Minister: Britain's Plane Bomb Suspects Had Links to Germany
August 12, 2006
"Apparently there were some links between the suspected terrorists and Germany, we are checking those links," the former head of Germany's secret service told the the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in an interview to be published on Sunday. "However, Germany was not a target of these planned attacks," he added.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said Friday there was "no firm indication of a connection with Germany" but that they could not be ruled out and enquiries were underway. Germany's secret service refused to comment.
One of the 24 suspects arrested in Britain was in contact with the wife of suspected Hamburg cell member Said Bahaji, according to the German magazine Focus' forthcoming Monday edition.
Bahaji is the subject of an international arrest warrant over his suspected links with the Hamburg cell, the rear-base used by the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. He had shared an apartment with some of the Hamburg students killed in those attacks and vanished from Germany in September 2001.
Rejects criticism
Hanning rejected criticism voiced towards the British intelligence services this week by Bavarian Interior Minister Günther Beckstein.
"Obviously we sympathize with the fact that not all the most sensitive details can be passed on during a running operation. After all, they haven't caught all the suspects yet," said Hanning.
Beckstein had told the German Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag that he wished Britain had offered precise data "much sooner."