The terror group al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, aqap now says that it was, indeed behind the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices that left 12 people dead. And the plot was years in the making. In a new video al qaedas Top Commander in yemen said quote, we clarified to the islamic world that al qaeda chose the target laid the plan financed the operation and appointed the premiere. The top al qaeda person goes on to call the kouachi members heroes and that it was mastered by the late Anwar Al Alaki before his death. This message from al qaeda comes as the latest edition of Charlie Hebdo hits news stands with people going through the streets of paris as thousands are trying to snap it up since the staff was gunned down. Barbara starr joins us on more of these claims by al qaeda. Good morning, barbara. Reporter good morning, carol. First we have new information at cnn. A u. S. Official tells me they now believe their assessment if you will is when Cherif Kouachi, the younger brother, left in 2011 with a pile of cash. It may have been as much as 20,000 given to him by al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to help finance future attacks. Theyre trying to nail do you know the specifics. Thats where they are this morning, that he left yemen in 2011 after a short trip there with a pile of cash. This all goes to the point of what was al qaedas role in either directing this attack all the way back to 2011 or at least inspiring the brothers to carry it out. Now, al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the most dangerous al qaeda affiliate right now. The one of biggest concern to the United States because they have the technical ability to make bombs that potentially can get past airport screening. Anybody that could potentially put a bomb on an aircraft obviously a top concern. What theyre trying to figure out right now with this latest claim by al qaeda, that it directed the attack that it picked out the targets. You know is it really true . Is it a claim of responsibility to get more attention in the world or is it true . Does this really date all the way back to 2011 when kouachi went to yemen, got weapons training may have met directly with awlaki before he was killed and the whole plot was fermenting for a couple of years or did they go home stew about things have these jihadist tendencies and then look for a target to attack . All of this still to be really sorted out, but make no mistake, the claim this morning by al qaeda in yemen, a very serious concern to the u. S. Carol. All right. Barbara starr reporting live from the pentagon this morning. Thank you. As you might have noticed, the investigation is quite complicated. Al qaeda in yemen claims its responsible, but we also know that one of the other terrorists ahmedy claimed allegiance to isis. Im joined by jim sciutto. Hes our chief National Security correspondent and Paul Crookshank author of agent storm who led the cia to Anwar Al Awlaki. Jim, id like to start with you. Yemen claims responsibility. The plan was three years in the making we think. How did french authorities miss this . Reporter its one of many signals that they missed. Keep in mind remember they did have these brothers for years under surveillance. It was a week ago today when a gunman stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo just behind me here. It was a week ago today but last june june 2014 they took the kouachi brothers off surveillance making a judgment at that time that they were no longer a priority. It adds to the list of missed signals here. Aqap to this point has been viewed principally as a threat to concealing weapons and getting them on airplanes, the underwear bomber very serious. To have them behind this attack assuming its substantiated over time it adds to their m. O. It expands the threat from aqap to inspiring and possibly directing gun attacks like this if you want to call them mumbai style or paris style. This is already high. Do you believe al qaeda in yemen was there. Theres a chance to take a couple of months to verify it. U. S. Now believes they came back from yemen with 20,000 in cash to finance this operation. Its all pointing towards the idea that one of the brothers meets with Anwar Al Awlaki and he recruits them into this plot. We know from this double agent i did the report on he was telling the recruits camouflage your radicalism when you go back to the west. We also note that that seems to be what the kouachi brothers did when they got back to the west. The french slapped on surveillance after they got a tip off from the americans that they believe they attended a Training Camp in yemen with one of the brothers attending a camp. June 2014 they take off that surveillance because they think the kouachi brothers are no longer dangerous. Clearly they were still radical it appears. They were pretending not to be radical anymore. The other part of this thats confusing, jim, al qaeda in yemen on that same video that we showed folks, the attack on the Kosher Grocery store was an added blessing from alla which means it was not part of the plod. The man who carried out that attack pledged allegiance to isis. So does that mean al qaeda or isis are working together or we cant determine that right now . Not necessarily. There are overlapping motivations here and the groups frankly have common motivations. So several analysts terror analysts have made the point that we can draw walls and lines between these groups that are too definitive and there are cases where people might be working for one or pledging allegiance to one who also get support from another. And this plot is a fantastic example of that. Think of the other folks who have been involved. You have an isis pledge of allegiance from amedy coulibaly. You have an aqap claiming responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo shooting behind me. Remember Hayat Boumeddiene who is the partner, she was fleeing france via turkey. Shes seen with a gentleman whos now been identified as someone attached to a pakistani afghan terror cell here so yet another group and the kouachi brothers were tied to another man who was seen as al qaedas main recruiter in europe not aqap but core al qaedas main recruiter. Just in that one list there you have four different cells, different organizations somehow involved or connected which shows that these terror groups they have similar motivations, they have common goals and their recruits have overlapping friendships, relationships, et cetera. It may be a mistake to imagine that just one group was responsible or involved in these attacks in paris. But, paul isnt it possible that all of these players could have met in france and it wasnt coordinated in the middle east . Thats absolutely right. I think its extremely unlikely that isis and al qaeda and yemen at the leadership level coordinated this. These were friends. Theyve known each other for years. Two of the brothers or one of the brothers had a connection with aqap. I think what happened was they recruited recruited amedy coulibaly. The brothers recruited him at the local level. Coulibaly we dont think has traveled to syria or iraq. Hes not had that interaction with the group itself. He clearly was somebody who had a lot of affection for isis and wanted it to be seen that he was carrying it out in their name carol. I wanted to ask you this too, jim, because the new Charlie Hebdo issue came out today and now we hear from al qaeda in yemen. Is that just a coincidence . Reporter its possible. You know remember these groups like aqap and others they are very good at maximizing attention, not only in their brutality, the nature of the targets they choose the methods they use, the brutality they use but on picking days to maximize that message. Its very possible theyre connected. Just another note about that magazine carol, as we talk about it. We noticed earlier, here youll remember is the memorial to the Charlie Hebdo victims behind me which has been growing every day. Placed among the candles and the pencils and crayons that have been part of it from the beginning as well as the personal notes, were seeing copies of that magazine too laid out there. The cover, et cetera. Another sign of support that the people of paris, the people of france are showing as they continue to remember those events a week ago. All right. Jim sciutto, Paul Crookshank thanks as always. Ill be right back. The traffic jam. Scourge of 20th century city life. Raiser of blood pressure. 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Youll see younger looking skin in just one week. One week . This ones a keeper. Rapid wrinkle repair. And for dark spots rapid tone repair. From neutrogena®. The french magazine the nation rallies in support. They want the people to cower. Jim sciutto is there. Jim . Reporter they not only refuses to be silenced the voice may be even louder than even just across the city of paris. French citizens have scrambled at news stands and Corner Stores to snap up the latest edition put together sadly by a skeletal staff devastated by this attack but still determined. The magazine knew france would rally around it. It ballooned 50 fold from a typical 60,000 copies a week to 3 million. Signs are now going up announcing that news stands have sold out. French crews say the print run is going to be extended again to a jaw dropping total of 5 million. Nearly 100 times the normal print. In fact, some sellers have begun posting copies for 1700 per copy. The release of the magazine comes as a terrorist group in yemen, al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, aqap claims responsibility for the attack in a video. The group says it gave the men their orders and their target three years ago and u. S. Officials now telling cnn may have given them as much as 20,000 to finance the attack. Want to bring in Cnn International anchor hala g garani. There is an enormous show of support. Theres a crackdown now, isnt there, on support, vocal support for terrorism . What are we seeing today . Reporter yeah indeed. Were seeing and according to authorities here in paris that there have been over 50 arrests for something called apology for terrorism. Roughly translated in english it would be essentially defending terrorism, not incitement exactly but saying terrorism is something you support. So more than 50 arrests including