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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > 3 Muslims arrested in Germany for planning "massive" bombing of Frankfurt airport and US base at Ramstein

3 Muslims arrested in Germany for planning "massive" bombing of Frankfurt airport and US base at Ramstein

Newspapers compare present situation with RAF "Autumn of Terror"
September 5, 2007

German Police Arrest 3 in Imminent Terrorist Plot
By MARK LANDLER and NICHOLAS KULISH Sept 6, 2007 New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/world/europe/06germany.html

Souad Mekhennet contributed reporting from Frankfurt, Mark Mazzetti and Brian Knowlton from Washington and Sheryl Gay Stolberg from Australia. FRANKFURT, Sept. 5 �

The police in Germany have arrested three Islamic militants suspected of planning large-scale terrorist attacks against several sites frequented by Americans, including discos, bars, airports and military installations. The suspects � two German citizens and a Turkish resident of Germany � were in advanced stages of plotting bombing attacks that could have been deadlier than the terrorist strikes that killed dozens in London and Madrid, police and security officials said Wednesday. They said the possible targets included the busy Ramstein air base and the Frankfurt international airport. "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," J�rg 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. One of the three men fled and, in a scuffle with a police officer, wrested a pistol from his holster and shot him in the hand before he was subdued. The officer was slightly wounded, officials said. Residents described the raid, by an elite police unit, as something out of an action movie. The arrests came a day after Danish police arrested eight people in a suspected terrorist plot there. The German interior minister, Wolfgang Sch�uble, said there was no evidence of a direct link between the plots, despite similarities, including a suspected link to Al Qaeda. Six of those suspects have already been released. Germans officials said the attacks could have come within days, noting that the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks falls next week and that the German Parliament will soon take up a politically sensitive debate about extending the deployment of German troops in Afghanistan. "There was an imminent security threat," the German defense minister, Franz Josef Jung, said on state television.

Ms. Harms said the three suspects arrested Tuesday belonged to a German cell of the Islamic Jihad Union, a radical Sunni group based in Central Asia that split from the extremist Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. While this group has not been linked to terrorist attacks in Europe, it has claimed credit for suicide bombings in July 2004 near the United States and Israeli embassies, in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. The group has called for the overthrow of the secular government in Uzbekistan. For months, German officials have warned that the country was under threat of a terrorist attack, in part because of Germany's involvement in Afghanistan. Officials said they were particularly worried by reports of Germans taking part in terrorist training camps in Pakistan, near the Afghan border, and then returning to Germany with a goal of carrying out attacks.

"The modus operandi looks pretty much like the one we had warnings about," said an official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The lesson from this is the danger is not just abstract, it's real," Chancellor Angela Merkel said to reporters in Berlin. The consequences of an attack, she said, would have been "indescribable." Mr. Ziercke said the United States aided German authorities in their investigation. Another security official here said the Americans tipped off the Germans to the existence of the Islamic Jihad Union. President Bush, who is in Australia, was briefed on the arrests, according to Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "He's pleased a potential attack was thwarted and appreciates the work of the German authorities and the cooperation by international law enforcement."

An American intelligence official said Wednesday that suspicions that the cell might be plotting an attack in Germany led the American Embassy in Berlin to issue a warning earlier this year. Twice this spring the U.S. Embassy in Berlin has warned Americans in Germany of the need for heightened security. On March 16, a "warden message" to Americans said that "the U.S. Embassy encourages American citizens resident in and visiting Germany to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to bolster their personal security." On April 20, in another warden message, the embassy said that U.S. diplomatic facilities in Germany were increasing their "security posture." "We are taking these steps in response to a heightened threat situation," the message said, again without providing details. It again encouraged Americans in Germany to increase their vigilance and ensure their personal security.

