“French investigators believe they have identified the hostage-taker. The man is known to the intelligence services and flagged in a database of radicalized Islamist militants, Franceinfo reported.”

How many “radicalized Islamist militants” are walking around freely in France? Why wasn’t this man under surveillance? Just too many jihadis for French authorities to keep track of?

This is the France that the French political and media elites have created. This is the France that they want.

And remember: CNN wants you to think of the phrase “Allahu akbar” as a “celebration of life.”

An update on this story. “Gunman shot dead after three killed in French shooting, supermarket attack,” Jerusalem Post, March 23, 2018:

Three people were killed in southwestern France on Friday when a gunman held up a car, opened fire on police and then took hostages in a supermarket, screaming “Allahu Akbar.” Police later stormed the supermarket in the small town of Trebes and Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on Twitter that the attacker had been killed. A source at the Interior Ministry said two had died at the hostage-taking in Trebes. “It is a provisional assessment as it could unfortunately get worse. Three people are wounded, including one of them seriously,” the source said. Later, a police union official said the attacker had also killed one person with a bullet in the head in the nearby historic town of Carcassonne before the hostage-taking. French President Emmanuel Macron said the incident appeared to be a terrorist attack and security forces were securing the area. The station reported that the hostage-taker has claimed allegiance to Islamic State and that he has demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam – the prime surviving suspect in the Islamic State attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in 2015…. The man first shot at four police officers in the historic town of Carcassonne before barricading himself in the Super-U supermarket in Trebes, about 8 km (5 miles) to the east. A police union official said the attacker had killed one person with bullet in the head in Carcassonne before the hostage-taking. Menassi also told LCI TV that the man had entered the shop in Trebes screaming “Allahu Akbar, (God is greatest) I’ll kill you all.” Philippe said: “All the information we have as I speak lead us to think that this would be a terrorist act.”

No kidding, really?