Lorry attack(?) at German Christmas market

[Morty]

Has anybody mentioned that the perpetrator is still at-large? The Pakistani suspect was released due to lack of evidence against him.

[Spiro C. Thiery]

Right. Initial reports cited a witness at the scene who said he'd followed the ostensible perpetrator from a safe distance on foot after he'd seen him exiting the truck, while staying in contact with the police on his mobile phone along the way. That suspect -- who comes from a region that encompasses Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran -- denied involvement in the crime, and the police were unable to link any evidence to him, such as DNA or fingerprints in the truck. As a consequence they have come to the conclusion that the witness, or as the case may be, the police, lost sight of the man while following him and therefore had arrested the wrong guy.

Now they are circulating the apparent photo of a Tunisian man whose papers they found under the seat of that vehicle, and who allegedly has used false identities before.

Has anybody mentioned that the perpetrator is still at-large? The Pakistani suspect was released due to lack of evidence against him.

[seemslikeadream]

from Washington Post

German manhunt seeks Tunisian asylum-seeker in deadly Christmas market attack
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ge ... 20b5ebda9b

from DW

Calls increase for sweeping surveillance after Berlin attack
A state interior minister has warned that Germany needs to beef up its security laws following the Berlin terror attack. The cabinet has already passed a proposal to introduce more video surveillance in public areas.
http://www.dw.com/en/calls-increase-for ... a-36854715

from DailyPakistan

Europe’s most wanted terrorist: German police release picture of Tunisian refugee suspected of carrying out Christmas market attack

https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headlin ... et-attack/

from Rueters

German state minister says: 'We are in a state of war'
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germa ... SKBN14915D

[stefano]

Now they are circulating the apparent photo of a Tunisian man whose papers they found under the seat of that vehicle, and who allegedly has used false identities before.

Well that was helpful of him, leaving his papers in the lorry like that. Said Kouachi did the same thing. Stay tuned for the standoff and climactic firefight, perhaps later today when Americans are watching TV.

It's also being reported that Amri served jail time in Italy for arson.

[kool maudit]

I heard they found his passport under a crushed Christmas tree and it was totally fine not even a pine needle in the pages.

[Spiro C. Thiery]

Now they are circulating the apparent photo of a Tunisian man whose papers they found under the seat of that vehicle, and who allegedly has used false identities before.

Well that was helpful of him, leaving his papers in the lorry like that. Said Kouachi did the same thing. Stay tuned for the standoff and climactic firefight, perhaps later today when Americans are watching TV.

It's also being reported that Amri served jail time in Italy for arson.

Indeed. The whole "proof of i.d." that is so often found under such circumstances would lead one to believe that either there are "terrorist-mob rules" that make it compulsory, or that the dedicated shadowers who foster and trigger these events keep using the easy i.d. because they keep getting away with it. It could be that perps use this to get the wrong person fingered. For all we know "Amri" was nowhere near this site when this happened.

Now we have the official claim that German counter-terrorism authorities and the local police had been observing him for quite some time now, that he has contacts to local branches of known terrorist networks, and that, in seeking a way to make money to buy automatic weapons he could have been a small-time dealer of drugs in the park that has been, conveniently enough, a hot local political issue (nothing like making immigrant drug dealers into potential terrorists, one and all).

Even the Office of Criminal Investigations in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia are said to have been monitoring him for suspected planning of terrorist acts. What I find myself wondering is, if he's got the contacts they say he does and that this huge well-funded network exist as we're told, why would he have to sell drugs in the park for money?

ON EDIT: The Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) says "The suspect is not necessarily the culprit. They still investigating all angles." Still, the picture being painted is colourful. It's being said that Amri's fingerprints were found on the steering wheel and that the original Polish driver of the lorry was alive when it all went down, that he fought the lorry-napper until he got shot. They have gone so far as to presume that, in a battle of Flight 93-like heroics, he wrestled the steering wheel from the away from the market out onto the street, thereby avoiding more death and destruction.

[tapitsbo]

I heard they found his passport under a crushed Christmas tree and it was totally fine not even a pine needle in the pages.

Is it that unbelievable that there could be cloaked messages in these sorts of seemingly implausible news stories?

