Hunting feverishly for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] assassin that plowed a semi-truck into a Berlin Christmas market Dec. 19 killing 12, injuring 48 near Breitscheidplatz, German Chancellor Angela Merkel can only wonder about her open-door policy for Syrian refugees. Faced with re-election in 2017, the Bundestag [German parliament] will have to give serious thought to whether they can continue Merkel’s liberal immigration policy. German authorities know that President-elect Donald Trump has warned against letting in un-vetted Mideast refugees, posing a possible terrorist threat to countries with large numbers of asylum seekers. President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton applauded Merkel for taking over 1 million refugees from the Syrian War, displacing some 12 million people.
Desperately searching for a 24-year-old armed violent Tunisian refugee Anis Amri with six aliases, German authorities try to find a needle-n-a-haystack. “Caution. He could be violent and armed,” read the police notice. “A reward of up to 100,000 euros ($104,000) has been issued for information lead to the suspect’s arrest,” German Interior Minister Thomas de Maisiere said Amri was on a terrorist watch list and went under at least six aliases. While Maisiere warned they don’t know whether or not Amri drove the truck, he’s strongly suspected by German authorities. “This is a suspect, not necessarily the perpetrator,” said Maisiere. “We are still investigating in all directions,” still not certain about the assassin’s identity. Living in Germany since Jul 2015, authorities believe Amri lived mainly in the Berlin area, according to Raif Jaeger, North Rhine-Westphalia.interior minister
Merkel admitted yesterday that it would be most difficult if the perpetrator was a refugee, asylum seeker or recent immigrant. Merkel has a lot of explaining to do, not just about her liberal immigration policy. She needs to own up to backing the Saudi, Turkey and U.S.-backed proxy war seeking to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Backing toppling al-Assad, Merkel and her European Union colleagues supported the Syrian proxy war that killed over 300,000 civilians, displaced 12 million more to neighboring countries and drove the U.K. out the EU with its June 23 Brexit vote. Merkel helped create the biggest refugee crisis since WWII, backing policies to take more Muslims refugees into the EU. Monitored by federal law enforcement since March 14, Amri disappeared off the radar in September, despite suspected of drug dealing and a brawl in a Berlin bar.
Amri was rejected for German asylum in July, potentially creating the motive for his recent attack. After the July 14 truck-ramming attack by a Tunisian citizen in Nice, France killing 87, injuring 247, ISIS invited its followers to follow similar massacres across Europe and the U.S. “Tunisia first denied that this person was its citizen, and the papers weren’t issues for a long time,” said Jaeger, point to serious problems vetting Mideast refugees. ISIS claimed responsibility Dec. 20 for the Berlin attack, calling the attacker “a soldier in the Islamic State” who “carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition.” Germany’s top prosecutor, Peter Frank, found eerie parallels to the July 14 Nice massacre. Merkel’s big problem now is explaining to her Bundestag coalition partner, Munich-based Christian Social Union’s chief Horst Seehofer, that she can still lead.
Germany’s had its share of recent refugee terrorist attacks, including sexual assaults in Cologne, machete attacks in Stuttgart, bombing in Ansbach, etc., but nothing on the scale of Paris and Brussels. Merkel’s kindness to Syrian refugees didn’t stop the recent carnage, where everyday Germans are now vulnerable to terrorism because of a misguided refugee policy. Hitting a Christmas market in Berlin was no accident to ISIS terrorists plotting mayhem in Germany and other EU cities. Brexit leader Nigel Farage warned Merkel many times of her zealotry for bring in indiscriminate numbers of Mideast refugees, something Britain would not support. When the Brexit vote happened June 23, Merkel, who commands undue influence in the EU, doubled down, pressuring EU countries to take more refugees. Backing off now, CSU’s Seehofer must think twice before backing Angela’s next term.
Whether German authorities can find Amri for questioning is anyone’s guess. What’s known for sure is that Germany’s been infiltrated with some percentage of Muslim refugees that subscribe to radical Islam. Amri’s the tip of the iceberg as the extremist members of recent immigrants decide to lash out at German citizens. Berlin Mayor Michael Mueller praised Berliners for not letting the Breitscheidplatz massacre ruin their holiday celebration. “I don’t think there’s any need to be afraid,” Mueller told Germany’s ZDF TV. “The police presence has been significantly heightened . . . and of course other measures take to find the perpetrator quickly,” pretending that the Dec. 19 massacre doesn’t weigh heavily on the German public. Hit by terrorism in the heart of Germany, lawmakers must think twice in 2017 before trusting Merkel to another six years as chancellor.