American officials, who have spoken publicly about Al Qaeda's growing abilities to attack western targets, also say that the group in Germany likely has ties to Al Qaeda operational figures in Pakistan. American spy agencies believe that Al Qaeda leaders have established a safe haven in the western mountains of Pakistan, where they have set up small compounds to train operatives for attacks on western targets. American military officials here said the Germans contacted them on Tuesday evening to warn them about the plot. They did not have further information about a threat to the Ramstein air base. "This was a German-led investigation," Lt. Cmdr. Corey Barker, a spokesman for the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, said. "We do appreciate their commitment to safeguarding us against a terrorist attack." Ramstein is the largest American air base here and a transportation hub for troops deploying to Eastern Europe, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Commander Barker said the base had not lifted its force protection level, which is currently at "bravo," the second-highest designation. Frankfurt's airport, the second-busiest in Continental Europe after Charles-de-Gaulle in Paris, was operating normally on Wednesday morning, said a spokesman for the airport, Robert A. Payne. Last April, the United States warned Americans living and traveling in Germany to exercise special caution because of security threats.

A spokesman for the American embassy in Berlin, Robert A. Wood, said the State Department had not decided whether to issue a new warning. "The successful operation carried out by Germany reminds us that the threat of terrorism is real and requires close cooperation by all like-minded nations, in order to put an end to this scourge," Mr. Wood said. Germany narrowly missed a terrorist attack in July 2006, when a pair of suitcase bombs left on commuter trains in Cologne failed to explode. German officials said that attack was motivated by anger over the publication of satirical cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. Unlike in that case, in which police said the suspects used crude materials to make relatively small explosives, these suspects amassed enough hydrogen peroxide, which when mixed with other chemicals, could yield a bomb with an explosive force equivalent to 1,200 pounds of TNT. Last June, Mr. Sch�uble and his deputy, August Hanning, warned that the terrorist threat was comparable to that in the months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. That plot was largely hatched in Hamburg by a circle of Islamic militants posing as students.

Mr. Sch�uble coupled his warning with a call for stricter anti-terrorism measures. He would like police to be able to conduct surreptitious searches of computers belonging to suspected terrorists. "There is a growing problem with home-grown terrorism that's also evident elsewhere in Europe," Mr. Sch�uble said at a news conference in Berlin. Some critics here have accused Mr. Sch�uble of ratcheting up fears of terrorism in order to push his tougher measures. The debate has been particularly fierce because of Germany's deep aversion since World War II to law enforcement tactics that threaten individual liberties. Souad Mekhennet contributed reporting from Frankfurt, Mark Mazzetti from Washington and Sheryl Gay Stolberg from Australia.

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Germany foils 'massive' bomb plot Three men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning a "massive" terrorist attack on US facilities in the country, officials have said.

Federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the three had trained at camps in Pakistan and procured some 700kg (1,500lbs) of chemicals for explosives.

She said the accused had sought to target facilities visited by Americans, such as nightclubs, pubs or airports.

Defence minister Franz Josef Jung said the men had posed "an imminent threat".

Media reports said they were planning attacks against a US military base in Ramstein and Frankfurt airport.

Surveillance effort

Ms Harms said the men planned to use vehicles loaded with the explosives to kill or injure large numbers of people.

The arrests had prevented "massive bomb attacks", she added.

The suspects, all thought to be in their twenties, were suspected members of the German cell of a group she named as Islamic Jihad Union.

Joerg Ziercke, the head of Germany's federal crime office, said the men had a "profound hatred of US citizens".

They had been under surveillance for six months, but the authorities decided to act when it became clear the men were planning to move their huge stores of hydrogen peroxide.

They were arrested on Tuesday afternoon in a raid on an apartment in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Another 40 raids were also carried out on properties across the country.

'Major targets'

Wolfgang Bosbach, an MP with Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, said the planned attacks "would have had considerable consequences" and might have been timed to coincide with the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US.

Frankfurt airport is continental Europe's busiest, and the base at Ramstein in western Germany is a major transport hub for US military operations.

Germany, which did not send troops to Iraq, has been largely spared terrorist attacks, but there have been growing concerns that Islamist militants are operating in the country.

Six years ago, the northern city of Hamburg was thrust into the spotlight after it emerged a cell had used it as a base for planning the 9/11 attacks

Last summer, two suitcase bombs were planted on commuter trains in several German towns but they failed to explode.

