GSG9 - Terror im Visier

. A

terror

ist is preparing an attack. Terrorism is a crime that aims not only to kill as many people as possible, but also to keep as many people as possible under surveillance. What threatens us in Germany has changed. Nowadays,

terror

is a matter of small punctures without much logistical effort. We still have the danger of Islamist terrorism, but also a growing danger in the area of ​​right-wing terrorism. This is the police talking! They arrive when no one else can help: GSG 9, the special unit of the federal police. I hope that the population will be less afraid if they know that GSG 9 exists.

It's just bad. How safe is Germany thanks to GSG 9? We accompany the day-to-day life of the special unit. These are not machines, they also have feelings. I wrote a farewell letter to my family. Inside GSG 9. No television crew has ever been this close. St. Augustine, Hangelar district. Among newly plowed garages and front gardens, in the heart of the former Bonn Republic, the elite unit of the German Federal Police has its headquarters: the border protection group 9. Morgen! Tomorrow! I was hired here at the St. Augustin location. I always looked at GSG 9 from the outside, from the fence, and thought: My God, what kind of guys must they be?

Of movies, videos, documentaries. Then you see them at lunch, then they drive in a car to film and you always think, Oh, that's cool. The commander takes the side entrance. This is the normal start to the day for me. Good morning, Mr. Fox. Tomorrow. And yes, also a pleasant day to day life. You can recover and go through something: what awaits you that day. But it's no different than anyone else who drives to work. We accompanied the third unit GSG 9 for a summer and were as close to the daily life of the special unit as any camera had ever been.

Most of what he does is top secret. That is the nature of your mission. That's why GSG 9 insisted on prior approval of everything we show. So, let's take our suitcase. Then it's okay. Can you stop there please? Aside from the commander, no GSG-9er will appear in this film. You now have a deep insight into what we do, what we are like and how we live here. But it is understandable that we have to be consistent and not show the face of our comrades. 8 o 'clock. The leader of the third unit orders his men to line up.

Good day! (all) Hello! Exactly how many there are in his unit must remain a secret. GSG 9 flies around 30 missions a year. The men train the rest of the days. Today with practice ammunition. 300 times 223 maneuvers for tango. Then another 300, another 223 FX and 300 FX 9mm. Almost 1000 shots. Enough to take out 20 buses full of terrorists. Someone for T-Sem. Kalinka? Actually, the man's name is not Kalinka. The men of GSG 9 address each other with nicknames. Everyone who has completed their training here and reaches the unit has acquired a nickname as part of their training. This may be due to a situation or a derivation of the name.

He then keeps the nickname throughout his stay here. The men of GSG 9 have nicknames like “Grandma”, “Meat”, “So”. The leader of our unit is called "Mopsi". I lost between 10 and 12 kg during the 10 months I was training here and lost weight until I reached my ideal weight. Shortly afterward I returned to my normal weight, that is, my fighting weight. And it looked like this: The person gained volume. Two names were being debated at the time: one was “Ernie,” in honor of Ernie and Bert. Because of my hairstyle. Another said: No, that's a mopsi! Commander Jerome Fuchs also attends the exercise.

He has been leading GSG 9 for 5 years. He mostly sits in meeting rooms. Today he is needed in the middle. We have a heavily armed perpetrator, a building that can only be reached from the air, the entrances are barricaded and possibly booby-trapped. We will see it soon. The fact is that we can only enter through the roof. That's why we will approach with helicopters. At the same time, somewhere in Berlin. An Islamist is planning an attack. He receives instructions from an “Islamic State” fighter. His plan: an attack using the poison ricin. *Music* The terrorist wants to spread the ricin with a homemade bomb.

The story is fictitious, but there has already been a similar case. The ricin case, a chemical bomb so to speak, would have had a devastating effect. We are not talking about 2, 3, 4 deaths, but completely different scenarios. We have long known from intelligence that terrorist groups intend to carry out terrorist attacks using chemical, nuclear and biological agents. We saw how easy it is in the case of castor beans. Anyone can legally order the ingredients of such a biological weapon online: Ricin is obtained from plant seeds. In 2018, a terrorist prepared a ricin attack in Cologne Chorweiler. But the police were able to prevent it.