I'm still fascinated that the German security services ditched the "Russia hacked the US election and is about to hack ours" narrative, contradicting Merkel

Did they ever find a suspect for the blowing up of Frauke Petry's car, I wonder? Obviously a small incident in comparison but interesting since the process of producing suspects in politicised cases is so murky (in any country)

The "state of war" rhetoric sounds like a clone of Hollande's (yay, being in a state of war with the same terrorists you openly fund and support when they attack someone else's country.) In France it sure seems like the government has been trying to provoke, not protect against, "war".

The story about the truck driver reminds me of the stories about "heroes" during the chase of the Tsarnaevs... as does the released suspect...

[stefano]

Now we have the official claim that German counter-terrorism authorities and the local police had been observing him for quite some time now, that he has contacts to local branches of known terrorist networks, and that, in seeking a way to make money to buy automatic weapons he could have been a small-time dealer of drugs in the park that has been, conveniently enough, a hot local political issue (nothing like making immigrant drug dealers into potential terrorists, one and all).

Even the Office of Criminal Investigations in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia are said to have been monitoring him for suspected planning of terrorist acts. What I find myself wondering is, if he's got the contacts they say he does and that this huge well-funded network exist as we're told, why would he have to sell drugs in the park for money?

Well those terrorist recruiters always target young men with criminal backgrounds. And they like this new thing of basically prodding them to pull off one of these cheap 'lone wolf' attacks, doesn't cost them anything and they can work on several guys at once. (I'm not assuming that it was Amri, or if it was, that he really was in contact with some 'known terrorist networks'.)

[Spiro C. Thiery]

Well those terrorist recruiters always target young men with criminal backgrounds. And they like this new thing of basically prodding them to pull off one of these cheap 'lone wolf' attacks, doesn't cost them anything and they can work on several guys at once. (I'm not assuming that it was Amri, or if it was, that he really was in contact with some 'known terrorist networks'.)

It's hard to get a sense of certainty on the timeline they are claiming, but I interpret it to mean that the suspected drug dealing attempt, the investigation of which didn't quite pan out, came after he had already had contact with a network. But still, virtually everyone in that park who's selling drugs is black African.

By the way, the Pakistani family of the original suspect are reporting that he has disappeared since his release.

[stefano]

The Tunisian man suspected of carrying out the deadly Berlin truck attack at the Christmas market was shot dead by police in Milan on Friday, Italy's interior minister Marco Minniti said.

The minister told a press conference in Rome that Anis Amri had been fatally shot after firing at two police officers who had stopped his car for a routine identity check around 3:00 am (0200 GMT).

Identity checks had established "without a shadow of doubt" that the dead man was Amri, the minister said.

He said that Amri had coolly pulled the weapon from a backpack and began shooting. One of the officers was hit in the shoulder during the exchanges, the minister said. The officer was in hospital, awaiting surgery but not in any danger.

Italy had Amri's fingerprints on file as a result of him having been in prison in Sicily between 2011 and 2015.

Thought to be around 24, he had been on the run since escaping after Monday's attack which left 12 people dead.

He had arrived in Italy from his native Tunisia during the Arab Spring in 2011.

Shortly after his arrival he was sentenced to a prison term for starting a fire in a refugee centre.

He was released in 2015 and made his way to Germany.

Media reports in Italy say he was on anti-terrorism police's radar as a potential Islamist radical during his time in prison but was not considered a high-priority subject for monitoring.

Moroccan media say Moroccan domestic intelligence (which is very tight with the American services) warned German intelligence about Amri twice this year. That article, more spicily, claims that Amri served jail time in Italy "for having wanted to join the Syria-Iraq region," apparently based on information from an anonymous Moroccan intelligence source.

[82_28]

Not that it really matters but what was the truck hauling? What was in the back? I'm not saying explosives or arms or anything. But that could be interesting to find out.

[smoking since 1879]

outlaw trucks/lorries, that should solve it.

do you think we can get facebook onboard ?

(no pun intended)

not often i find myself needing to quote myself,strange times indeed...

15:20 GMT
Rome bans trucks from city center, citing terrorism threat
Authorities in Rome have banned trucks from entering the center of the capital for the festive season after the attacks in Berlin and Nice. Trucks and other large vehicles will be barred from the designated zone during the weekend of December 24, 25, 26, then December 31 and January 1 and 6, local media said. Only vehicles weighing less than 3.5 tons and carrying emergency medical supplies, newspapers and post will be allowed. The announcement comes as Italy steps-up its security in several major cities, including Milan and the Vatican, where extra police and roadblocks have been deployed on the streets.

