Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, current leader Neon Vincent, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, wader, Doctor RJ, rfall, JML9999 and Man Oh Man with guest editors annetteboardman and Chitown Kev. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, ek hornbeck, ScottyUrb, Interceptor7, BentLiberal, Oke and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
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‘Terrorists may have used PlayStation 4 to communicate’
DW News
DW: From what we know so far, the Paris attacks by the 'Islamic State' appear to have been planned, coordinated and orchestrated in advance for some time. Can you shed some light on how the perpetrators may have managed to communicate without being detected by the seemingly broad surveillance measures applied by the French and other governments?
Jamie Bartlett: Of course it's difficult to know at this point, but I am sure in the coming days we will learn a lot more. Very generally speaking what you can say about the 'Islamic State' and pretty much about most terrorist groups is that they keep a very close eye on the latest developments in terms of encrypted messaging services, in terms of using various anonymous web browsers simply to try to communicate with each other in such a way that makes it far more difficult for the intelligence agencies to monitor exactly what they are saying.
France's state of emergency may last months
Al Jazeera America
French President Francois Hollande will present a bill to extend the state of emergency in France, as well as propose severe amendments to the constitution in light of a recent wave of attacks in Paris that killed at least 129 people.
The French leader said on Monday, in an exceptional joint gathering of parliament, that he would make the proposals on Wednesday and parliamentarians would vote on them before the end of the week.
Friday's "acts of war... were decided and planned in Syria, prepared and organised in Belgium [and] perpetrated on our soil with French complicity," he said, speaking in Versailles, south of Paris.
"I have asked the prime minister to prepare constitutional amendments," he added.
Paris Attacks: How Great Are the Terror Dangers Posed by Refugees?
Spiegel Online
It hasn't taken long for the French authorities to begin learning details as to who was behind Friday night's terrorist attacks in Paris. Several of perpetrators, officials learned over the weekend, are from France, with two having most recently lived in Brussels and two more residing just outside of the French capital. Investigators believe that a 27-year-old Belgian man named Abdelhamid A. was the coordinator of the attacks, which cost the lives of at least 132 people at multiple sites in Paris on Friday evening.
It hasn't taken long for the French authorities to begin learning details as to who was behind Friday night's terrorist attacks in Paris. Several of perpetrators, officials learned over the weekend, are from France, with two having most recently lived in Brussels and two more residing just outside of the French capital. Investigators believe that a 27-year-old Belgian man named Abdelhamid A. was the coordinator of the attacks, which cost the lives of at least 132 people at multiple sites in Paris on Friday evening.
ABDELHAMID ABAAOUD NAMED AS ALLEGED MASTERMIND OF PARIS TERROR ATTACKS
The Guardian
French intelligence officials have named the alleged mastermind of a deadly string of suicide bombings and shootings in Paris as the Belgian extremist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, after French police made more than 20 arrests and seized arms and ammunition in a series of anti-terror raids across the country.
As details emerged of an elaborate international terror operation run from Syria and carried out by a sleeper cell based in Belgium, officials told French media that Abaaoud, seen as one of Islamic State’s most active operatives, was “investigators’ best bet” as the main organiser of the attacks, which killed 129 people on Friday.
Obama rules out U.S. troops on ground to fight Islamic State
Reuters
President Barack Obama ruled out a shift in strategy in the fight against Islamic State on Monday despite the deadly attacks in Paris, saying putting more U.S. troops on the ground as sought by his political critics "would be a mistake."
Speaking after a G20 summit in Turkey, Obama described the attacks in France that killed 129 people as "a terrible and sickening setback" and vowed to redouble efforts to destroy Islamic State, even as the group threatened to strike Washington.
Mindful of the difficulties that the United States had in controlling Iraq after its invasion in 2003, Obama is very reluctant to commit American ground forces to Middle East conflict zones.