Many of these substances, including nitrogen and other fertilizers, are also a necessary part of completely legal activities. You won't be able to prohibit that. It would also be an excessive measure. We have to be good enough to recognize that and when abuse is planned. The Ministry of the Interior considers unlikely scenarios of complex attacks such as those in Paris in 2015 or Brussels in 2016, that is, that several attackers attack in different places at the same time. For a long time we have had to deal with perpetrators who were trying to carry out an organized attack with as many victims as possible.

But also with very elaborate criminal planning. But then the way of committing the crime changed and the perpetrators began to kill individuals discreetly, as we would say, with relatively little effort. Like in 2016 on Berlin's Breitscheidplatz: Anis Amri runs into the Christmas market in a stolen truck. 12 people die. The “Islamic State” has been defeated militarily. But in Germany alone there are almost 300 Islamists who, according to the police, will commit an attack at any moment. The last options that IS has now are to inflict damage on us in our countries, small individual attacks, individual assassinations. Germany is threatened in many ways.

We still have the danger of Islamist terrorism. But we also have a growing danger in the area of ​​right-wing terrorism. The last few months have shown how great this danger is: the attack in Halle and the assassination of Kassel district president Walter Lübcke. The problem of right-wing terrorism, of right-wing extremism, was simply ignored for a long time. No lessons have been learned from the NSU scandal. I think we are currently only seeing the tip of the iceberg and we still cannot understand how big of a threat this area really is. Check! They train for such threat scenarios.

Daily. Mopsi, leader of the GSG-9 unit, and his men. *The rifle is loaded* The killers have hidden in a business park. They shoot indiscriminately at passers-by. It's just an exercise, but the tension is real. The men do not know the terrain. You are under extreme time pressure. And they know it: their opponents would be willing to go to extremes. Men don't know what they are getting into and take a lot of risks in a situation like this. That's a lot of tension. So we do very little in a practice situation where we can prepare for it.

Because you can only create that if you create artificial pressure in an exercise position. The psychological pressure on people now is enormous. You can dive, skydive and rappel from the helicopter in seconds with 35kg of equipment. There are about 400 men in GSG 9. They are called in when things get really dangerous. Your job: arrest terrorists, kidnappers or heavily armed criminals. We train and shoot a lot so we don't have to do it when we are in action. (Radio) The next situation... The police speak! They report directly to the Minister of the Interior and are deployed in the country and abroad.

Your mission: collect as much evidence as possible and destroy as little as necessary. You have to have skills for this job that you can't learn. What you need to have from the beginning: high social skills, inner peace and composure, a high level of resistance to stress and, above all, the ability to work very well with each other as a team. Nobody can be Rambo here, because we have to approach the operational situation much more carefully than running somewhere and destroying everything. No one will shoot anyone unless they are in an immediately threatening situation. That's why we never leave the scorched earth behind.

GSG 9 has had almost 2,000 missions in the 47 years since its founding. They say they only shot eight times. Open the door! GSG 9 works like a well-rehearsed soccer team: they decide their difficult tactics in advance. How exactly men act in action depends on the situation. In order to blindly trust each other, they do exercises like this. This also helps against the human instinct to flee when lunging at armed perpetrators. You must be aware of what awaits you. Especially when someone gets shot. If we weren't afraid, we would be the wrong people for the job. Of course there are fears.

We train a lot for this. Operations are also important to be able to control that moment in which it begins. I had good communication with you. We were able to give it coverage. For our part it worked. what do you think about it? Mopsi, at 42 years old, is one of the oldest there. 24 years ago he started in the then Federal Border Police and then passed the GSG 9 entrance exam. He has completed 50 missions and was in Mali and Iraq. He could have been a firefighter or an emergency doctor. My vocation is to help people. If you can do that in a unit, at such a high level, then that's something that adds a lot to you.

That means a lot for me. The terrorist explores the attack sites. He wants to kill as many people as possible. And he wants attention. Terrorism is an act of violence that has as its main objective symbolic, visible and dramatic acts of violence that aim to sow fear and terror among the population. That is your goal. It is a theater, a communication strategy that sends a message to a target audience. But it would have a significant impact on how people dare to move in public spaces, use transport and go to work. The terrorist searches in Berlin for a symbolic place where his ricin explosion would affect the entire republic.

Where there is a parliament, a government, where a lot of public life takes place. This is an attractive place because of these institutions that are based here in Berlin. And, of course, something like this is also attractive to terrorists. We have to correct the fact that we still do not have an anti-terrorist unit in the capital. In the hallway of the third unit of GSG 9, no one had any idea that an attack was imminent. You trained in secret. Oh, come on. At the St. Augustin barracks, each GSG-9er has its own cabin. Only a few sleep here.

