Shawn Helton
21st Century Wire
It’s a familiar theme: Berlin’s Christmas Market Attack perpetrator Anis Amri, was watched by authorities for months in the lead up to committing an act of terror taking place. The highly dramatized and supposedly “ISIS-inspired” attack produces yet another ‘known wolf‘ that’s inextricably tied to terror (and security services). Meanwhile, Germany launches a fake news witch-hunt. Another prefect storm.
Below we’ll examine the Berlin attack, its relation to past terror events, as well as its potential use as a media smoke screen while major developments continue to unfold in Syria…
‘WATCHED’ – (Photo illustration above created by 21WIRE’s Shawn Helton)
The Berlin Dossier
On December 19th, Armi was said to have driven a semi-trailer truck (articulated lorry) into a crowd of people at a Berlin Christmas market nearby the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz, leaving 12 people dead and (initially 48) another 56 injured.
After locating the alleged attacker’s ID in the footwell of the truck’s cab at the crime scene, along with his fingerprints, a massive manhunt led investigators to Milan, Italy on December 23rd. After supposedly refusing to show his ID, Amri allegedly engaged in an apparent shootout with police, resulting in his eventual death.
Case closed? Not quite…
Reports stated that Amri “used different names and thus his identity could not be clarified, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur learned early in the morning from security crises.”
Following the attack, Amri was said to have travelled through at least three countries.
The black Scania R 450 semi-trailer truck involved in the incident had Polish license plates and belonged to a Polish delivery company, Usługi Transportowe. The truck was said to be transporting steel beams and was returning to Poland, from Turin, Italy after making a delivery to a Berlin warehouse operated by German steel giant ThyssenKrupp.
According to the UK’s Telegraph:
“Amri had been arrested earlier this year and was known to be a supporter of the terrorist group thought to be behind the Sousse terrorist attack in Tunisia, as well as being a suspected disciple of a notorious hate preacher.”
Continuing, the Telegraph also stated that “[Ralf] Jäger said an investigation had been launched against the suspect earlier this year on suspicion of “preparing a serious crime endangering national safety”.”
Considering Amri was under a major investigation for plotting a serious crime that could endanger national security – why on earth would German authorities drop their surveillance of him?
From a conventional perspective, this doesn’t make any sense, but from a clandestine perspective, it makes perfect sense.
There are a few distinct possibilities here…
Informants and Patsies
When analyzing this high-profile story, one should not immediately rule out the possibility that Amri is more than just your garden variety ISIS fellow traveler reeking holiday havoc across free Europe.
Just like the Nice attack truck driver, Mohamed Lahouij Bouhlel, Germany’s Amri was both Tunisian and on record as a ‘known wolf’ to police and security services.
According to the Guardian, “Amri, who had previously spent time in prison in Italy, arrived in Germany in July 2015. German authorities tried this year to deport him to Tunisia after his asylum application was rejected.”
In addition to this, German authorities are insisting that Amri was spotted meeting with “Germany’s top ISIS recruiter” (which also begs the question how, and why they would allow Amri, much less a ‘top ISIS recruiter’ to roam the streets of Germany).
Adding to the confusion German authorities have now released an unidentified 40 year-old Tunisian man, a supposed “accomplice” who had initially been linked to Amri via his cell phone. Early reports suggested that man was considered to be involved in carrying out this Berlin attack.
When analyzing what transpired this past week in Berlin, we must consider a deeper agenda that may also be at play, as the Christmas Market Attack might have also been a part of a larger geopolitical plot designed to boost the War On Terror – while simultaneously detracting from other vastly under-reported events – like the historic liberation of East Aleppo in December.
There is also a very strong Germany political theme at play too, which is also geopolitically related. A string of apparent German terror incidents have been fused together with the migrant crisis – which has meant that tremendous national political pressure has been put to bear on CDP leader Angela Merkel. This is most certainly setting the scene for a major political clash approaching with the next two electoral cycles in Germany. How these supposed ‘terror’ events factor into the direction of a political Germany must also be seriously considered when mapping out the possible modus operandi of this and similar high-profile media ‘national security’ events.
