The 15:17 to Paris

by Anthony Sadler

  14. Minder, “Scrutiny Falls.”

  15. Google map, route from Ar-Raqqah, Syria, to Algeciras, Cádiz, Spain, https://www.google.be/maps/dir/Raqqa,+Ar-Raqqah+Governorate,+Syria/Algeciras,+C%C3%A1diz,+Spain/@39.4813242,-1.701085,4z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x153719cb01b7b5fb:0xc8bdaf18cf35cfe3!2m2!1d38.9981052!2d35.9594106!1m5!1m1!1s0xd0c9496ba5d5751:0xa626ca859cd81ce9!2m2!1d-5.456233!2d36.1407591?hl=en.

  16. “Dispelling rumors of his injury or death, the leader of the militant group that calls itself the Islamic State issued a new call to arms on Thursday in a 17-minute speech, belittling President Obama’s plan to send more soldiers to Iraq and urging disciples to ‘erupt volcanoes of jihad everywhere.’” An audio recording of the speech by the leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was distributed online, along with Arabic, English, and Russian transcripts; http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/14/world/middleeast/abu-bakr-baghdadi-islamic-state-leader-calls-for-new-fight-against-west.html.

  17. Scott Atran and Nafees Hamid, “Paris: The War ISIS Wants,” New York Review of Books, NYR Daily, November 16, 2015.

  18. Ibid.

  19. Ibid.

  20. “Khazzani lived in the same house with his parents in Algeciras until he left for France in 2014.” Reuters, “Spanish Police Search House of Train Gunman’s Family,” September 1, 2015, http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5N11737K20150901.

  21. “Ayoub El-Khazzani, is hired by Lycamobile, a British phone company ’specializing in expatriate communities.’ . . . ’Lyca is well known here. It’s a small seasonal job for a lot of young people. There is nothing else. They are given a polo shirt with the company logo and a cart with small gifts for distribution in the street,‘says one of his former neighbors of Algeciras, who prefers to keep anonymity.” Piquer and Suc, “Attaque dans le Thalys.”

  22. Karina Pallagst, Thorsten Wiechmann, Cristina Martinez-Fernandez, Shrinking Cities: International Perspectives and Policy Implications (New York, Routledge, 2014), 86–87.

  23. “The French government has announced a plan to boost policing in 15 of the most crime-ridden parts of France in an effort to reassert state control over the country’s so-called ‘no-go’ zones: Muslim-dominated neighborhoods that are largely off limits to non-Muslims.” Soeren Kern, “France Seeks to Reclaim ‘No Go’ Zones,” Gatestone Institute, August 24, 2012, http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3305/france-no-go-zones.

  24. “Consider Seine-Saint-Denis, a notorious northern suburb of Paris, and home to an estimated 500,000 Muslims . . . Seine-Saint-Denis, which has one of the highest rates of violent crime in France, is now among the initial 15 ZSPs because of widespread drug dealing and a rampant black market. Because, however, the suburb also has one of the highest unemployment rates in France—40% of those under the age of 25 are jobless—it remains unlikely that a government crackdown will succeed in bringing down the crime rate in any permanent way.” Ibid.

  25. “‘He went away to France thinking that he had found a very good job, but instead they kicked him out and left him with nothing and no money,’ Mr. Khazzani’s father said. ‘I don’t know what then went wrong.’” Minder, “Scrutiny Falls.”

  26. “The contract, which required him to hand out pamphlets to potential customers on the outskirts of Paris, was an opportunity to make a fresh start after an untethered and jobless youth, according to his father and other residents of El Saladillo.” Ibid.

  27. “Ayoub El Khazanni rather left good memories. His former colleagues, faced by Europe 1, described him as a ‘quiet’ man and ’needy’ who proudly showed his Moroccan origins. The employee came and went alone on public transport.” Europe 1, “Thalys: El Khazzani, un salarié ‘discret et besogneux,’” August 25, 2015, http://www.europe1.fr/faits-divers/thalys-el-khazzani-un-salarie-discret-et-besogneux-2505429.

  28. “’His work, to distribute flyers and put up posters, however, was interrupted after two months,’said his former boss, the CEO of mobile operator Lycamobile.” Valeurs Actuelles, “Attaque dans le Thalys: Ayoub El Khazanni a bien vécu en France,” August 25, 2015, http://www.valeursactuelles.com/societe/attaque-dans-le-thalys-ayoub-el-khazanni-a-bien-vecu-en-france-55088.

