Posted on 12/03/2004 3:08:18 PM PST by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
BERLIN, Dec. 3 - German police today arrested three Iraqis who the chief federal prosecutor said appeared to have been planning an attack on Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of Iraq, here for talks with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
The prosecutor, Kay Nehm, said that the men were arrested after a series of raids in three German cities overnight. Intercepts of telephone conversations involving the three suspects had pointed to an attack on Mr. Allawi, he said.
"There were indications pointing to a particular event" in Mr. Allawi's program, Mr. Nehm said at a press conference in Karlsruhe, in southwest Germany.
Mr. Nehm said that in response to heightened concerns about his security, Mr. Allawi canceled a meeting he was to have held with Iraqi exiles on Thursday evening. It was apparently the suspected terrorists' response to the change in Mr. Allawi's program that led the police to believe an attack was being planned.
"Based on the changed program and the reaction in the various telephone calls, one must conclude that the comments in those calls indicate something was planned against the Iraqi prime Minister," Mr. Nehm said.
The German police did not release the names of the suspects who were arrested, but Mr. Nehm said they were all believed to be members of Ansar al Islam, a terror group that originated in Kurdish areas in North Iraq and that the United States has held responsible for numerous suicide bombings in Iraq.
A German intelligence official said that the three had been under observation for at least several months.
Experts on terrorism said that the suspected assassination plot was a sign that for the first time, Iraqi militants were attempting to organize attacks outside their own country..
"This will be a new dimension of terrorism," Magnus Tophoven, director of the German Institute for Terrorism Research and Security Policy, said in a telephone interview..
"The arrests were proof of the thesis that we have in Germany undiscovered cells of Islamist terrorists who are looking for an opportunity to do something," Mr. Tophoven said.
Ansar al Islam, which was founded in 2001 and operated in mountainous areas on the border between northern Iraq and Iran, was routed by American forces during the invasion of Iraq last year. But American officials have said that since then the group has reconstituted itself, largely in partnership with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who has become the leading terrorist chief in Iraq.
Two years ago, Mr. Zarqawi is believed to have given instructions to another Germany-based group, Al Tawid, whose members were accused of collecting information on Jewish targets in Düsseldorf in western Germany. Several Al Tawid members are now in prison here.
"I wouldn't rule out that the same could be the case with Ansar al Islam," Mr. Tophoven said, "because Zarqawi is the mastermind of the rebuilding of that group. He has the capability of coordinating different groups."
A report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a domestic intelligence agency in Germany, estimated that there are about 100 Ansar Al Islam supporters in Germany.
In his statement to the press, Mr. Nehm said that the three suspects who were arrested appear to have acted on the spur of the moment, taking advantage of Mr. Allawi's presence here to mount an attack. He said that the searches conducted of suspected Ansar al Islam premises had turned up no weapons or explosives.
"We haven't found anything yet that suggests an attack," he said.
Mr. Allawi arrived in Germany on Thursday from Jordan as part of an overseas trip that will also bring him to Moscow. After meeting with him in Berlin this afternoon, Mr. Schroder said that Germany was willing to expand its training Iraqi police, a program that Germany has been carrying out in the United Arab Emirates, not inside Iraq itself.
"Both of us are convinced that there is no point in talking about the past and that we must focus our energy on building a democratic, stable Iraq," Mr. Schröder, who strongly opposed the American invasion last year, said at a press conference following the meeting..
"Based on the changed program and the reaction in the various telephone calls, one must conclude that the comments in those calls indicate something was planned against the Iraqi prime Minister," Mr. Nehm said.
There had to be a sleeper planted in the exile group.
ping.
That's one possibility.
And how would the German police know to watch that group of exiles.......hmmmmm.
Dog, you have mail from Fuzzycat. Urgent.
There had to be a sleeper planted in the exile group.
=====
Shhhhhhh... loose lips sink ships !!! ;-))
--Boot Hill
Since this event took place in Germany, can you tell me why you chose to sarcastically belittle the work of our troops and coalition forces on this thread?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.