Cover of Latest "Charlie Hebdo" Magazine Causes Riots in Jordan; Youth of Paris Terrorist Examined
BLACKWELL: Look at this. This is video of protests in Jordan. The demonstrators here are angry over the latest "Charlie Hebdo" cover. They clashed with police yesterday.</s>PAUL: The controversial cover shows a picture of a tearful prophet Mohammed holding a sign that says "Je suis Charlie." Above the image the headline reads "All is forgiven."</s>BLACKWELL: And this latest cover has sparked controversy around the world, including places like Algeria. The satirical magazine normally publish about 60,000 issues.</s>PAUL: This week 5 million copies were distributed, and that was because of the worldwide demand.</s>BLACKWELL: And, of course, across Europe, scrambling to find terror suspects they say are on the run. In Paris about a dozen people have been arrested in connection to the "Charlie Hebdo" attack. They're accused of helping Amedy Coulibaly. And he gunned people at a kosher market last week before he was later killed. Let's bring in CNN senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann. He is live this morning from Paris. What are we learning about Coulibaly, Jim?</s>JIM BITTERMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, I think one of the things we're learning it's pretty easy thing to slip into terrorism. And, in fact, when we went down to visit the suburb where he grew up, one of the things you realize is that he wasn't really a committed terrorist as such. He was more of a criminal who became a terrorist. Here's what we found.</s>BITTERMAN: In Paris, Amedy Coulibaly may go down in history as the religious extremist who died shooting it out with the anti-terror squad. but in the gritty Paris suburb of Grigny where he grew up, Coulibaly is remembered more as a local thug who spent much of his adult life behind bars. In his early school photos obtained by France 2 Television, he looked likable enough. But teachers said, Coulibaly, the only boy in an immigrant family with 10 children, was an ongoing discipline problem. It was in his high school years here that Coulibaly first got into trouble. In the end he would be arrested five times for armed robbery and once for dealing in drugs. A lawyer who defended one of his accomplices believes Coulibaly changed from small crimes to hardened criminal when a motorcycle theft turned deadly and police shot one of his best friends.</s>PIERRE MAIRAT, LAWYER (via translator): This was a traumatic event when he lost his friend. He, too, could have died because a bullet could have easily hit him.</s>BITTERMAN: Coulibaly, who spent most of his adult life behind bars, was in and out of the sprawling and overcrowded national prison located coincidentally in his hometown. According to a journalist he himself made this video of life inside the prison. He seemed like a leader, she said, behind bars.</s>AGNES VAHRAMIAN, FRANCE 2 JOURNALIST (via translator): He was an intelligent boy, one of the tough ones. He was actually very at ease in prison. He was dominant and very much in charge. It was his second home really.</s>BITTERMAN: It's not clear when he got religion, but in 2010 when he was jailed here, he came in contact with an Islamic extremist, Jamaal Begal. By this time he was estranged from his family. The local mayor who grew up in the same public housing as the terrorist did says the Coulibalys, like many here, were just trying to better themselves.</s>MAYOR PHILIPPE RIO, GRIGNY, FRANCE (via translator): Yes, this area is violent, yes, there is delinquency, yes, there is poverty, yes, there is suffering, but there is also success.</s>BITTERMAN: But if Coulibaly's family was Muslim, it was hardly fundamentalist. One of his nine sisters, for example, teaches a dance class she calls therapy. Back in the family's hometown, some remember Coulibaly's attempts to fit in. In 2009 he was even invited to the French presidential palace as part of a panel meeting with President Sarkozy to discuss youth unemployment. He worked for a time as the local Coca-Cola plant where he met the girlfriend who later became his wife and accomplice. People may have known about Coulibaly's criminal record but were nonetheless surprised at his terrorist connections.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): We were shocked. It's hard to believe. It's unreal.</s>BITTERMAN: One person who was less surprised was a social worker who worked with Coulibaly as a young man, among other things, taking him to Disneyland, Paris. He said that after not seeing Coulibaly for 15 years, he suddenly showed up in his office last spring after getting out of prison.</s>DE CHARLES CLAUDE AKA, SOCIAL WORKER: He's lost, lost. He needs people every time to remind him that that can be done, that can't be done. When someone like him is involved with people, they can use him for anything.</s>BITTERMAN: The mayor of Grigny told CNN that it's wrong to imply that suburbs of Paris like his are nothing but breeding grounds for terrorists. Many people work their way into mainstream society from here, he says, like the mayor himself. But he adds that the large families, the unemployment, the lack of police, the decaying infrastructure, provide a fertile environment for all sorts of criminality, including in the case of Amedy Coulibaly, terrorism.</s>BITTERMAN: As you mentioned, Victor, they've picked up a dozen -- police picked up a dozen of Coulibaly's associates in that suburb of Grigny. They were held for the last 24 hours, which is what they can do under French law without being charged. Now the judge has ordered it be extended another 24 hours and can be done in terrorism cases. So it looks like the police are questioning them about the terrorist aspects of Coulibaly's life. Victor?</s>BLACKWELL: And similar searches continue across France and across Europe. Jim Bittermann in Paris for us, Jim, thank you.</s>PAUL: Speaking of Europe, the Euro Tunnel between France and England has been shut down we're learning this morning. According to a report, a truck caught fire and now service has been canceled for the rest of the day. Now on its website Eurostar only confirmed smoke in its north tunnel and posted this, quote, "If you are planning to travel today we advise you to postpone your journey and not to come to the station." All right, back here at home, Mitt Romney took the stage last night at a huge Republican event. He knew there was an elephant in the room and he didn't avoid it.</s>MITT ROMNEY, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now there's some speculation about whether I'm about to embark on a political endeavor in which I've been previously unsuccessful.</s>PAUL: What he said about his plans for 2016 and what the GOP is saying about it, next.