BERLIN ATTACKED? – A Berlin Christmas market attack tied to a ‘known wolf’ terrorist. (Image Source: jpost)
Closed Investigation?
According to reports within a 24-hour period, “Berlin Police have announced that the forensic work at the Christmas market has been completed.”
QUESTION: How would it be possible to determine a cause, examine evidence, define a clear motive and perform all forensic duties at the Berlin crime scene within a 24-hour period?
This prompted Germany’s top brass and political leadership to call the incident a terror attack. Here’s ZeroHedge underscoring the biased investigative approach to the Berlin attack before all the evidence was reviewed:
“German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said there is “no doubt” that the truck incident at a Christmas market in Berlin was a terrorist attack. “At this point, we have no doubt that this horrific crime was a terrorist attack,” de Maiziere told a news conference on Tuesday. He added that there is no evidence so far to indicate the suspect is linked to Islamic State or any other terrorist group. Addressing the nation, a “horrified, shocked” Angela Merkel confirmed as much when she said “we must assume this was a terrorist attack.”
Hardly an hour after the Christmas market attack, a prime suspect listed as ‘Naved B’ was initially arrested in connection to the incident, a person who was reportedly known to police for “minor” offenses prior to the attack:
“The driver was followed for a short way, so that we knew the beginning of the suspected escape route,” he told journalists, adding that the man in custody had been arrested close to Berlin’s Siegessäule monument barely an hour after the attack took place.
“The suspect . . . was arrested because he could match the description [we had], but he always denied any involvement,” Mr Kandt said. “It is the case that this person was not continuously under observation from the vehicle to the arrest . . . and therefore there is some uncertainty, and as a result we are of course taking enhanced precautions,” he said. “It is possible that we are dealing with a dangerous criminal.”
Mr de Maizière said the suspect was known to police for minor offences but was not on any terrorist watchlist. He said there had been no claim of responsibility. German media named the man in custody as “Naved B”, a 23-year-old Pakistani.”
‘Naved B’ turned out to be a Naveed Baloch, a person now believed by authorities to have been wrongly accused in the Berlin terror incident.
In an exclusive report with the UK’s Guardian, Baloch stated the following after initially being accused of the Berlin Christmas market attack:
“I calmly told them I cannot drive at all. Neither can I even start a vehicle. I told them there’s death and war in my country; that’s why I ran away to seek help. You in Germany are providing us with food, medicine and safety. You are like my mother. If you find I was doing these things to your country, you should not give me an easy death, you should cut me up slowly.”
While Baloch, was not said to have had any connection to terror, you still have to wonder about the bizarre statement he gave to police above – why would he not just maintain his innocence and not sensationalize his own arrest?
Baloch’s strange reply to police only led to further inquiry and potential charges. Reports state that the refugee could not return to “the disused airport in the south of Berlin,” Where he had been staying.
Consequently, Baloch now feels his life may be in danger and that of his family’s after being named an early suspect, something he knows all to well – only a year before his migration to Berlin:
“He [Baloch] fled the area of arid plains and mountains, a coastal strip of the Arabian Sea in the very south-west of Pakistan, around a year ago because of death threats he said he had received for his political activism on behalf of the Baloch National Movement, which strives for the independence of Balochistan from Pakistan.”
While waiting for a translator to plead his case, Baloch stated the following:
“When I get my chance, I will tell them that I have threats to my life in Pakistan, that some of my cousins who also belong to the same political party were killed by the security agencies, who picked them up, murdered them and dumped their bodies. Most of the people I worked with have been arrested and killed. I knew it was a matter of time before they came for me. That’s the reason I came to Germany.”
In 1962, the Baloch Movement was spawned after being influenced by various Marxist liberation movements. Balochistan was then heavily influenced by Islam and said to be in a contentious battle for autonomy from Pakistan. In more recent years, there have been concerns about the radicalization of Balochistan.
