Republican leaders in the US reacted harshly Wednesday to statements made by Secretary of State John Kerry during a meeting with US Embassy staff in France in which he suggested that terrorists had a “rationale” for the attack on the offices of the  Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris in January, as opposed to what he characterized as the more “random” attacks last Friday. “This Friday was absolutely indiscriminate,” he declared. “It wasn’t to aggrieve one particular sense of wrong. It was to terrorize people.” In related news, President Obama made comments Wednesday defending his plans to bring thousands of refugees from the war in Syria to the US in the face of stiff resistance from state and local officials across the US. “We are not well-served when, in response to a terrorist attack, we descend into fear and panic. We don’t make good decisions if it’s based on hysteria or an exaggeration of risks,” he declared. Read More