Germans Arrest Terrorists
German authorities arrested three suspected Islamic radicals intent on bombing US interests in Germany this morning:
BERLIN – Three suspected Islamic terrorists from an al-Qaida-influenced group nursing “profound hatred of U.S. citizens” were arrested on suspicious of plotting imminent, massive bomb attacks on U.S. facilities in Germany, prosecutors said Wednesday.
German Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms said the three, two of whom were German converts to Islam, had trained at camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, a group based in Central Asia. They had obtained some 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide for making explosives.
Yahoo News, with a H/T to Captains Quarters.
Is it just me, or does it seem like Western intelligence is doing a better job of finding and busting these cells before they do real damage? Some will always get through, but I can’t help wondering if our enhanced cooperation after 9/11 has helped.
The three suspects — two Germans, ages 22 and 28, and a 29-year-old Turk — first came to the attention of authorities because they had been caught observing a U.S. military facility in Hanau, near Frankfurt, at the end of 2006, officials said.
All three had undergone training at camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, and had formed a German cell of the group, which officials said was influenced by al-Qaida.
The Islamic Jihad Union was described as a Sunni Muslim group based in Central Asia that was an offshoot of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, an extremist group with origins in that country.
“The group, which is influenced by al-Qaida, set up a German cell in winter of 2006 with the goal of finding recruits here to carry out attacks,” Harms said.
We’ll see how this one develops …
Other resources:
Jihad Watch, Gateway Pundit, Pajamas Media all have links to other stories and blogs.
Short notes on it appear at Little Green Footballs (LGF) and Blue Crab Boulevard.
Comments From Left Field discusses warrantless wiretaps, and the clues in the story that the German authorities worked with US authorities, while Public Secrets makes the same point I do above, that Western intelligence sources seem to be doing a better job of disrupting these plots.