Most live nearby with their families. It smells like homemade curry. Men spend more time here than anywhere else. How many bags do you have? In the end probably around five. Zorro has to go to England tomorrow for 3 weeks. I am currently packing for an overseas assignment in the UK. I'm doing an EMOE course there with the British Army. Wondering what that is (laughs)? Translated it means "Input explosive masses." And it deals with the mass, with the whole story: How do I open objects, how do I create access? Like almost all the members of the third unit, Kalinka and Zorro have a wife and child.

And Madame will be able to take care of the little one during that time, or what? Yes. As always, right? He now traveled a lot. Then you did it. Yes, fine, but it will work. Do you have any other neighbors nearby who can take care of it? Yes, they always help. You know it yourself. Yes Yes. It works without me too. There are keywords like work-life balance. With us you really only have work. Balance is difficult. These men share most of their time, the most intense moments of their lives, with their partners. Families often struggle to keep up.

Not everything you experience here can be discussed with your family. Some of them wouldn't understand that at all. Because this is a different world. I prefer to talk to a comrade who is like my family. Of course, this also causes bad moods, like: “Why are you shutting down? Tell me". Staying home when the child is sick is almost impossible with GSG 9. The men enjoy working so much that their unit leader has to force them to even finish the work. This is my recommendation: try not to spoil it at home. If a child is about to be born, I encourage everyone to stay home.

But in extreme cases this also happens: they call here and ask: Should I go? As a manager, it's easy for me: I don't have to motivate people, sometimes I have to hold them back and other times protect them from themselves. Marlies is here. Everything chic? Yes tomorrow! Hey! She cleaned at GSG 9 for 13 years. Marlies has been retired for two and a half years. But she keeps coming back regularly: once GSG 9, always GSG 9. That's just the way it is. Age-wise, they could be our children, right? And then you have the one.or seen others too. That's how it is. "Hallway clothesline!Let's go with the machine!" Trust too, right?

Because there are things lying around. You have to trust someone. If you've been in a flat like you, Christa, Ingrid and I for years, then you have to trust, Right? It's empty. A woman has never managed to get into a GSG 9 operating unit. Apart from a few receptionists, the cleaners are the only women here. A woman came to my floor. I already said: Does it have to be now? I've always been the only one, right (laughs)? Well, we won't allow it, right? I think... no, I don't want that. I'm the mother of the company up there.

It's over. No woman can do that anymore. It would be strange. I think it means that women could do the job too. Why not? Surely there is one or the other. I think they probably can't do it. physically as a man can. Is life among men desirable for a woman? I say: No, because you will definitely have to listen to many sayings. But I wouldn't mind if a woman came. But in my time I have never seen a woman try it. But I have a wife sitting at home. It's completely fine for me to be surrounded by boys all day.

But what happens when camaraderie takes on a life of its own? What if this results in excessive esprit de corps? When you see yourself as elite and sweep problems under the rug? Alarming incidents occurred in special units of the Bundeswehr and the police. A great susceptibility to camaraderie and esprit de corps behavior is not the main problem. At least not in the special forces that I know and that we lead. But this feeling that we have to trust each other probably leads to people first trying to fix things within their own ranks. This can go too far and sometimes it is too late.

We have to prevent this. The “Special Forces Command”, KSK, the elite unit of the Bundeswehr: there were several signs of right-wing extremism here that the KSK did not report. But it was not only the special unit of the Bundeswehr that attracted attention. Raid on members of a right-wing group in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 2017. Particularly explosive: including officers from the special police unit. It is said that they hoarded weapons and kept boxes of ammunition. Far-right tendencies in special units: the federal government is also alarmed. Of course, this is a red flag for the population when it is said that such tendencies exist in the very authorities and institutions that are supposed to protect them.

If I noticed, now in an extreme case, someone wearing a swastika on her uniform, it would be a clear and alarming case. We are also just a representative sample of society. I assume that there will also be AfD voters in GSG 9. But that's my assumption. But here I don't see any trend in this direction. We have all sworn to defend the FDGO, the free and democratic basic order, and we protect it. The terrorist gets what he legally ordered online for the biobomb from him. It is not possible to intervene beforehand because certain preparatory actions are not punishable or have not yet been detected.

