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Post by bjd on Feb 4, 2017 16:21:14 GMT
I heard on the news that he bought the two machetes in Paris in a store selling weapons. Obviously not for gardening then. The sheaths were found in the apartment he rented. But the price was crazy -- over 600€ for the two.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2017 16:22:36 GMT
Apparently any armourer worthy of the name sells machetes* as well as smaller knives and also sabers. The man in question left the sheaths back at his Airbnb. The entrance that he used is the least used entrance which descends from the Tuileries garden down to the underground car park end of the mall. He had not yet reached the normal security control (which would be stationed at the door to the car park stairs), but he did run into the military patrol which was probably on the verge of going up the stairs he came down on their way to the Tuileries. They do not pace back and forth in the same zone because that would make them too predictable. I suppose he had two machetes in case the first machete got stuck in somebody's spine or skull.
* these were apparently 40cm military machetes such as are used by the Foreign Legion and soldiers stationed in the forests of French Guiana.
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Post by lugg on Feb 4, 2017 18:20:56 GMT
Yes I guess the doctor must have had mixed feelings but his Hippocratic oath (or similar) will maybe give him comfort. I was surprised at a market in France to see knives etc. so freely available last Autumn , but accept that restrictions on selling will not stop someone determined to cause harm.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 8, 2017 6:08:09 GMT
From your description of events Kerouac it seems to me that this attacker had a well studied plan. If I arrived in Paris I would not know where to begin finding a machete. I would not know which entrances to the Louvre are least used. This man has done his homework.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 8, 2017 6:25:57 GMT
He visited the Louvre a few days earlier to check it out.
He has been telling the investigators that he only wanted to spray paint some of the paintings in the Louvre (there were two cans of paint in his backpack) in protest of France, but of course that does not jibe with having two machetes on him.
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Post by lagatta on Feb 8, 2017 14:14:37 GMT
The doctor might also have realized that such an attacker is much more useful to the authorities living than dead. But I think they still haven't got what's his name from the Bataclan attacks to sing?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2017 14:12:57 GMT
This is as good a place as any to say that security is going too far. It has been announced that the Eiffel Tower grounds are going to be surrounded by a 2.5 metre high bulletproof glass wall starting this autumn. This is going to cost 20 million euros. And there will apparently be no access from the Seine side of the tower. Ridiculous!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2017 14:42:01 GMT
Perhaps it shouldn't be glass at all but chain link, and then people can start affixing their love locks again. Cheaper...
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Post by htmb on Feb 9, 2017 14:42:47 GMT
I guess safety concerns have really worked to discourage tourism, enough for a wall around the ET to be in the works. Just a quick glance at Delta's website shows me that today I could book a round trip flight to Paris from my small town in North Florida for eight hundred dollars less than I could at this time last year. When I actually did book a flight a few months ago, it was for 1/3 of what I've paid in the recent past.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2017 15:20:19 GMT
Tourism has actually been bouncing back and went up something like 7% in the last quarter of 2016. Some groups are still in major decline (China, United States...) but there has been a big increase in Indian, European and domestic French tourists. It's only logical - Europeans are like everybody else. They currently feel safer staying on their own continent.
Meanwhile, I read today that tourism to the United States has dropped about 15% since January, and the 7 banned countries only represented a microscopic amount of the arrivals in the country.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2017 15:37:13 GMT
I know Canadians are staying away from the US in droves. Heck, I haven't been there this year yet, and I (supposedly) live there.
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Post by whatagain on Feb 10, 2017 15:23:09 GMT
Radio are broadcasting finding a terrorist cell of 4 (incl. a 16 y old girls) preparing an attack in Paris. The cell was in Montpellier.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2017 15:39:29 GMT
The first report I heard was that they were preparing an attack in the Montpellier area at a variety of clubs, like in Istanbul and Orlando. However, now they are saying Paris. Keep in mind that 4 different people generally tell 4 different stories, and they change constantly.
