After the prime suspect for the truck attack on the Berlin Christmas Market, Anis Amri, solved the problem facing Police forces across Europe and identified himself to the authorities in Milan by drawing a gun on them, and thereby getting himself shot dead, the inevitable blame game has been joined in earnest by the less scrupulous media outlets, and more of those Here Today And Gone Tomorrow Politicians.
Squeaky border claim finger up the bum time
The former attack has been led by the Murdoch Sun, always ready to frighten the readers by telling them that The Rotten EU Done it, with the latter led by the inevitable presence of former UKIP Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, also ever ready to use any opportunity to slag off Brussels. Many of Nige’s past efforts have seen him resorting to flagrant dishonesty, and he hasn’t disappointed this time, either.
Duly lionised by the Express, aka the Daily UKIP, Farage warbled “If the man shot in Milan is the Berlin killer, then the Schengen area is proven to be a risk to public safety. It must go … The free movement of good people also means the free movement of bad people. Expect Schengen to dominate the EU debate next year”. Which means that he does not understand the difference between Free Movement and Schengen.
The Kippers’ obedient “immigration spokesman” John Bickley was also on hand to demonstrate his rank ignorance, frothing “Nigel Farage made it patently clear earlier this year that ISIS would use the refugee crisis and Merkel's 'open door invite' to the Middle East to smuggle hundreds of jihadists into Europe”. Amri was not part of the Middle East refugee exodus. He had been in Europe for some years already.
Moreover, he hadn’t been “invited” by anyone, but both Italy and Germany had declared him Persona Non Grata. And here we get on to the real, and more routine, reasons why Amri had not already been deported. First among these was that the authorities in his home country of Tunisia had failed to pony up the documentation - it arrived this week.
It got worse: the authorities in Germany failed to pick up on the ID left in the truck used for the attack which pointed to Amri. So the Schengen Area was of zero relevance - if the Germans didn’t tell the authorities in France and Italy who they wanted stopping, having closed borders would have made no difference, unless Amri was holding a dodgy passport. Farage pointing at Schengen is another slice of his dishonesty.
It gets worse still: the idea that closed borders prevents terrorism has been shouted long and loud by the Murdoch goons at the Sun. They have short memories. That would not have prevented the July 7th attacks on London - the perpetrators were British. It would not have prevented the March 11th attacks on Madrid - these were planned by those already living in the area. It would not have prevented the Berlin truck attack either.
Every time an event happens that Mr Thirsty can work to his advantage, he blusters and lies. And too many in the media humour him, rather than either calling him out for lying - or dismissing him as the jumped-up crank he is. And that’s not good enough.
Can we ask why it was so easy for somebody to hijack a lorry?
ReplyDeleteAny solutions for future prevention?
How did he enter the cab?