Germany’s security services are facing mounting pressure to explain how Amri could have been able to carry out Monday’s attack in spite of having been under covert surveillance for several months and
known to multiple intelligence agencies for apparent ties to Islamic extremists.
A deputy chairman of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic party accused German intelligence agencies of
incompetence, saying Wednesday’s reports on security failures had left him “shocked”.
He was added to the government’s central terror watchlist in January and his telecommunications were under surveillance until September.
US officials said Amri was on a US no-fly list, had researched bomb-making online and been in contact with Isis at least once, the New York Times reported.
However, the Tunisian suspect dropped off the security agencies’ radar in November this year. Newspapers were highly critical of the intelligence services. The Süddeutsche Zeitung said the authorities had “fallen asleep”, while Der Spiegel weekly said on its website that “they had him in their crosshairs” and he still managed to vanish.
The best-selling Bild tabloid said in a commentary piece that in future
such suspects had to be locked up and not allowed “to roam free”.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/22/police-raid-flats-in-search-for-be...