Germans disrupt terror cell, arrest 3 - U.S. Politics Online: A Political Discussion Forum

MattLarson · #1 (**permalink**) 09-05-2007

Quote:

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- German police arrested three suspected Islamic militants who were planning "massive" and "imminent" attacks on American targets in Germany, authorities said Wednesday.

"The main motivation of the group in Germany is hatred against American citizens and therefore they had as main targets the American military installations," Jorg Ziercke, president of Germany's Federal Criminal Investigation Office, said.

"This could also of course have affected German citizens in restaurants and other places."

Authorities would not elaborate on whether Ramstein Air Base -- the U.S. military's main installation in Germany-- or the major international hub of Frankfurt Airport were among the targets, as reported by German media.

"There are, of course, strong grounds to believe that it could also have been directed at American military installations ... it also could also have been Frankfurt airport, we can't really rule that out," German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

The suspects, two German converts to Islam aged 22 and 29 and a 29-year-old Turk, appeared before a federal magistrate on Wednesday. They were picked up Tuesday after a series of raids in 30 places across Germany, Ziercke said.

They were members of a German terror cell called the "Islamic Jihad Union," and received terrorist training in Pakistan, he noted.

The group, which has links to al Qaeda, was founded in December 2006, he said.

The suspects were believed to have been planning car bombing attacks against discos, pubs, airports and other places frequented by Americans, German federal prosecutor Monika Harms said.

"These weren't just sort of half-professional terrorists -- these were very dangerous, highly professional men," Schaeuble said.

"We were able to succeed in recognizing and preventing the most serious and massive bombings," Harms told reporters.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe...sts/index.html

Kudos to the Bundeskriminalamt.

Matt