THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Wednesday, January 11, 2017 |A
WORLD NEWS
posals, police would be al-
lowed to detain rejected asy-
lum seekers deemed
dangerous for up to 18
months, by lowering some of
the current requirements.
German authorities have
been seeking ways to improve
antiterror enforcement since
Anis Amri rammed a truck into
a Berlin Christmas market last
month, killing 12 people and
exposing holes in the country’s
security architecture.The planned overhaul
“shows that in difficult times
we are capable of finding rea-
sonable solutions that will in-
crease the safety of citizens in
Germany without dispropor-
tionately constraining the pub-
lic’s freedoms,” said Interior
Minister Thomas de Maizière.
German authorities came
under criticism for failing to
expel Amri in the months be-
fore the attack even though he
was on a watch list of extrem-ists, had voiced plans to com-
mit atrocities and was using
fake identities.
The target of Tuesday’s
proposals are people like Amri
who are found to be radical Is-
lamists capable of committing
an attack. German authorities
are tracking 550 such extrem-
ists—known in German as
Gefährder—according to secu-
rity officials. Half of them are
believed to be in Germany.
Amri was killed by police in It-aly several days after the Ber-
lin attack.
Most of these individuals
haven’t been determined to
have broken laws, leaving Ger-
man authorities few legal tools
to keep them in check. Around
80 are in detention. The oth-
ers are being watched by po-
lice and intelligence services,
security officials said.
The German constitution
makes it very hard to detain
people who aren’t suspected ofcommitting a crime.
“It’s pretty much impossible
to take a Gefährder into cus-
tody unless one has a very con-
crete indication that a person is
planning an immediate attack,”
said Nikolaos Gazeas, a Co-
logne-based lawyer and expert
on counterterrorism law. “That
would mean a complete inver-
sion of our legal system.”
One way to strengthen anti-
terror laws, illustrated by
Tuesday’s proposals, is to au-
thorize a tighter grip on sus-
pected foreign extremists.
In the case of Amri, author-
ities say they couldn’t clear
the high bar for evidence or
the administrative prerequi-
sites needed to quickly deport
or detain him. The new rules
would lower the requirements
to detain and deport some
dangerous Islamists.
Roughly half of the 550
Gefährder are foreign nation-
als, according to the interior
ministry.
Many of the most danger-
ous extremists, however, are
German, said Sebastian Fied-
ler, deputy chairman of the
federation of German criminal
police officers BDK. For these,
stricter enforcement can only
focus on surveillance.
Part of Tuesday’s proposal
is to place ankle bracelets on
suspected extremists to better
track their movements. This
would require changes in state
law in Germany’s 16 states.BERLIN—Germany released
a plan to rein in known ex-
tremists after authorities
failed to prevent a terrorist
attack last month by a Tuni-
sian radical on a government
watch list.
The proposed overhauls
aim to make it easier for po-
lice to monitor, detain and de-
port asylum seekers believed
to pose a terror threat, Ger-
many’s interior and justice
ministers said on Tuesday.
The plan—which the gov-
ernment plans to implement
with legal changes in the
weeks to come—reflects ef-
forts to tighten enforcement
within the guidelines of con-
stitutional safeguards, in-
formed by abuses committed
under the Nazis, that strongly
protect personal freedom.
Under current state police
laws, for instance, preventive
custody doesn’t exceed 14 days.
Detentions of foreigners to be
expelled also face stringent le-
gal requirements, such as the
necessity to obtain proof of
identity of a suspect from his
or her country of origin.
Under the ministers’ pro-
BYRUTHBENDER
Germany Sets Plan to Rein In Extremists
Measures would make
it easier for authorities
to monitor, detain
and deport suspects
Police search a building near a mosque in Hildesheim in November, amid the arrests of five suspected members of Islamic State.JULIAN STRATENSCHULTE/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCYcommonly known as Delta
Force. The raid didn’t result in
the capture of any militants,
though a “small number” were
killed in the fight near Deir Ez-
zour in Syria, the official said.
Such raids typically aren’t
publicized by the Pentagon,
but Sunday’s was reported by
local media, prompting a re-
sponse from the Pentagon,
which leads an international
coalition helping fight IslamicState in Syria.
“The coalition can confirm
a U.S. operation in the vicinity
of Deir Ezzor,” it said in a
statement.
The Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said Monday
that at least 25 Islamic State
militants were killed during
“an operation carried out by
helicopter believed to belong
to the International Coalition.”
The U.S. official said theteam was made up of U.S.
commandos. The person tar-
geted in the operation was
killed in a firefight with the
commandos, the official
said. The Pentagon didn’t
identify the individual or say
why the person was targeted
by the operation.
U.S. special-operations
forces have steadily increased
their presence in Syria and
Iraq since the beginning of op-erations to push Islamic State
from those countries. Ameri-
cans often advise local forces
and sometimes join them in
operations.
A Delta Force commando,
Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler,
was killed in 2015 when his
unit assisted Kurdish Pesh-
merga forces on a raid near
Kirkuk, Iraq, becoming the first
American to be killed in action
in Iraq since 2011 in Iraq.In May 2015, U.S. special-
operations forces killed Abu
Sayyaf, who ran Islamic State’s
oil operations, in a raid at his
compound in Deir Ezzour
province. The mission also
captured a trove of documents
and Mr. Abu Sayyaf’s wife.
The Pentagon hasn't said
how many operations U.S.
forces have undertaken in Iraq
and Syria, unaccompanied by
local troops.WASHINGTON—The U.S.
military’s Delta Force killed an
Islamic State official during a
raid in eastern Syria over the
weekend that was meant to
capture the militant leader, a
U.S. official said.
The operation was con-
ducted by the Expeditionary
Targeting Force, elite troops
BYBENKESLING
ANDRAJAABDULRAHIM
U.S. Elite Force Kills Islamic State Official in Syria
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