On Monday, two people with suspected links to al-Qaeda were arrested in Denmark on suspicion of planning a bomb attack.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6979295.stm

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Festnahme von Terrorverd�chtigen

http://www.stern.de/politik/deutschland/:Festnahme-Terrorverd%E4chtigen-Wir-Anschl%E4ge/596940.html

"Wir haben Bombenanschl�ge verhindert" "We have thwarted a bomb attack"

"Es war ein guter Tag f�r Deutschland", sagte Generalbundesanw�ltin Monika Harms am Mittwoch bei einer Pressekonferenz in Karlsruhe zur Festnahme dreier Terrorverd�chtiger im kleinen �rtchen Oberschlehdorn im Hochsauerlandkreis. Seit Wochen seien 300 Beamte Tag und Nacht im Einsatz gewesen, um die Terror-Zelle zu observieren. Als die drei Verd�chtigen zum Bombenbau ansetzten, griffen Beamte der Einsatztruppe GSG9 am Dienstag Nachmittag zu.

Dschihad-Union

"Bislang schwerwiegendste Anschlagsplanung"

"Wir haben massive Bombenanschl�ge von islamischen Terroristen in Deutschland vereitelt", so Harms weiter. Die drei Festgenommenen h�tten einer deutschen Zelle des internationalen Terrornetzwerks Islamische Dschihad-Union angeh�rt. Sie h�tten Terroranschl�ge gegen US-Einrichtungen in Deutschland vorbereitet. Im Visier hatten die Verd�chtigen angeblich besonders von US-B�rgern besuchte Einrichtungen wie Discos, Pubs und Flugh�fen. Bei den Anschl�gen sollte es demnach "viele Tote und Verletzte geben. Es war die bislang schwerwiegendste Anschlagsplanung in Deutschland", so Harms.

Zugriff als Bombenbau begann

Das Anschlagsziel k�nnte in Baden-W�rttemberg liegen. Laut Ziercke stammt einer der fgestgenommenen aus diesem Bundesland und "es liegt nahe, dass sie einen Ort aufsuchen, den er genau kannte". Karin Spitra
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MIM: Thwarted terror attacks brings back trauma of "The German Autumn" and the Rote Armee Faktion's (RAF) spree of murder and mayhem which included the kidnapping and murder of German minister Hans Martin Schleyer. Many of the RAF terrorists trained in the Middle East and worked with Islamic terrorists forming a red green alliance. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2763978,00.html

Der Deutsche Herbst - Deutschlands Erfahrungen mit dem Terror

Der Terror der RAF bleibt bis heute ein Trauma f�r die Deutschen - besonders die Entf�hrung von Arbeitgeberpr�sident Schleyer vor 30 Jahren. Staat und Terroristen lieferten sich 44 Tage lang eine beispiellose Machtprobe.

5. September 1977: Ein RAF-Kommando �berf�llt in K�ln die Wagenkolonne von Arbeitgeberpr�sident Hanns Martin Schleyer. Seine vier Begleiter sterben im Kugelhagel, Schleyer wird aus dem Auto gerissen und verschleppt. Es ist der Beginn dessen, was sp�ter als "Deutscher Herbst" bezeichnet werden sollte. Die linksradikale Rote Armee Fraktion will mit der Aktion elf inhaftierte Genossen freipressen. Seit 1972 sitzt die Gr�ndungsgeneration der Gruppe wegen zahlreicher Bombenattentate im Gef�ngnis in Stuttgart-Stammheim, darunter Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin und Jan-Carl Raspe. Sie sind Herz und Hirn der RAF, aus dem Gef�ngnis heraus steuern sie den bewaffneten Kampf.

Bildunterschrift: Gro�ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Tatort der Schleyer-Entf�hrung in K�ln (Archivfoto 1977)

Drau�en ist in der Zwischenzeit eine zweite RAF-Generation herangewachsen. Von ihren urspr�nglichen politischen Zielen wie dem Kampf gegen Kapitalismus, Ungerechtigkeit in der Welt und der Verdr�ngung der Nazivergangenheit � davon hat sich die RAF zu diesem Zeitpunkt allerdings l�ngst entfernt. Jetzt geht es nur noch um "Big Raushole", also die Befreiung der einsitzenden R�delsf�hrer.

Deutschland im Ausnahmezustand

Doch die Bundesregierung will auf die Forderungen der Erpresser nicht eingehen, Bundeskanzler Helmut Schmidt bef�rchtet, dass freigelassene Terroristen neuen Terror s�en w�rden. Vier Stunden nach der Entf�hrung meldet er sich in einer Fernsehansprache zu Wort. "W�hrend ich hier spreche, h�ren irgendwo sicher auch die schuldigen T�ter zu", sagt Schmidt. "Sie m�gen in diesem Augenblick ein triumphierendes Machtgef�hl empfinden. Aber sie sollen sich nicht t�uschen. Der Terrorismus hat auf die Dauer keine Chance."

