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Reactions to Monday’s brutal terrorist attack in Vienna, which claimed four lives and injured 22, have followed a well-known pattern. Politicians around the world express their horror, offer their condolences and then at the same time demand more powers for the police and the secret services along with tougher actions against immigrants.
“We will fight terrorism with determination”, said the President of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announcing a new EU counter-terrorism agenda for next year. “Islamist terrorism is our common enemy. The fight against these murderers and those who encourage them is our common fight, ”said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn called for “a strategy against Islamism.” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer promised to make Europe’s security situation the main topic of the next meeting of EU interior ministers on November 13. “We can only stop the terrorists and their supporters together,” he said.
Stephan Mayer (Christian Social Union, CSU), Secretary of State for the German Interior Ministry, demanded that all avenues be used to deport allegedly dangerous people and serious criminals to their country of origin. Andrea Lindholz (CSU), chairman of the Interior Committee of the German Bundestag, demanded “modern powers to monitor encrypted messaging services in justified cases of suspicion.”
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in an interview with the newspaper The world: “In the future, the EU must focus much more on the problem of political Islam. I await the end of the falsely understood notions of tolerance and, finally, an awareness in all European countries of how dangerous the ideology of political Islam is for our freedom and the European way of life.
The President of the EU Parliament, Antonio Tajani, called for the establishment of a European FBI to coordinate the work of the police and secret services throughout Europe.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted in flawed German: “We French share the shock and pain of the Austrians following an attack in Vienna. … This is our Europe. Our enemies must know who they are dealing with. We will not give up. “
US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter: “After another heinous act of terrorism in Europe, our prayers go out to the people of Vienna.” He accused his challenger Joe Biden of wanting to increase the number of refugees from terrorist nations by 700 percent and “turn the entire [US] Midwest in a refugee camp. “
The mantra that protection against terrorist attacks requires improved security services and tougher measures against immigrants deliberately hides the real background of such attacks, in particular the role of the secret services. In reality, the terrorist attack in Vienna – like similar attacks in France, Britain and Germany before – serves as a welcome pretext for governments to create police states designed not to protect the population from terrorist attacks, but to protect the ruling classes. of anger and discontent.
The world’s ruling elites anticipate fierce class struggles resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, which has already claimed 280,000 lives in Europe alone due to the criminal policies of European governments, combined with the deepest economic crisis since the 1930s. The old reformist parties and unions have moved so far to the right that they can no longer control and direct these struggles through harmless channels. That is why state surveillance and forms of state repression are systematically expanding.
What is strikingly characteristic of the Vienna attack is that it took place literally under the eyes of the police. Kujtim Fejzulai, 20, who wandered through central Vienna armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, pistol, and machete, shooting and stabbing passersby indiscriminately, was well known to authorities.
Born and raised in Vienna, Fejzulai had Austrian and North Macedonian citizenship. In September 2018, he was arrested in Turkey and sentenced to 22 months in prison in Austria for trying to join the Islamic State in Afghanistan and Syria. After eight months in prison, he was released on parole in December 2019.
Following the terrorist attack on Monday, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (Austrian People’s Party, ÖVP) claimed that the terrorist had managed to “mislead the judiciary”. The Derad association, which specializes in the de-radicalization of Islamist criminals and deals with Fejzulai, contradicted this statement, reporting that he had never been considered “de-radicalized” and was subject to strict conditions of probation.
This did not stop him from traveling to Slovakia in July 2020 to purchase ammunition for his AK-47 assault rifle. Like the Slovak newspaper Journal N Reports, citing security circles, did not receive the ammunition because he was unable to present a firearms license. Instead, the Slovak authorities informed their Austrian colleagues about their visit and attempt to buy ammunition. The Austrian Ministry of the Interior has confirmed this information following a request from the German media Southgerman’s newspaper, WDR and NDR.
Therefore, the Austrian authorities were warned of the danger, but decided to let him roam freely, although they could have immediately arrested Fejzulai for violating his probation. If elements of the Austrian security apparatus, which was under the control of far-right Interior Minister Herbert Kickl of the Freedom Party (FPÖ) from 2017 to 2019, were involved in the attack, or if they simply looked the other way, still it is not clear. But it is untenable to claim that the attack occurred simply due to unfortunate “mishaps”. The murderer himself can no longer be questioned: the police shot him.
Meanwhile, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack and the Islamic State-related propaganda channel Amaq has published a video in which Fejzulai confessed to the crime. The Austrian authorities have arrested several people and are investigating at least 14 people from the killer’s circle. Two young men have also been arrested in Switzerland in connection with the Vienna attack. It is not yet known if they are part of any organization or simply were in contact with Fejzulai.
In almost every major terrorist attack in recent years, the security authorities kept an eye on the perpetrators. For example, Anis Amri, who drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market on December 19, 2016, killing 12 people, was being monitored by the state criminal investigation departments of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and Berlin and also by German intelligence. agency, the Verfassungsschutz. On at least one occasion, Amri was personally driven from the Ruhr area (NRW) to Berlin by an undercover secret service agent. Cherif and Said Kouachi, who committed a massacre six years ago in the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie hebdo, were also known to the French authorities for more than 10 years and were under surveillance.
Islamist terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State, along with Al Qaeda, responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, owe their origins to imperialist wars in the Middle East and often maintained relations with agencies. imperialist intelligence agencies. Al Qaeda was originally backed by the CIA to recruit Islamist fighters against the Soviet army in Afghanistan. ISIS-related groups were then deployed to Libya and Syria to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad before they became an independent entity in Iraq.
