I think we need to draw breath and apply Occam's razor here.
It is entirely possible that the attack was undertaken because:
(1) The fanatics truly believe that insulting Islam and/or its prophet is a capital crime
(2) Charlie Hebdo was already well-known, and hated, in Islamist circles
(3) These guys were back from the front and their blood was up
No need for sophisticated strategic thinking.
No need for centralized AQ command structure giving subtle orders like Dr No
All it took was a small band of nutters with links to criminals (to source the weapons - sadly, not at all hard to do in mainland Europe) and a strong motivation.
I think we need to draw breath and apply Occam's razor here.
It is entirely possible that the attack was undertaken because:
(1) The fanatics truly believe that insulting Islam and/or its prophet is a capital crime
(2) Charlie Hebdo was already well-known, and hated, in Islamist circles
(3) These guys were back from the front and their blood was up
No need for sophisticated strategic thinking.
No need for centralized AQ command structure giving subtle orders like Dr No
All it took was a small band of nutters with links to criminals (to source the weapons - sadly, not at all hard to do in mainland Europe) and a strong motivation.
Expect a lot more of this before it's over :-(