Deadly shooting at Copenhagen free speech event

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By CBS News / Associated Press Saturday February 14, 2015 12:56 PM

COPENHAGEN, Denmark --A shooting left at least one man dead Saturday at a cafe in Copenhagen that was hosting a freedom of speech event organized by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has faced numerous threats for caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad.

In a statement, Danish police said the victim was a 40-year-old man.

The police said they are looking for the perpetrators who drove away in a dark Volkswagen Polo after the shooting shortly before 4 p.m. (10 a.m. EST) at the Krudttoenden cafe.

Some 30 bullet holes ripped through the window of the cafe and there were conflicting reports over the number of people injured.

At least two people were taken away on stretchers, including a uniformed police officer, the TV2 channel said Saturday. The Danish Ritzau news agency reported three police officers were injured.

"I heard someone firing with an automatic weapons and someone shouting. Police returned the fire and I hid behind the bar. I felt surreal, like in a movie," Niels Ivar Larsen, one of the speakers at the event, told TV2 channel.

HelleMereteBrix, one of the event's organizers, told The Associated Press that Vilks was at the meeting but not injured.

"I saw a masked man running past," she said. "A couple of police officers were injured."

"I clearly consider this as an attack on Lars Vilks," she added, saying she was ushered away with Vilks by one of the Danish police guards that he gets whenever he is in Denmark.

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Deadly shooting at Copenhagen free speech event

Gunman kills 1 in attack on free speech event in Denmark

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark Police in Copenhagen say they have shot and killed a man who shot at them near a train station and are investigating whether he can be linked to two shootings hours earlier at a free speech event and at a synagogue.

A statement posted early Sunday by police says the shooting occurred after they had put an address near the train station under observation. The statement says no police officers were wounded.

The two earlier shootings left two dead and five police officers wounded, stirring fears that another terror spree was underway in a European capital a month after 17 people were killed in Paris attacks.

This is a breaking news story. AP's earlier version follows...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark A shooting at a free speech event featuring an artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad and a second shooting hours later outside a synagogue left two dead and five police officers wounded in Copenhagen, stirring fears that another terror spree was under way in a European capital a month after 17 people were killed in Paris attacks.

Police couldn't say whether the shootings at a cultural center Saturday afternoon and in front of the synagogue early Sunday were connected, but didn't rule it out. In both shootings, the gunman got away.

"We are looking for two perpetrators," police spokesman Allan Wadsworth-Hansen told reporters.

The first shooting happened shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday. Danish police said the gunman used an automatic weapon to shoot through the windows of the Krudttoenden cultural center during a panel discussion on freedom of expression following the Paris attacks. A 55-year-old man attending the event was killed, while three police officers were wounded. Two belonged to the Danish security service PET, which said the circumstances surrounding the shooting "indicate that we are talking about a terror attack."

The gunman then fled in a carjacked Volkswagen Polo that was found later a few kilometers (miles) away, police said.

TV2/AP Photo This image made from TV2 via Associated Press News video shows the scene near a synagogue where police reported a shooting in downtown Copenhagen, Denmark, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015. One person was shot in the head and two police officers were shot in the arms and legs, police said.

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Gunman kills 1 in attack on free speech event in Denmark

One dead after shooting at free speech event in Denmark featuring controversial artist

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At least one gunman opened fire Saturday on a Copenhagen cafe, killing one man in what authorities called a likely terror attack during a free speech event organized by an artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad.

The shooting, which also wounded three police officers, came a month after extremists killed 12 people at a satirical newspaper in Paris that had also sparked Muslim outrage with its depictions of Muhammad.

AP Video Feb. 14 2015, 2:33 PM EST

Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has been repeatedly threatened after depicting Muhammad as a dog in 2007, organized and attended Saturdays event but was not hit by gunfire, police said.

I saw a masked man running past, said Helle Merete Brix, one of the events organizers. I clearly consider this as an attack on Lars Vilks.

Vilks agreed, telling The Associated Press by telephone what other motive could there be?

Brix and Vilks were quickly ushered away by the security detail that accompanies the artist whenever he is in Denmark.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, which took place shortly before 4 p.m. local time. Denmarks security service, PET, said the circumstances surrounding the shooting indicate that we are talking about a terror attack.

Danish police said the gunman used an automatic weapon to shoot through the windows of the Krudttoenden cafe, which TV footage showed were riddled with bullet holes. The gunman then fled in a carjacked Volkswagen Polo that was found later a few kilometres (miles) away, police said.