They may have been planning to attack the crowds waiting to go through security at the glass wall surrounding the Eiffel Tower.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2017 20:36:54 GMT
The latest version is that the would-be terrorists were not in agreement on the target. Some wanted to blow up a club in Montpellier and others wanted a more grandiose attack on a tourist site in Paris. This sort of indecision was probably a godsend for the authorities.
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Post by chexbres on Feb 11, 2017 17:08:23 GMT
Well, that just goes to show you what those rabble-rousin' Radical Muslim Terrorists will do when they sit around drinkin', smokin' hashish and thinkin' about all those virgins - whichever country they're in. It takes simply eternity for anything to get done!
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Post by mossie on Feb 11, 2017 19:57:12 GMT
Don't forget also that these people are natural liars so will tell any story never the truth, this is how they fooled GW Bush about the fabled WMD. They normally tell you what they think you want to hear.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 12, 2017 10:49:08 GMT
Chexbres and Mossie - spot on.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2017 13:13:06 GMT
Of course, at least 2 of the people are ethnic French, recently converted. Would their lying be as natural?
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Post by whatagain on Feb 12, 2017 14:34:56 GMT
If it answers the question French politics are natural liars. M
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Post by Deleted on Feb 12, 2017 15:07:05 GMT
Only French politicians?
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 21, 2017 4:45:07 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2017 4:48:48 GMT
I'm having lunch on the Champs Elysées today with two former colleagues.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 21, 2017 5:16:27 GMT
I take it that the area is no longer blocked off.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2017 5:37:03 GMT
No, it was reopened before dawn. After all, about 100,000 people work in the area.
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Post by tod2 on Apr 21, 2017 7:44:36 GMT
It is extremely sad to wake up this morning to the news in Paris. All I can say is I am not put off in the slightest when planning my short 4 day stay in September this year. I think if I was a first time Paris prospective visitor I probably might be put off. I get this feeling when looking at countries with problems that I have never been to. I'm sure loads think that about South Africa.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 21, 2017 11:02:23 GMT
Definitely. Lovely as South Africa is, I don't want to go any place where there is a reasonable fear of being able to walk around alone without at the least being mugged. South Africa not the only one of those by any means.
The risk to tourists in Paris as of now remains far far less than the risk of traffic accidents. I'm not attracted to the Champs-Elysées area and have only been there a couple of times for nearby art exhibits. The attacks in the 10th and 11th arrondissements were in areas where I've stayed several times and really hit home.
Bixa, where does one buy machetes in Mexico? Aren't they used mostly as farming and gardening tools?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 21, 2017 13:12:20 GMT
So, as planned I had lunch with my friends on rue Marbeuf, about 100 metres from last night's event. The media circus was in full swing, and I just hope that most of these journalists were here anyway to cover the presidential election and didn't fly in just for this. After all, all they they do is stand on the scene of the crime and talk about what everybody saw on the news yesterday. There was nothing to see today, but the nearest stores were closed (Marks & Spencer, Marionnaud and Jeff de Bruges), probably just to keep customers from walking in front of the news reports. In any case, the avenue was as crowded as ever.
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Post by mossie on Apr 21, 2017 13:50:58 GMT
These news people rile me, they just prattle on for hours, something which can be all done in a few minutes. Tragic as it is for the people directly involved it is better for everyone else to move on and get on with life.
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Post by whatagain on Apr 21, 2017 15:55:00 GMT
Happened just when the nazi bitch was saying S registered guys should be sent home or in prison. S guys mean somebody identified as potentially dangerous. Like the bitch needed this kind of ad 2 days before voting. If I were a plot aficionado I d say she had it planned herself.
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Post by lagatta on Apr 21, 2017 16:03:08 GMT
Yes, the endless loop of reporting is publicity both for the Nazi bitch and the Islamist death cult (a different kind of far right). It glamourises the usual violent little shit who was in and out of prison and suddenly "found God".
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