  29. “‘The papers‘ that he presented did not allow him to work in France.’ Still, ‘I think I can tell you that it was going pretty good. It was promising.’ said his former employer.” Ibid.

  30. “The suspect, who is being questioned near Paris, was flagged up to French authorities by their Spanish counterparts in February 2014.”BBC, “France Train Shooting: Gunman Known to Police,” BBC, August 22, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34028261.

  31. “Early in 2014, fearing he could be found on French territory, they warned Paris, which established an S3 level (on a danger scale 1 to 16) in the month of February.” Valeurs Actuelles, “Attaque dans le Thalys.”

  32. “. . . identified by the Spanish authorities to French intelligence services in February 2014.” Chine Labbé and Sarah White, “France Train Gunman Identified as Islamist Militant,” Reuters, August 22, 2015, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-train-shots-idUSKCN0QR09R20150822.

  33. Valeurs Actuelles, “Attaque dans le Thalys.”

  34. “In January 2014, the company offers El-Khazzani work in France . . . a six-month contract to work in Seine–Saint-Denis, confirmed a source in the Spanish Ministry of the Interior. He would be left with other young people in his neighborhood to ‘sell phones to Moroccans’ or more precisely rechargeable SIM cards. A month later, Madrid warns French intelligence of the possible arrival of El Khazzani in the territory. The French services place an ‘S’ form (for ‘state security’). But it does not involve active surveillance. In an unannounced check, the police are allowed to extract maximum information on the subject.” Piquer and Suc, “Attaque dans le Thalys.”

  35. “His father said he left for France to work for mobile phone operator Lycamobile—a claim confirmed by the head of the firm who said Khazzani stayed for two months in early 2014 and left because he did not have the right work papers.” Simon Tomlinson and Tom Wyke, Daily Mail, “Blindfolded and Barefoot,” August 25, 2015, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3210351/Blindfolded-barefoot-French-terror-train-gunman-led-court-surrounded-bulletproof-jacket-wearing-officers-just-hours-questioning-deadline-expires.html#ixzz3ylIj3MX3.

  36. “Alain Jochimek, the French director of Lycamobile, told France Info radio that the company did not renew Mr. Khazzani’s short-term contract because he did not have working papers to remain in France.” Minder, “Scrutiny Falls.”

  37. “Lycamobile ended up separating from Ayoub El Khazzani in March 2014, a month before the end of the CSD due to a problem with his residence permit and a visibly false address.” Europe 1, “Thalys.”

  38. “. . . still remembers her son and five other young Moroccans from Algeciras had been ‘recruited to work in France,’ in spring 2014 for ’a six-month contract’ in a telecommunications company. ’But after a month, they were dismissed. They are criminals in this business of using people like that.’” “Videos. Thalys: El-Khazzani aurait travaillé un mois en Seine-Saint-Denis,” Le Parisien, August 25, 2015, http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/videos-el-khazzani-aurait-travaille-un-mois-en-seine-saint-denis-25-08-2015-5033553.php#xtref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F.

  39. “’What was he supposed to do? What he was supposed to eat? They are criminals in this business of using people like that’ laments his father.” Piquer and Suc, “Attaque dans le Thalys.”

  40. Atran and Hamid, “Paris: The War ISIS Wants.”

  41. “He acknowledged having stayed ‘five to seven months’ in Aubervilliers in 2014. It was during this period that he worked for two months for a mobile operator, Lycamobile. His former employer had said Monday it had terminated its contract ‘as the papers he had submitted did not allow him to work in France.’” Piquer and Suc, “Attaque dans le Thalys.”

  PART II: SPECIALIST ALEK SKARLATOS

  Ayoub

  1. “Still, the
ISB have traced him on May 10, 2015, according to Liberation. He was spotted because of the S form at the Berlin airport, boarding a GermanWings flight to Istanbul. This information is transmitted to the Spanish intelligence services on 11 May and it takes ten days to inform their counterparts that the young Moroccan is now in Belgium.” Valeurs Actuelles, “Attaque dans le Thalys.”

  2. “Cazeneuve did not give a name, but . . . said he was believed to have flown from Berlin to Istanbul on May 10 this year.” Labbé and White, “France Train Gunman.” “German police had also flagged the gunman as a risk to French security services after he aroused suspicion while waiting to take a flight from Berlin to Turkey en route to Syria. ‘The security services lost track of him after he arrived in Istanbul,’ sources told Le Parisien newspaper.” Robert Mendick, David Chazan, and Gregory Walton, “Paris train gunman’s links to Syria,” August 22, 2015, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/11818772/Paris-train-gunmans-links-to-Syria.html.