I heard someone firing with an automatic weapons and someone shouting. Police returned the fire and I hid behind the bar. I felt surreal, like in a movie, Niels Ivar Larsen, one of the speakers at the event, told the TV2 channel.

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One dead after shooting at free speech event in Denmark featuring controversial artist

Volokh Conspiracy: Murder at Copenhagen debate on free speech attended by Swedish Muhammad cartoonist

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See The Local (Denmark, English language) and Washington Post post tv. Heres an excerpt from BBC News:

Gunmen have killed one person and injured three police officers at a free speech debate in Copenhagen attended by a controversial Swedish cartoonist [Lars Vilks], officials say.

The French ambassador was also present at the seminar.

The debate, which took place in a cafe, was described on a personal website of Lars Vilks as a talk on whether any limits should be placed on artistic expression or freedom of speech.

A description of the event asked whether artists could dare to be blasphemous in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks by Islamist gunmen in Paris last month.

Neither the cartoonist nor the ambassador appeared to be hurt. The BBC story also reports on many past attacks or attempted attacks on Vilks, who stoked controversy in 2007 by drawing pictures of the Prophet Muhammad dressed as a dog. Here is what appears to be one of those cartoons (copied from the Wikipedia site); apparently the picture is of a head, intended to be Muhammads, attached to a roundabout dog, a form of Swedish street sculpture sometimes put up by anonymous people in traffic roundabouts:

Lars Vilks cartoon of Muhammad as a roundabout dog (a form of Swedish street side sculpture).

Here is a statement from Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt:

Denmark was today hit by a cold-blooded act of terror. Everything points toward the shooting in sterbro being a political assassination and thus an act of terror.

The shooting is an action that fills me with deep anger. We will do everything to find the guilty parties and bring them before a court.

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Volokh Conspiracy: Murder at Copenhagen debate on free speech attended by Swedish Muhammad cartoonist

Free Speech Debate Still Alive After Attack in Denmark

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TIME World Terrorism Updated: Feb. 14, 2015 8:14 PM Lars RonbogGetty Images A victim is carried into an ambulance after a shooting at a public meeting and discussion arranged by the Lars Vilks Committee about Charlie Hebdo and freedom of speech on Feb. 14, 2015 in Copenhagen.

Still alive in the room.

As gunfire erupted outside a Copenhagen cultural center on Saturday afternoon, French ambassador Franois Zimeray tweeted that message to the world.

The message conveys some of the terror that Zimeray and other participants in a panel discussion on freedom of speech must have felt. But the presence of mind that it took to send contains an even more chilling suggestion: no longer are such violent crimes unexpected.

Although Danish authorities have not detained the perpetrator or established his motives, all evidence suggests that the Feb. 14 attack, like that at the Parisian satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, and like several attempted attacks in Denmark before that, was motivated by cartoons of the prophet Mohammed.

Soon after 3:30 p.m., a gunman (authorities originally said there were two, but later revised the figure) wearing a maroon baklava and armed with an automatic weapon tried to shoot his way into the caf at Krudttoenden, a cultural center in eastern Copenhagen, where a discussion entitled Art, Blasphemy, and Freedom of Expression, was underway.

He was prevented from entering by police, but not before he fired dozens of shots, killing a 40-year-old man, and injuring three officers. For Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who was attending the panel discussion, there was no doubt about who the intended target was: himself. After publishing a cartoon in 2007 that depicted the prophet Mohammed as a dog, Vilks had a $100,000 bounty placed on his head by the then-leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and has been the object of several assassination attacks.

What other motive could there be? he told the Associated Press.

The Danish prime minister identified the attack as terrorism and put the nation on high alert. Police have set up controls around major transit hubs to prevent the perpetrator, who escaped the crime scene by hijacking a VW Polo, from leaving the country. Just after 1 a.m. on Feb 15, a second shooting took place, this one at Copenhagens main synagogue. According to police, one person was shot in the head and two police officers were wounded, but they have not yet determined whether this attack is related to the earlier one. The suspect in the synagogue shooting fled on foot.

We must end this as soon as possible, because we must not get into a situation like the one we saw in Paris, where they took hostages, Hans Jorgen Bonnichsen, chief of operations for the Danish intelligence service PET, told the Danish newspaper Berlingske.

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Free Speech Debate Still Alive After Attack in Denmark

One dead in gun attack on Danish freedom of speech meeting

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Swedish cartoonist and historian Lars Vilks, who depicted the key Islamic holy figure with the body of a dog in 2007, was at the Krudttonden cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark, when shots were fired around 4pm yesterday.

The cafe in northern Copenhagen was hosting an event titled 'Art, Blasphemy And The Freedom Of Expression'.

Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said: "We feel certain now that it's a politically motivated attack, and thereby it is a terrorist attack.

"We take this situation extremely seriously. We are in a high alarm all over the country, and our main priority at this stage is to catch the perpetrators and make sure that we find them as soon as possible."

Danish police, who initially said they were searching for two suspects, issued a picture of the main suspect last night, taken on street cameras near to where the getaway car, a VW Polo, was later found dumped.

The shooting comes little more than a month after the attack on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris which left 12 people dead.

French president Francois Hollande expressed his solidarity with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

In a statement issued from his official Twitter account Hollande also said Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve would go to Copenhagen as soon as possible.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned what he called a "terrorist attack" in a separate statement.

Prime Minister David Cameron said his thoughts were with the Danish people, tweeting: "I condemn the shootings in Copenhagen. Freedom of speech must always be protected."

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One dead in gun attack on Danish freedom of speech meeting

Copenhagen caf: two gunmen in terror attack at freedom of speech event

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The meeting was organised by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has faced several death threats for his controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.

The attack came just over a month after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, in which Islamist terrorists killed 17 people.

The French ambassador to Denmark, Francois Zimeray, was one of the speakers at the event, which was described by Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Danish prime minister as a terrorist act.

As many as 200 bullet holes ripped through the window of the Krudttoenden caf and at least two people were taken away on stretchers, including a uniformed police officer.

The gunmen then fled the area in a dark coloured VW Polo car, according to witnesses. The car was later found in a nearby street but the two gunmen were still at large on Saturday night.

Helle Merete Brix, one of the organisers of the event called Art, Blasphemy And The Freedom Of Expression confirmed that Vilks was at the event but had not been injured.

She said: I saw a masked man running past. A couple of police officers were injured. I clearly consider this as an attack on Lars Vilks.

Niels Ivar Larsen, one of the speakers at the event, said: I heard someone firing with an automatic weapons and someone shouting. Police returned the fire and I hid behind the bar. I felt surreal, like in a movie.

In a statement, Danish police said the victim was a 40-year-old who had been attending the event. He had not been identified last night.

Blix was ushered away shortly after the attack by one of the Danish police guards that accompanies him whenever he is in the country.

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Copenhagen caf: two gunmen in terror attack at freedom of speech event

One man dead and three policemen wounded at freedom of speech seminar in Denmark

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A MAJOR manhunt is under way for a gunman who opened fire on a freedom-of-speech event in Copenhagen, leaving a civilian dead and three police officers injured.

The shooter opened fire at the Krudttonden cafe, killing a man, during an event featuring Swedish cartoonist and historian Lars Vilks, who depicted the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog in 2007.

Danish police, who initially said they were searching for two suspects, issued a picture of the main suspect this evening, taken on street cameras near to where the getaway car, a VW Polo, was later found dumped.

VIEW GALLERY

The cafe in northern Copenhagen was hosting an event titled Art, Blasphemy And The Freedom Of Expression when the shots were fired, according to reports.

It comes little more than month after the attack on the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris which left 12 people dead.

Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt told reporters in Copenhagen: "We feel certain now that it's a politically motivated attack, and thereby it is a terrorist attack.

"We take this situation extremely seriously. We are in a high alarm all over the country, and our main priority at this stage is to catch the perpetrators and make sure that we find them as soon as possible."

Copenhagen Police said both Mr Vilks and French ambassador to Denmark Francois Zimeray, who was also at the event, were both unharmed. The three police officers are also "out of danger", they said.

Mr Zimeray tweeted from his FranceDK account shortly after the shooting, writing: "Still alive in the room."

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One man dead and three policemen wounded at freedom of speech seminar in Denmark

One dead after shots fired at Copenhagen freedom of speech meeting

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A man has died after at least one gunman opened fire on a cafe in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, which was hosting a freedom of speech debate.

Three policemen were also injured in the shooting at the debate organised by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has faced numerous threats for caricaturing the Prophet Mohammed.

Denmarks security service PET said the circumstances surrounding the shooting indicate that we are talking about a terror attack.

Danish police said the gunman used an automatic weapon to shoot through the windows of the Krudttoenden cafe, which TV footage showed were riddled with bullet holes. The gunman then fled in a hijacked Volkswagen Polo that was found later a few miles away.

Police initially said there were two gunmen but later said they believed there was only one shooter, and described him as 25 to 30 years old with an athletic build, and carrying a black automatic weapon. They released a blurred photograph of the suspect wearing dark clothes and a scarf covering part of his face.

The shooting came a month after Islamic militants attacked another media outlet that had printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris, killing 12 people.