W�hrend der Entf�hrung Schleyers ist Deutschland 44 Tage lang im Ausnahmezustand. In der Hauptstadt Bonn fahren gepanzerte Autos durch die Stra�en, Ministerien werden mit Stacheldraht verbarrikadiert. Mehrmals t�glich treffen sich die Krisenst�be von Bundesregierung und Bundeskriminalamt. Sie bringen das Kontaktsperregesetz auf den Weg � es wird vom Parlament so schnell verabschiedet wie kein anderes Gesetz zuvor. Das Gesetz verbietet den RAF-H�ftlingen, miteinander oder mit ihren Anw�lten zu sprechen. Denn in der Bundesregierung ahnt man, dass der Anschlag im Gef�ngnis geplant wurde.

Das Bundeskriminalamt startet eine beispiellose Fahndung: Tausende Wohnungen werden durchsucht, wer nicht zu Hause ist, dessen Haust�rschl�sser werden aufgebrochen. Millionen Flugbl�tter mit Fahndungsfotos werden verteilt. Die Polizei ver�ffentlicht Tonbandaufnahmen mit den Stimmen der mutma�lichen T�ter.

Das Feindbild schlechthin

Tats�chlich sind die Fahnder den Entf�hrern ganz dicht auf den Fersen � nur wegen einer Panne bleibt das Schleyer-Versteck unentdeckt. Und die RAF beharrt auf ihren Forderungen. Sie schickt der Bundesregierung ein Tonband mit der br�chigen Stimme Schleyers. "Ich frage mich in meiner jetzigen Situation: Muss denn noch etwas geschehen, damit Bonn endlich zu einer Entscheidung kommt", sagt Schleyer. "Schlie�lich bin ich nun f�nfeinhalb Wochen in der Haft der Terroristen."

F�r die RAF ist Hanns Martin Schleyer das Feindbild schlechthin: Er ist einer, der schon bei den Nationalsozialisten Karriere gemacht hatte und nun in der Bundesrepublik zu den m�chtigsten Wirtschaftsbossen geh�rt. Auf den Titelseiten der deutschen Zeitungen erscheinen in den Tagen der Entf�hrung Fotos, die das RAF-Kommando von Schleyer aufgenommen hat: Im Unterhemd sitzt der Arbeitgeberpr�sident da, die Haare zerzaust, das Gesicht gezeichnet von den Strapazen der Geiselhaft. In den H�nden h�lt er ein Schild mit der Aufschrift: "Gefangener der RAF". "Ein Bild, bei dem man weinen m�chte" � titelt eine gro�e deutsche Boulevard-Zeitung.

In der deutschen �ffentlichkeit denkt man in diesen Tagen des "Deutschen Herbstes" ernsthaft dar�ber nach, die Todesstrafe wieder einzuf�hren; die Mehrheit der Deutschen votiert in einer Umfrage daf�r. Es wird dar�ber diskutiert, wie die Terroristen unter Druck zu setzen seien und ob nicht jeden Tag ein RAF-H�ftling erschossen werden k�nne. Es ist die Hysterie einer ver�ngstigten Gesellschaft. Und der Nervenkrieg ist noch nicht zu Ende.

Unterst�tzung der RAF durch pal�stinensische Terroristen

Bildunterschrift: Gro�ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Die entf�hrte Lufthansa-Maschine "Landshut" (Archivfoto 1977)

Am 13. Oktober 1977 entf�hren vier pal�stinensische Terroristen eine Lufthansa-Maschine mit 87 Menschen an Bord. Die Geiselnehmer unterst�tzen die RAF im internationalen Guerillakampf und wollen den Druck auf die Bundesregierung erh�hen: Sie drohen, die Passagiere zu t�ten, falls die Stammheimer H�ftlinge nicht freikommen. Nach einem dramatischen Irrflug landet die Passagiermaschine in Mogadischu, der Hauptstadt von Somalia. Den Piloten hatten die Terroristen bereits im Mittelgang der Maschine mit einem Kopfschuss get�tet. Die Passagiere erleiden H�llenqualen.