But of course this shows, since this case is relatively current, that these types of attacks can also be expected here today. It is very difficult for investigators to locate these types of perpetrators. If they do, it has to happen quickly. This changes everything for GSG 9's counterterrorism work. Yes, because we realized that there are scenarios, attack scenarios. I will mention again Bataclan's location in France, where time is the deciding factor. And it can take too long if we try to drive or fly to the mission from St. Augustine to northern Germany. For this reason, GSG 9 is building its second headquarters in Berlin and will expand it by approximately a third.

Commander Fuchs on a reconnaissance flight. (Radio) They arrive here one after another: Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag. We now have the optimal place to land. You can see the possibilities you have here for exterior landings. The attacks show that big cities are in great danger. This is what the locations of the attacks have so far demonstrated: Berlin, Paris, Oslo, Brussels. That's why we need GSG 9 here. It was about having an even better presence in Berlin. And it was important not to weaken St. Augustine, but also to seize Berlin. And that is only possible if I grow with strength.

Otherwise I will have to take forces from St. Augustin and transfer them here. Bringing part of GSG 9 to Berlin: the decision has been made. But the move takes time. It is difficult to find barracks that meet the high training standards of the elite unit. That's why the men are temporarily housed in the city and will only be here for a few weeks. I assume that by the end of next year we will have permanent troops here, who will then be permanently in Berlin. But they are also being reinforced, exchanged with forces from San Agustín. It will always remain that way.

I really want to meet you. Appointment to the Bundestag. The head of the Bundestag police shows Commander Fuchs which corners of the Reichstag are relevant for security. This is the largest office building the Bundestag has: 1,800 offices. The head of GSG-9 is especially interested in the entry of suppliers into the basement. We call this "getting into the science of screws." That you look closer building by building. We can only do this up to a certain level of detail. That changes again and again. What is important to us is: Where are the buildings? Where can we position our forces?

Where are the tickets? We leave the rest to the specialists who work there every day. Now I'd like to take a look there if I can. In the parliamentary heart. Yes, that would be very good. Yes, you can see a little. AHA. Yes. Training abroad in Tel Aviv. GSG 9 is networked with many foreign special units. Collaboration with the Israeli anti-terrorist unit “Yamam” is especially close. Both associations periodically exchange knowledge and train in mixed teams. What we have seen in recent years is that these types of attacks now also occur in Europe: there too terrorist attacks increasingly come from “lone wolves”.

Therefore, we are more than happy to share our experience with our colleagues and brothers in arms at GSG 9. The German-Israeli team must stop a group of terrorists on a kibbutz. It's a normal Monday. And do you train where people live? Yes, we do it often. Really a lot. We're not allowed to do that. We only train in practice areas. No, we do it once a month: we train in schools, in the kibbutz, in the city. After all, we are the police. Nobody will stop us. This is normal for us. We do most of the exercises in real places, in real life.

Civilians are recruited for the “cause.” That's what the "cause" is all about: making sure people are safe. Catch terrorists, dead or alive: that is the Yamam's motto. The Israeli counterterrorism unit often does not leave as much evidence as GSG 9. However, the units operate so similarly that the mixed team can gain access on the spot. Germans in combat gear in the middle of an Israeli housing estate. No one here seems to have a problem with that. I've never heard anyone ask: How can this be? It's no different if I train in Germany, Israel or somewhere else. If there's a German walking around with a gun...

I haven't seen that play a role here. Today is a different time. For me it is normal to train with the GSG 9. That's all. And after work, it's good to talk openly about everything. I have a house, a garden. Now it sounds like a joke: my hobbies are my children and my family. But it's true: I spend most of my free time with them. We all have families, we all know the risk. But we also know why we do this. Whether they or we fight against terrorism, we pursue the same objective. Maybe they do it one way and we do it another.

But it is the same objective. *relaxed music* *thud* Marlies, out-of-duty floor mother, approaching. N/A? N/A? All went well? Where is Liese? OK honey? Everything's fine? Everything's fine. Sit down. In the years that Marlies has worked here, she and Mopsi have seen each other more often than her spouses. I've known him for 13 years. How should she say? Well, you saw me grow up here. That's... I can tell it like it is: That could be my son. And I like him a lot too. Every time he had something on his mind, he would ask for his opinion.