Interestingly, Balochistan is stated as being “a resources-rich land with vast reserves of natural gas, oil…” as critics on the topic suggest that Pakistan itself has used terror in the area to “alter Baloch secular politics,” through the use of Islam.
Is the Naveed Baloch story a part of another political subplot involving Pakistan, Balochistan, Germany and other parts of Europe?
‘BREITSCHEIDPLATZ SQUARE’ – A map of events following the terror-related incident in Berlin.(Image Source: telegraph.co.uk)
Known Wolves Meet Hate Preachers
When we scratch away the mainstream surface version of any story, what we often discover underneath is a web of clandestine deception and media manipulation.
In recent years, there’s been a pattern of multiple suspects often witnessed or said to be involved in other terror-related events. This proved to be the case in the aftermath of the Nice, France truck attack (a nearly identical attack method to Berlin), as well as the Brussels airport bombing in 2016.
The latest symbolically charged ‘ISIS-pledged’ attack this Christmas season, appears to be an effort to polarize the perception of Western viewers with a religious tinge, while also providing a media smoke screen over Syria’s continued eradication of terror within Aleppo.
Other aspects of factors linked to the Berlin attack were revealed by the Telegraph:
“The Telegraph’s Justin Huggler tells us more about Anis Amri’s links with Abu Walaa:
Claims have emerged that Anis Amri, the suspect in the Berlin terror attack, had links with Abu Walaa, a well-known jihadist preacher who was arrested in Germany last month.
According to details leaked to the German media, Amri was known to be in close contact with Abu Walaa and other members of his circle who were arrested in November, and may even have lived with one for some time.
Abu Walaa, an Iraqi whose real name is Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A [openly supports ISIS], is better known as “the faceless preacher” in Germany because he never shows his face in his videos.”
Armi was also witnessed “…at a travel agency in Duisburg where another extremist preacher named as Hasan C lived, according to Bild.”
In November, Hasan C, was apprehended after being linked to the radicalization of three German teens on trial over the bombing of a Sikh house of prayer in Essen injuring three people.
On November 26th, there was an attempted nail bomb detonation at another Christmas market in Ludwigshafen, western Germany. Germany’s Focus magazine claimed that a 12 year-old German-Iraqi boy twice attempted to detonate a crude home-made bomb in the area. Prosecutors revealed that the young suspect “…cannot be named under child protection laws,” and had been acting on behalf of ISIS.
‘FACELESS TERROR’ – Abu Walaa the purported ‘faceless preacher’ was seen with Amri earlier in 2016. (Image Source: dw.com)
This past summer, it was reported that the radical preacher Anjem Choudary, another ‘known wolf’ to security services, had been protected by MI5 according to Scotland Yard – even though he was connected to over a dozen terror plots since 2001:
“Counterterrorism officers were repeatedly blocked by British security service MI5 from pursuing criminal investigations against Britain’s highest-profile radical preacher, Anjem Choudary, it has been claimed.
Last week, Choudary was found guilty of supporting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS, ISIL), which seized territory in Iraq and Syria and inspired terrorist attacks across Europe.
Following his conviction, it was revealed that the 49-year-old former lawyer had been linked to at least 15 terrorist plots since 2001. Police also believe he has connections to as many as 500 of the 850 young British Muslims who have traveled abroad to join IS.”
While Western political leaders and their media often discuss the dangers of so-called terror ‘sleeper cells’ residing in a nation near you, none of them acknowledge or attempt to explain the historical fact that for decades, they themselves have helped to harbor, grow, foment and radicalize individuals through their own clandestine ‘counter-terrorism’ operations.
Many of these operations have directly implicated security agencies (and military alliances) such as the FBI, CIA, MI5, MI6 and NATO – in the production of real terror.
While most of these counter intelligence operations have fallen under the umbrella of the so-called War On Terror, the suspicious relationship between security agencies and those the ‘known wolves’ who carry out attacks should be questioned.
