Evil Drives a Van

The Magdeburg Christmas Market terror brought back memories of horror

I was enjoying a gorgeous Spanish summer afternoon on August 7th, 2017.

Two blocks from where I was at the time, 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub purposely drove his van into defenseless men, women and children on La Rambla street in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain murdering 13 of the people and injuring at least 130 others. Abouyaaqoub fled the attack on foot, then killed another person in order to steal the victim's car to make his escape. The reports at the time were that the terrorist(s) had planned to attack the place I had just left, the impossibly stunning architectural marvel, La Sagrada Famila, but the plan was thwarted, so a last minute decision was made to mow down tourists instead.

(Why ruin a fine day of planned mass execution and come home without a body count when you had already rented the murder van?)

Immediately following the fanatic's bloody slaughter of the innocent, he took off and was unaccounted for.

The manhunt for the murderer extended to my hotel where a panic broke out after a rumour spread that the terrorist was on our street, sending people running and screaming wildly into the lobby, resulting in several injuries.

I was in the lobby and grabbed a knife from the restaurant.

Red Cross, police and other tourists who could not return to their hotels swarmed the hotel.

The next day, I went to the site of the attack and was met with mobs of reporters, tourists, protestors and riot police.

There were two very vocal factions of demonstrators. One group was mainly Catalonian nationalists who held up signs reading "Stop the Islamification of Europe"

The other group were pro-Muslim immigration, though they were non-Muslim, and waved gay pride flags, seemingly to add even more confusion to the already chaotic and tense scene.

The anti-immigration crowd was outnumbered and shouted down by their opposition every time they tried to speak with cries of "No facists!" and "No Nazis!"

This seems to be the only dialogue they were interested in having. A one way "conversation" in which they shout names and slogans painting their adversaries in the most extreme and negative terms. There was no room for discussion in the emotionally charged aftermath of the carnage.. The matter is settled in some minds.

If you oppose Islamification of Europe, and by extension, the end of Western ideas of freedom of speech and tolerance, you are a racist Nazi and do not have a right to even express your opinion.

As an American, the whole affair was extremely troubling and confusing, but also nauseatingly familiar.

The tragic and perplexing evil act of last week in Germany brought my Rambla story to mind.

MAGDEBURG, Germany, Dec. 20. 2024 — At least five people are killed and more than 200 injured when a car slams into a Christmas market in eastern Germany. The suspect, who was arrested, is a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia.

German media’s coverage of this tragedy has been misleading. Most headlines referred to him as a "Saudi citizen," completely ignoring his criminal past, threats, and motives. No mention of him as a Saudi fugitive, dissident, criminal. etc. Was it perhaps to cover up for the authorities' astonishing failure? They didn't even call him a terrorist.

In 2006, 'Taleb Abdulmohsen' flees Saudi Arabia after being accused of rape and implicated in serious crimes.

According to the Spiegel, Taleb A. was found guilty in a district court in Rostock and sentenced to a fine on Sept. 4, 2013, for “disturbing the public peace by threatening to commit criminal offenses”.

In addition, despite the German authorities being warned about his threatening statements against Germans by X users, no action was taken.

In short, it was a catastrophic failure in terms of migration and security policy from the German authorities.

Abdulmohsen worked in a government hospital in Germany as a psychiatrist. Shockingly, while holding this position, he is publicly active in criminal activities, including Human trafficking, smuggling underage girls, and encouraging girls and minors from Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries to flee to Germany.

In 2023-2024: Abdulmohsen makes explicit threats against Germany, which authorities dismiss as "freedom of expression." He was active on social media, repeatedly tweeting and posting voice recordings where he made explicit threats against Germany. He openly considered the German government his enemy, claiming that Germany was conspiring against him and against all Saudi asylum seekers. These posts were publicly accessible and alarming, yet German authorities failed to respond or investigate further.

In 2023, a Saudi girl reported Abdulmohsen's terror threats to the German police via their official X account and through their official email. She sent multiple messages, warning that Abdulmohsen repeatedly and publicly threatened to (run over Germans) and kill them on his social media accounts.

Regardless of his motives, the man has a criminal history and had an open extradition request from Saudi Arabia — yet he was still granted asylum and citizenship which gave him the opportunity to commit this evil act of mass murder.

My photos from August 7, 2017: