Trying To Track Potential Terror Suspects Over There, And Ending A Visitor Registry Here
[guest post by Dana]
While German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to publicly defend her lenient immigration policies in spite of Monday’s terror attack in Berlin, a former head of MI6’s counter-extremism unit is pulling back the curtain and exposing the difficulties of keeping tabs on the whereabouts of potential terror suspects in Germany:
…Richard Barrett said Thursday that German authorities are finding it virtually impossible to keep track of the 7,000 potential terror suspects roaming around the country.
Intelligence failings have been at the forefront of the public’s mind, following Monday’s devastating truck terror attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, leaving 12 dead and 48 injured.
Not only did German authorities arrest the wrong suspect, but they determined that the actual suspect, Anis Amris, a known supporter of the Islamic State and recruiter for the terror group, had been arrested three times in 2016 alone and should have already been deported. Amris is a 24-year-old Tunisian asylum seeker.
…
Barrett said it’s hardly surprising that German law enforcement are having a difficult time because they have to continually keep track of 550 “really extreme potential terrorists on the books.”
In total, the number of “live” potential terror suspects roaming around Germany amounts to 7,000. These suspects are believed to have some level of communication with extremist groups and are deemed worth of further investigation.
Merkel doesn’t agree that there is a problem with her anti-terrorism efforts:
[S]he defended her anti-terrorism record and championed the “seamless” cooperation Germany has with other intelligence services.
“We have made considerable efforts in recent years to better meet the danger of terrorism,”
Of course, the simple question is: If the front door hadn’t been left wide open for nearly anyone to enter, would Germany be facing such an enormous and unmanageable problem now?
With that, it was announced today that a visitor’s registry here in the U.S. that was instituted after 9/11 to keep track of immigrant men from mostly Muslim countries, has been scrapped by President Obama:
The original National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERs, launched about a year after 9/11, requiring men and boys from a variety of mostly Middle Eastern countries to register with the federal government upon their arrival in the U.S. Registration, which also applied to immigrants from North Korea, included fingerprints and photographs and a requirement to notify the government of any address changes.
But after the Obama administration suspended the program in 2011, the Department of Homeland Security put out a notice Thursday officially removing what it called “outdated regulations” pertaining to the “obsolete” system.
Here is what the notice said:
“DHS ceased use of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) program in 2011 after finding that the program was redundant, captured data manually that was already captured through automated systems, and no longer provided an increase in security in light of DHS’s evolving assessment of the threat posed to the United States by international terrorism. The regulatory structure pertaining to NSEERS no longer provides a discernable public benefit as the program has been rendered obsolete. Accordingly, DHS is removing the special registration program regulations.”
The decision by the president comes when terror attacks are increasing around the globe and the official transition to a Trump presidency is just around the corner.
One year ago, then-candidate Trump called for “…a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on”.
The president-elect revised the statement in June of this year:
“When I am elected, I will suspend immigration from areas of the world when there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies, until we understand how to end these threats,”
After Monday’s attack in Germany, Trump said that the attack was “an attack on humanity and it’s got to be stopped.” When pressed about his campaign pledge to temporarily suspend Muslim immigration [from an unnamed list of countries], Trump responded:
“You know my plans. All along, I’ve been proven to be right, 100 percent correct,” Trump said when asked if the attack in Berlin had caused him to reevaluate the proposal. “What’s happening is disgraceful.”
From the incoming administration’s website:
Suspend, on a temporary basis, immigration from some of the most dangerous and volatile regions of the world that have a history of exporting terrorism.
–Dana