.

Anti-Terrorist Squad Next Door to Bataclan Told to Stand Down, Not Intervene

Families of Paris attack victims sue France

over 'don’t intervene' order

Families of Bataclan victims have filed a lawsuit against the French government, after it emerged that anti-terrorist soldiers were right outside one of the attack sites but were ordered to hold back and give their guns to police.

The coordinated attacks on November 13, 2015 led to the deaths of 130 people across the French capital, 90 of whom were shot dead at the Bataclan music venue. But a parliamentary inquiry later revealed that eight anti-terror soldiers who were outside the venue had been told not to intervene or to pass their weapons to police.

Eighteen families of victims have now filed a lawsuit against the French government, demanding answers.

"They were described in the media as the force specially created against the threat of terrorism, so why was this force which had the chance to intervene told not to?" Oceane Bimbeau, a lawyer for one of the families.

"The question we want answered is why it took 2.5 hours for the order to engage to be given, when the officers were there from the beginning."

Jean Sannier, another lawyer for one of the families, said the allegations reportedly come from a member of the National Gendarmerie, who wishes to remain anonymous.

"On the night of the Bataclan attack, there was a squadron of gendarmes assigned to protect the house of then-Prime Minister Manuel Valls," he explained, adding that they were alerted immediately. However, he said they were then given a "very curious order – they were told to stand down."

Sannier also said that another unit was equally ready and equipped with emergency medical supplies, but it was also not deployed to help the victims.

"If this equipment had been available to help victims hurt while the decision to intervene was being taken, it's possible more people would have survived," he said, questioning why so much money was spent on anti-terror forces if they were not going to be deployed.

He questioned whether it was just a "political masquerade to make people believe they are protected," bearing in mind that "we clearly see people were massacred with Kalashnikovs just a few meters from this unit and that they had terrorists in their sight but were told not to pull the trigger."

Not literally, I don't think!

The French army, meanwhile, insists soldiers took all measures possible to assist in the situation, securing the area around the Bataclan and protecting fleeing victims.

There is a degree of logic to not getting in the way of the initial rush of fleeing victims by entering the theatre, but as soon as the way was even partially clear, soldiers, police should have been entering the building and engaging the Islamic lunatics. That they didn't, if they didn't, while shooting was still going on, is unforgivable.

"The military intervened spontaneously. They arrived while police were already present. The military secured areas around the Bataclan in coordination with, and at the request of, the internal security forces," Patrik Steiger of the French Armed Forces said in a statement, as quoted by France 24.

Meanwhile, officials say the terrorism threat in France – which has been on high alert since January 2015 - will not end anytime soon, with the Paris public prosecutor stating in January that the threat in the country remains "very high."

Of course, it's the new normal. It will only cease to be 'high' after Sharia is in effect in France.

Outcry in France as Muslim Rapper Who Sang About 'Crucifying Secularists' to Play at Bataclan

Islamization Backlash at the Bataclan

Islamic jihad would certainly have something to celebrate in Paris if this jihad supporter claims the stage at Bataclan so soon after his compatriots massacred 90 Parisians

A planned performance by a controversial Muslim rapper at the Bataclan, where 90 people were killed during the November 2015 Paris attacks, has prompted a wave of criticism and has been described as a ‘dishonor for France.’

Medine, who is of Algerian descent, is due to play two gigs at the venue in October. The musician has denied that he is an Islamist but caused outcry in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo attack because of his song ‘Don’t Laik,’ which includes the lyrics: “Let's crucify the secularists like at Calvary... put fatwas on the heads of these idiots.”

He also released an album called ‘Jihad’ in 2005, but insisted that it is about an internal identity struggle.

Isn't that what radicalization is, an eternal identity struggle? First you struggle with who you are, then you struggle with the truth, then you give in to the insanity of radical Islam.

The decision to allow the singer to play the venue has drawn severe criticism from several high-profile French politicians. Laurent Wauquiez, the leader of the Republicans, France’s largest opposition party, tweeted that it was “sacrilege for the victims” and a “dishonor for France.”

Not to mention, remarkably stupid!

Wauquiez added that he was shocked that “someone who sings about 'crucifying secularists' and calls himself 'Islamo-scum’” should play the famous venue “less than three years after Islamist barbarism cost the lives of 90 of our compatriots.”

Former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said: “No French person can accept that this guy is going to spew out his filth at the Bataclan. We have had enough of complacency and worse, of this incitement to Islamist fundamentalism.”

Le Pen’s National Rally party started an online petition, calling for the gigs to be cancelled and more than 16,000 people had already added their names on Monday afternoon.

Members of parliament belonging to President Emmanuel Macron's LaREM party have also criticized the move, with Aurore Berge saying that having Medine headline a concert at the Bataclan was an "insult" to the victims of the atrocity.

The rapper said that ‘Dont Laik,’ a play on the French word for secular, was an attempt to mock people with staunch secular views in the same way that Charlie Hebdo cartoons mocked religious fundamentalists, according to Le Monde. He later distanced himself from the song saying that it “went too far.”