It was always important to me that she told me her opinion and that she also washed my head and told me: Wow, life is not always pretty. Sometimes you also have to: close your eyes and move on. So when it comes to relationship stories. The cleaning staff is not informed when the men go on a real mission. They are still worried. In the 47-year history of GSG-9, 4 men have been killed in action. One of them was “Ärmel”, whose real name was Tobias Retterath, who was shot by snipers in Iraq in 2004. He was part of Mopsi's unit.

It was terrible for me to face that: he's gone, he's not coming back. That was bad. Well, you're also afraid for others. If there's anything in the media about the GSG9 implementation, I'll take a look at that too. That's right, that's what's in it. We face it again and again. And then you think: I hope nothing happens. I wrote a letter to my family. Also for my colleagues, where I have regulated what it should be like if I lose my life in service or due to official activities. So that's settled, who will tell my wife about this?

I don't want to die, I don't want to be dead. But if that happens, be prepared. I have this very... how should I put it? I just wrote that. I thought about it: how do you want it to be? Like a shopping list. I try to look at him without emotions. I taped the letter shut and wrote who could open it. The terrorist is prepared with his bomb. He begins the race against time. (Phone) Leader of unit 300 now at command post. Bye bye. Here, where I just came from, is the center where all the operational matters of GSG 9 are gathered.

All information enters here and is distributed to the appropriate places in the house. In this case, as an operational leader of an operational unit, I was tasked with carrying out an attack against a person suspected of having committed an attack using substances hazardous to health. The Federal Bureau of Criminal Investigation has discovered the terrorist. The Home Office is using GSG 9 in the case. Each one will get into an access vehicle, drive to the target street and then to the underground parking lot... I have to make sure that the person in the object is found in such a way that he cannot destroy any evidence, cannot escape. and does not attack the emergency services cannot have any effect.

For me, priority 1 is always the mission, priority 2 is the safety or security of emergency services. Since the terrorist wields a deadly poison, the men wear protective suits. It's hot and stuffy with the tight suits. The worst case for me would be: A firearm is used, one of my emergency responders is injured, and not only do we have a gunshot wound, but the dangerous substance gets in, it's contaminated. Therefore, the entire rescue chain must adapt to this. But I can't waste time imagining what if. The access forces for Mopsi. (Radio) The access equipment is listening. Please provide a current status. (Radio) The access equipment is now in the underground parking lot.

Good! So now you have permission from me. You can start. (Radio) Then we will begin the approach now. *exciting music* Now what? It's just bad. Police! Police! Get on the floor! Get on the floor! Get on the floor! Do not resist! Head to the side! Actual access takes less than 30 seconds. (Radio) Access has occurred. No personal injuries. That happened incredibly quickly. Yes. That's why I stayed silent for a moment. The moment when access is achieved occurs relatively quickly, but it is the phase in which the tension is greatest, in which the radio message is expected: the target person has been located, the apartment has been taken, the has established security.

What you don't want to hear: what happened. This is the moment of greatest tension. I will confront the perpetrator now. The perpetrator has been neutralized for you. You can hand it to me. I will free you from your shackles. The objective of the exercise is what the emergency services do. You have been dominated, now we have neutralized you. That's why you're released for now. If he were a real terrorist, the tone would not be so relaxed. He really had no chance to put up any resistance. That's why: when they arrive at the latest, it's Scythe. Very good.

So we have reached our goal. The danger has been averted and the perpetrator caught. Who is behind the masks, who did this, no one will ever know. What's special to me is when no one knows what I do and people talk about what I do without knowing I do it. Naturally, the inner voice: Hey! It's me! I belong there. But we want... that would be false: on the one hand, I value the protection of identity here and, on the other hand, I brag about it. The reward is that the operation worked, you were able to arrest someone, you helped obtain evidenceand, in extreme cases, even prevented people from being killed.

You leave your mask and suit on. The two men who were in contact with the perpetrator and his poison are being chemically cleaned. The rest of the team is not working. Fighting terrorists: GSG9 can do it better than anyone else in Germany. It will not eliminate terrorism. We are not safer because GSG 9 exists. If the attack occurs and is not recognized by security authorities, no special unit in the world will be able to solve the problem at that time. As a free and democratic society based on the rule of law, we will have to live with the fact that we can never achieve 100% security.

Individual terrorist campaigns are ending, but terrorism as a form of violence is an old and enduring side effect of modernity. Individual groups can be defeated, individual people can be arrested. But terrorism as a violent strategy will not disappear. Subtitle: rbb 2019 Dagmar Pfeffer