The Islamic cell broken up in Germany had no concrete plans
Three suspected Islamists arrested on Friday in the cities of Düsseldorf, Bochum and Essen, in the region of North Rhine-Westphalia, were preparing an attack in Germany and one of them had links with Al Qaeda deputy attorney general said yesterday the German, Rainer Griesbaum . The police reports provided on this "cell Düsseldorf" follow the usual pattern of ambiguity.
The three men arrested are aged between 19 and 31 years. Two of them are German citizens, one a graduate of Iranian origin and one of Moroccan origin. The third is a 29 year old Moroccan who might have received "training in an al Qaeda camp" located on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The third man could be the "prime suspect." He lived in Germany since 2010 and had contacts in Austria, Morocco and Kosovo.
The alleged Islamic cell could be composed of "seven or eight," although, "could be more," said the head of the Federal Criminal Agency (BKA), Jörg Ziercke. "Therefore we can not turn off the alarm (declared in February with profuse surveillance measures) in Germany," said Ziercke. "We have to continue relying on the risk of Islamist terrorist attacks in Germany," he added in comments reported by DPA. Germany has never been the scene of Islamist attacks.
Although the Interior Minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich said in a statement Friday that "we have avoided a concrete and imminent danger," the state of the plot of the detainees is itself described by police as "experimental phase." There was no plan, no particular place to attack, although the intent in a place with large crowds of people, they say.
Several national media, fed by the police themselves mention from the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Düsseldorf, to transportation. The website of Süddeutsche Zeitung mentioned small quantities of chemical material in the possession of the detainees, who had not yet been developed to be converted into explosives. In any case, detainees were subjected to police surveillance "for months." They were arrested as they prepared to prove "explosive" and for that reason, recalling the case of the previous "cell" dismantled in 2007, the "Sauerland Group" composed of two German converts to Islam and a Turkish pedigree Contributor secret service, which the police themselves provided the explosive.
According Ziercke the three detainees, who had their communications and computers seized, had "entered into with joy" the news of the deadly bombing Thursday in Marrakesh, with 16 fatalities. "That might encourage them," said the policeman, so we decided to accelerate the arrests. According to the website of the weekly "Der Spiegel", the CIA and the Moroccan secret services cooperate with German police in the investigation of this case.
Germany has the third military contingent in Afghanistan, of 5000 soldiers, behind American and British, and houses in its territory some of the major American military bases in Europe, which theoretically makes it a potential target of Islamist attacks never materialized .
