In response to the attack on the Paris magazine that published editorial cartoons mocking Islam, President Obama reluctantly classified it as an act of terrorism while refusing to associate it with Islam.
“I strongly condemn the horrific shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that has reportedly killed 12 people,” Obama said in a carefully worded statement released by the White House press office.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this terrorist attack and the people of France at this difficult time. France is America’s oldest ally and has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States in the fight against terrorists who threaten our shared security and the world.”
Speaking in both French and English, Secretary of State John Kerry expressed U.S. solidarity with France against the “extremism” reflected in the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo. He also took care to characterize the attack as terrorism without specifically characterizing it as “Islamic terrorism.”
French President Francois Hollande called the killings “a terrorist attack without a doubt.”
In an interview with CNN, however,White House press secretary Josh Earnest even avoided calling the attack “terrorism,” the Weekly Standard noted.
The CNN host asked: “Josh, when you talk about countering the message, you keep using the word violence. I mean, this is an act of terrorism, that’s what the president of France called it — an act of terrorism. You’re referring to ISIS and other bad actors, it doesn’t really matter who it is at the end of the day. You know you’re fighting a very large group of people of somewhat similar concern. Do you see this as an act of terrorism, and is this something that has to be condemned on that level?”
Earnest replied: “Based on what we know right now it does seem that’s what we’re confronting here. And this is an act of violence that we certainly do condemn, and if based on this investigation it turns out to be an act of terrorism, then we would condemn that in the strongest possible terms, too.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/01/obama-unsure-terrorism-behind-paris-attack/
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