PLEDGED TO TERROR? – The ISIS news agency AMAQ confirmed the Berlin attacker’s allegiance to ISIS – as was the case with anomaly riddled Nice truck attack in France in 2016. (Image Source: cnn.com)
Prior Knowledge & Prior Plots
The Telegraph also disclosed the following as security services watched Amri well in advance of the Berlin terror incident:
“It emerged the 24-year-old was put under covert surveillance by German authorities for more than six months after they received a tip in March that he may have been planning a break-in to finance buying automatic weapons for an attack.
But agencies stopped watching him in September after nothing was found to substantiate the original warning.”
Additionally, authorities disclosed the following relevant information about Amri:
“His identity papers were found under the driver’s seat of the lorry, Der Spiegel said.
According to Die Welt, the papers were issued in Kleve, North Rhine-Westphalia, and Amri – who had applied for asylum – had an address both there and in Berlin.
A European Arrest Warrant also showed he used six different names, under three different nationalities, the Associated Press said, and he had an asylum claim rejected in July.
German media reported that Amri was not deported because Tunisia initially claimed he was not a citizen and he did not have the correct papers to be repatriated.”
Germanay’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière then suggested that Amri may not have been the driver of the stolen Polish bound semi-truck. It was then revealed that Amri had been living in three different locations in Germany but primarily in Berlin – as he was said to have had pending charges on assault as well as dealing drugs in a park.
In November, Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister of western North Rhine-Westphalia state had exchanged information about Amri with counter-terror agencies, even though Amri was off their radar this past September after a bar brawl.
During the 2015 Paris attacks, 21WIRE outlined the curious connective tissue between various terror incidents, as one of the suspects left an ID inside the getaway vehicle following the first attack – just like the Berlin attack:
“…following the theatrical Paris shootings in and around the offices of the salacious periodical Charlie Hebdo, we were told by western media outlet CNN, that Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) had taken responsibility for the attacks.
Shortly thereafter, authorities had received reports that ‘two fugitive suspects’ had abandoned a vehicle along a country road, some 50 miles northeast of Paris. The two suspects were ID’d as Cherif Kouachi and Said Kouachi. As the narrative rapidly unfolded on the news, as if by magic, Said Kouachi’s identification was ‘discovered’ laying on the seat of the apparent get-away vehicle left near the initial scene of the Paris shooting.
It didn’t take long for investigators and media implicate the Kouachi brothers as being the two masked individuals seen fleeing the Charlie Hebdo offices, and later we discover that the pair were reportedly well-known to French authorities for sometime before the Hebdo shooting.
‘MAGIC ID’ – Said Kouachi’s ID found in the apparent getaway car after the Charlie Hebdo magazine shootings. (Photo link thegatewaypundit.com)
As the dust settled, there appeared to be ready-made conclusion to the events, complete with a massive marketing campaign in the wake of the shooting attack in Paris.
With the focus on the Kouachi brothers’ perceived involvement in the Paris shooting event and a dramatic 6 hour hostage standoff with police, we then learned that their suspected accomplice, Amedy Coulibaly, who according to official reports, stormed a kosher supermarket in Paris, taking some 19 people hostage and killing 4, before succumbing to authorities as they closed in. The elaborate three-day manhunt continued throughout the 48 hour news cycle, as Coulibaly’s apparent girlfriend Hayat Boumeddiene, was able to slip away to Syria via Turkey (so we are told) during the height of the investigation – as all three alleged gunmen were killed by police.
Right on queue, the media released audio recordings and terror declarations via YouTube, as Coulibaly had professed his allegiance to ISIS, while supposedly working with the Kouachi brothers, who claimed they were “financed by AQAP”, to carry out their part in the attack.
Here at 21WIRE, we covered the Paris events extensively and as the story progressed, the Kouachi brothers’ history with the terror group AQAP was revealed:
“The fugitive suspects are said to be the ‘French-born’ sons of Algerian-born parents, who incredibly, were already under police surveillance, with at least one already on a “no fly list”, and even jailed for 18 months for trying to travel on jihad to Iraq 10 years previous.
