Written By Prof. Boaz Ganor & Dr. Miri Halperin Wernli
On January 7, 2015, Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi (two brothers born and raised in France) entered the headquarters of the French satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo" and opened fire, killing twelve people and injuring eleven.The profile and biography of the killers are currently being analyzed, but we now know that they met with Farid Benyettou in early 2000. He quickly became their mentor. Farid Benyettou (like Cherif Kouachi) was a member of the Paris 19th Arrondissement cell (AKA the Buttes-Chaumont Cell) and preached in the Adda'wa Mosque in Paris. His radical sermons led the French intelligence to begin monitoring him in early 2000. As a leader of the 19th Arrondissement Cell, he sent his followers into combat in Iraq. In 2005, Benyettou and Cherif Kouachi were arrested and in 2008 they were sentenced to six years in prison.The French newspaper "Le Parisien" wrote that Benyettou was released from jail in 2011 and started attending nursing school. He then began to work at the Emergency Services of one of the main hospitals in Paris, Pitié-Salpêtrière, where some of the injured of the latest terrorist attacks in Paris were brought. However, he did not work at the hospital on that specific day of the attack.According to "Le Parisien" Véronique Marin la Meslée, director of training at Pitié-Salpêtrière, explained that she discovered Benyettou's past by watching a documentary on Jihadism in France in March 2012. She then informed the police who told her that they knew the individual and asked to be updated of any suspicious behavior. Martin Hirsch, the director of the hospital explained that in order to start nursing school, there are no required security and background checks and no psychological or personality screenings.This event clearly highlights many questions in reference to terrorist threats to hospitals in general, and the recruitment procedures of hospitals in particular. Among these questions: