Just two months after a Filipino tourist with a German passport was killed in a knife attack near the Eiffel Tower, Paris has been struck by yet another bloody, and manifestly politically-motivated, knife attack in a high-profile location: this time, the bustling Gare de Lyon train station. Last Saturday morning, Sagou Gouno Kassogue, a Malian refugee resident in Italy, began attacking travellers in the station seemingly at random, hitting a 66-year-old man in the head with a hammer and stabbing him in the abdomen.
The 66-year-old, who has been identified only as “Claude”, remains in critical condition as of this writing, and two other people were, per the delicate expression used by France’s AFP wire service and adopted by the Daily Mail here, “slightly wounded”. Here are some pictures of the “slight” wounds to the neck and the hands suffered by one of them. The victim, who has been identified only as “Christophe”, was one of several travellers who intervened to immobilise the assailant.
In the report on France’s BFM news television from which the images are taken, Christophe describes pinning Kassogue to the ground after another traveller had tackled him and becoming dimly aware that the assailant’s knife was in his neck. He suffered the wounds to his hands when trying to pull the assailant’s hand back, a reflex which undoubtedly saved his life.
The weapons used in the attack can be seen in the below photo (source: Sûreté RATP). It is worth noting that Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, the perpetrator of the December attack near the Eiffel Tower, also came armed with a knife and a hammer, first stabbing the Filipino-German tourist, Collin Christian Bröter, and then assaulting a British tourist with the hammer when trying to make his getaway.
As has become the custom in France, French authorities have refused to qualify the Gare de Lyon attack as a terror attack, insisting instead on Kassogue’s alleged psychiatric problems. Following his arrest, Kassogue was even briefly removed from policy custody and transferred to a psychiatric ward before being returned to jail again.
French authorities have likewise insisted that there is no evidence of any religious motive for the attack: this despite the existence of the below TikTok video from December, which suggests that Kassogue was already planning his attack at the time and expected or hoped to die when committing it. The caption reads: “R.I.P. in three months. May Allah accept me in his paradise.” It is not only the reference to Allah which is significant here. The suicide attack is of course the preferred MO of Islamic terrorism.
As reported by the daily Le Parisen, investigators have also acknowledged finding “Salafist” content on Kassogue’s TikTok channel. Salafism is the radical current of Sunni Islam which has given rise to Al-Qaeda and kindred Islamic terror groups.
Evidence has emerged that Italian authorities likewise treated Kassogue as a psychiatric case and even indeed granted him asylum in part due to alleged psychological trauma caused by the violent conditions in his native country. It is worth noting, however, that his since deleted TikTok account (see below) had some 44,000 followers – without, moreover, him following anyone! So, 44,000 people evidently did not find him so crazy.
Kassogue’s native Mali has been in the throes of an Islamist insurgency for over a decade and French troops were present in the country from 2013 to 2022. In videos on his TikTok channel, Kassogue accused France of pillaging his country and the entire African continent “from A to Z” and made no secret of his hatred for France and the French: “all French people”, as he puts it in the video available here.
In light of these statements, French authorities have in the meanwhile recognised a “racist” motive for Kassogue’s attack, but continue to refuse to qualify it as terrorism despite the obvious political motivation.
Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and find him on Bluesky.
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Johnson was elected on the promise to Get Brexit done! but instead, he became the Keep COVID going! prime minister, always wax in the hand of his so-called advisors who were really running the (shit) show. Had he stuck to his guns in 2020, he would be a national hero now, at least for the thinking segment of the population. What he did instead shall not be forgiven.
Totally agree. He always reminded me a bit of Colonel K from Danger Mouse. However, it quickly became apparent that beneath that bumbling, chummy veneer he was more Baron Greenback.
Uptick for Dangermouse reference
Agree 100%. He had his chance at a Thatcher Moment, and he fluffed it, wilted like a wet lettuce, moulded over the form presented for him like damp toilet paper. He’s dried out now, but the form he flopped upon remains.
Question is, should we forgive him?
Maybe, but I’ll never forget his behaviour over a not-terribly-bad flu virus, whilst knowing The Coronavirus Act 2020 was all total BS.
Forgiveness is fine but should follow repentance. I don’t believe he has repented – at least not publicly.
He did screw it up in 2020, and it’s a shame that he wasn’t well enough at the time, and ended up temporarily in hospital. I seem to remember that one of the workers there “accidentally” let out some info about his weight; not good (the figures themselves). If he’d been more “normal” then, and it was a real case of C-19, he could have chucked out the scaremongers.