US officials have also leaked to the media the talking point that one of the brothers, Said Kouachi, was also in Yemen in 2011 for a number of months “training with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).“
Interestingly, following the Brussels airport attack in 2016, aspects of the second wave Paris attacks were finally being wrapped up by authorities, as the alleged mastermind had a drug dealing past. Here’s a passage from our report outlining the Paris developments as the Brussels bombing narrative was taking shape. Notice how similar patterns, characters and details seem to be present in more recent terror cases:
“French authorities launched a massive manhunt for “possible” eighth suspect in the terrorist attacks that killed 129 people and wounded more than 350 others.
‘TERRORIST OR INFORMANT? – Salah Abdeslam, the purported mastermind behind November’s Paris attacks in 2015.(Photo link twitter)
Paris Mastermind or Petty Drug Dealer?
Belgium authorities had been routinely running anti-terror raids since the Charlie Hebdo attacks and double siege that followed back in January of 2015. In fact, Brussels renewed its raids in the aftermath of the Paris attacks from November of last year, while looking for the “most wanted man” in Europe, Paris attacks suspect, Salah Abdeslam.
The Brussels attacks came just days after investigators apprehended Abdeslam, who had been hiding out inside a suburb very familiar to authorities in Brussels.
According to reports, for over four months, Belgium officials had apparently sought Abdeslam, suspecting he was located in a Brussels suburb not far from where he grew up in Molenbeek, and according to reports, “They rounded up his friends and fellow drug dealers and thieves, and interrogated members of his family.”
In December of 2015, Belgium officials believed they had pinpointed the area where Abdeslam had been holed up – but due to a law prohibiting nighttime raids (between 9pm – 5am) the so-called Paris attacks ‘mastermind’ alluded apprehension.
This begs the question: How did Abdeslam, become mastermind of the Paris attacks, as his pedigree by all accounts, appears to be one linked to a life of petty thievery and drug deals?
While this kind of story makes for an intriguing Hollywood drama, complete with all the cat and mouse hijinks, it’s more likely that Belgium officials were monitoring Abdeslam’s every move for some time over the last year and had already been seeking to change the security protocols about nighttime raids for sometime.”
In October, authorities revealed a previous plot to attack Germany making a link between the recent attacks in Berlin, Brussels & Paris. This would be a significant detail concerning much of Europe’s various terror events:
“Police say they foiled a plot by a Syrian refugee to bomb a Berlin airport, having initially wanted to target trains in Germany. When commandos raid the apartment of Jaber Albakr, they find 1.5-kg of TATP, a homemade explosive used by militants in deadly attacks in Paris and Brussels. He commits suicide in prison two days later.”
CRIME SCENE? – Aspects of the Berlin attack seem out of place – notice the Christmas wreath perfectly hanging off the truck, while rolls of paper towels manage to fly into the smashed truck window are intact. (Image Source: wsj.net)
Building a Background
The shocking holiday attack in Berlin arrived during a contentious year for Germany, which was stricken with four terror attacks in 2016, while a heated debate ensued over the ongoing migrant crisis that appears to be engineered in nature.
Since late August, Berlin has sought to pass new security protocols after a wave of suspicious attacks in Germany, with German Interior Minister de Maizière taking the lead. Germany’s Der Spiegel reported the following developments this past summer:
“De Maizière is about to present a raft of proposals that he and his colleagues consider necessary to combat terrorism. “Measures to increase security in Germany,” he calls them.
He understands people’s concerns, the minister says. That’s why the state must do everything in its power. Deporting criminal foreigners must be made easier, he adds. The Facebook pages of refugees who come from countries neighboring Syria must be combed in an effort to trace any Islamic State sympathies. The minister wants to loosen data privacy laws in order to make increased video surveillance possible.”
Another apparent ‘suicide bombing’ attack in the small town of Ansbach, took place in the backyard of Katterbach Kaserne, a US military base, outside of a scheduled music festival. Although only 15 were injured, there was a startling police presence with some 200 police officers and 350 rescue workers. Only three were reported to be injured seriously and no one other than the Mohammad Daleel, the alleged attacker died in the incident.
