What happened in Berlin [updated]

What was the horrifying attack at the Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin that killed 12 yesterday? It was obviously an act of Islamist terrorism in the style of the attack that killed 86 in Nice on Bastille Day this past July. How obvious was it? It was so obvious that the New York Times describes it as follows:

A truck driver barreled into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin on Monday night, killing at least 12 people and injuring scores more. The police believed it to be an attack, but the identity of any attackers and their motives were not immediately clear.

The Timesman gets it wrong from the get-go. “A truck driver” the terrorist was not. The terrorist was driving a truck, to be sure, but come on. It was special for the occasion. The truck driver — the gentleman who was driving the hijacked Polish truck — was apparently the terrorist’s first victim.

The Times maintains the requisite mystification regarding “motives that [are] not immediately clear.” One is forbidden to add two and two together for as long as possible.

One turns to the UK’s Sun for the update that surprises precisely no one paying attention:

THE man accused of Berlin’s Christmas market terror attack has been identified as a Pakistani refugee who police believe was recently radicalised in Germany.

Named locally as Navid B, 23, he is believed to have entered the country on February 11 this year and was known to police for petty crime.

It has now emerged that he may have been ordered by an ISIS handler in the Middle East to carry out the attack that bore haunting similarities to July’s Nice atrocity.

The scenario was so predictable that Mark Steyn anticipated it last week. We have the New York Times, the Brits have the BBC. Mark cites the BBC headline on its story covering the Berlin attack: “Lorry kills 12 at Christmas market.” Now it can be said: stop that lorry!

UPDATE: According to the AP, the authorities now express uncertainty that they have the right man in custody.

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