Intelligence Failure
What November's terror attack in Vienna exposed
Servus!
On the evening of November 2, 17 people were partaking in a service at St. Rupert’s Church in the first district of Vienna. As a lone gunman ran amok through the streets around the church, killing four people and injuring 23 others, worshippers bolted the doors and turned out the lights. At 8.09 pm, the assailant was shot dead by police in front of the church. Austria’s interior minister Karl Nehammer said last week that a church service could have been one of the terrorist’s targets. The attack could have been even bloodier.
In the month since the attack, what has become clear is that it constituted, in no small part, an intelligence failure on the part of the Austrian government on four counts. First, in July, the assailant—a 22-year-old male with dual Austrian and North Macedonian citizenship—met with two jihadists known to intelligence authorities in Germany. Both were linked to the radical preacher Abu Walaa, based in Hildesheim and arrested in 2016 for supporting terrorism.
Second, that same month, the assailant travelled to Slovakia in an attempt to procure munitions for his automatic weapon, though the trip was ultimately unsuccessful. Slovakian police informed their counterparts in Vienna about the assailant’s visit on September 10. Two months later, the assailant used an automatic weapon while rampaging through the streets of Vienna, killing indiscriminately.
Third, following the attack, police and domestic intelligence were able to make a swift series of arrests, 15 in all. Individuals were also arrested in Switzerland in connection with the attack, indicating that the assailant was not a ‘lone wolf’ in any real sense of the word but part of a broader network that crossed borders within the German-speaking world.
Fourth, also following the attack, Austrian authorities shut down two mosques in Vienna—the Tewhid mosque in the 12th district and the Melit Ibrahim mosque in the 16th district—for violations of the law governing the practice of Islam in Austria. The assailant is believed to have visited these mosques and could have been radicalized there, according to reports. The latter, registered as an association (Verein) as opposed to a house of worship, has been linked to Islamic State fighters in the past.
For these failings, the only person to resign as far has been Erich Zwettler, head of Vienna state intelligence.
The attack also brought to the fore failings in Austria’s approach to the deradicalization of ISIS sympathizers. The assailant had been sentenced to 22 months imprisonment in July 2019, having travelled to Turkey in an attempt to make it into Syria and join up with the Islamic State. By December 2019, he was out, in part because he agreed to participate in a deradicalization program. On the outside, the assailant moved into social housing and continued to meet with his appointed social worker. The last such meeting took place on October 21. In the eyes of those overseeing the deradicalization program, although concerned about his lack of work, the assailant was no longer considered dangerous.
That the assailant was able to fool the deradicalization program is of especial concern given the number of ex-IS combatants with ties to Austria. Authorities believe that at least 331 Islamic extremists have either been successful in or have attempted to leave Austria for Syria or Iraq in recent years to join IS. 97 of those who made it have returned to Austria, according to the interior ministry, and many of those have stood or are currently standing trial. The possibility of preventing or avoiding a second attack depends not only on better intelligence practices but understanding the flaws in Austria’s approach to deradicalization.
Bis bald!
Testing, Testing
Austrian health authorities will begin a program of mass testing at the start of December with a view to discovering the true extent of the coronavirus’s spread. 5,400 soldiers and civilian personnel will administer the exercise modelled on those which have already taken place in Slovakia and South Tyrol. The state of Vienna aims to conduct up to 15,000 tests per day.
Key Race Alert
If Alexander Van der Bellen decides to run for a second term as president in 2022, the Social Democratic Party is likely to support him rather than run their own candidate, the second president of the Austrian parliament Doris Bures has said. Freedom Party leader Norbert Hofer has indicated he will likely run again, setting up a potential re-run of the 2016 election.
Fugging Hell
The village of Fucking is no more. A majority on the district council voted last week to change the village’s name to Fugging. The change will take effect on January 1. The village of just 104 residents in the Inn region in the state of Upper Austria has become a tourist attraction in recent years for those wishing to have their picture taken with Fucking’s city limit sign.
Looks interesting!