Terror Threat
May 12, 2007
The report came a day after US television network ABC warned of an imminent attack against Americans in Germany by an al Qaeda cell.
The group, consisting of two German converts to Islam and three German citizens of Turkish origin, belongs to an organisation with ties to al Qaeda called Islamic Jihad Union, news magazine Focus reported, quoting German police and prosecutors.
The men were trained in Pakistan and had already created farewell videos, commonly made by suicide bombers before an attack, the magazine reported in its edition to go on sale Monday.
ABC News said there was particular concern over possible attacks at the Stuttgart headquarters of the US European Command in southwestern Germany.
On Friday however, US and German officials suggested that the news reports of an imminent attack were overblown, insisting the situation had not changed since the US embassy in Berlin last month announced on its website that US diplomatic and consular facilities in the country were increasing their security.
"There is nothing new. This is about the well-known fact that the US authorities several weeks ago felt compelled to issue a warning to their citizens in Germany," a spokesman for the German interior ministry said in Berlin.
German federal prosecutors launched an investigation following the April 20 warning but the ministry could not comment on it or on any operational measures that have been put in place, the spokesman said.
US officials say there's real concern
On April 20, the US embassy in Berlin issued a warning in response to what it termed "a heightened threat situation," although Washington on that occasion played down the danger.
The German interior ministry said at that time there was an "Islamist dimension" to the threat increase.
A US counter-terrorism official, who also asked not to be identified, told AFP the threat information was not specific in terms of timing or precise targets, but was of enough concern to prompt the US Embassy in Berlin to issue a threat warning April 20.
The official said it was not clear whether US military installations in Germany were targeted.
"That's something that people are concerned that could possibly be a target, but you also couldn't rule out the possibility of a soft target, where people congregate," he said.
The official said the information "was really referenced more to Islamic extremists" rather than Al-Qaeda.
"There was sufficient concern that the State Department thought it was necessary and appropriate to put out an advisory several weeks ago," he said.
US embassy warning
The US Embassy in Germany posted a "warden's message" on April 20 on its website, announcing that US diplomatic and consular facilities in the country were increasing their security.
"We are taking these steps in response to a heightened threat
situation," it said. "The US Embassy encourages Americans in Germany to increase their vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their own personal security."
The US European Command in Stuttgart (EUCOM) also reviewed its force protection procedures at the time and advised troops and their families to take appropriate precautions, the defense official said. There are 64,000 US service members in Germany.
"I haven't seen any other things that would say there is any
more of a threat today than there was yesterday," said a second US defense official, who asked not to be identified.
"Certainly the threat remains. Are there terrorists in Germany?
I would say most people suspect so. Do we have a definite that
either Patch Barracks (near Stuttgart) or some other facility is
under imminent threat? I couldn't say that," the official said.
Different perceptions of risk
The embassy warning went generally unnoticed by the US media when it was posted last month although it was reported in Germany.
The German newspaper Der Taggespiegel said at the time that an extremist Iraqi group, Ansar al Sunna, was planning attacks on US citizens and facilities in Germany. It said members of the group had been spying on US facilities in southern Germany.
Ansar al Sunna, which is linked to Al-Qaeda, has claimed
responsibility for attacks in Iraq including bombings in northern
Iraq in May 2005 in which 84 people were killed.
German police had expressed concern in March that the country
faced a higher risk of terrorist attack following an ultimatum issued by Islamic extremists for it to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
About 3,000 German troops are serving in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan.
Six Lebanese men are currently standing trial in Beirut over a failed plot to bomb two passenger trains in Germany last July. The bombs failed to explode because of faulty detonators.
A spokesman for the Social Democrats, who are part of Germany's ruling coalition, said frequent US warnings of potential attacks have put German authorities in an uncomfortable position.
"The United States often issues warnings, and often there has been nothing behind them. This creates a strange situation for the German security authorities," said Dieter Wiefelspütz, the party's spokesman on interior affairs.
But an independent German security expert, Rolf Tophoven, told AFP he believed there was indeed a heightened risk of terrorist attacks in Germany, but that there had been no recent change in the threat level.
"It does not mean that there will be an attack within the next day or two," he said.