Category Archives: Terrorism

Hamburg: Explosion Of Improvised Device In Subway

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An original translation from MoPo (Hamburger Morgenpost)

Perpetrator On The Run – Explosion at the Subway Station Veddel

Explosives-alarm on the Veddel! According to first information, Sunday evening, around 5:30, an explosion took place at the subway station. The perpetrator(s) apparently are on the run. Fortunately, no one was wounded, according to the police.

According to the police, a pyrotechnic item exploded in a plastic bag deposited at the train station. The windows of an air trap were damaged, people were not harmed, according to police.

The perpetrator used a stop of the subway. He exited, deposited the bag on the platform, and quickly entered the train again. Shortly thereafter, there was a small detonation.

Witnesses report that after the bang, a lot of screws flew through the air. A policeman replies to this that indeed, screws were found at the scene.

It is now being investigated if these are connected to the explosive. The police was still working on the scene in the late evening. Several police deployments combed the area for more traces. The manhunt is in full swing. It is currently investigated as to whether the surveillance cameras give cues.

The subway traffic has just resumed. The S3 line was not able to stop at Veddel station until 10PM.

What Was The Role Of Intelligence Services In The Berlin Christmas Market Attack?

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Germany – The following research by Stefan Aust and Helmar Büchel suggests that all the unexplainable “accidents” the German authorities made in dealing with Anis Amri in the year leading up to his attack might not have been accidents after all.

An original translation from Die Welt/Welt Am Sonntag.

Anis Amri under surveillance as early as 2015
By Stefan Aust, Helmar Büchel
Dec. 17, 2017, 00:01h

New insights in the case Amri: The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had already appointed a dedicated case handler to Amri. Why did she not raise the alarm?

The Berlin Christmas Market attacker Anis Amri was under surveillance, being shadowed and intercepted, much earlier than authorities and Federal government have admitted until now.
This is what emerges from thousands of files, dozens of confidential informant reports, and the protocols of the telephone and internet surveillance, which Welt Am Sonntag have exclusively obtained.
No later than November 2015, the Federal Attorney in Karlsruhe had the Tunisian pointedly surveyed by the Federal Office For Criminal Investigations (BKA) and the Land Office For Criminal Investigations (LKA) North Rhine-Westphalia, by a confidential informant of the police who calls himself “Murat” and appears in the documents as “VP01”.
The measure was part of the covert investigations against the alleged IS terror cell of the hate preacher Abdullah Abdullah from Hildesheim who is known under his pseudonym“Abu Walaa”.
As early as November 24., 2015, more than one year before the attack on the Breitscheidplatz, “VP01” reported concrete terror plans of Amri to the LKA Düsseldorf. From there, they were – just as all further insights – reported on to the BKA, the General Attorney, and the Federal Office For The Protection Of The Constitution. From no later than December 3., 2015, on, the often changing mobile phones of Amri were intercepted, and his internet connections surveyed.

Amri downloaded instructions for explosives
Already on December 14., 2015, Anis Amri downloaded detailed instructions for mixing explosives, and for the construction of bombs and hand grenades, on his smart phone that was intercepted 24/7. From no later than February 2, 2016 on, Amri had phone conversations on this intercepted telephone with two IS cadres on the intermediate level of command, and offered himself as suicide attacker for an attack in Germany.

With the help of the police informant “VP01”, the Intelligence Officers managed the same month to enter the encrypted chat communication of Amri with the IS cadres in the messenger services telegram and whatsapp. While the Federal Government is claiming until now that BND (German Intelligence Service) and BfV (Office For The Protection Of The Constitution), had no operative parts in the Amri case, Welt am Sonntag have obtained emails and files from the authorities that prove a greater role of the German intelligence services. Already in January 2016, the BfV authored a two-page analysis of Anis Amri that was signed by BfV chief Maaßen personally.

12.000 The BKA (Federal Office For Criminal Investigation) sent 12,000 documents to the Office For Protection Of The Constitution.
More than 12,000 files, among them the communication with Amri’s IS contacts in Libya, which were secured from Amri’s smart phone on February 18., 2016, were sent by the BKA to the BfV. This is proven by the evaluating report of the BKA. The Federal Office For Protection Of The Constitution even appointed a dedicated case handler to Anis Amri. This agent (her name is known to Welt Am Sonntag) is employed in the anti terror department of the BfV in Berlin. She is on the same compound with the BKA’s Department 33 for the Protection Of The State which is responsible for Amri, too.
Welt Am Sonntag’s research also proves that Amri had even before his arrival in Italy in April 2011 close personal and even family ties with fighters and leading cadres of the Islamic State in Libya. These contacts were known to the Tunisian secret service for years. BKA and Federal Attorney demonstrably learnt of these family ties of Amri to the Islamic State, when they intercepted a phone call where Amri talked about a death of a cousin, fighting for the IS.
The reason why, in spite of these early, and crushing, findings of the German intelligence agencies, Amri was not arrested already one year before the attack in Berlin, does not emerge from the files available. But several months of investigations by Welt Am Sonntag suggest an involvement of international intelligence services. They might have seen a bait in Amri which would lead them to his instigators, the IS terror attack planners, in Libya.

US air force attacked IS camp
Indeed, Amri was, according to findings of Welt am Sonntag, put under the Italian intelligence service AISI’s surveillance immediately after he was released from deportation custody in May 2015. Allegedly, they lost him, when he went on his way to Germany. Few weeks after he was shot near Milano, B2 stealth bombers from the US air force attacked, in a secret operation managed from Germany, exactly that IS desert camp in Libya, where the instigators of the Breitscheidplatz are suspected.

Hans-Christian Ströbele, member of the secret service control committee of the Bundestag, therefore suspects in an interview with Welt am Sonntag the “governing hand” of a US intelligence service or the US military behind the „otherwise inexplicable“ non-arrest of Anis Amri. The fact that the Federal government has not delivered the solving of the background, which was promised by Merkel the day after the attack,“is a massive scandal”, says Ströbele.

Translator’s note:
Abbreviations:
BfV, Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic security agency.
BKA, Bundeskriminalamt, Federal Criminal Office, Germany’s authority for investigating international organized crime, terrorism and other cases related to national security.
BND, Bundesnachrichtendienst, Federal Intelligence Service, Germany’s foreign intelligence agency.
LKA, Landeskriminalamt, State Criminal Office, national, independent law enforcement agency in each of the 16 German states.

Just whose Mutti exactly is Merkel?

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Families and survivors of the Berlin Christmas market attack have to this day not received a letter or word of condolence from the German government. For some families, all official communication they received was an invoice from the morgue:

The bill sent to terror victim’s family instead of condolences

This news story reminded me of this photo:

Merkel meets the family of an Imam whose Mosque was attacked, Reunification day celebrations, October 2016

The story behind this photo is that this is an Imam and his family, being official guests at the reunification day celebrations and meeting Merkel, because just a week before, a small blasting agent exploded in front of their Dresden DiTiB-Fatih-Camii-Mosque.
The official spokesman of the German government tweeted out the photo.

Family of attempted suicide bomber in NYC gets CAIR member to speak for them

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Several subway lines evacuated due to explosion in NYC

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And now named:

The Daily Mail and NY Post have good articles with much additional info (except for casting blame on Trump) incl. that it is confirmed to be a muslim inspired terror attack.

H/T Malca

Germany: Potsdam Christmas Market Evacuated – Explosive Charge with Nails

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This is breaking news.
An original translation from Focus:

Major Police Operation in Potsdam
Device on Potsdam Christmas Market contains nails – blasting agent still unclarified

On suspicion of explosives or arson, a major police operation is underway at the Christmas market in Brandenburg Street in Potsdam. Police forces have identified a suspicious object in Dortustraße.

  • Suspicious package found at Christmas market in Potsdam
  • Special police forces on site
  • Christmas market was cleared
  • Police confirms suspicion of explosives

6.06 pm: According to information from Brandenburg’s Minister of the Interior Karl-Heinz Schröter (SPD), the package found at the Potsdam Christmas Market contained nails. It is unclear whether explosives had actually been in it, said Schröter on Friday evening.
5.37 pm: The police report that the explosive device at the Potsdam Christmas Market has been defused.
5.20 p. m.:”At present it is still unclear whether it is an explosive or arson charge,”Torsten Herbst, spokesman for the Brandenburg police, told FOCUS Online. The blocking circuit has been extended. There is a suspicion of a USBV (a non-conventional explosive or fire device).
5.11 pm: According to police, the suspicion of explosives has been confirmed, according to the “Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten”.
5.07 p. m.: Special forces continue to investigate the package.
4.33 pm: According to the “Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten”, the package is a package measuring 40 x 50 centimetres which was delivered to a pharmacy. According to the news portal, one employee found suspicious wires in it.
4:20 p. m.: Special forces are on site to inspect the suspicious object. This was confirmed by a spokesman of the Brandenburg police.
16.09: The Christmas market is closed from Lindenstraße to the fashion shop H&M and Dortustraße. The area has been cleared. Shops and restaurants are also affected.

Shots reported at Oxford Station UK:

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BBC:

Daily Mail: (Usually the best)

Updates as possible.

It is likely just mass panic from a car backfire or a large thing dropped somewhere nearby.

Large-Scale Raids in Germany: Six “Refugee” IS Fighters Arrested For Preparing Attack on Christmas Market

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Update, 5PM CET:
According to Focus, they have learnt from investigator circles that the arrested suspects were photographing rubbish bins, installed at hip height, on Kennedyplatz, where the Christmas Market will open soon. Investigators think this means the suspects intended to plant explosive devices in the rubbish bins. The suspects were also scouting the Limbecker Platz shopping mall and the nearby Rathaus-Galerie mall.

According to Hessenschau, data storage devices, mobile phones and laptops, and documents were seized. The investigators also found city maps of Essen with the Christmas Market location marked.

For the original article please scroll down.

Raid in Essen in the early Tuesday morning hours.

An original translation from Focus:
Six Arrests
Large-Scale Raid! IS terror suspects apparently planned attack on Christmas Market Essen
Tuesday, November 11, 2017, 1:59 PM CET

During large-scale raids in several German states on Tuesday, six alleged members of the Jihadist militia IS were arrested. They are suspected of having been preparing “an attack with weapons or explosives on a public target in Germany”, the General Prosecution Frankfurt announced.

The suspects accordingly planned an attack on the Christmas Market Essen, Hessischer Rundfunk Hessische Rundfunk learned from sources among the investigators. The plans for the attack were not yet completed. According to „Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger“ they probably planned an attack on a shopping mall in Essen.

As the „Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger“ (Wednesday edition) learned from sources among the investigators, one of the men, a 20-year-old asylum seeker, together with other persons, has been taking photographs of the shopping centre Limbecker Platz, Essen, shortly ago. The men pretended they were students of architecture. While they carried out this operation, they were allegedly already being observed by the authorities. The investigators became suspicious, as already in March, there was a terror threat to this shopping centre in downtown Essen. It remained close for several days. It is still not clear who was behind the threat.

These information are yet to be officially confirmed.

Police arrest six Syrians
The investigations are concerning six Syrians between 20 and 28 years old. Four of them are in Germany since December 2014, and two came as asylum seekers late summer 2015.

They are suspected to be members of a foreign terrorist organization and of preparing a grave subversive act of violence.

At the early Tuesday morning raid, 500 officers of the Hessian Land Office of Criminal Investigations and other police stations searched eight apartments in Kassel, Hannover, Essen and Leipzig. The authorities declined to specify more details.

Suspects entered Germany as Refugees
Welt first reported about the anti terror raid in several German states. Accordingly, hints by refugees led the investigators on the tracks of the six men. They had come, using false identities, as civil war refugees to Germany.
The witnesses stated that the men had been fighting for the terror militia IS in Syria. Investigations showed that the men had contact to each other and had radical-Islamic convictions, says the report.

Christmas Market Essen, Kennedyplatz, in a previous year. Photo: Prengel

Breaking: Vehicle Attack in Toulouse, 3 Injured

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Please read more here:

The Sun: Two people are seriously injured according to reports while police have confirmed the incident in Blagnac in southern France was a ‘deliberate’ attack.
A DRIVER has “deliberately” mowed down terrified pedestrians after mounting a pavement near a high school in the south of France – leaving at least three injured.

Le Figaro:  Un homme a foncé sur des passants aujourd’hui à Blagnac en Haute-Garonne. Selon la police, il y a trois blessés dont deux graves.

Mass shooting at Texas Church, “at least 27 dead”

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This really gets going at about 4:20

Texas Church Shooting Suspect Identified as Devin Kelley

Police identified 26-year-old Devin Kelley as the gunman behind a shooting that left at least 27 people dead in Texas on Sunday, The New York Times reported.

Shortly after the shooting, police sent a K9 unit to the gunman’s home and began searching for explosive devices, San Antonio Express-News reported.

While wearing full combat gear, Kelley entered First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas and attempted to flee the scene before dying in a neighboring county.

More at the NYT

1. ‘They should be able to control their sexual urges but they don’t’: Hardline Australian imam says women need to wear the hijab to keep men at bay – and tells them to avoid wearing bracelets in public.

A hardline Islamic leader says women need to wear the hijab so men can control their sexual urges.

Queensland Muslim leader Sheikh Zainadine Johnson has weighed into sex scandals surrounding Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein to advise women on the need to cover up.

‘Men should be able to control themselves. This is a common argument against the Islamic hijab,’ he told his Facebook followers.

 

‘I totally agree, they should be able to control themselves, however facts show many don’t, this is why a hijab is necessary for women.’

 

2. Active shooter at Texas Baptist Church, possible 15 dead.

http://abc13.com/sheriff-multiple-deaths-after-church-shooting-near-san-antonio/2606990/

27 dead. God help us all.

 

More and more coming in. This was going to be a multi-item post as you can see from the now, incongruous item #1. But its now about this Church shooting till we know what there is to know.

Ill make this a single event post and post more as it becomes available

 

 

Hamed Abdel-Samad’s Twitter Account Deleted

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Update: Twitter have restated Hamed’s account. Thank you to all of you who supported him!
Today, Friday November 3rd (CET), Hamed Abdel Samad noted that his twitter account @hamed_samad was deleted without prior notice.

Egyptian-German author and scholar Hamed Abdel-Samad.

Coincidentally, the last post he had shared on Twitter was his Facebook message of
November 1:

If within just one year, hundreds of Christian terrorists carried out acts of terror in more than 50 states, invoking the Bible in doing so, then most media would speak of Christian terrorism without batting an eyelid – and rightfully so. Times Magazine spoke of Buddhist terror, referring to violence against Muslims in Burma. But when the terrorists are Muslims, invoking the Koran, then they refuse to see a connection to Islam.
We do not defame all Muslims when we speak of Islamic terrorism. Not all Muslims put everything into action that is written in the Koran. Some just put into action what feels similar to them. Peaceful humans will choose the peaceful passages, and say, this is the message of the Koran. We like these Muslims, and we do not call them “selective”, but “liberal”, or “moderate”. Violent people invoke the violent passages and say, this is what God expects from us. We do not like these Muslims, and we say they are radical and misunderstand the Koran.
The fact that most Muslims do not commit acts of violence is not thanks to Islam. Islam expects of Muslims to pray five times a day in the Mosque. Very few Muslims do that. Is it due to Islam that they neglect this obligation? Islam demands that Muslims work diligently, not lie at the court, and keep the streets clean. Do all Muslims do accordingly? Islam permits man to marry four women at the same time. Very few Muslims use this permission. Islam legitimizes violence against unbelievers, legitimizes discrimination of religious minorities, and beating of women. The fact that many Muslims do not do any of this is not thanks to Islam, but thanks to the pragmatism and reason of the people who don’t do these things.
It is correct to say that not each single decision and each single deed of a Muslim can be attributed to Islam only, but at the same time, we cannot say: cleanliness, diligence, honesty, polygamy, hatred for unbelievers, violence against women, discrimination of minorities and praying five times a day have nothing to do with Islam!
Terror has got many causes that need to come together so that a person will become a terrorist. The social situation, the political situation in the world, the structure of his personality all play a role in that. But the religion and what it says about Jihad and the unbelievers, and what it promises the martyr after death, are central causes. So why is it defamation to say what we can empirically prove?

Hamed Abdel Samad’s twitter profile, @hamed_samad, as of November 3rd, 2PM CDET.