It’s possible he may have been close to “doing the right thing” with regard to covid, but either he’s simply not a conservative or he is but doesn’t care that much about anything and just wants power. Either way it’s clear he’s not worthy of respect or confidence.
Perhaps it is a case of one down, an indefinite number to go. Also, what is “the Blob”?
The blob is the name given to the faceless, unelected bureaucratic civil service that seems to be running the show and which usurps (so called) democracy.
The Civil Service is not running the show. Some senior elements might possibly be in a position to issue orders but those orders are emanating from the Davos Deviants, or branches thereof.
Glad you asked that because I didn’t have a clue either. Not sure we needed somebody to invent new terminology for something that isn’t actually new but there you go. How did we get by pre-‘Blob’? Actually, and more importantly, how did we get by pre-‘selfie’??
I’ve always wondered what was the best thing BEFORE sliced bread…
I’ve often wondered who this Gordon Bennett was.
But seriously, what did we used to call selfies before the word ‘selfie’ became a thing? 
Prima donnas.
What’s a selfie?
Whatever anyone thinks of Boris Johnson, at least he was elected Prime Minister. This Sunak government was never elected.
Liz Truss was at least elected Prime Minister by the members of the Conservative Party, according to the rules. Sunak wasn’t.
Too true.
There is no such thing as an elected prime minister in the UK, at least none elected by the so-called electorate. Voters elect MPs. MPs can then organize a government in whichever ways suits them (as determined by MP votes in parliament). Even this is technically still wrong as the prime minister is appointed by the king and the king is free to appoint whomever he desires to appoint. But no prime minister can actually rule against a parliamentary majority.
Everybody who voted Conservative at the last General Election was in practice voting for Johnson to be PM, and the idea that there was the slightest possibility that QE2 might have appointed someone else is ridiculous.
That was the sales pitch of Johnson’s party at that time. However, anyone with at least a passing familiarity with the tories-in-parliament will have known that this absolutely didn’t mean he was going to remain prime minister until his nominal term of office was over. And a sales pitch is just that, a sales pitch. People may have believed (or may have been fooled into believing) that they were voting for Johnson to become PM but this doesn’t change the fact that they actually didn’t.
The first pure tourist attraction on the British throne would certainly never have done anything than what she always did, do whatever she was asked to do and open the other hand to receive her payment for that (or rather, let a bunch of her servants open the huge sack it was supposed to be put into). But that was specialty of this lady and she was by no means required to exercise her prerogative in this way.
Because of this, the statement that Johnson was elected PM is wrong. The tory faction in parliament has chosen to suggest his appointment to the monarch and the monarch has chosen to accept that. Exactly like all of his predecessors (for some time) and all of his successors (so far).
Correct. However, General Elections do appear to be pseudo-presidential in reality, even though there is no such position on paper.
The sad/ unfortunate reality is that people vote for frontmen and not for policies.
“The temptation is for Johnson’s Rightward critics to cut him loose. But this would be a mistake.”
Well, he’s not a conservative so he can get stuffed as far as I’m concerned.
“Rishi Sunak’s Government is based on a simple idea: probity and ‘fitness for office’ to end the conflict with Whitehall. ”
The appearance of probity and fitness for office. Not getting caught. Globalism, socialism, crony capitalism, technocracy, safetyism. State interference in everything.
“Of those who have had any success in centralising power in Parliament there are exactly three: Nigel Farage, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson. ”
Cummings pushed stuff through against the will of Whitehall, but he also pushed for lockdowns without being elected (and then ignored them, of course).
Bozo is guilty of crimes against humanity.
Never forget. Never forgive.
He certainly was the figure head of the political, civil servant, public services face that withdrew most if not all of our basic human rights. As an individual I would not have wanted any part of his job at the time. For those who rejoice in his demise should remember the regime that initiated, controlled and enforced the human rights removal are still in place, and digging in.
Obviously. When faced with decision of governing for the people or for the bureaucratic establishment with its global ties to NGOs and big business, Johnson chose the latter. He was then kept in his somewhat influenceless position for as long as he was still useful — the final nail in the coffin was daring to dump the mask mandate — and then, let fallen onto a sword preprared for this purpose. He has none but himself to blame for that and certainly doesn’t deserve any sympathy.
There’s a German proverb, Die Kleinen hängt man und die Großen läßt man laufen, English Minor mobsters get hanged, big mobsters go free, which neatly describes the situation. But the solution to this problem is not Let the other’s go free as well. They’re still guilty.
I agree with what you say. I liked the German proverb, Aesop also said something like, We hang petty thieves but the great ones we elect to public office; or something like it. It seems the underlying opinion of politicians has not changed much in the thousands of years of political activity.