The Ansbach incident followed three other attacks in Germany over the course of a week. One day earlier in Reutlingen, a knife attack was said to have taken the life of a pregnant woman – All days after nine people in Munich were killed in an apparent mass shooting, and a train attack in Würzburg.
Over the summer, 21WIRE contributor Branko Malic outlined the apparent use of embedded journalism in the Munich terror incident.
Many alleged terror attacks appear to mirror other cases. The Berlin attack was no exception, as it immediately recalled the suspicious vehicular attack that occurred in Nice, France this past summer – another case full of strange anomalies that involved a Tunisian man named Mohamed Lahouij Bouhlel, who was also well-known to authorities.
When considering Amri’s lengthy criminal background, the Telegraph reported the following:
“February 2011 Flees to Italy after being charged with armed robbery in home country of Tunisia. Claims asylum as a minor.
Sent to prison for four years after committing a series of crimes, including reportedly burning down a school.
Spring 2015 Released from Palermo’s Ucciardone prison.
Ordered to be expelled and taken to an expulsion centre at Caltanisetta to await recognition by Tunisian authorities.
July 2015 Expulsion order to Tunisia expires without necessary recognition from Tunisia. Amri is ordered to leave Italy and travels to Germany, entering at Freiburg, near the border with Switzerland and France.
Lives for some time in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, before moving north to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia where he claims asylum.”
The Irish Times added the following details about Amri’s criminal history, which included setting fire during a protest:
“2009: The 24 year-old’s father said his son left Tunisia seven years ago, the brother says it was 2011. He travelled to Italy where, along with countless others, he landed on the island of Lampedusa. There he was convicted for helping start a fire, apparently part of a protest at facilities there.”
Was Amri, some type of agent provocateur or government connected informant?
21WIRE has previously provided context behind the government informant game:
“Human Rights Watch explains, “The 214-page report, “Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses in US Terrorism Prosecutions,”examines 27 federal terrorism cases from initiation of the investigations to sentencing and post-conviction conditions of confinement. It documents the significant human cost of certain counter-terrorism practices, such as overly aggressive sting operations and unnecessarily restrictive conditions of confinement.”
In a 2014 21WIRE special report, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the suspect in Ottawa, Canada’s Parliament Hill and National War Memorial shooting – appeared to have the perfect ‘modus operandi’ and résumé to be an informant for either law enforcement or an intelligence agency. In the past, government operators or operations have often made use of low-life criminals, and mentally disturbed individuals as part of a larger agenda – domestically and abroad:
“According to the Globe and Mail, Zehaf-Bibeau was already designated as a “high risk traveller”by the Canadian government’s security services – who had also seized his passport. Could this be the reason why the shooter had snapped? Was he being targeted or being pressured into becoming an informant?”
Below is another look at the type of formulaic scripting often involved in these kinds of events. Scripted elements that are grafted onto each future terror-related incident:
– Suspect or suspects have alleged connections to terror or terror networks.
– Suspect or multiple suspects reportedly have ‘radicalized’ views on religion, feeding a prepackaged media narrative.
– Sensational media projections bring in additional story lines for dramatic effect.
– There is an unknown motive for the crime committed – followed quickly by a ‘presumed’ terror motive with vague evidence provided.
– Politicians, law enforcement and media call the incident a ‘terror attack’ before all evidence has been reviewed.
– A ‘claim of responsibility’ manifesto, text or social media post is conjured within 48 hours or less after an attack.
Time and time again, we’ve seen this same choreographed narrative pushed by mass media and authorities – only to be exposed at a later date – given the shaky story surrounding the Berlin attacker Amri, is this also the case?
The Tunisian Connection – Germany Goes Gladio?
New reports state that Italian investigatorsare looking into whether Amri was involved in a jihadi cell in Italy, following his arrival in Europe after the socially engineered so-called Arab Spring.
In the aftermath of the Nice truck attack outlined here at 21WIRE, “…French officials insist that Bouhlel, was not on a terror watch list, he was apprehended and known to authorities (and in their data base) and could have perhaps been used as either a confidential informant or placed under the supervision – to coordinate a potential sting operation in a future intelligence entrapment event.
