Muslims never left Europe; so they are not 'back'! B Analysis: Islamist terror back in Europe
Published: Jan. 22, 2008 at 12:31 PM http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Emerging_Threats/Analysis/2008/01/ 22/analysis_islamist_terror_back_in_europe/8513/print_view/ By STEFAN NICOLA UPI Germany Correspondent BERLIN, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Islamist terrorism is back in Europe after Spain arrested a group of terror suspects and Germany warned its Jewish community of concrete attack plans. Spanish authorities over the weekend arrested 14 terror suspects and searched several buildings in Barcelona, Spain's second-largest city. Police said the group, which included 12 Pakistanis, an Indian and a Bangladeshi, was planning a terror attack in Barcelona. Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, Spain's interior minister, said the detainees belonged to a "well-organized group that had gone a step beyond radicalization." Authorities confiscated explosives and four timing devices, Rubalcaba said. "When someone has timers in their home, you have no option but to think violent acts are being planned," he said. Spanish authorities got tips from foreign intelligence services, the interior minister said, and Spanish newspapers have since reported it was a hint from Pakistan that triggered the raids. The arrests come less than two months before Spain faces its general elections on March 9. The coming weeks will see Spanish authorities on high alert: An Islamist terrorist attack on Madrid commuter trains on March 11, 2004, that killed 191 people happened just three days before the last elections. More than 1,800 were injured. Spain's government has been very tough on potential Islamists ever since the deadly Madrid bombings. While arrests happen frequently, suspects are often released within a short period of time because of a lack of evidence. It seems a bit different this time, however: On Monday, Spanish state television TVE reported that the group had planned to attack four targets in Barcelona, including a prayer house frequented by supporters of the late Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, who was killed last month in a gun and suicide bomb attack at an election rally in Pakistan. Spanish daily El Periodico de Catalunya reported that the group was instructed by senior members of al-Qaida to execute the attacks. Observers have linked the terror scare in Spain to the European tour of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, currently on an eight-day tour that will take him to England, France and Switzerland, but not to Spain. Neither will he visit Portugal, but officials there are nevertheless on high alert after Spain tipped of Lisbon that another group of potential terrorists may hide in Portugal. In Germany, Jewish groups and the Israeli Embassy have been warned of an increased danger of terrorist attacks following the arrest of a suspected al-Qaida member in Lebanon. The secretary-general of the Central Council of German Jews, Stephan Kramer, told the Berliner Morgenpost that the German Federal Criminal Office on Jan. 11 told him about the "heightened threat." "But there is no need to be hysterical now," he added. The daily said increased security precautions are taken nationwide, with authorities erecting concrete barriers in front of three buildings in Berlin (the Jewish Museum, a synagogue and a community houses) to prevent possible attacks with vehicles. Police have been warned to be on the lookout for potential attack sources; they have since increased their patrols around Jewish institutions and synagogues. Over the weekend, Berlin police arrested four Arab men who acted suspiciously near Jewish institutions, but three of them have since been released, with the fourth man still being held, but for unrelated charges. And over the next days, the terror scare may travel to the Netherlands: There, authorities are bracing for violent reactions to an anti-Islam film scheduled to be broadcast this week. The film, which claims to reveal the Koran as a "source of inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror," was financed by controversial right-wing politician Geert Wilders. The man has received several death threats in the past. © United Press International. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form. _____ A Pakistan Link in Europe Arrests By Bruce Crumley Details surrounding the weekend bust of 14 suspected Islamist extremists in Barcelona are giving European security forces reason for concern even beyond the evidence suggesting the group was working toward an eventual terror strike. Whereas radicals of North African origin have long been the main jihadist threat in Europe, Spanish authorities say 12 of the 14 men arrested Saturday are Pakistani. The reason that's so troubling, counterterrorism officials believe, comes with the considerable risk of two different arching lines eventually crossing: the fast-growing size of Pakistani communities on the continent, and their close ties to a homeland where Islamist radicalism is rampant. "The concern across Europe is we'll soon be facing the same kind of threat Britain has been fighting for several years now," explains a French counterterrorism official, referring to Pakistani communities within the U.K. whose cohesion and relative insulation have inadvertently created niches for virulent extremist activity well hidden from outside eyes. "What this means is growing numbers of tightly knit Pakistani immigrants around Europe who maintain close and frequent contact with people back home. Against that background, the eventuality of surging radicalism in Pakistan spreading to Pakistanis communities in Europe is virtually a given." Or even established fact. The July 7 London Underground and bus bombings that killed 52 people in 2005 provided proof of just how potent the terror collusion between extremists in Pakistan and ethnic Pakistani Europeans could be. But more piecemeal evidence that the same sort of cooperation has spread to the continent has largely escaped the attention of public opinion. The most recent example came with the Barcelona arrests, where raids on several apartments and mosques turned up materials such as timing mechanisms, ball bearings, and batteries that could have been used for building bombs. Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba called the 14-member cell of 12 Pakistanis, an Indian, and Bangladeshi a "well-organized group that had gone beyond radicalization", and whose possession of apparent bomb-making equipment indicated that "violent acts are being planned." Those Barcelona raids followed arrests in Germany last September, where a trio of radicals were caught with 1,500 pounds of explosive materials that were to be used in bombing strikes on U.S. military bases primarily the Ramstein Air Force base and Frankfurt airport. The operatives in that case underwent terror training in al-Qaeda-allied installations in Pakistan, and similar to the 7/7 London bombers got broad instruction shaping their terror plot from Pakistani mentors. Meanwhile, a French national, Willie Brigitte, who was arrested in Australia while allegedly canvassing a terror strike in 2003, received his training in a terror camp run by Pakistani jihadists. And as far back as December 2001, would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid relied on radical members of France's 50,000-member Pakistani community to prepare his attempt to bring down an American Airlines flight over the Atlantic. As in France, the number of immigrant and ethnic Pakistanis in continental European countries is dwarfed by Britain's official total of nearly 750,000 (that 2001 census figure is, according to some experts, significantly higher today). But Pakistani communities are expanding rapidly in Europe bringing with them the risk of radicals in their midst. "There have been so many trails leading back to Pakistan when plots have been broken up or extremist groups uncovered that it has become second nature to look in that direction when trouble arises," says the French official who nevertheless stresses that the terrorism emanating from jihadist groups in Algeria and Morocco remains the greatest threat to continental European countries today. "To their credit, the Pakistani security services have been good about cooperating with European counterparts to preempt radicals and plots who have come from Pakistan and turned up here." Indeed, while this official could not confirm Spanish press accounts claiming that a tip-off from Pakistani intelligence about a known jihadist's arrival in Barcelona prompted the busts there, he says there are reasons to believe that sort of activist cooperation from Islamabad will continue. For one thing, in his opinion, Pakistani security services clearly have an interest in not seeing any instances of radical violence explode in Europe during this week's visit by President Pervez Musharraf. What's more, both the Musharraf regime and al-Qaeda-linked extremists that Pakistani intelligence agencies are known to have aided in the past remain prime suspects in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Given such suspicions, the official says, Islamabad's reputation could use the restorative effects of helping to fight terror in Europe. "Let's be honest: news inside Pakistan over the past few months doesn't leave Western governments with lots of reasons to continue backing Musharraf," the French official concludes. "Awaiting clear signs of improvement at home, helping the West beat terrorism in its own backyard is the only card Musharraf has left to play." Find this article at: * <http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1705561,00.html> http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1705561,00.html _____ Arrests worry Barcelona's Pakistanis By Eva Millet BBC News, Barcelona The arrests last weekend of 12 Pakistanis and two Indians in the Spanish city of Barcelona have sparked a mixture of disbelief, indignation and sadness among the estimated 25,000 Pakistanis living in the city. Police found what they said was bomb-related material in a number of raids and that the operation was aimed at breaking up an Islamist terror network. About 10,000 of Barcelona's Pakistani community are concentrated in the barrio of El Raval, in the heart of the old city. It has the highest levels of immigration and poverty in the Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia. And it was in the narrow, permanently busy streets of El Raval that the police raids took place. Since 2003 more than 70 people, including a number of Pakistanis, have been arrested in Catalonia suspected of Islamist militant links. However, the authorities insist that this part of Spain is not a terrorism hotbed. The Pakistani community here is worried that this is a message that is not getting through. 'Hard workers' Saturday's arrests "are like a bomb for the image of the Pakistani community here," says Javed Ilyas, president of the Association of Workers from Pakistan. He is particularly upset that police raided a mosque at night, where some of the detained were arrested. He knows some of the people now in police custody. "One was very happy, because his wife was coming from Pakistan. How can you plan to make bombs while you are waiting for your wife?" he asks. Mr Ilyas insists that the Pakistanis living in Barcelona are "hard workers, peaceful, mind their own business and abide by Spanish law. If a few are criminals that doesn't mean we all are the same." Mailik Imran, from Islamabad, owns a shop in the street were most of the raids took place. He has been living in Barcelona for five years and is sceptical about the bomb-related material the police put on display. "I just see two small batteries and some cables... What can you do with that? "I think that the upcoming Spanish elections have something to do with all this," Mr Imran says. Nadeem Ayub lives in the same street. His father was one of those arrested. "He has been living in Spain for 30 years, everyone knows him in the neighbourhood. Now everyone knows he is under arrest even though he is not guilty," Mr Ayub told Barcelona's El Periodico newspaper. 'Taken over' In the Tariq bin Ziyad mosque, one of the two that were searched by the police, the doors are open for prayer. Al-Maruf, the Urdu-speaking imam was also arrested during the raids. The Arabic-speaking imam, who is from Morocco, assured the BBC that they have nothing to do with terrorism. Among the non-Pakistani community in El Raval, feelings about the immigrant community are mixed. A Catalan shopkeeper, who did not want to be named, is critical of the way the Pakistani community has become so numerous. "The authorities haven't controlled how the Pakistanis and the Muslims have been taken over the neighbourhood." But a manager of a local hotel describes the Pakistanis as "people who work hard and do not cause problems". Pakistani immigration to Spain started in the 1970s, but it was in the 1990s when it took off. In 2000, the Pakistani community in Barcelona was very active in the protest lock-ins in several churches, demanding to be given legal status. Nowadays, according to Javed Ilyas, only 5% of Pakistanis in the city are illegal immigrants. Sources of work About 90% of the community are men, running a range of different businesses. Grocery shops, restaurants, butchers and internet cafes have mushroomed in El Raval and its surroundings. Construction and agriculture are also important sources of employment for a community that mainly comes from the Pakistan's Punjab province and Kashmir. Since the al-Qaeda attacks in Madrid in March 2003, Pakistanis have been active in anti-terrorism demonstrations. However, despite the protests of the majority, Spanish intelligence sources say that young Pakistanis living in Spain are the targets for at least one extremist group allied to Al-Qaeda seeking recruits. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7202393.stm Published: 2008/01/22 13:47:43 GMT © BBC MMVIII (F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. 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