After terror shock:

“Zadic and Kickl form anti-security alliance”

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) is urgently calling for messenger service surveillance. He speaks of a hypocritical debate.

(Bild: Holl Reinhard/Reinhard Holl)

A few hours after an attack on Taylor Swift's open-air concert was prevented, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) goes on the offensive. In an interview with "Krone", he explains why he is "appalled" by Justice Minister Alma Zadić.

"Krone": Mr. Minister, the tip that a potential assassin was living undercover in Ternitz came from a foreign secret service. This is not the first time that we have had to rely on foreign help. How blind is Austrian state security?
Gerhard Karner: International cooperation is an important prerequisite in the area of state security today, even if you have the most modern surveillance instruments at your disposal. But it's true: We urgently need modern methods. That's what the surveillance of messenger services is. Time has moved on. Terrorists don't communicate with letters or old push-button telephones, but in secret chat rooms. I am appalled that Justice Minister Alma Zadić and FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl are refusing to give the state security services modern methods. Zadić and Kickl are forming an anti-security alliance here.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP)

(Bild: Holl Reinhard/Reinhard Holl)

The concern is that an eavesdropping attack on Austrian citizens will be made possible.
We have zero interest in mass surveillance - it wouldn't even be feasible. We have no interest in vacation snaps or in chatting with our neighbor. We are interested in potential assassins. In the current case, the tip-off came from several international partners. The tip-off pointed to a single perpetrator. The newly established DSN state security team then found more people through investigations.

Video: Islamists had "big plans"

The clues were there because these partner intelligence services are allowed to monitor the messenger services?
That was also an important source. The discussion in Austria is hypocritical. We are grateful that we receive information from foreign intelligence services through the monitoring of messenger services, but our state security DSN is not allowed to carry out this type of monitoring itself.

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) in an interview with "Krone" head of domestic politics Ida Metzger

(Bild: Holl Reinhard/Reinhard Holl)

When exactly did the Austrian State Security Service receive the tip-off?
Following the dismantling of the BVT by Herbert Kickl in 2018 and the new set-up by Karl Nehammer, the new State Security Service DSN is once again well networked. During the house search at the BVT, important data fell into foreign hands, which is why foreign intelligence services no longer trusted the BVT. Now there is a basis of trust again, but in order to maintain this, details are kept secret.

On the right in the picture is the main suspect Beran A. He gave himself the combat name "Mo" in allusion to the Prophet Mohammed.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/Eva Manhart, zVg)

Because of the house search at the BVT, Austria was not only cut off from information from abroad, but many undercover investigators were also exposed.
There is a lot of truth in that. But what was dramatic was that Austria was internationally isolated. I can only attribute Kickl's statements, dripping with hatred, to his guilty conscience for having ruined this state security and endangered people's safety.

In Paris, where many IS supporters live in the suburbs, they managed to hold the Olympic Games. Why didn't Austria manage to hold the Taylor Swift concerts?
I had a conversation with the organizer. It was the organizer's decision, but he feels vindicated in his decision because we were able to show that it wasn't a case of a lone wolf perpetrator, but a group. I therefore fully understand the organizer's decision.

Was hatred of women a motive of the Islamists?
The investigation is ongoing, but this is to be expected.