thedrifter
09-05-07, 12:51 PM
3 arrested in alleged bomb plot on air base
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Sep 5, 2007 12:12:45 EDT
BERLIN — German authorities said Wednesday they had arrested three suspected Islamic terrorists from a group with a “profound hatred of U.S. citizens” for plotting imminent, massive bomb attacks on U.S. facilities in Germany.
German federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the three, two of whom were German converts to Islam, had trained at camps in Pakistan and procured some 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide for making explosives.
She would not specify what the suspects’ target was, but Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung cited the Frankfurt international airport and the large U.S. air base at Ramstein.
Officials said the 35 percent solution of hydrogen peroxide, stored in a hideout, easily could have been mixed with other additives to produce a bomb with the explosive power of 1,200 pounds of TNT.
“This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid bombings,” Joerg Ziercke, the head of Germany’s Federal Crime Office, said at a joint news conference with Harms.
The three suspects — two Germans, ages 22 and 28, who converted to Islam, 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.
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 three had no steady work and were drawing unemployment benefits while their main occupation was the plot, officials said.
“This group distinguishes itself through its profound hatred of U.S. citizens,” Ziercke said.
Members of Germany’s elite GSG-9 anti-terrorist unit arrested two suspects at a holiday home in central Germany on Tuesday, Ziercke said. A third managed to escape through a bathroom window but was apprehended about 300 yards away by federal police who had roped off the area.
Ellie
The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Sep 5, 2007 12:12:45 EDT
BERLIN — German authorities said Wednesday they had arrested three suspected Islamic terrorists from a group with a “profound hatred of U.S. citizens” for plotting imminent, massive bomb attacks on U.S. facilities in Germany.
German federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the three, two of whom were German converts to Islam, had trained at camps in Pakistan and procured some 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide for making explosives.
She would not specify what the suspects’ target was, but Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung cited the Frankfurt international airport and the large U.S. air base at Ramstein.
Officials said the 35 percent solution of hydrogen peroxide, stored in a hideout, easily could have been mixed with other additives to produce a bomb with the explosive power of 1,200 pounds of TNT.
“This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid bombings,” Joerg Ziercke, the head of Germany’s Federal Crime Office, said at a joint news conference with Harms.
The three suspects — two Germans, ages 22 and 28, who converted to Islam, 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.
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 three had no steady work and were drawing unemployment benefits while their main occupation was the plot, officials said.
“This group distinguishes itself through its profound hatred of U.S. citizens,” Ziercke said.
Members of Germany’s elite GSG-9 anti-terrorist unit arrested two suspects at a holiday home in central Germany on Tuesday, Ziercke said. A third managed to escape through a bathroom window but was apprehended about 300 yards away by federal police who had roped off the area.
Ellie