Bright child plants a year after the attack on the evening of december nineteenth twenty sixteen astrid parsons father was killed ham. Im amused and the mother coming here always brings it all back it makes me feel so nervous and emotional because this is the place that brought this horror upon us because of what. Twelve people from six countries were killed in the attack more than sixty people were injured. Whats up they thought it was the worst islamist terror attack germany had experienced. You know we got this call up and i recall this sound like a garbage can being emptied. Of it didnt really register at first then i look up and see the truck coming through the entry lane between the two booth. It drives right through my standard through the opposite rog just half a meter away from me i grabbed my wife and pulled her into the nearest building somehow that seemed logical i didnt know what was going to happen and attack a ball moma cian gun. The weapon here was a thirty ton lorry. If at some point the drivers door opened he jumped out in a single bound and ran off really fast like he knew where he was going. I thought he was a pathetic coward. The driver was. A twenty three year old tunisian whose request for asylum in europe had been denied a petty criminal and drug dealer but also known to police as a radical islamist designated a dangerous person known to fifty different German Government agencies amery had been under observation for months. Could this attack have been prevented if think of the fix this is here for the sidewall i think the most important thing is to find out who is responsible and why this terrorist attack was even possible. In the first temple and so that we have to find a way to come to terms with this attack to find some in a peace if thats at all possible with this and can. Understand mary was not a lone wolf he was supported by an International Terrorist network with a base in berlin German Security official should not have been surprise. Raised by the attack. Eighteen months prior a video declaration of war against germany by the socalled Islamic State or i asked. The message terrorist sleeper cells in germany would attack the coup far or unbelievers with everyday weapons like vehicles chemicals or knifes. The author and singer of the threatening statement was germanys most sought after terrorist at the time x. Rapper dentist coos power seen here in two thousand and twelve with the group passing out copies of the koran shortly after he and fellow islam ists headed to i asked in syria from there he maintained his contacts with berlin and also with the leaders of a mosque that was to play a central role in the Christmas Market attack. The fusee led to moscow as an Islamic State base in the german capital these are some of the First Published images from inside the mosque. This is where connected with the i. R. S. Network in germany he also slept here on occasion as shown by this selfie an acquaintance of omri who attended the mosque remembers him he wants to remain anonymous he let the present smaller groups when it was prayer time he took over that role he knew the koran pretty well sometimes hed be there every day for a week theyre not at all for three weeks his behavior was a little mysterious. The terrorist amery visited the mosque an hour before the attack is this where he got a blessing for the deed unnoticed by Security Officials. At the store front mosque is located. Close to the security zone around berlins government district not far from the Chancellors Office the Parliament Buildings and the interior ministry nonetheless the mosque became a Meeting Place for terrorists right under the eyes of all for it is. The leaders of the mosque themselves called it the mosque of supporters in berlin. In the months after the attack for Board Members in moms and activists connected with the mosque were arrested. Amery may have prepared the attack on the Christmas Market here the lorry he hijacked for the attack was parked a brief wark from the mosque and before the attack he made a video nearby announcing that he would slaughter infidels as he put it. The i. R. S. Mosque in berlin may have been the starting point of the attack but he began much earlier than previously known. And right under the eyes of Security Officials. August first twenty fifteen nearly a year and a half before the attack the alleged head of a group recruiting ayers find his in germany abu alaa left the city of hildas time where he was based and traveled to the berlin mosque where salafist preacher was known to all far tears in his videos he hid his face from the camera. His conspiratorial socalled islam seminar was observed by state security participants laid aside their cellphones to avoid eavesdropping and met in the basement. A short time later and as i am rejoined this circle at the time he was under occasional observation by the police and as here by Domestic Intelligence. Amery became a conduit between the mosque and leaders of abu one last terrorist network. Investigators in north rhinewestphalia later wrote that abu were larger had an exclusive relationship to. Six months before the attack abu alaa allegedly blessed amery during a thirty minute private audience and may have authorized the attack they discussed. So it appears the Christmas Market attacker was long under investigation by the off orators. Paid to cheers man lost his wife in the attack looking at her pictures in the family album is painful to choose my son die of it he was four when he lost his mother. This is his way of forgetting. At first he hardly showed any reaction now the boy is plagued by separation anxiety he often comes to his fathers bed at night