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| Europe |
| CIA warns terrorists targeting German vote |
| 2009-02-02 |
| A CIA official on Monday warned that the US intelligence agency had received indications al Qaeda was planning to launch terrorist attacks in Germany with the aim of influencing the country's general election this autumn. The anonymous official from the Central Intelligence Agency told German news agency DDP that Washington’s intermediaries in Pakistan had supplied information on German Muslims plotting to return from training camps in northwestern Pakistan just a few weeks before the parliamentary election in September to prepare attacks on “high-ranking targets” in Germany. The official said it is highly likely the attacks would be carried out by suicide bombers, who could move unnoticed among society. Al Qaeda wants to use "massive violence" to influence the German voters to push the next government to withdraw German troops from Afghanistan. Referring to concerns recently mentioned by German security services about the increasing number of threats directed at Germany, the official said US intelligence agencies believe that al Qaeda could be planning an attack in Germany “along the lines of the attacks in Spain” in 2004. The danger in Germany, unlike Spain, is that a considerable number of Muslim terrorists are living there covertly – some of them Germans who have converted to Islam. These people offer considerable support to those returning from training camps. “We know from our German colleagues how difficult it is to detect Islamist terrorists with a German background and who even look German,” explained the CIA official. Bekkay Harrach, a German with Moroccan roots who is reportedly the head of strategy for al Qaeda, has threatened attacks in Berlin, Cologne and Bremen shortly before the elections on 27th September if Germany does not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. Amid growing terrorist threats against Germany, the police union GdP warned on Monday of poor security across the country. “The situation is very serious,” GdP head Konrad Freiberg told the Dortmund paper. “Everyone is talking about bailouts for banks and companies. We finally need a functioning protective shield against terrorism,” he said. Since September 11, 2001, some 10,000 more police posts have been filled in Germany, but it is still not enough, he said. “We are not at all in the position to conduct around the clock surveillance on the so-called 'threats,' a group of some 60 to 100 people,” Freiburg told the paper. “We don’t have the personnel.” But Germany, as the third largest contributor of troops to Afghanistan, is a major target, he said. “The terrorism danger is there, but not ubiquitous,” he said. “As long as nothing happens, awareness of the problem is missing.” |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #7 "Terrorists who break the rules probably wake up with their head surgically attached to the body of a pig." Naahhh, 'moose - the Germans have too much respect for pigs. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-02-02 19:09 |
| #6 The terrorists had better watch out. The German police have no tolerance for terrorists committing unlicensed acts of terrorism. There are rules for everything in Germany. Terrorists who break the rules probably wake up with their head surgically attached to the body of a pig. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2009-02-02 17:48 |
| #5 Hopefully, it doesn't come to pass. AQ doing anything except dying is detrimental for the free world. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2009-02-02 13:21 |
| #4 Yes, he pretty much lied when this was raised during the election, didn't he Ed? A deafening silence from the left on such things, of course. |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-02-02 13:18 |
| #3 Report: Barack Obama's Al Qaida initiative began months before his election Barack Obama was working with Arab intermediaries to establish an unofficial dialogue with Al Qaida long before his election as the 44th U.S. president, according to a report in the upcoming weekly edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com. Al Qaida has offered what has been described as a truce in exchange for a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to the report. Obama has deemed the U.S. reconciliation with the Muslim world, including Iran, as his main foreign policy goal, sources quoted in the report said. The president has been aided by several Persian Gulf Arab Muslims with ties to Al Qaida's leadership in Pakistan, they said. On his first day in office, Obama ordered the shutdown of the U.S. Navy prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which where 245 suspected Al Qaida members are detained. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-02-02 12:49 |
| #2 Obama has never suggested diplomatic outreach to AQ, or that diplomacy should be our ONLY tool. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2009-02-02 12:31 |
| #1 Awww. What happened to the fruits of popularity and vigorous diplomacy of the empty suit president? No magic protection from idiot jihadists? I'm stunned. Still unlikely I'd read beyond the headline if any Euro country were hit with a mass-casualty attack. I would look for hilarious gymnastics from the idiots now passing as journalists and pundits and analysts, however, between bicycle and handgun shopping errands. |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2009-02-02 12:26 |