European Center for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies in Germany and Netherlands.
By Jassim Mohamad – Counter Terror and Intelligent Affairs senior researcher
Foreign Fighters, return to Germany, without taken any step by the security intelligent services.
The return of, raises many questions about why the German government did not take measures to arrest or detain returnees when they entered Germany? The problem is that the German authorities do not arrest or detain ISIS returnees until they have evidence of involvement in terrorist operations or war crimes, as if they went on a “picnic” to Syria and Iraq!
The widow of former German rapper and ISIS terrorist Denis Cuspert has been arrested by German authorities on the basis of an arrest warrant from the federal prosecutor. On September 9, 2019, prosecutors announced in Karlsruhe that Omaima Abdi, a German-Tunisian citizen, was arrested in Hamburg on suspicion of being a member of ISIS in Syria.
The question is: Was German intelligence unable to access ISIS’s records?
The German government and public prosecutor, without doubt, have information about the involvement of extremist elements in ISIS, but the problem lies in the German laws and procedures, which can be described as a security gap as they don’t consider traveling to Syria and Iraq to join extremist organizations is a charge accountable under the law!! This appears to be the reason why German General prosecutor in Karlsruhe court didn’t issued judicial warrants to arrest them as their entry into Germany was revealed early this year.
The problem is that the Karlsruhe Court on Terrorism and the Prosecutor are still dealing with terrorism cases as a criminal case, so that Omaima Abdi was arrested only a few months later. This is a security gap.
How can foreign fighters return to Germany without standing in court?
ISIS members are trying to return to Europe after the group lost its strongholds in Iraq and Syria since October 2017 with the paid help of human smuggling networks through Turkey, and this reveals the Turkish government’s role to allow ISIS elements to pass through its territories or to departure through its airports, in spite of investigations confirming that entry and departure are with official seals. Returnees from ISIS are using indirect travel routes to return to their cities, in order to escape from surveillance at border check points.
Germany’s local intelligence agencies have classified numbers of women and adolescents as dangerous security Islamists who can carry out terrorist operations. According to security sources, women and adolescents make up a small percentage of less than 10% of some 720 Islamists classified as security threats.
Reasons for tendency towards radicalization inside Europe:
– search for identity: Most of those who joined extremist organizations are of Islamic origins, living in Europe. Some live in a state of duality between the mother country and the country in which they live, sometimes finding themselves rejecting the state and society in which they live.
School or Work Failure: Radicalized young people tended to be isolated and inward-looking. They find the extremist organizations a means of revenge or perhaps “express their ability,” which they failed to prove in school or work or family.
Psychological pressure and depression: Investigations revealed that some of those who carried out terrorist operations or joined the fighting, suffered from psychological pressure, social crises or failure in their relations, in addition to addiction of drugs and alcohol.
However, social relations within the family, community and school remain the most important element, that is because most of women joined the fight as a result of “romantic” relationship failure.
Can ISIS elements be rehabilitated in European societies?
Intelligence investigations revealed that it is difficult to de-radicalize those who joined ISIS and spent years under the umbrella of the so-called “Caliphate State.” Officials of the German government-run al-Hayat program that aiming to prevent radicalization have admitted that their attempts failed. French and Dutch programs implemented by governments also announced their failure. However, programs to prevent radicalization can be implemented on new radicalized persons locally. The statistics confirmed that the pace of recruitment of women has increased in the wake of the successive defeats of ISIS.
Ralph Ghadhban, a political scientist, told DW Arabia that: “what drives these girls to join ISIS is not a religious reason, but rather a developmental stage in which these young people and adolescents are experiencing an unrealistic desire for self-fulfillment through commitment to major issues.”
The Ministry of Interior’s “Prevention of Terrorism” group has spotted intense radicalized e-mails targeted Muslim teenage girls in Germany, and these attempts are more successful than ever in involving teenagers with extremist organizations.
ISIS’s women are the most difficult dilemma inside ISIS. Although some of them claim that they were not involved in fighting or war crimes but only in housekeeping, investigations and ISIS’s documents revealed that woman is an important element in ISIS that invested more in women than other extremist organizations, most notably al-Qaeda. ISIS placed women in advanced occupations in the “jihadist” work.
The most prominent roles played by women within ISIS
– Participation in the “governance”: ISIS’s women work in the “institutions” and “states” (welaya) of ISIS including Al-Hesba morality police.
– Gathering intelligence about people and institutions targeted by ISIS, and possibly penetrating some security services in Iraq and Syria, to obtain information and plans proactively, and this shows the intelligence role of women.
– Promoting the extremist propaganda on the Internet, as revealed by the German internal intelligence agency “German Network of Salafi women”, that was active in attract young people through the Internet to carry out terrorist attacks locally or join ISIS.
– Recruitment: ISIS has exploited the ability of women and their influence on young people to join the fight or carry out terrorist attacks locally through their relationships with youth.
Recommendations
The return of foreign fighters to Germany and Europe without being subjected to the court or the security services is considered a security gap. These elements experienced radicalization and terrorism and can carry out terrorist attacks after their return.
The German government needs to review its own laws to combat terrorism and radicalization, as well as to consider joining extremist organizations locally or abroad as a punishable offense. In any case, the government needs to amend its laws by placing ISIS returnees under pretrial or provisional detention until security investigations are completed. To make sure that they won’t involve in terrorist attacks.
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