If we accept this ‘Blob Rule’ on the basis that Boris is a consumate arse and deserves no better, then we have lost our democracy completely. Pop it in a box and stick it in the attic, that our children can one day find like a time capsule and marvel at a time when the people had a say in choosing the government of the day, and could get rid of it if they so choose to do.
As PM, Johnson could have prevented the Lockdown Destruction.
He could have dropped the Net Zero lunacy.
He could have told Schwab and the WEF that their Agenda to Build Back Better was being ditched.
He could have closed the immigration floodgates.
He did none of them.
I don’t give a 4X what happens to him.
100%. All this nonsense about Brexit revenge seems to me to play to the very same entitlement caricature of Boris that let the idiot achieve the highest office possible in the first place! I voted Remain, but would now vote Leave, solely on the basis of how the states of the E.U. behaved during “pandemic”.
Lockdowns, the mask mandates, the idiotic NPI’s and the vaccine mandates knock the Brexit dilemma into a hat when it comes to liberty, human rights & dignity, and freedom of speech; anyone bringing up it up as to why Boris was done in is creating a massive straw man.
I much appreciate your blunt an comprehensive appraisal of the treasonous Johnson. Short memory syndrome is clearly alive and well even here on DS. Remarkable.
It is difficult not to conclude that we are being set up for a pre-election soap opera with the cruelly wronged Bozo ‘fighting to clear his name’ over the grave injustice he has suffered from Harridan Harman’s committee.
Bozo battles to have his – admittedly appalling- reputation restored and as Fishy is forced to let go of the reins Bozo gallantly gallops in to save the country from the Satanic Kneel and his partner in crime, Ranting.
Only once Bozo is elected the real carnage can begin and if he loses the Reset is safe with Kneel.
For the months up to the election the electorate can be kept happily distracted as the pantomime plays out while in the background our digital prison is firmly constructed.
Just the ticket.
‘Boris’ was a jellybelly. He thought he could coast along, letting his appointed loyalists get an ultra-soft, BRINO Brexit sorted while he took the credit for it. Then COVID-19 came along. Rather than stick to the pandemic plan, telling the authoritarian Macron to get shafted, and being bold by ‘doing a Sweden’, he panicked and threw us into the worst lockdown of anyone outside China: ‘worst’ not so much for the level of restrictions, but because it was one with no rules except what police officers and politicians made up on the hoof, while keeping an incompetent psychopath (who thinks malaria is a virus) in office as Health Secretary.
I have some concerns about the way Johnson was ejected: he should have been ejected as the most vicious dictator this country has seen since Cromwell and put on trial for crimes against humanity, not for scoffing a load of cake and champers. Then again, I suppose, Al Capone was jailed for tax evasion.
And this is personal too: my Dad had to wait six months for eye surgery, because the hospitals here had shut down all ophthalmology operations as ‘non-essential’. By the time he had the surgery, his eye was too far gone and it failed. He got confirmation yesterday that the second – and final – attempt had also failed. He now has about 20 per cent vision. We’re paying £1,000 for laser treatment for the other eye next month in the hope that he can be boosted to maybe 35 per cent vision. The NHS wait would be six months to a year, by which time the vision in that eye would be non-existent.
My Mum has sarcoidosis on her lungs. She had a big scan and treatment was sorted about the time the lockdown started. In between regular scans, she had the first Pfizer booster shot (jab 3) and was very ill. Next time she was scanned, the hospital discovered a serious heart condition that wasn’t there before. Her specialist was gobsmacked. She’s now on steroids and might be starting immunosuppressants. Her heart is working at about 50 per cent what it should be. She asked the specialist if she should have the offered fourth jab. The response was an unequivocal ‘NO!’
I wish nothing but ill on the people who ran the lockdown in the Government and wider country: I want full-on ‘Wrath of God’, Black Death and Ebola all rolled into one scenario for them. My level of hatred is such that I don’t want them harmed by anyone: I hope to see them live and suffer. My Dad is in despair. My Mum’s life is going to be shorter and more restricted than it would have been. For that matter, at 48, my foreseeable life is very restricted: I now have two elderly, infirm parents I absolutely have to live with, because Dad, at 86, has several other serious problems and my Mum struggles even to put washing on the line without having to lie down on the bed to sleep afterwards. I’m fine with doing this because I love them, but it means the next ten years of my life will be tough and by then I’ll be pushing 60 myself. Don’t want to sound ‘Woe is me!’ What makes me angry is that I’m reading stories about this happening to people all over the country.
It shouldn’t have been this way.
The old adage “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” springs to mind.