one very well known comedian in this country who tweeted out je suis charlie, the name of the magazine coulibaly. He is one of more than 50 detained in this country. Its a very interesting debate jim, because its really a question surrounding the freedom of expression. So some people will say absolutely not, incitement to terrorism is not covered by free speech. This is something that is criminalized that is against the law in this country and many other countries. So if you tweet out or use social media to say that you support the acts that were committed by the terrorists at Charlie Hebdo that indeed you should be arrested and charged with a crime. Others are saying tweeting out je suis Charlie Coulibaly is tasteless, not funny, obnoxious, but in light of what so many people marched for, it should be covered by free speech. It is not what you would call incitement or violence to terrorism. Its been a very interesting debate. One week from the massacre to Charlie Hebdo of what people should say. Even though people might consider those statements terribly tasteless, whether or not they should be allowed to do so in public jim. Reporter no question hala. You know carol, this gets to the difficulty of establishing whats offensive. One persons satire is another persons deep offense. And its something that france has struggled with for some time. A number of years ago they banned the wearing of muslim head scarves here saying that was an affront to a National French identity. Of course to many here they saw that as an affront to their religion. It is a constant battle here a constant battle balancing act thats frankly very difficult for countries to get right, carol. The other interesting thing that i wanted to tell our viewers is how fast this magazine is selling. Theyre selling like the proverbial hot cakes, right . There are issues of Charlie Hebdo on ebay going for 600 an issue. All right. I lost jim sciutto sadly, but well get him back later, never fear. Still to come in the newsroom. An ohio man charged with plotting to kill john boehner. Why he was targeting the Iowa Republican next. Please oh, what a headache actually. My headaches gone. Excedrin mild headache. Wow, that was fast startupny. Its working for new york state. Already 55 companies are investing over 98 Million Dollars and creating over 2100 jobs. From long island to all across upstate new york, more businesses are coming to new york. They are paying no property taxes no corporate taxes no sales taxes. And with over 300 locations, and 3. 7 million square feet available, theres a place thats right for your business. See if startupny can work for you. Go to startup. Ny. Gov. Introducing data stash. Now at tmobile, all your unused data rolls forward to the next month. Well even get you started with 10 gigabytes of free 4g lte data. Data stash. Only from tmobile. A bizarre plot to kill House Speaker john boehner and it involves his former bartender. Authorities say this man, 44yearold michael hoyt who worked at a country club where boehner was a member wanted to kill the Ohio Republican for several reasons, including his belief that the Ohio Republican was responsible for the ebola outbreak. The story doesnt end there. Zach wolf is managing editor for cnn digital politics. He joins me from washington with more. Good morning, zach. Reporter good morning, carol. Tell me more about this plot and how police discovered it. Reporter well its really kind of amazing. They discovered it because michael hoyt the 44yearold bartender had worked for the country club where john boehner goes in ohio. He called 911 essentially on himself and said he was thinking about doing this and that he had a loaded gun and of course the local police went to his house and found the gun and took it away from him. He told them he thought john boehner was responsible for the ebola outbreak. He was emailing with boehners wife asking for a meeting to talk about ebola and other things. Hes currently in a mental hospital. All of this happened back in october but the federal authorities indicted him just last week on threatening a federal official. And this bartender has known john boehner for a lengthy period of time right . Reporter thats right. Like five years he was the bartender. What apparently caused this frustration in the guys life is he was fired from that country club where john boehner goes. Whats interesting, bars go at the whole John Boehners whole identity. Hes a good golfer. Hes one of the best golfers in washington. A lot of stuff in John Boehners life circling around this tore jie. Zach wolf. Check out the story at cnn politics if you want to know more. Still to come in the newsroom, one week after the brutal attack Charlie Hebdo is out with a new edition of the satirical magazine. Good luck trying to get your hands on it. Well talk about that next. 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Call Liberty Mutual for a free quote today at see Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. And good morning. Im Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. One week to the day after terrorists slaughtered cartoonists and police at the Charlie Hebdo offices in paris, al qaeda in the