Why intelligence sharing is so important...
Guardian wrote:Abedi flew to Düsseldorf last week
The Manchester suicide bomber flew to the western German city of Düsseldorf, four days before the arena attack, German authorities have confirmed.
It is known that the 22-year old travelled to Germany at least twice, including a visit to the financial city of Frankfurt.
News of his presence in Germany has raised suspicions that he may have had contact with Islamist networks there, and received logistics training from them.
Düsseldorf is in the state of North Rhein Westphalia where Anis Amri, the Berlin Christmas market attacker spent time.
Security authorities in the state have come under fire for their patchy surveillance of Amri, who was allowed to travel around Germany freely, despite authorities’ misgivings about him.
North Rhein Westphalen is home to hundreds of people considered a security threat due to their close links to Islamist groups.
Fifty-five mosques in the state are under close observation for their suspected links to the Islamist scene.
According to the German magazine Focus, Abedi was not apprehended by German authorities when he flew in to the country, because he was not on any observation list of suspected Islamists.
Counter-terrorism experts have now opened an investigation into whether Abedi may have had contact to radical German Islamists in North Rhein Westphalia.
However it is not known whether he spent any length of time in Düsseldorf, or whether he simply changed planes there en route from Libya to Manchester.
According to Focus, citing information from German intelligence, Abedi also flew to Frankfurt am Main from Britain in 2015. This was before he undertook paramilitary training in Syria, according to information received by Germany’s BKA from their counterparts at Scotland Yard, according to Focus.
The man power necessary to trail all these people must be incredible when you consider it takes around 20 or so officers to monitor 1 person 24/7.