Big Terror Plot Broken Up In Germany

I saw a couple of early reports on this but waited a bit before posting on it hoping for more details. It looks like the Germans have made a very big terror bust. The three suspects had managed to obtain 1,500 pounds of hydrogen peroxide. One can safely assume they did not have a boo boo that needed cleaning.

Harms declined to name specific targets, but said the suspects had an eye on institutions and establishments frequented by Americans in Germany, including discos, pubs and airports.

Sudwestfunk televison, citing unnamed security sources in Berlin, reported that Frankfurt international airport and U.S. Ramstein Air Base were among the targets.

Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung, appearing on a morning ARD television show, was asked if the airport and U.S. base were targeted.

"I ask you to understand that I cannot say anything about the details. But I will say again, our security forces were very active here and in my view did very good work," Jung said.

He also said: "I can only say that our security forces did very good work in that this action tonight was possible, it also shows how direct the threat situation was."

Later, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was asked about the reports and said that "we don't know exactly what the targets of the attacks were."

The suspects, delivered by helicopter, made a first appearance at a closed hearing at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, which ordered them held pending trial.

Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council, said that President Bush had been briefed on the arrests and that he's "pleased a potential attack was thwarted and appreciates the work of the German authorities and the cooperation by international law enforcement."

Officials said the solution of hydrogen peroxide, stored in a hideout, could have been mixed easily with other additives to produce a bomb with the explosive power of 1,200 pounds of TNT.

"This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid bombings," Joerg Ziercke, the head of the Federal Crime Office — Germany's equivalent of the FBI — said at a joint news conference with Harms.

The three suspects — two Germans, ages 22 and 28, and a 29-year-old Turk — first came to the attention of authorities because they had been caught observing a U.S. military facility in Hanau, near Frankfurt, at the end of 2006, officials said.

This could have been very ugly.

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  By FedUp, September 5, 2007 @ 8:01 am

  Good for the Germans!!!
  I do hope they didn’t violate anyone’s civil rights or indulge in any racial profiling /sarcasm.

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  By feeblemind, September 5, 2007 @ 9:35 am

  Two Germans apprehended eh? What were their names? Mohammed and Muhammed?

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