The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
French police had alert on 2nd church attacker
French officials identify the second man they say was responsible for attacking a church.
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel doubled down Thursday on her pledge that Germany would achieve what she called the “historic” task of integrating hundreds of thousands of migrants, while defending freedom and democracy against the hate sown by terrorists.
“Today, as in the past, I am convinced that we can do it — to live up to our historic task, which is a historic test in the age of globalization,” she said, in an attempt to reassure the nation after three recent violent attacks, two of them linked to the Islamic State. “We can do this.”
Merkel, who had been on vacation in her summer home in the lake district north of Berlin, returned to the capital to give her annual summer news conference and laid out a nine-point plan that she said would strike the right balance between security and freedom.
She deplored two recent attacks by men who had claimed allegiance to the Islamic State: an ax and knife attack in Wurzburg by a 17-year-old refugee who said he was from Afghanistan, and a suicide bombing in Ansbach by a 27-year-old Syrian who had sought asylum in Germany. The two attacks “mock the country that took them in,” she said.
“All of this puts a great test before us,” she said of the attacks in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. “It tests our way of life, our understanding of freedom and democracy.”
Merkel vowed that authorities would carry out thorough investigations into the attacks, figure out who was behind them and take the necessary measures to improve security where it was found to be needed. Those would include adding police officers, allowing the army to be involved in response to possible terrorist attacks, seeking to tighten European weapons laws and increasing the exchange of intelligence with the United States.
Merkel acknowledged that the recent violence in Germany had contributed to a climate of fear, but emphasized that “we are not in a war or in a fight with Islam.” She added: “We fight against terrorism, also Islamic terrorism.”
Merkel has come under pressure for her willingness to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the country without being properly screened by security officials. Concern about who may have entered Germany among the 1.1 million migrants and refugees who crossed the border last year has been heightened after the attacks.
Hours before the chancellor spoke, the interior and justice ministers in Bavaria presented a new security plan for the state that foresees expanding the police force by 2,000 over the next four years.