The "Welt" blurb about the suspect being in Germany a week is a bid to get the story off the radar screen, IMHO.
The "FAZ" article above didn't pull any punches. Violent tendencies, connections to radical islam and Hamas, there's more of them, ready to be picked up and not just in Hessen.
"Spiegel'", which I read alot because I think they are good with breaking stories, used vorbereiten yesterday, which I thought was funny. I looked it up in Duden just to be sure there weren't cases where you could use it in the place of planning.
You get ready or prepare for a bombing after you plan it, right? Getting ready means the foot soldiers are collecting materials in Germany, planning means the masterminds are sitting in a safe location (Germany) drawing up ways to kill hundreds of people. When "Spiegel" flat out asked the question today if the attacks were planned in Germany, I concluded that my original theory was right. The press was vigorously investigating if they were planned in Germany, but "Spiegel" didn't have enough yesterday to flat out say it.
I find "Spiegel" to be very careful with their language, and they are good at it, too. I like the idiomatic phrases "Spiegel" writes with. The word vorbereiten rang a bell yesterday for some reason. Planning the attack is a lot harder to reationalize away than preparing for it. The suspect could prepare for the bombing in a week, but probably not plan it.
I have Tin-Foil hat tendencies, too.
I saw that Stoiber mentioned something about the security issue this AM. This would be a Schroeder killer. We'll have to see if it gets spiked or not.
longjack
Not sure about the "one week" story - is a bit of a reach, but "could" be true ("courier" who needed a cover story comes to Darmstadt and stay with a "friendly" but otherwise "innocent" colleague - checks out the local college [interestingly Darmstadt University = DU] then returns to "the front").
The group with "violent tendencies" refers to others who have lived in southern Hesse for "many years" and are "known" to the BKA, LVA etc... There was some talk of a mosque in Frankfurt which has been under investigation.
There seems to be a great deal of confusion regarding the "suspects".
As I read it, we have:
1) The man who came to Darmstadt in Oct 2003 (info was requested on him from the Spaniards in 2002, but the German response was "I know nothing!")
2) Several other Moroccans arrested in Spain who had previously lived "for many years" in Hessen and where known to have had "violent tendencies".
3) Possibly some Syrians "somewhere" in Germany.
4) the resident of the apartment in Darmstadt (not the same as the courier).
So - hypothesizing -
In 2002 "The Electronics Guy" becomes known to the Spaniards. Obviously he must have been involved in some type of "subversive" activity. At this time, the Spaniards, for whatever reason, assumed that German Intelligence Agencies might know something about him. No information was provided, but his name was registered in Germany.
In October 2003, the Electronics guy travels to Darmstadt and lives temporarily at a safe house. For cover, he looks into enrolling at DU (enrollments are done in the summer!!). During this time he meets with the foot soldiers and informs them of the progress of the plan.
After one week, he returns to Spain to finalize preparations with the local group.
Neither the German nor the Spanish group would know about each other - only the electronics guy knows "who is who".
he may also have received instructions from his leaders while in Germany (the Syrians??).
The foot soldiers depart for Spain - probably as individuals and spread out over the course of several weeks. The departure of "known extremists" for points unknown did not seem to cause the Germans any headaches.
Probable arrival in Spain - end of February.
The Electronics Guy runs them through the plan (dry runs) several times prior to 3/11.