THE QUESTION IS: WHY? German anti-terror services ‘ranked Amri a low threat’
Counter-terrorism officials have a detailed file on Amri, they knew he was tightly linked to Germany’s radical Islamist network and had looked up instructions online on how to build pipe bombs, the newspaper reported.
The latest version of their file on Amri, which included information on his eight different identities, was updated on December 14 — just five days before he allegedly killed 12 people in the Berlin attack.
Duesseldorf police deemed Amri a Salafist and radical fundamentalist, while Dortmund police had rated him a sympathiser of the Islamic State group.
Amri had been a regular guest at a religious school in a Dortmund apartment run by a notorious radical known as Boban S. that was believed to be a recruitment ground for jihadists.
Nevertheless, on an eight-point scale assessing an individual’s potential danger, with “one” the highest threat, counter-terrorism experts rated him a “five” — meaning they considered an attack possible but unlikely.
Amri’s file was filled with red flags, and Moroccan intel had warned Germany twice about him.