[MacCruiskeen]

Because I was given a 12-day ban on the very day that Berlin got its 9/11, it's been impossible for me to post updates to RI about the twists and turns in this literally incredible yarn.

For German-speakers: http://www.medienanalyse-international.de/index1.html - Andreas Hauß (pr: Hauss) sends an email to the office of Frauke Köhler, spokesperson for the Generalbundesanwalt (Public Prosecutor General of the Federal Court of Justice), in a brave attempt to get straight answers to four very simple questions. That spokeswoman's spokesman responds, not by answering even one of Hauß's questions, but by asking him how and when they can reach him by telephone! (For anyone unfamiliar with the rules and routines of German bureaucracy: This is literally unheard-of.)

E-Mail an: presse@generalbundesanwalt.de


Sehr geehrte Frau Köhler,

folge ich Ihren Bemerkungen von gestern, stieg Amri eine halbe Stunde vor dem Anschlag in das Führerhaus des LKW.

Kann ich daraus folgern, dass

a) der tödliche Schuss auf den Fahrer erst dann erfolgte - und alle Meldungen bzgl. vorheriger Ermordung falsch sind

b) alle Meldungen zuvor bzgl. eines "Ausprobierens" des LKW durch mehrfaches Bewegen durch die Stadt jeder Grundlage entbehren? Stimmten die GPS-Daten nicht?

Weiter: ist es polizeiüblich, einen Vergleich einer mutmaßlichen Tatwaffe mit einer Hülse als Beweis anzusehen? Eine Hülse kann jederzeit vor oder nach der einen oder anderen tat "erzeugt" und transportiert werden. Normalerweise sind nicht die Hülsen, sondern die darin befindlichen Projektile tödlich und nur ein Vergleich mit ihnen beweiskräftig.

Weiter:

warum stellen Sie der Öffentlichkeit das Foto des Amri mit dem "Fingerzeig" am Bahnhof Zoo nicht zur Verfügung?

Mit freundlichen Grüßen


Andreas Hauß

Betreff: AW: Amri - Ihre gestrigen Ausführungen

Datum: 2017-01-05T10:31:10+0100

Von: "pressestelle" <pressestelle@gba.bund.de>

An: "A.Hauß"


Sehr geehrter Herr Hauß,


zur Beantwortung Ihrer Anfrage bitte ich höflich um Mitteilung Ihrer telefonischen Erreichbarkeit.


Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Im Auftrag

Dr. Büngener

Staatsanwalt

Der Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof
- Pressestelle -
Brauerstraße 30
76135 Karlsruhe
Telefon: +49 (0)721 8191-410
Fax: +49 (0)721 8191-492
Mail: pressestelle@gba.bund.de
Homepage: http://www.generalbundesanwalt.de

Sehr geehrter Her Dr. Büngener ,


danke für Ihre prompte Antwort.

Mich erstaunt allerdings, von einer Behörde, die quasi von Amts wegen die Schriftform bevorzugt, einen Wunsch nach Telefon-Kommunikation zu erhalten.

Mein Wunsch nach einer ZEITNAHEN Antwort per Mail halte ich aufrecht, und die Begründung liegt natürlich in der schriftlichen Verbindlichkeit, die einer behördlichen Kommunikation eigen ist.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen


Andreas Hauß

(I may translate this bizarre exchange of emails later if I can find the time. I'll certainly post any further response by the Authoritay to Hauß's second email. Because those questions badly need answering, and not in a private phone call (!) but in public, in writing, and on the record.)

[semper occultus]

.....I notice there hasn't been the usual front page gallery of victims that I've seen anywhere......is that weird German privacy laws of the sort that meant some of their papers were blanking out the face of fugitive when he was on the run ?

Not that it really matters but what was the truck hauling? What was in the back? I'm not saying explosives or arms or anything. But that could be interesting to find out.

.....it was a load of steel girders for a big building site..

[tron]

girders, he chose well, was that just lucky? a truck full of teddy bears wouldnt have weighed as much.