Nach f�nf Tagen, in der Nacht zum 18. Oktober 1977, wird das Flugzeug gest�rmt, von einer deutschen Spezialeinheit, der GSG9. Wenige Stunden sp�ter hei�t es in den Nachrichten: "Die von Terroristen in einer Lufthansa-Boeing entf�hrten 86 Geiseln sind gl�cklich befreit worden. Dies best�tigte ein Sprecher des Bundesinnenministeriums soeben in Bonn."

In den Hinterkopf geschossen

Diese Meldung h�ren die RAF-H�ftlinge in ihren Zellen. Noch in der gleichen Nacht nehmen sie sich das Leben. In das angeblich sicherste Gef�ngnis des Landes hatten sie Waffen geschmuggelt. Einen Tag sp�ter wird die Leiche von Hanns-Martin Schleyer im Kofferraum eines Autos gefunden. Wer von der RAF ihm in den Hinterkopf geschossen hat, das ist bis heute nicht gekl�rt.

Sein Sohn Dirk Schleyer erinnert sich: "25 Jahre war ich damals alt. Da war ich mitten im Leben, im Studium. Und da fehlt er einem schon irgendwo. Weil mit 17 hat man andere Gespr�che als mit 20 oder 30. Aber manchmal spreche ich mit ihm, wenn ich nicht mehr weiter wei�. Aber doch, er fehlt schon sehr."

Der Tod Schleyers markiert das Ende des so genannten "Deutschen Herbstes". Der Staat hat die Konfrontation mit dem Linksterrorismus �berstanden � doch der Preis ist hoch. Die Erinnerungen an das Terrorjahr 1977 haben sich in das Ged�chtnis der Bundesrepublik eingebrannt. Und dass die Geschichte der RAF noch l�ngst nicht Geschichte ist, zeigt sich im 30. Jahr nach dem Deutschen Herbst: Aufgeregt diskutiert die �ffentlichkeit dar�ber, wie viel Vers�hnung der Staat den T�tern von damals entgegen bringen darf, zum Beispiel im Fall Christian Klar. Seit 1982 sitzt er im Gef�ngnis, unter anderem wegen der gemeinschaftlichen Entf�hrung und Ermordung Hanns Martin Schleyers. Sein Gnadengesuch hat Bundespr�sident Horst K�hler im Mai dieses Jahres abgelehnt.

Monika Dittrich

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http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2763946,00.html

Red Army Faction: A Chronology of Terror

In its 28 years of existence, the left-wing militant Red Army Faction group murdered 34 people. Below is a chronology of the group's terrorist activities.

June 5, 1970: A Berlin publication calls for the establishment of the Red Army Faction with the words "Let the armed resistance begin."

May 11, 1972: Bomb attack on US barracks in Frankfurt leaves one person dead and 13 injured.

May 12, 1972: Bomb attack on police station in Augsburg injures five police officers.

May 15, 1972: Bomb attack on the car of Federal Judge Wolfgang Buddenberg. His wife, who was driving the car, is injured.

May 19, 1972: Bomb attack on Axel Springer Publishing in Hamburg. Seventeen are wounded.

May 24, 1972: One bomb attack outside an officers club in Heidelberg followed moments later by a second blast in front of the Army Security Agency, US Army in Europe at Campbell Barracks. Three people are killed, five injured.

April 24, 1975: Occupation of the West German embassy in Stockholm. Four people are killed, two of them RAF members.

January 4, 1977: Attack against US 42nd Field Artillery Brigade at Giessen. Several RAF members are killed.

April 7, 1977: Assassination of Federal Prosecutor General Siegfried Buback. The driver and another passenger are also killed.

July 30, 1977: The director of Dresdner Bank, J�rgen Ponto, is shot in his home during an attempted kidnapping.

September 5, 1977: Chairman of the German Employers' Federation, Hanns Martin Schleyer, is kidnapped. Three police officers and the driver are killed during the kidnapping.

October 13, 1977: A Lufthansa aircraft is hijacked and 87 people taken hostage. The hijacking is ended by German commandos on October 18. 86 hostages are freed alive. The captain of the aircraft had already been killed. Three hijackers are killed.

