Germans Warned of Possible Attack
washingtonpost.com
By Stephen Graham
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, December 15, 2001; 7:24 PM
BERLIN –– German police have been warned by a foreign security agency about a possible terrorist attack here, a spokeswoman said Saturday, confirming a magazine report that said a terror cell could strike as early as this weekend.
The news weekly Focus reported that the warning came from authorities in the United States and said a three-strong terrorist group may be planning to launch an attack in the coming months.
Citing a telex from federal police to the office of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and other security agencies, the report said an attack might be timed to coincide with the end of Islamic holy month of Ramadan this weekend and target public transport.
Birgit Heib, a spokeswoman for the Federal Criminal Office, said security officials met to discuss "indications from a foreign agency that require heightened attention," but declined to give other details.
The alert raises the prospect that another terror cell may be using Germany as a base to plan and carry out attacks. Three of the suicide pilots in the Sept. 11 attacks had lived as students in Hamburg, while police arrested suspected members of another terror ring in Frankfurt a year ago.
Heib gave no details about precautions.
U.S. authorities have issued several warnings of further attacks on American targets such as bridges and gas pipelines, especially if Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks, or Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar are captured or killed.
In Germany, a senior lawmaker for Schroeder's Social Democrats complained that the latest "vague" threat had been made public, arguing that it could cause undue panic.
"If it becomes concrete, the public will certainly also be informed," Dieter Wiefelspuetz told Inforadio. "We don't have this concreteness at the moment."
German investigators are working with their American counterparts to uncover how the Sept. 11 attacks were planned and financed, and to trace links between the Hamburg cell and other radical Islamic groups, including bin Laden's al-Qaida organization.
Heib declined to comment on a report Saturday in the news magazine Der Spiegel saying the fingerprints of Ramsi Binalshibh, one of three fugitives sought by Germany suspected of helping plot the attacks, were found on documents relating to the transfer of money to a suspect in the United States.
The money was sent to Zacarias Moussaoui, a French national who was indicted Tuesday for conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks.
© 2001 The Associated Press |
