COLUMNS

Protective Intelligence Lessons From a White Supremacist Attack in Germany

Scott Stewart

VP of Tactical Analysis, Stratfor

Oct 15, 2019 | 09:30 GMT

Mourners place flowers at a makeshift memorial on Oct. 10, 2019, at the market square in Halle, Germany, one day after a deadly anti-Semitic shooting.

(HENDRIK SCHMIDT/DPA/AFP via Getty Images)

Highlights

Like many jihadists, the white supremacist who attacked a German synagogue on Yom Kippur was radicalized online and had no known connection to far-right extremist groups.
Even so, several points existed during his attack cycle where he would have been vulnerable to detection had someone been paying attention.
Locked doors and the congregation's alertness prevented an even larger tragedy in this case, but it would have been better to detect and prevent the attack during the planning phase.

Far more people are alive in Halle, Germany, thanks to a locked door and a shooter's amateurishness. On Oct. 9, a heavily armed white supremacist attacked a synagogue in the eastern German city but failed to gain entrance to the building despite firing several shots. One of the narratives that has emerged from this case is that the attacker was a lone attacker who came from nowhere, ostensibly suggesting that there was no way to detect or prevent his attack. This is utter bunk....

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