A police spokesman said it was possible the gunman had planned the same scenario as in the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, which took place shortly before 4pm local time.

Helle Merete Brix, one of the organisers of the event, said Mr Vilks was present at the event but not injured.

She said: I saw a masked man running past. I clearly consider this as an attack on Lars Vilks.

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One dead after shots fired at Copenhagen freedom of speech meeting

Shots Fired at Copenhagen Free Speech Event: Reports

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Shots rang out Saturday afternoon at a cafe in Copenhagen, Denmark, killing one person and wounding three police officers during a freedom of speech event hosted by controversial Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, police said. As a manhunt continued for the lone shooter, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt put the entire nation on high alert and condemned the violence as a "terrorist attack."

"We feel certain now that it was a politically motivated attack, and thereby it was a terrorist attack," she told reporters close to the site of the shooting. An event organizer said that Vilks was present at the conference, but was not injured. Vilks told The Associated Press by phone that he believes he was the intended target of the attack, asking, "what other motive could there be?"

Early Sunday morning three people were also shot outside a Copenhagen synagogue. One civilian victim later died and two police officers were wounded, police said. The gunman escaped. Police have not said that the two shootings are linked. They are treating both shootings as terror attacks.

The suspect in the cafe shooting fled after gunfire erupted around 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET) at Krudttoenden cafe in the Osterbro district, Copenhagen police said in a statement. A surveillance photo shows the suspect wearing dark clothes and a scarf. Police said initial interviews indicate only one person fired the shots, and had left the scene in a dark-colored Volkswagen Polo that had been carjacked. The car was later found.

U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said the U.S. stands ready to help in the investigation. "The United States condemns today's deplorable shooting in Copenhagen. We offer our condolences to the loved ones of the deceased victim, and our thoughts are with those wounded in this attack," she said in a statement.

Forensic investigators are seen at the site of a shooting in Copenhagen Feb. 14. A civilian was killed and three police were wounded on Saturday in a shooting at a meeting in Copenhagen attended by Lars Vilks, an artist who has received death threats since publishing images of the Prophet Mohammad.

The TV2 channel said there were some 30 bullet holes in the window of the cafe and at least two people were taken away on stretchers. Two of the three police officers injured are members of Denmark's national security intelligence agency, PET. Police told NBC News that one person was killed but it was unclear whether the victim, described as a civilian, died at the scene.

Inna Shevchenko, the leader of Ukrainian feminist group FEMEN, tweeted that she was participating in a panel discussion at the cafe when the shooting occurred. "I didn't see anything. I heard about 20 shots while speaking and then people started to run," she wrote.

Vilks has faced numerous death threats for caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad in 2007. A Pennsylvania woman last year got a 10-year prison term for a plot to kill Vilks. In 2010, two brothers tried to burn down his house in southern Sweden and were imprisoned for attempted arson.

The event that the 68-year-old artist was hosting Saturday was called "Arts, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression," according to his website. When the artist is in Denmark, he receives police protection.

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Shots Fired at Copenhagen Free Speech Event: Reports

Stupid Anti-Vaxxers – Eric Hovid on How Atheism Causes Suicide – Stupid Ads – DPP #83 – Video

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NSA warrantless surveillance (200107) – Wikipedia, the …

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The NSA warrantless surveillance controversy ("warrantless wiretapping") concerns surveillance of persons within the United States during the collection of allegedly foreign intelligence by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the touted war on terror. Under this program, referred to by the Bush administration as the terrorist surveillance program,[1] part of the broader President's Surveillance Program, the NSA was authorized by executive order to monitor, without search warrants, the phone calls, Internet activity (Web, e-mail, etc.), text messaging, and other communication involving any party believed by the NSA to be outside the U.S., even if the other end of the communication lies within the U.S. However, it has been discovered that all U.S. communications have been digitally cloned by government agencies, in apparent violation of unreasonable search and seizure. The excuse given to avoid litigation[citation needed] was that no data hoarded would be reviewed until searching it would be legal. But no excuse has been offered the initial seizure of the data which is also illegal[citation needed], according to the U. S. Constitution[citation needed].

Critics, however, claimed that the program was in an effort to attempt to silence critics of the Bush Administration and its handling of several controversial issues during its tenure. Under public pressure, the Bush administration allegedly ceased the warrantless wiretapping program in January 2007 and returned review of surveillance to the FISA court.[2] Subsequently, in 2008 Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which relaxed some of the original FISA court requirements.

