Terrorists and Refugees

For John, BLUF:  If it was easy any nation could do it.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Yesterday, reporting from Berlin, Reuters gave us "German spy agency says ISIS sending fighters disguised as refugees".

Shocking, I know.

This is the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), or Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz.

Here is a pertinent quote from the Wikipedia entry for the BfV:

The counter-intelligence activities of the BfV were mostly directed against the East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi), another employer of ex-Gestapo agents.  The MfS successfully penetrated the BfV and in a number of affairs destroyed its reputation as a counter-intelligence service by the early 1980s.  In this, the MfS profited from the West German border regime which allowed any GDR citizen into the Federal Republic without restrictions.

Ah, border security.

But, here is the beginning of the Reuters story:

Islamic State militants have slipped into Europe disguised as refugees, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency (BfV) said on Friday, a day after security forces thwarted a potential IS attack in Berlin.

Hans-Georg Maassen said the terrorist attacks in Paris last November had shown that Islamic State was deliberately planting terrorists among the refugees flowing into Europe.

"Then we have repeatedly seen that terrorists ... have slipped in camouflaged or disguised as refugees. This is a fact that the security agencies are facing," Maassen told ZDF television.

"We are trying to recognize and identify whether there are still more IS fighters or terrorists from IS that have slipped in," he added.

The point is not that we should close our borders, since it will cost us in terms of bringing new and needed talent and patriotism to our shores, but that we need to know who is coming and we need to pay attention to new communities forming in our nation, all while respecting the civil rights of all.

Regards  —  Cliff