This is a commmon practice employed by security services in both Europe and North America (see a list of such individuals later in this article). When a criminal is approached by the authorities to work as a snitch or operative, they are given two choice: either work with the police, or go straight to prison.
This idea conjures another “known wolf”, from the Bardo Museum Shooting back in 2015, where Tunisian intelligence services had been ‘monitoring’ one of the main suspects, claiming he was under some type of surveillance prior to the attack (like the Paris shootings in early 2015), as mentioned throughout various global media outlets, including this passage from a CNN report:
“Earlier Thursday, Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid identified two suspects, Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaou, in an interview with French radio station RTL. It’s not clear if those two men were the pair killed at the museum by Tunisian security forces, or if it’s possible they’re the same people as those identified — using new names — in ISIS’ audio statement.
Labidi was “known to the security services, he was flagged and monitored,” Essid said. But he added the man wasn’t known or being followed for anything special.”
Time and time again, we’ve seen this same choreographed terror propaganda being pushed by mass media and authorities immediately following any high-profile ‘terror’ event – before later revealing a clear link between security services and so-called “terror networks.”
Interestingly, Bouhlel and Amri’s background conjures other ‘terrorist’ plots coming out of Tunisia in recent years.
Other researchers also believe that Tunisia has long fallen to prey to other intelligence linked operations, including the 2002 attack in Djerba, Tunisia, among others.
Tunisia’s Bardo Museum attack came directly on the heels of the highly suspect Corinthia Hotel Attack which took place in January of 2015. The two events are very similar, and feature some of the same players. Rather conveniently, the attacks were said to be carried out by the ‘Tripoli branch of ISIS’, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. Coincidentally (or not), the Corinthia Hotel was reportedly empty, as the ISIS linked group took their time during the choreographed siege.
CBS News, sketches a familiar collection of terrorist ‘franchises’ active in Tunisia and Libya – many of whom have some connection to western intelligence agencies:
”Militants from Ansar al-Sharia in neighboring Libya were behind the 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic outposts in Benghazi that left U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead. Reports in Tunisian media Thursday suggested the two museum gunmen could have had links to the Uqbah Ibn Nafe’a brigade, believed to be the military branch of Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia. The Tunisian Interior Ministry said Uqbah Ibn Nafe’a is linked to al Qaeda’s North African franchise, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).”
In some ways, the Nice attack mirrored some of the aspects observed in the Sousse beach resort attack, an event carried out by a 24 year-old single Tunisian gunman, Seifeddine Rezgui (Saif Rezgui) aka Abu Yahya Qayrawani. It was also a crime carried out by someone not known to have direct link to any terror groups, with conflicting reports about the attacker’s personality.
‘RADICALIZED’ – Tunisian resort shooter Seifeddine Rezgui, pictured with the familiar SITE logo. (Photo link twitter.com)
Rezgui, was said to have opened fire on tourists at the beach before entering the luxury hotel. All told, the suspected gunman, apparently killed 39 people before being shot by police.
In a news release from Reuters, Rezgui met with family and friends in the days leading up to the resort attack without displaying an unusual signs:
“On Wednesday, Saif Rezgui sat down with friends in his Tunisian hometown to chat about his favourite football team, girls and his breakdance skills over coffee and cigarettes. On Thursday, he met up with his uncle in Gaafour, catching up on family matters, on a break from his master’s studies in the nearby historic town of Kairouan.”
Sky News released a video from one of the hotel guests, only adding to the mystery of what happened at the Tunisian resort.
While Rezgui was said to have no direct connection to terror, we should also note that Tunisia’s resorts were targeted nearly 30 years ago, as Germany’s Spiegel reports. The UK’s Mirror reported that “Sniper marksmen scaled the roofs of nearby hotels after Abu Yahya Qayrawani (Saif Rezgui) murdered scores of holidaymakers on the popular holiday resort.”
Curiously before the Corinthia Hotel attack, authorities acknowledged that new ‘heightened security measures‘ were put in place for the summer, as Tunisia was already working on new anti-terror measures back in March at the time of the Bardo Museum attack.
