Germany +Terror Plot Uncovered+
Germany - Few details have been released, but German investigators say they have uncovered a terrorist plot and at least six people were arrested for an alleged plot to blow up a passenger airplane with a bomb in Germany.
German police questioned the suspects over the alleged plot, but five were released, the federal prosecutor's office said.
It all started when several suspects allegedly approached a contact in the summer who had special access to a restricted airport zone, and there plan was to plant explosives in a piece of luggage, investigators said, without giving further details. One of those arrested remains in custody in connection with another investigation.
Nine apartments were searched in Rhineland-Palatinate state and Hessen.
posted by VOS IZ NEIAS @ 11/20/2006 07:01:00 AM
3 Comments:
At 9:16 AM,
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At 1:26 PM,
Anonymous said…
BERLIN, Nov 20 (Reuters) - German authorities are investigating a number of people in connection with what they suspect was a foiled plot to smuggle a bomb onto a passenger plane, the Federal Prosecutor's Office said on Monday.
German security sources said on condition of anonymity that the plane would have been at Frankfurt International Airport, one of the world's busiest. German newspaper Die Welt cited security sources as saying the target was a plane of Israel's El Al airline.
An El Al spokeswoman in Israel said the company does not respond to reports about security matters.
Prosecutors in Karlsruhe said they were investigating six suspects whom they had identified and a number of unidentified suspects. None of the names have been made public.
Several of the suspects had approached someone during the summer who had access to the security department at a German airport and who had expressed willingness to smuggle a suitcase or bag onto a plane for payment, a statement said.
The suspects repeatedly made contact with the person but were unable to agree on a price for planting a bomb, it said. Die Welt said the person was a male employee of Frankfurt airport.
"The suspects were temporarily taken into custody and informed of the suspicions against them before they were released on Saturday, with the exception of one wanted in connection with another crime," the office said.
The men are suspected of being members of a terrorist organisation, the office said. It did not explain why the suspects, who remain under investigation, had been released.
"I can't comment on the particularities about the decision to release them," said a spokesman for the interior ministry. Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency also declined comment.
The prosecutor's office said it had searched nine apartments on Friday in the western German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse to gather evidence.
It gave no details about the nationality of the suspects.
Police uncovered a failed plot by two young Lebanese men to detonate suitcase bombs on trains in western Germany in July.
A Hamburg-based al Qaeda cell has been blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked-plane attacks on the United States. Since then, Germany has cracked down on Muslim militants living here and has put on trial a number of radical Islamists.
At 8:29 PM,
Anonymous said…
Six people are under investigation in Germany over an alleged terrorist plot to blow up an El Al Airlines commercial aircraft in Frankfurt, prosecutors said Monday.
The six, as well as other people who have not yet been identified, are believed to have conspired on behalf of "as yet unknown" terrorist backers, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
None of the names or details of the suspects have been made public, although a security source told Reuters the suspects were from Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq. Der Tagesspiegel newspaper reported that most were Jordanians of Palestinian origin.
El Al sources said Monday evening they were surprised to learn of the report. According to the source, the airline, a national flag carrier, had not been notified by German authorities of the incident and but learned about it from media reports.
The sources said that El Al was not involved in the interception of the plot, and none of the information was obtained within the airport or during the security checks performed by airline personnel.
The suspects, who could face charges of belonging to or supporting a terrorist organization, were temporarily detained on Friday, but five of them were released Saturday after questioning. The remaining suspect was kept in custody over an unrelated matter.
Under German law, authorities must release suspects after a maximum of 48 hours unless they have enough evidence to convince a judge that they can be held in long-term investigative custody.
According to an official statement, some of the suspects approached an airport employee with security clearance at the Frankfurt International Airport last summer, and convinced the person to smuggle a case or bag containing explosives onto an El AL plane in an exchange for an unspecified payment, it added.
Preparations were halted, however, because the plotters disagreed with the airport employee over the amount to be paid for his part in the plan.
Prosecutors would not elaborate on the circumstances of the ongoing case, nor give any more details about the suspects.
They said nine apartments were searched in the state of Hesse and the neighboring state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Germany's biggest airline, Lufthansa, said it was not the target.
Interior Ministry spokesman Stefan Kaller declined to comment on details of the alleged plot, its timing, what specific airport was involved or why the suspects were released, pointing to the ongoing investigation.
"This case is encouraging in that our security authorities are clearly very observant, get very close to possible (terrorist) structures and, at least so far, have succeeded in intervening early enough," Kaller told reporters.
Four Arab men were convicted in a German court last year of plotting to bomb Jewish targets in Berlin and Duesseldorf in 2002 under orders from the late leader of al Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed by the U.S. military in June.
Police uncovered a failed plot by two young Lebanese men to detonate suitcase bombs on trains in western Germany in July.
A Hamburg-based al Qaeda cell has been blamed for the September 11, 2001, hijacked-plane attacks on the United States. Since then, Germany has cracked down on Muslim militants and has put on trial a number of radical Islamists.
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