Posted on 08/26/2005 8:38:52 AM PDT by lowbuck
Since Wednesday, Hamburg's streets have been filled with heavily-armed police officers. Clues indicate an impending terror attack, but so far officials have drawn a blank.
CCTV Pictures taken on Wednesday night, in a Hamburg bus, show three men who are suspected by police of planning a terrorist attack.
Around 1,000 police officers spent Wednesday and Thursday looking for suspected terrorist attackers in the North German port city of Hamburg. Twelve check-points were set up in the city center and cars were stopped and searched at gunpoint. Commuters on public transport were also stopped and searched. The hunt was called off in the early hours of Friday morning without any arrests being made.
Suspicions of an impending attack arose on Wednesday evening when a witness informed the police that three man standing in front of a train station had been heard talking in Arabic about heroic acts for Allah. The phrase "tomorrow we will stand before Allah as heroes" was reportedly heard. Police have asked the men to come forward for questioning.
Additional clues pointing to an impending terror attack were also passed on to the police, including CCTV footage. The police have said that they expect more leads to come in on Friday.
So far none of the suspicions have led to anything concrete and Hamburg Senator Udo Nagel has assured the city's citizens that they can travel to work on Friday without fear of attack.
In the last few years there have been numerous alerts of possible attacks in Hamburg, none of which have led to any arrests or concrete leads. Given that some of the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks lived in Hamburg it is understandable that the authorities are somewhat twitchy. But it's clear that the early July attacks in London have the Continent nervous as well.
Forgive me for being so insensitive!
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