Hamfisted? They set out with a specific aim to eliminate the editorial staff of Hebdo -- and achieved it. They then succeeded in escaping Paris and managed to elude 88,000 security personnel for over 36 hours. Maybe not showed an Andy McNab level of expertise, but this pair demonstrated a decent amount of competence. That they died eventually, would not be for them a failure. They knew this was the inevitable conclusion when they started down their route.
Have to take issue with this also.
Round my way, disaffected youth get stoned on weekends and might also get arrested for nicking a child's trike and joyriding on it. They don't get tooled up with Kalashnikov's, a dozen 7.62mm magazine clips, and a rocket-launcher. Neither, usually, have they attended combat training camps in Yemen.
This pair were more than your average disaffect youth; they were a part of a unit that was as close as possible to being defined as a "cell". This cell had as its primary actors the Kouachi brothers; a back-up man (Coulibaly); and it now appears a co-ordinator (Boumedienne). They were organised and sadly proved to be lethal; a far more dangerous combo than any average neighbourhood disaffected "crew".
Half the battle is getting hold of the weapons. Once you've got those, anyone becomes dangerous. They could have killed the entire Charlie staff - but didn't. They could have killed a whole lot more if they'd stayed mobile on a shooting spree but failed. They didn't even know what their victims looked like despite their photos being on the internet. They rounded them up and called out their tag names it seems (Daily Telegraph). They hadn't packed any food, didn't take any money, and didn't even equip themselves with petrol or a syphon kit. That's before one of them left his ID card in the car, and another one didn't even hang up a phone correctly. Why they didn't go hungry or even attempt to shoplift I don't know. They could have packed a lunch, but holding up a petrol station to get some food later than afternoon wasn't exactly Andy McNab as you say.
Now all this sounds flippant, it isn't, it's very serious. Since we've used Andy McNab's name, hypothetically, how many do you suppose a 4 man special forces team could kill?
As regards their backgrounds, I'll try fast type from today's Telegraph as they've moved the web link now. Even I don't fancy retyping and whole article so I'll break it down now and then
"A closely knit network of Islamist extremists who would meet in a suburban park was responsible for the the three days of bloody mayhem" (Buttes Chaumont)
"The network radicalised youngsters in the early 2000's and sent several to fight in Iraq. Like the Kouachi brothers, Coulibaly was also an associate of Djamel Beghal an Al-Qaeda terrorist once based at Finsbury Park Mosque, North London, where he learnt at the feet of Abu Hamza" (a separate article explains that Beghal - who is the organiser and influencer here, not the girlfriend of the terrorist - Beghal's wife currently lives on benefits in Leicester. She had wanted to bring her children up in a more Islamic community and didn;t feel she could do that in France, so moved to Leciester!)
"Coulibaly was one of 10 children and the only boy. He became delinquent at 17 and a repeat offender for petty thefts and drugs crimes, moving onto armed robbery in Sept 2002 in Orleans, in the Loriet, before being radicalised. In 2009, while working at a coca cola factory, he was one of a group of young people who met Nicholas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace" (not sure if the Telegraphs trying to link his radicalisation with this!!)
"In 2013 he was sentanced to five years in prison for his involvement in a botched prison break-out of Sman Ali Belckcaam, a former member of the Algerian Islamist Group GIA... The Kouchai brothers were detained for involvement but released due to lack of evidence"
"Coulibaly and Boumeddiene were in a relationship in 2010 when he was arrested over the jail break attempt..... The pair reportedly visited Beghal in Cantal southern France where he was under house arrest. That yera French surveillance officers photographed Beghal playing football with Cherif Kouchai"
"The Kouchai brothers spent their teenage years at a centre for troubled and vulnerable youngsters. In 1994 following the deaths of their parents, the boys then 14 and 12 were sent by Paris social services to live at the centre des Mondieres"
"Cherif Kouchai was recruited by Beghal 10 years ago while both were serving sentances for terrorism offences"