October 18, 1977: Three RAF leaders, Baader, Ensslin and Raspe commit suicide in prison. Hanns Martin Schleyer is shot in response to the news of the suicides.

June 25, 1979: NATO's commander, Alexander Haig, escapes an assassination attempt in Mons, Belgium.

August 31, 1981: Large car bomb explodes in the parking lot of Ramstein air base in Germany.

September 15, 1981: Unsuccessful rocket attack against the car carrying US Army's West German Commander, Frederick Kroesen.

December 18, 1984: Unsuccessful attempt to bomb a school for NATO officers.

August 8, 1985: Car bomb in the parking lot across from the base commander's building at the Rhein-Main air base near Frankfurt. Two people are killed in the blast and a further man was kidnapped and killed the night before for his military ID card.

July 9, 1986: Siemens manager Karl Heinz Beckurts and his driver Eckhard Groppler are shot in Strasslach near Munich.

November 30, 1989: The head of Deutsche Bank, Alfred Herrhausen, is killed in a bomb blast in Bad Homburg. The case remains unsolved.

April 1, 1991: Detlev Karsten Rohwedder, head of the Treuhandanstalt is shot in his house in D�sseldorf

March 27, 1993: Bomb attacks at the construction site of a new prison. No injuries but much of the building is destroyed.

June 27, 1993: Shoot-out following the attacks on the prison site. One RAF member and one GSG-9 officer are killed.

April 20, 1998: The RAF officially disbands.

DW staff (tkw)

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Germany's autumn of terror happened 30 years ago, but the lessons learnt are still relevant today, says DW's Daniel Scheschkewitz.

The autumn of 1977 was a traumatic one for Germany. The days between the RAF's kidnapping on Sept. 5 of Hanns Martin Schleyer, president of the Federation of German Industries, and the discovery of his body on Oct. 19, plunged the country into a state of emergency. The militant, left-wing group staged the abduction in a bid to blackmail the state into releasing 11 members of its group who were in prison in Stuttgart-Stammheim for numerous bomb attacks.

Bildunterschrift: Gro�ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Daniel Scheschkewitz

Tens of thousands of police officers spent weeks searching for the kidnappers and their hostage. Politicians called for the death penalty. Captains of industry, judges and politicians were considered prime terrorist targets. These weeks marked a watershed for post-war Germany.

Terrorism is a useful tool for political activists who lack influence -- be they the left-wing rebels of Germany's Red Army Faction, al Qaeda fanatics or the Taliban. An act of terrorism is, literally, the last resort of the self-righteous revolutionary who has lost all sense of moderation and humanity. Then, potential targets are not just the captains of industry, judges and politicians, but anyone who simply happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time -- from the businesspeople and tourists milling around the World Trade Center on Sept.11, 2001 to the passengers on a Madrid commuter train and the crowds packed on to a double-decker bus in London in 2005.

Unfailingly, terrorism unleashes panic, whether its target is US imperialism or the "pig state" invoked by the RAF.

When their back is against the wall, societies tend to turn to overreact, employing such standard defense mechanisms as revenge. Anyone who remembers the mood in Germany in the fateful autumn of 1977 will recall the loud clamors for a reintroduction of the death penalty -- and how these calls seemed as excessive a reaction as the US-led attack on Iraq as retaliation for Sept. 11 seemed four years ago, notwithstanding the substantial differences between RAF and Islamist terrorism.

RAF terrorism was a targeted attack against those it saw as "arch capitalists." This was the group's derogatory terms for all those who bore any degree of responsibility in democratic, free-market West Germany. To the RAF, they were "guilty," and victims such as the driver who died in a hail of bullets during Schleyer's abduction, were merely collateral damages. In contrast, the terrorism of al Qaeda might be highly precise in terms of its execution, but it claims lives randomly. Its victims are citizens of the free world. To the RAF, the enemy was the German state. To the jihadists, the enemy is the western world, with all its freedom of belief and rampant consumerism.

Then and now, a society need to show terrorists that it will not be blackmailed. Germany paid a high price for refusing to release the RAF terrorists held in Stammheim -- the life of Hanns Martin Schleyer. Those in charge of negotiations that fateful autumn -- including former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt -- are personally indebted to the Schleyer family. But they believed that the decision they made to sacrifice his life was justified, because they maintained the state's integrity and stability.

