Germany's thwarted bombers: "Not an abstract danger, but a very real threat"
Germany is still reacting to the news of the arrests on Tuesday afternoon of three men in a town in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia who were suspected of having ties to Islamic-terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda, and of planning bombing attacks on Frankfurt's airport and on the United States' Ramstein Air Base. The military facility in southwestern Germany serves as the headquarters for U.S. Air Forces in Europe. It is also a North Atlantic Treaty Organization installation where Canadian, German, British, French, Belgian, Polish, Czech, Norwegian, Danish and Dutch forces are stationed. Frankfurt's airport is the busiest in continental Europe.
The seized, bomb-making chemicals: Why
would any ordinary apartment-dweller need
"massive quantities of hydrogen peroxide"?The three men, all of whom are in their twenties, were identified by German law-enforcement officials as "Daniel S. from the state of Saarland and Fritz G. from Neu-Ulm in Bavaria, both of whom are German converts to Islam, as well as Adem Y., who is believed to be from Turkey. The three, who had apparently founded a terrorist cell, have been under intensive investigation for several months. All three men were considered radical Islamists and had contact with Islamist groups in Germany and Pakistan." They had been staying together in a vacation apartment and, according to a local newspaper in the area where the residence was located, "police from Germany's elite GSG-9 unit had stormed" their hangout.
German authorities zeroed in on the men after they had been "observed moving chemicals that could be used to make bombs....Police believe that the men wanted to experiment in the coming days and weeks with the chemicals and possibly start building a bomb. They were, however, far away from making a bomb that could be detonated." As well as the Frankfurt airport and the U.S. base, the three would-be terrorists reportedly had also considered targeting pubs or nightclubs frequented by Americans. "The preparations for the attacks were, however, at an early stage."
German Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms told the press the arrested men "were two German converts to Islam and a Turkish Muslim" and that they "are being held on charges of membership in a terrorist organization and preparing a bomb attack." Harms indicated that the men "were members of the Islamic Jihad Union, which has its origins in Uzbekistan," and that they had "attended a militant training camp in Pakistan last year...." At their hangout, they had gathered "massive quantities of hydrogen peroxide," the same chemical suicide bombers had used in the 2005 London transportation-system attacks. Harms noted that, "once turned into bombs, the material could have created an explosion with the same strength as 550 kilograms (1210 pounds) of dynamite." German Chancellor Angela Merkel, commenting on Tuesday's arrests, said they showed that terrorist attacks in Germany are "not an abstract danger, but a very real threat."
Jörg Ziercke, the head of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office, pointed out that the Islamic Jihad Union had ties to Al-Qaeda. He said the arrested men were "driven by a hatred of U.S. citizens."
Writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, commentator Berthold Kohler observed: "New York. Madrid. London. And then Frankfurt? Hanau? Heidelberg? The names of German cities could have lengthened the list of those that have been severely attacked by Islamist terrorists who aspire to shake the very foundations of the West. It's good to know that the state knows how to protect the life and limb of its citizens and visitors in the struggle against transnational terrorism. It's inevitably unsettling, though, that this Hydra always grows new heads and tentacles, for a long time now also in our villages and cities....The next attack is perhaps already being planned."
Germany's thwarted bombers: "Not an abstract danger, but a very real threat"
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