It is also widely known that the FBI created the counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO) to influence and disrupt political factions from the inside out. Between 1956 and 1971 (including the Socialist Workers party in 1973), the FBI’s controversial program infiltrated and radicalized hundreds of left-wing and right-wing groups to control and neutralize political dissidents across America.
Similarly, on a global scale, NATO’s paramilitary-style stay-behind-armies (under the moniker Operation Gladio) have been implicated in a number of terror attacks across Europe for several decades.
Allied nations regularly bring up the fact that Western intelligence uses double agents and informants under the banner of security to obfuscate the deceitful reality of such programs.
Was the Berlin attacker also involved in a covert scenario like this?
Here’s another look at a compelling documentary discussing the details of NATO’s secret army used to redirect political interests..
Berlin Hero Story & Germany’s Quest for Fake News
Another aspect to the Berlin attack involved the Polish truck driver Lukasz Urban named whose vehicle was hijacked and subsequently used in the Christmas market attack. Early media reports seemed to take creative license by describing Urban’s actions while under duress, as he “tried to wrestle the wheel out of the terrorist’s grasp,” while supposedly bleeding out. Later developments concluded that this element of the story was untrue as Urban was reportedly dead for hours before the truck crashed into a crowd of people at an outside market in Berlin.
The Telegraph reports:
“Last week Mr Urban was hailed as a hero by the German authorities, who said he appeared to have seized the lorry’s steering wheel from suspect Anis Amri and prevented him causing further deaths.
But the post mortem results have called into question whether the 37-year-old was physically capable of fighting off Amri as he was unconscious and critically injured.”
Following the attack, Berlin state interior minister Andreas Geisel stated that Urban “quite probably” attempted to grab the steering wheel prior to being shot by Amri. Prior to the forensics left at the scene disproving this theory a crowd-sourced funding account was promptly setup in Urban’s name, raising some $170,000 dollars.
Even though Berlin’s own interior ministry was caught distorting facts in the wake of the well-coordinated attack in Berlin, Germany is now focused on the dissemination of so-called ‘fake news’ on social media platforms like Facebook, in an apparent effort to protect against future cyber related attacks. Heat Street reported the following development:
“The government of Germany is considering imposing a legal regime that would allow fining social networks such as Facebook up to 500,000 euros ($522,000) for each day the platform leaves a “fake news” story up without deleting it.
In the name of combating harms from false news, the German government next year will consider the bill, which has bipartisan support, that will allow both official and private complainants to flag content that is considered “fake news”.
The law would also force the social networks to create in-country offices focused on responding to takedown demands and would make these networks responsible for compensation if a post by individual users were found to slander someone.”
RT further outlines the new censorship protocols pursued by Germany:
“The Federal Press Office in the Chancellery, which has a staff of over 500 professionals, will take the leading role in establishing the fake news defense center, Der Spiegel reported quoting a note from an anonymous Interior Ministry staff member.
According to the Interior Ministry plan, the center will focus on offering “intensification of political education work” with groups susceptible to “fake news” – namely “Russian-Germans” as well as “Turkish-speaking people.”
The creation of the center “should be negotiated very quickly,” the magazine said quoting the note, which also urged that political parties establish ground rules for the 2017 election campaigns. According to report, the Interior Ministry also urged politicians not to use social bots and disinformation techniques during the election cycle.”
Western media’s anti-Russian hyperbole been grafted onto the fake news with-hunt, thanks to social media giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter and the West’s alphabet establishment news agencies, independent media has also joined the growing list of scapegoats in the West. You can expect a litany of allegations to continue on a global scale, as other nations will join the faux war on fake news sites, a tactic deliberately aimed at discrediting genuine investigative analysis.
The Berlin attack provides another twisted terror plot wrapped up in a matter of days without a judge, jury or trial – while Germany focuses its efforts on internet censorship…
READ MORE WAR ON TERROR AT: 21st Century Wire War On Terror Files
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