and shakes him just for being with. You for. Your problem is that he started checking if im alive. Every half hour or so. Here understands that not all people are good and hes afraid. Like sitting outside a cafe. With a little hes afraid that someone will come on killers things like that. Is raising his son as a single parent he works and has to rely on daycare for dad it for months he received no help from local authorities. Doctor the city police say he thought the Police Always find missing people and catch the bad guys when he watches t. V. Its always like that. But in this case it wasnt you personally to. In this case it is an endless story of failures on the part of security agencies. It starts in italy in twenty eleven with a violent riot and arson in a Refugee Center one of the perpetrators is a nineteen year old petty criminal from tunisia and sam raimi he receives a four Year Prison Sentence is data is recorded in the schengen Information System the f. B. I. s. The information should have prevented armoring from entering germany but he gets through due to lack of controls. In july twenty fifteen the islamist is released from jail armory arrives in five borg in southern germany claiming to be a refugee. Police take his finger and hand prints and store them in the joint federal and state Police Database but they do not match them up with a. S. I. S. Data. Using more than a dozen different identities removed around germany under false names he applies for i. D. s and social welfare in several towns later he asks for asylum initially but not a Single Agency takes notice. This hurts him a lot. For more than a year lives officially in a refugee shelter in emigration but he is rarely there only to pick up his regular welfare check under the name of mohammed has. Not only rums the german state as mohammed has he also robs other residents of the m. R. I. Shelter. He came in early in the morning around four or five oclock when he left the cell phone was missing from the table and he was gone again we filed charges with the police. Amery the man with a polish after red shoes needs more and more cell phones for his conspiratorial contacts and the islamist scene in october twenty fifteen another refugee reports that amery is watching i asked videos on his phone soon he is said to be talking about plans for an attack including one with a kalashnikov. For the first time alias mohammed has appears in the files of security or thor it is at north rhinewestphalia state criminal Police Office to be scrutinized for islam ism but the officials do not seem to have informed local police or other agencies. So for a year no one in m. L. A. From the social worker to the mare suspect that there is a highly dangerous islamist in their town. Does this and. Theres its incredible that a municipality that is truly affected should get absolutely no information for whats called the idea doesnt. Lead in quetta where we are the weakest link in that chain. And so of course what remains is the suspicion and sadness and a bit of anger that as we know the data and identities were known. He did it because we were left alone with these people. That lived. In north rhinewestphalia hoax up with other islam is too are known to police one controversial contact is induced walk there a member of the abu were large group offers islam seminars in the back room of a travel Agency Officials now believe that fighters were sent out from here and future attackers were radicalized the suspected mastermind who was later imprisoned claimed to know nothing of amery. I know i dont know him lots of people come here i dont know if he came here or not. A marine also lives in the city of under another alias his official address is in a container village for refugees he occasionally spends the night in one base of the abu alaa group a quran school in an apartment in dortmund here he comes to the attention of a much older more experienced man who is admired by young islam ists like amery he calls himself more at. He was the most radical one. He used to say to the guys come on you dont have identity papers do something here carry out an attack i can confirm one hundred percent that he tried it with me too you have nothing to lose come on lets do something here. The alleged agitator becomes a kind of father figure he drives him around in his car but not only to take him to extremist meetings. In fact more add his secretly working as a regular informant for the north rhinewestphalia state office of criminal investigation code named of e. P. O. One is not only assigned to amery he also informs officials about plans by him for suspected terrorists linked to the alleged is. Top man in germany abu alaa. Later prosecutors based part of their case against abu alaa on reports by one. But during the trial the officials were blamed for failing to rein in their informant. Was. Based on my own research i know that he told various people lets kill these unbelievers we need good men to carry out attacks in germany and i have more than one source for that he really inside people to do that. An incredible charge v. P. No one even admitted to his controller during several interrogations that he had talked about attacks in germany. Quote as agreed to i deliberately presented myself as ready to attack i mean you gave me the assignment to position myself so as to get close to people who might be planning attacks and obtain information. Worthy officials in north rhinewestphalia and their informant playing with fire one of amorous Close Associates reported a conversation with a v. P. No one around six months before the Christmas Market attack. He told Domestic Intelligence officials that the alleged