Paris terror suspect trained with Chicago plotters
ABC7 I-Team Investigation
CHICAGO (WLS) -- French authorities say at least one of the suspected terrorist brothers went to jihadi school in Yemen. They say he underwent weapons training by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - the same organization that targeted Chicago Jewish centers in a 2010 package bomb scheme. The two operations, more than four years apart, show a range of attack methods by an organization still on the map.
The attack on Paris newspaper office was carried out with assault rifles at close quarters and the personal handiwork of two shooters.
At almost 48 hours since the terrorist attack, authorities in France are still rolling out law enforcement resources in a wide manhunt for these two men: Said and Cherif Kouachi, French-born brothers of Algerian parents.
French intelligence agents have told their counterparts in the US that one of the brothers came to Yemen in 2011 for weapons training with al Qaeda commandoes.
Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, is considered to be the brain center of radicalized Muslims; the most coveted training center for would-be jihadists and the terror world's research and development headquarters.
In 2010, the bomb-making section of al Qaeda concocted a plot to blow up cargo planes over Chicago.
Two bombs disguised as these harmless computer print cartridges were found on a UPS plane in England and at FedEx facility in Dubai.
The printer parts had been tampered with to turn them into improvised bombs with wires and cellphone components as possible detonators.
They were addressed to Chicago synagogues and Jewish centers, intercepted during an international search after U.S. intelligence agencies got a tipoff warning from Saudi officials of a plot being orchestrated by AQAP in Yemen.
The same Yemen group that failed in its Chicago plot also struck out in several other similar tries on jetliners, including the Christmas day underwear bomb attempt.
If the Paris attackers were directed by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, it suggests a change of methods, from a hands-off approach with remote control bombs to a much more up-close and personal tactic.