In 2007, a similarly steadfast line needs to be taken when innocent hostages are taken by the Taliban in Afghanistan or gangs of rebels in Iraq. Whether it comes in the form of kidnappings or suicide bombings, terrorism can only be dealt with by remaining strong. Negotiations and concessions are grist to the mill of international terrorism.

But remaining strong is far from easy. Thirty years ago, the accusations that Germany's left was made up of "intellectual desk criminals" was an inappropriate as today's attempt to blame Islam for the actions of fanatical Islamist terrorists. Only when religious freedom endures, even in times of terrorist threats, will freedom serve as proof of western strength. And only when the state's protective measures stop short of restricting individual freedoms will citizens start to show a long-term willingness to defend society's values, liberal laws and democracies -- an important principle to remember when the specter of terrorism is looming large.

As the West continues to fight its war on terror, the lessons learnt 30 years ago seem more relevant than ever.

Daniel Scheschkewitz was DW-RADIO's US correspondent and now works as a special correspondent (jp)

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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZpHVzYpg28R0epOfEj1YghBSVKQ

"Massive Anschl�ge" in Deutschland vereitelt

Vor 12 Stunden

Karlsruhe (AFP) � Nach monatelangen Ermittlungen haben die Sicherheitsbeh�rden drei mutma�liche Islamisten festgenommen und damit offenbar massive Bombenanschl�ge in Deutschland verhindert. Von den zur Islamischen Dschihad-Union geh�renden M�nnern sei eine der "schwerwiegendsten Bedrohungen" f�r Deutschland durch den internationalen Terrorismus ausgegangen, sagte Generalbundesanw�ltin Monika Harms in Karlsruhe. Anschlagsziele waren offenbar US-Einrichtungen, aber m�glicherweise auch der Frankfurter Flughafen. Als Konsequenz kommen die Innenminister von Bund und L�nder am Freitag zu einer Sondersitzung zusammen.

Die am Dienstag festgenommenen M�nner hatten sich gro�e Mengen Chemikalien besorgt. Die drei M�nner - zwei Deutsche und ein T�rke - waren in einem Ferienhaus im Sauerland festgenommen worden, nachdem sie offenbar damit begonnen hatten, aus den von ihnen besorgten 730 Kilogramm Wasserstoffperoxid Sprengs�tze herzustellen. �ber die genauen Anschlagsziele k�nnten derzeit noch keine Angaben gemacht werden. Die Polizei spekuliere, dass der Frankfurter Flughafen unter diesen Zielen gewesen sei.

Der Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) erlie� Haftbefehl gegen all drei Verd�chtigen. Die M�nner sind zwischen 22 und 28 Jahre alt und kommen aus Ulm, Saarbr�cken und einem Ort bei Frankfurt am Main. Bundesanwalt Rainer Griesbaum zufolge sucht die Beh�rde noch nach etwa zehn weiteren, teilweise namentlich bekannten Personen, die in den Fall verwickelt sein k�nnten.

Im Zuge der Ermittlungen gegen die dem El-Kaida-Netzwerk nahestehenden Tatverd�chtigen wurden in mehreren Bundesl�ndern insgesamt �ber 30 Objekte durchsucht. Nach der Festnahmeaktion vom Dienstag durchsuchte die Polizei am Mittwoch das Islamische Informationszentrum (IIZ) in Ulm. Die Razzia stehe in direktem Zusammenhang mit den Festnahmen vom Vortag, sagte eine Sprecherin der Staatsanwaltschaft Stuttgart.

Die US-Regierung zeigte sich erleichtert �ber die Aufdeckung der Terrorpl�ne. Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) bezeichnete die Festnahmen der drei Terrorverd�chtigen als einen "sehr, sehr gro�en Erfolg". Nach Einsch�tzung von Bundesinnenminister Wolfgang Sch�uble (CDU) sind die Festgenommenen bei ihren Anschlagsvorbereitungen "hochprofessionell" vorgegangen. Die Tatverd�chtigen h�tten ihre Anschlagsvorbereitungen mit "hoher konspirativer Energie" und Hartn�ckigkeit verfolgt, sagte Sch�uble in Berlin.

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