informant had said in a one on one conversation that he was looking for a reliable man for an attack with a truck. In early twenty sixteen years under observation and his telephone is tapped v. P. No one reports on him regularly by this Point Security officials realize how dangerous the tune is in areas. That amery was looking on the internet for ways of manufacturing explosives that he was planning an attack with automatic rifles or a Suicide Attack with an explosive belt to kill for allah. Is categorized as a dangerous person and kept under observation during this time he fulfills an important function for the author orators as a source of information on the abu alaa group a kind of informant who doesnt know he is informing. In february twenty sixth seen amery takes a bus from dortmund to. Their hears checked by Security Officials from the Berlin Police amery is picked up and photographed his cell phone is confiscated but not really analyzed neither by officials in north rhinewestphalia nor member len. A former chief investigator with links to the berlin criminal Police Office is not surprised by this omission on the part of the Berlin Police. The reason for the failure to evaluate armories phone is perfectly clear lack of staff everywhere and from what. We have a backlog of cases in Computer Forensics meaning that hundreds of cell phones and computers will only be examined and analyzed two or three years later. Fatal negligence the cell phone contained pictures of omri armed with a pistol in the birdland i asked mosque from which he later carries out the attack a note by the federal criminal Police Office says it is unclear if the gun in the photo is real or not. Knives machetes and a pledge of allegiance to Islamic State those pictures should have sounded alarm bells with about and police. It was was it off its surely that would have led to immediate action being taken. If you. If you take a look at these dangerous persons how many pictures do you think they post just think of crisper to take a well known name what an amount of stuff you put on the internet. These people love posing with weapons thats no big surprise really no surprise our normal experience investigator wouldnt be alarmed i wouldnt be alarmed because i know that these kinds of people like to stage themselves with weapons. Do they need they have an islamist designated as a dangerous person ready to use violence he has a weapon in any normal criminal case that would be needed to use police to take appropriate action to check his identity and then you would know who you were dealing with is not only other photos in a cell phone cause for alarm so as am restored chance with an iris instructor in it ten months before the attack declares himself ready for dogma an islamist code word for trigger or a suicide mission. The highly charged data on a cellphone was not analyzed although security agencies had agreed to do so in such cases federal and state criminal investigation officers coordinate their activities with Intelligence Services at the gate tatts the joint Counterterrorism Center in berlin the name appears on the agenda seven times clearly he was seen as a top dangerous person. Never too early and representative in the told me there was hardly any other person who had been so intensely and so often dealt with. One hundred word of the only. The data was expected to reveal concrete information for a decision on further steps to be taken against that is why the state criminal Police Offices in berlin and north rhinewestphalia were supposed to analyze the data promptly and agreements which Neither Agency carried out systematically. This indeed is. But for example its quite significant or striking that in february they dealt with twice with the confiscated phone data and the analysis of it. But then for months no one asked what happened with the analysis but because there was that alert and. Apparently this was no exception in the joint Counterterrorism Center and not just in the case of emory according to an officer who worked there for years the reports arent worth the paper theyre written on they talk about the current status somebody takes on the case but what comes out of it is nothing. Theres a lot in it so that people are covered so you can say we reported it in official jargon they say reported and youre in the clear. The data on am or a smartphone remains undiscovered after a few hours in Police Detention he is released. More than six months after the entangle astrid person whose father was killed at the Christmas Market was shocked by news reports about mistakes by Security Officials. She joined up with other victims and hired a lawyer. Here companies her to an appointment with the head of berlins amery Investigative Committee burkhardt rageh. Ok we cant get it out of our heads its always with us. What a traumatic event for you. Yes im seeing a therapist about it there are so many questions and so few answers that you will be providing answers i can assure you of that and if mistakes have been made they will of course have to be made public or we all have that common goal that Something Like this must never happen again we owe that to the victims. To the scenario to know for sure since then astrid passon has regularly attended the Investigative Committees sessions this time pilots National Clusters has joined her from north rhinewestphalia his mother was killed in the attack hes also looking for answers. And truth result one of the we want to know which mistakes were made and we want them to be made public that would give us a little inner peace definitely. The families of the victims want to be able to ask their own questions they dont want to leave it