Police in Cologne Remove Suspects from Plane http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,580688,00.html
German security officials detained two terror suspects at one of the country's busiest airports on Friday. The men had been under police observation and left behind suicide letters. Sources say they were on their way to join terrorists in Uganda and Pakistan. German federal police in Cologne on Friday arrested two suspected terrorists shortly before the take-off of a scheduled flight to Amsterdam on Dutch airline KLM. The state Office for Criminal Investigation (LKA) in North Rhine-Westphalia, where the Cologne-Bonn International Airport is located, said police arrested two suspects -- a 23-year-old Somalian identified as Abdirazak B. and a 24-year old German citizen born in Somalia called Omar D. -- at 6:55 a.m. LKA spokesman Frank Scheulen told SPIEGEL ONLINE the men apparently wanted to participate in terrorist attacks and die in what they described as the "jihad." Scheulen said the information had been found in suicide letters the suspects had left in their apartments. He added that there had been nothing "spectacular" about the arrests. Officials said the men are residents of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, but would not provide any further details because of the ongoing nature of the investigation. They do not suspect, however, that the men had plans to hijack the plane. According to a report in the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel, the suspects had already been under surveillance for some time, and they had planned to fly via Amsterdam to Uganda and Pakistan. The newspaper, citing unnamed government security sources, reported that the men wanted to become part of the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU). IJU is the same group thought to be responsible for backing plans for car bomb attacks in Germany by a terror cell known as the Sauerland Group, led by Fritz G., a German Muslim convert who took up the radical Islamist cause. Officials arrested G. and two other terror suspects in September 2007 in the Sauerland region of North Rhine-Westphalia. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE, Friday's arrests were made by federal police officers, who are responsible for security at airports. "There definitely weren't any special forces deployed," LKA spokesperson Scheulen said. He added that the two men did not resist their arrest. Just after the arrests, a KLM spokesperson in Amsterdam said, officials asked passengers to temporarily disembark the plane. After inspecting baggage and the aircraft's cabin, the plane departed at 8:24 a.m., about 70 minutes after its scheduled departure. Despite the involvement of federal police at the airport, the arrests are not being considered a national case. "This is an independent investigation of the Office for Criminal Investigation in North Rhine-Westphalia," a spokesperson for the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "In the course of the normal exchange of data between police, we have been informed." However, the spokesperson said she could not confirm whether federal officers had been tracking the suspects because of the investigation. A Nationwide Search In what is apparently a separate case, the German Federal Prosecutor's Office, together with the BKA, made a public appeal on Thursday for information leading to the arrest of Eric Breininger, from the state of Saarland, and Houssain al Malla, from Lebanon, who they believe are planning terrorist attacks in Germany. Der Tagesspiegel reports that the men arrested in Cologne on Friday have admitted to having had contacts with an Islamist in Bonn, who in turn is said to have ties with Eric Breininger. However, a spokesperson for the Federal Prosector's Office told the news agency AFP that the arrests in Cologne had nothing to do with the Breininger case, and that there are no direct links. In videos posted on the Internet, Breininger has made numerous threats to conduct suicide attacks. Police believe Breininger and al Malla's most recent whereabouts was Pakistan, and officials allege the two men visited terrorist training camps along the Pakistani-Afghan border. Earlier this year, federal investigators linked the men to the Sauerland terror group, which they believe was plotting a major attack on US military bases in Germany. Wolfgang Bosbach, the domestic affairs spokesperson in parliament for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, told German news station N24 that there are "solid indications" that the two sought after men "are on their way to Europe and possibly Germany." He said it was "extremely important that we determine their whereabouts as quickly as possible." A spokesperson for the Federal Interior Ministry in Berlin said that the danger level for terrorism in Germany has not risen. Responding to questions about Breininger, the spokesperson said, "there are no concrete indications of plans for an attack. Still, the spokesperson said, "Germany is in the crosshairs of international terrorism," and there has been an increase in the number of Islamist extremist videos in the German language on the Internet. ------------------------------------ -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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