Same old same old
Signs have pointed recently to something being up, as we noted several times. Something has indeed been up. NYT:
“They were planning massive attacks,” the German federal prosecutor, Monika Harms, said at a news conference, outlining a vast six-month investigation. She said that the suspects had amassed huge amounts of hydrogen peroxide, the main chemical used to manufacture the explosives used in the suicide bombings in London in July 2005.
Ms. Harms said the two German suspects were converts to Islam who had trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan. They had 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide to make explosives, which they had hidden and were preparing to move when they were arrested on Tuesday afternoon. Officials said they also had military grade detonators. German and American officials said that such indicators made them suspect connections to Al Qaeda.
“This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid bombings,” Jörg Ziercke, head of the German Federal Crime Office, said, calling the links to Al Qaeda “close.” German officials were visibly relieved by the arrests, which they said were the fruits of a six-month investigation involving 300 people from the police and prosecutor’s office. On Wednesday, police raided 41 houses and apartments across Germany, seizing computers and other evidence.
One of the suspects, Fritz Gelowicz, a 28-year-old German born in Munich, was under surveillance by German investigators as early as December 2006, after he was seen scouting American military barracks in Hanau as a possible bombing target, according to court documents.
The arrests were made at a vacation home in Oberschledorn, a remote village of 900 people in North-Rhine Westphalia, north of Frankfurt. The suspects had rented the house to store chemicals to make explosives, officials said, and were preparing to leave when security forces swooped in…
The arrests came a day after Danish police arrested eight people in a suspected terrorist plot there. The German interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said there was no evidence of a direct link between the plots, despite similarities, including a suspected link to Al Qaeda.
Best part of the plot: it was government subsidized. “The three had no steady work and were drawing unemployment benefits while their main occupation was the plot, officials said.” Meanwhile, the Herald Sun reminds us of a plot last year in Germany:
In July 2006, two gas bombs were placed on commuter trains but did not explode. Officials said that attack was motivated by anger over cartoons portraying the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper. Several suspects are on trial in Lebanon, and a Lebanese man has been charged in Germany.
So it goes on, year after year, same old same old. Perhaps there will be annual Jihad TV awards, like the Emmys, since the world seems to be getting used to this villainy now, and still appears unserious about dealing with its root causes.