  3. “According to François Molins, it would be back on European soil on June 4 by a flight from Antakya, a city near the Syrian border.” Piquer and Suc, “Attaque dans le Thalys.”

  4. Valeurs Actuelles, “Attaque dans le Thalys.”

  5. “Molenbeek is the source of the highest concentration in Europe of jihadi foreign fighters going to fight in Syria and Iraq and returning battle-hardened and determined to take their fight to the capitals of Europe.“ Ian Traynor, “Molenbeek: The Brussels Borough Becoming Known as Europe’s Jihadi Central,” Guardian, November 15, 2015, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/15/molenbeek-the-brussels-borough-in-the-spotlight-after-paris-attacks.

  6. “Raids conducted Monday in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, near Brussels, have established that he stayed ‘very recently’ with his sister, said François Molins. The Belgian public prosecutor confirmed to the world that the young woman came spontaneously to the Police.” “Thalys: El-Khazzani mis en examen et écroué pour une attaque «ciblée et préméditée»,” Le Monde, August 25, 2015, http://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2015/08/25/attaque-du-thalys-suivez-en-direct-la-conference-de-presse-du-procureur_4736412_1653578.html.

  7. “Molenbeek-Saint-Jean is a densely-packed district where unemployment is high and disengagement rife. Children play on green open spaces framed by graffitied walls, and behind the colourful shop facades there are pockets of poverty.”Alex Forsyth, “Paris Attacks: Is Molenbeek a Haven for Belgian Jihadis?” BBC, November 17, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34839403.

  8. Atran and Hamid, “Paris: The War ISIS Wants.”

  9. “During his detention, El-Khazzani reportedly admitted to have traveled in the past six months in Belgium, Germany, Austria, France and Andorra, trips made each time by train.” Piquer and Suc, “Attaque dans le Thalys.”

  10. “Reportedly, El-Khazzani, who has a Spanish residence card, would have been recognized in custody to have traveled in the past six months in Belgium, in Germany, in Austria, in France and Andorra, the trips made each time by train.” Le Monde, August 25, 2015.

  11. “He said he had not spoken to his son since he left Algeciras in 2014 although his wife, named in the article as Zahara, had spoken to him by phone about a month earlier, it said.” Reuters, “Spanish Police Search House.”

  12. Weather history for Melsbroek, Belgium, August 2015, https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/EBBR/2015/8/21/DailyHistory.html?req_city=Brussels&req_state=&req_statename=Belgium&reqdb.zip=00000&reqdb.magic=1&reqdb.wmo=06451.

  13. “Ayoub al-Khazzani was also in possession of a mobile phone ‘clearly dedicated to the commission of the offense.’ The telephone line was activated the same day and the suspect had watched a video from this unit call for jihad.” Miguel Medina, “Ce qu’a révélé le procureur de Paris sur l’attaque d’Ayoub el-Khazzani,” France 24, August 25, 2015, http://www.france24.com/fr/20152508-thalys-attaque-ayoub-el-khazzani-terrorisme-procureur-francois-molins.

  14. “Coulibaly reportedly purchased the weapons near the Gare du Midi train station in Brussels for less than 5,000 euros ($5,876), reported the Telegraph.The area around the station, which serves as the Eurostar’s Belgian terminus, is known as a hub for illegal weapons sales.” Lora Moftah, “Belgian Arms Dealer Supplied Paris Gunmen with Weapons,” International Business Times, January 14, 2015, http://www.ibtimes.com/belgian-arms-dealer-supplied-paris-gunmen-weapons-assault-rifles-used-charlie-hebdo-1783432.

  15. “What Belgium adds to the mix, analysts say, is a long, troubled history of lax gun laws and a pedigree of gun manufacturing, led by FN Herstal in the Wallonia region. The country has an unusually high number of people with technical and commercial expertise in guns.” Christian Oliver and Duncan Robinson, “Paris Attacks: Belgium’s Arms Bazaar,” Big Read, November 19, 2015, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/33a2d592-8dde-11e5-a549-b89a1dfede9b.html#axzz40jF7DzO1.

  16. “The flow of illegal guns into Belgium began in earnest in the 1990s amid the Balkan wars and the fall of the Soviet Union. Mr Moniquet says a large Balkan community built up during those years, when guns circulated freely around the fragmenting Yugoslavia, and former communist officials took to trafficking their states’ vast and often mothballed munitions reserves. . . . Mr Moniquet estimates that 90 per cent of the arms circulating in Belgium probably originate from the Balkans. ‘You have mountains of Kalashnikovs in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia,’ he says. When you take in people, you take in their luggage. Smuggling is a living tradition for these guys.” Ibid.

  17. “Nils Duquet, an arms expert at the Flemish Peace Institute, notes that until 2006, purchasers could buy guns simply by showing an ID card. The government only tightened its rules after 18-year-old skinhead Hans Van Themsche went on a racially motivated shooting rampage in Antwerp that year, killing two people and injuring one. By that stage, however, a large pool of guns had built up in Belgium. ’We had got a reputation,’ says Mr Duquet. ‘People knew Belgium was a place to go to buy guns.’” Ibid.

  18. Thalys terminal, https://foursquare.com/v/thalys-terminal/4bfb9014d2b720a13d22336a.

  19. Thalys terminal timetable, https://www.thalys.com/be/en/timetables-correpondances?gare_dep=Amsterdam&gare_arr=Paris&date_aller=2016-06-10&plage_horaire_aller=00-24&plage_horaire_retour=00-24&as=y.

  20. “Q: He was suspicious so walked over to see what was going on?

  A: Exactly.

  Q: What happened next?

  A: Well, when the person came out of the bathroom, my husband saw him coming out with a gun, and there was a young guy who wants to remain anonymous so far that had grabbed him from the back, and my husband was able to take the AK from the shooter, and unfortunately he didn’t know that the bad guy had another gun, a hand gun, so he shot him in the back.

  Q: You were just feet away as I understand it.

  A: Yeah, yeah. I was about a foot, or maybe a foot in a half. He told me, ’’’I’m hit.’ He said it twice, ’I’m hit, I’m hit, it’s over.’”

  Isabelle Risacher-Moogalian on Today, http://www.today.com/video/wife-of-french-american-train-hero-he-said-im-hit-514941507836.

  21. “Mr Moogalian, 51, and wife were seated facing each other on the high-speed train when she saw only his expression and the urgent ‘Get out, this is serious.’ Then, Isabelle Risacher Moogalian said, she ducked behind some seats as he lunged to grab the assault rifle from the gunman’s hands.” “French-American Mark Moogalian Is New High-Speed Train Attack Hero,” News.com.au, August 26, 2015, http://www.news.com.au/world/frenchamerican-mark-moogalian-is-new-highspeed-train-attack-hero/news-story/146d22a604bb3ba0ae37f600d3ada203.

  22. “The bullet traveled through his shoulder-blade and through his collarbone. It also pierced his left lung. ‘I saw my husband through the chairs . . . and he told me, ‘I’m hit, I’m hit, it’s over.’’ Savannah Guthrie, Kelly Cobiella, and Nancy Ing, “Mark Moogalian Thanks Airman Spencer Stone for Saving Life on Train.” August 28, 2015, http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/french-train-attack/mark-moogalian-thanks-airman-
spencer-stone-saving-life-train-n417591.

  23. Link to photos of Spencer Stone, https://www.google.com/search?q=spencer+stone&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiB_-SD7onLAhVDWh4KHZKBD8QQ_AUICCgC&biw=1149&bih=626#imgrc=MGtydTZYg9j2nM%3A.

  PART III: ANTHONY SADLER, KNIGHT OF THE LEGION OF HONOR

  Chapter 35.

  1. “More Than 100 Killed,” CNN, http://www.pastpages.org/screenshot/2609665/.

  2. Soren Seelow, “Abdelhamid Abaaoud, l’instigateur présumé des attentats tué à Saint-Denis,” Le Monde, November 16, 2015, http://www.lemonde.fr/attaques-a-paris/article/2015/11/16/qui-est-abdelhamid-abaaoud-le-commanditaire-presume-des-attaques-de-paris_4811009_4809495.html.

  Chapter 36.

  1. Medals of France, http://www.gwpda.org/medals/frenmedl/france.html.

  2. Aurelien Breeden, “Americans and Briton Receive Top French Honor for Stopping Train Gunman,” New York Times, August 24, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/25/world/europe/france-train-attack-legion-of-honor.html?_r=0.

  3. Nic Robertson, “French President Bestows Legion of Honor on Train Heroes,” CNN video, n/d, http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/08/24/france-train-heroes-legion-of-honor-robertson-lklv.cnn.