The Latest From Berlin: Terrorist On the Loose

The Wall Street Journal has a good update on what we know about yesterday’s terrorist truck attack in Berlin:

Nearly 24 hours after Germany’s deadliest terror attack in decades, police said they had been holding the wrong man as their only suspect, reviving fears of more violence and restarting the hunt for at least one perpetrator at large.
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The police said a lack of forensic links to the crime scene helped clear their initial suspect, a Pakistani who arrived in Germany a year ago.

The Pakistani was apprehended after someone followed the terrorist as he fled from the truck after the attack:

A witness followed the truck’s driver as he fled the scene on Monday night and reported to the police that the man had disappeared on the edge of the sprawling Tiergarten park, police said. Soon after, near the center of the park, police took into custody a Pakistani man who resembled the witness’s description.

“Because the witness had been observing the man from a distance, we couldn’t be 100% sure that the man was the driver,” said Berlin Police spokesman Thomas Neuendorf.

The Islamic State claims that the perpetrator was a follower; of course, they always do. Germany’s “light security posture” is being questioned:

The violence in the center of the capital also raised new questions about Germany’s light security posture amid an upsurge of terror in Europe that has largely spared the country until this week. Despite warnings about the possibility of an attack on one of Germany’s signature Christmas fairs, there were no barriers and no more than five police at the Berlin site when the truck slammed into market stalls and visitors. “We had some officers there to keep an eye on the market,” a police spokesman said. “We now see it wasn’t enough.”

Angela Merkel uttered the usual platitudes:

“We don’t want to live paralyzed by fear of evil,” said Ms. Merkel, who received condolence calls from President Barack Obama and leaders across Europe.

Merkel’s critics don’t advocate living paralyzed by fear of evil, they advocate sane immigration policies. Maybe, tragic as it was, yesterday’s terrorist attack will bring that goal a step closer.

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