UPDATE: The French Prime Minister says Cherif Kouachi, 32, and Said Kouachi, 34, are not in custody and are heavily armed. A policewoman was killed in a shootout in a Parisian suburb by a masked gunman wearing a bullet-proof vest, but officials have not yet linked it to the Charlie Hebdo attackers.
There is late-breaking news regarding the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo Magazine in Paris:
One of the suspects in the Paris attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine has been killed and the two others are in custody, two senior U.S. counterterrorism officials told NBC News on Wednesday.
Authorities earlier had identified the three men as Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, both French and in their early 30s, and Hamyd Mourad, 18, whose nationality wasn't immediately clear.
One of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the investigation, told The Associated Press that the men were linked to a Yemeni terrorist network. Cherif Kouachi was convicted in 2008 of terrorism charges for helping funnel fighters to Iraq's insurgency and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Meanwhile, in Colorado, very little is known about the 40ish balding white guy who left an IED outside the NAACP office in Colorado Springs. Media isn't really focusing on that domestic terrorist attack, either.
The “improvised explosive device” detonated at the headquarters of the Colorado Springs, Colorado NAACP office Tuesday night. The makeshift bomb did not ignite a gas tank placed next to it, so it did not cause any injuries, and “only minimal surface charring to the exterior wall of the building.” But it could have been much more destructive had the bomb ignited, and sent a clear anti-civil rights message, although the FBI is investigating the motives behind the bombing and says domestic terrorism is still a possible motive.
Here's what bothers me about how the news cycle is running right now. We have a heinous mass shooting in Paris that killed 12 people. It's tragic and horrible. We also know who the suspects are and they've either been killed or rounded up.
On the other hand, we have an attempt to possibly bomb a chapter of the NAACP or the barbershop next door that serves mostly black people, and there's radio silence. For people living in this country, domestic terrorism is something that is far more likely to strike close to home than international terrorism. It's newsworthy.
Can't the media focus on two things at once?
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