Transcript of What we know about the suspect behind Christmas market attack

Outside the cathedral in Magdeburg, Germans are grieving and paying their respects. The deadly attack on a Christmas market here on Friday night has left many bereft.

Well, I've seen a lot of misery. Many people who were searching, many tears, bewilderment, and extreme states of shock.

This is the moment a speeding vehicle plowed into the bustling crowd, killing at least five people, according to German officials, and injuring more than 200. Carnage, but from an unexpected threat.

Well, this is exactly the attack on a packed Christmas market that Germany has suffered in the past and feared could happen again. But what's so unexpected is the profile of the alleged attacker, not an Islamist, but anti-Islam, not a recent immigrant to Germany, but settled here for nearly 20 years. Part of the community, a doctor in a nearby clinic. Very few, if any, saw that coming.

Now, dramatic video has emerged of the suspect's arrest at the scene of the market attack. A US activist group has now identified him as Taleb Al-Abdoulmoussin, a 50-year-old originally from Saudi Arabia, who once described himself as history's most aggressive critic of Islam, particularly opposed to the Saudi regime. On social media, Abdelmosin has repeatedly expressed support for the German far-right AFD Party, also claiming Germany wants to Islamize Europe. Now this horrific attack, allegedly committed by a self-confessed Islamophobe, fueling Germany's growing anti-immigration mood. Our politicians are responsible for this. One local, Barbara, told me. I think there should be a cleanup of people who do these things, she says. Now it's time to close our borders, says this man, Tom. Germany's pain and grief is already giving way to anger.

Well, Jessica, that anger was seen on the streets of Magdeburg earlier this evening because hundreds of far-right activists taken to the streets, calling for the deportation of migrants in the country, shouting slogans, carrying banners, remigration, read the big banner at the front of them. Immigration in Germany has been growing as one of the major political issues in the country. And this attack, just a few days before Christmas, of course, has really poured fuel on the flames, as it were. Jessica.

No doubt about that. Matthew Chance for us there in Germany. Thank you very much. Cnn Global Affairs Analyst, Kim Dozier and CNN National Security analyst, Peter Bergen, both join us now It's good to see both of you. Peter, I want to start first with you, with our sources telling CNN Saudi Arabia sent multiple warnings to German authorities about this suspect that were ignored, the earliest being sent back in 2007. What do you make of those the warnings being dismissed?

Well, I don't exactly know. He had claimed asylum in Germany, and I'm sure the Saud may well... We don't know exactly the precise nature of what they were warning. But presumably, they were hoping that he might get be extradited back to Saudi Arabia. Well, we all know how Saudi Arabia treats people that they consider to be dissidents. Just think about the case of Jamal Khashoggi, who murdered by Saudi officials six years ago. The Germans may well have had good reason to either be suspicious of these warnings in the sense of the Saud don't have a particularly good human rights record, or there may be some other explanation which we don't know.

And Kim, Saudi authorities have alleged that the man harassed Saud abroad who opposed his political views. They also noted he'd become a supporter of the far-right alternative a far-right party alternative for Germany. What are the the politics around this attack?

Well, you could already see with the response in the streets of the city where the attack took place, it is going to likely spur more anti-immigrant sentiment just ahead of the February Snap elections because the government in Germany just dissolved days, a little over a a week ago. And already, the Alternative for Germany Party, which has been labeled by German security services as extremist, it is running second in the polls. An attack like this might well help them get more of a share of government. Could they win? If they would make a major win at the coming elections, it spells a difference in everything from immigration to Germany's Ukraine policy. It's a really disturbing potential fallout from this awful attack. But at this point, if you are in Germany wondering what to make of it, this attacker, he said that he was pro-AfD. He was against the Saudi government. He was against Islam. It's going to raise a lot of questions that make it hard to cast him as the the typical ISIS style attacker. It's going to leave people in Germany wondering exactly what spurred him on to do this.

Peter, I just want to get your thoughts on that same topic.

Well, the big question everybody wants to know is why. The uncomfortable answer is there may be no really good reason. I'm not suggesting that an ISIS attacker has a good reason either to kill innocent civilians, but at least in the case of the Berlin market attack in 2016, it was clearly inspired by ISIS and endorsed by ISIS. But just think about some attacks in our own country. It's still not really clear what the motivations were for Thomas Crooks, who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump. Was it an attempt for notoriety or what? We still don't really know the motivations of the largest mass murder carried out by a shooter in Las Vegas who attacked a group of people attending a concert. We may I don't know the exact motivations of this guy, except that he probably was having some life crisis. He seems to be shopping for grievances. Most of us have grievances, but we tend to grieve them away. Somebody like the alleged Assaulter here is somebody who clearly was not able to get over those grievances and came up with a plan of attack and probably rehearsed it, as many attackers do, or scoped out the Christmas market before he did it.

Clearly, this was what the FBI called the pathway to violence, and he went all the way down it.

Kim, Peter noted that attack in 2016 in Berlin on a Christmas market there. Since then, Germany had gone to at length to try to add additional security layers to these Christmas markets because it is such a soft target, people walking around, very tight quarters, and yet that wasn't enough to protect them in this situation.

Yeah, the main question that still remained after the police gave a press conference today was, how did the doctor manage to access the emergency route into the market? Because this market did have concrete barriers called bollards all around to stop someone from driving in. But there was one area kept clear, specifically for emergency vehicles, and German officials haven't figured out, was there no one on duty there, or did this guy flash his medical credentials? He was driving normally as he started turning in there. He only picked up speed, apparently after he was inside, and it was too late to stop him. Just one of the many questions that Germans are left with tonight. But you can guarantee he was not born in Germany. So I think it's going to fuel those anti-immigrant movements that already exist there and spell a very uncertain future for German politics in the coming year.

Certainly. And Peter, you have to wonder in these sorts of situations, is there a concern for the possibility of copycat attacks? We know NYPD is beefing up its own security around these kinds of markets here in New York, but just that's something we see a lot of in Europe for sure. Is there a concern that this might be, someone might try to replicate this?

If school shooters study Columbine, it almost obsessively often, and school shooters look at other school shootings. Terrorists also copycat other terrorists. I mean, and vehicle rammings have happened in the United States. There was one in Manhattan which killed eight people in 2017. It was a Nusbek American inspired by ISIS. It's perfectly reasonable for law enforcement to be concerned about people potentially copycatting this attack because people have copycatted this approach before.

Just a terrible story, especially a few days before Christmas, and especially with that nine-year-old who is dead and the others who have been injured. Kim Dozier and Peter Bergen, thank you so much. We appreciate your expertise on this.