During the Obama Administration, the NSA has allegedly continued operating under the new FISA guidelines despite campaign promises to end warrantless wiretapping.[3] However, in April 2009 officials at the United States Department of Justice acknowledged that the NSA had engaged in "overcollection" of domestic communications in excess of the FISA court's authority, but claimed that the acts were unintentional and had since been rectified.[4]

All wiretapping of American citizens by the National Security Agency requires a warrant from a three-judge court set up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. After the 9/11 attacks, Congress passed the Patriot Act, which granted the President broad powers to fight a war against terrorism. The George W. Bush administration used these powers to bypass the FISA court and directed the NSA to spy directly on al-Qaeda in a new NSA electronic surveillance program. Reports at the time indicate that an "apparently accidental" "glitch" resulted in the interception of communications that were purely domestic in nature.[5] This action was challenged by a number of groups, including Congress, as unconstitutional.

The exact scope of the program remains secret, but the NSA was provided total, unsupervised access to all fiber-optic communications going between some of the nation's largest telecommunication companies' major interconnected locations, including phone conversations, email, web browsing, and corporate private network traffic.[6] Critics said that such "domestic" intercepts required FISC authorization under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.[7] The Bush administration maintained that the authorized intercepts were not domestic but rather foreign intelligence integral to the conduct of war and that the warrant requirements of FISA were implicitly superseded by the subsequent passage of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF).[8] FISA makes it illegal to intentionally engage in electronic surveillance under appearance of an official act or to disclose or use information obtained by electronic surveillance under appearance of an official act knowing that it was not authorized by statute; this is punishable with a fine of up to $10,000 or up to five years in prison, or both.[9] In addition, the Wiretap Act prohibits any person from illegally intercepting, disclosing, using or divulging phone calls or electronic communications; this is punishable with a fine or up to five years in prison, or both.[10]

After an article about the program, (which had been code-named Stellar Wind), was published in The New York Times on December 16, 2005, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confirmed its existence.[11][12][13]The Times had posted the exclusive story on their website the night before, after learning that the Bush administration was considering seeking a Pentagon-Papers-style court injunction to block its publication.[14]Bill Keller, the newspaper's former executive editor, had withheld the story from publication since before the 2004 Presidential Election, and the story that was ultimately published was essentially the same as reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau had submitted in 2004. The delay drew criticism from some in the press, arguing that an earlier publication could have changed the election's outcome.[15] In a December 2008 interview with Newsweek, former Justice Department employee Thomas Tamm revealed himself to be the initial whistle-blower to The Times.[16] The FBI began investigating leaks about the program in 2005, with 25 agents and 5 prosecutors on the case.[17]

Gonzales said the program authorized warrantless intercepts where the government had "a reasonable basis to conclude that one party to the communication is a member of al Qaeda, affiliated with al Qaeda, or a member of an organization affiliated with al Qaeda, or working in support of al Qaeda" and that one party to the conversation was "outside of the United States."[18] The revelation raised immediate concern among elected officials, civil right activists, legal scholars and the public at large about the legality and constitutionality of the program and the potential for abuse. Since then, the controversy has expanded to include the press' role in exposing a classified program, the role and responsibility of the US Congress in its executive oversight function and the scope and extent of presidential powers under Article II of the Constitution.[19]

In mid-August 2007, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard arguments in two lawsuits challenging the surveillance program. The appeals were the first to reach the court after dozens of civil suits against the government and telecommunications companies over NSA surveillance were consolidated last year before the chief judge of the Northern District of California, Vaughn R. Walker. One of the cases is a class-action lawsuit against AT&T, focusing on allegations that the company provided the NSA with its customers' phone and Internet communications for a vast data-mining operation. Plaintiffs in the second case are the al-Haramain Foundation Islamic charity and two of its lawyers.[20][21]

On November 16, 2007, the three judges M. Margaret McKeown, Michael Daly Hawkins, and Harry Pregerson issued a 27-page ruling that the charity, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, could not introduce a key piece of evidence in its case because it fell under the government's claim of state secrets, although the judges said that "In light of extensive government disclosures, the government is hard-pressed to sustain its claim that the very subject matter of the litigation is a state secret."[22][23]

In an August 14, 2007, question-and-answer session with the El Paso Times which was published on August 22, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell confirmed for the first time that the private sector helped the warrantless surveillance program. McConnell argued that the companies deserved immunity for their help: "Now if you play out the suits at the value they're claimed, it would bankrupt these companies".[24] Plaintiffs in the AT&T suit subsequently filed a motion with the court to have McConnell's acknowledgement admitted as evidence in their case.[25]

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NSA warrantless surveillance (200107) - Wikipedia, the ...

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