Mystery Deepens Over Couple Arrested With Explosives Near U.S. Base in Germany

New York Times ^ | 9/07/02 | MARK LANDLER

[kattracks]

EIDELBERG, Germany, Sept. 7 — Neighbors and co-workers describe Astrid Eyzaguirre as a chatty, vivacious woman who bounced through several jobs at the military shopping center in this romantic university town where the European headquarters of the United States Army is based.

It may have been her chattiness that led Ms. Eyzaguirre to warn a colleague at the liquor store where she worked not to come in next Wednesday, Sept. 11. Something bad, she said, was going to happen that day.

Her colleague reported the remark to the military police, according to several people who work at the shopping center, and the military tipped off the F.B.I., which told German authorities. At midday on Thursday, the German police turned up at the apartment shared by Ms. Eyzaguirre, 23, who was born in Germany of an American father and a German mother, and her fiancé, Osman Petmezci, a German of Turkish background. They lived in the village of Walldorf, 16 miles south of here.

The police found 287 pounds of chemicals, five pipe bombs, and a picture of Osama bin Laden in the apartment, and immediately arrested the couple, on suspicion of plotting an attack on the American military at Heidelberg.

German officials said they doubted that the couple had links to Al Qaeda or other terrorists, but Mr. Petmezci, who worked at a chemical plant in nearby Karlsruhe, was initially described as a religiously motivated anti-American.

Interior Minister Otto Schily said today, though, that, "Based on what we know so far, we are dealing with an individual who has shown no indication of participation in a terrorist network."

Turkish militant groups exist in Germany, but Turks have not figured prominently in the investigations related to the September attacks. Federal prosecutors have not decided whether to handle the case, while state authorities in Baden-Württemberg, where Heidelberg is located, say the suspects are not cooperating. That has deepened the mystery surrounding Ms. Eyzaguirre and Mr. Petmezci, 25, who was brought up in Germany by a pious Muslim family.

On Thursday, the interior minister of Baden-Württemberg, Thomas Schäuble, said Mr. Petmezci "seems to be a follower of Osama bin Laden who is deeply religious and harbors a hatred for Americans and Jews." Mr. Schäuble added that he had information that Ms. Eyzaguirre "hated Jews as well."

At the shopping center, where talk of the arrests was on everybody's lips, people who knew Ms. Eyzaguirre were baffled.

"She was absolutely the last person you would expect to get mixed up with a religious fanatic," said a sales clerk, as he checked the identity cards of entering customers.

Compounding the shock among people here, Ms. Eyzaguirre holds an American passport. Her father was in the United States military, an American official said.

Jessica Rosarius, who lives two doors down from the couple's apartment and works in a bar on a nearby base, said, "What really upsets me is that she is an American and that she was planning this."

People who know Mr. Petmezci say his father and uncle are active in Islamic groups in Walldorf, which has a large Turkish population and a recently built mosque on the outskirts of town. But they said Mr. Petmezci was not himself outwardly fervent.

"His father and he did not have much to do with each other," said a postal worker who is Turkish and lives next door to Mr. Petmezci's parents. "He was like anybody, just a normal guy."

Karl Henz, who lived downstairs from the couple, said he sometimes encountered Mr. Petmezci in the evenings when he and Ms. Eyzaguirre went out to a disco. He said Mr. Petmezci was unfailingly courteous and seemed concerned about his clothes and appearance.

Ms. Rosarius said Mr. Petmezci spoke excellent English. She said she sometimes saw him driving Ms. Eyzaguirre's car, a white Honda with United States military license plates.

Ms. Eyzaguirre was an employee of the PX, military parlance for the post exchange, the shops for soldiers and their families. She had a pass that allowed her entry to the PX and other base facilities without an extensive search.

The exact target of a possible plot is not clear, but this medieval town is rich in opportunities. About 16,000 American military personnel and their families live in Heidelberg, many near Campbell Barracks, which houses NATO offices in addition to the army's European headquarters.

Three soldiers with automatic weapons guarded the main entrance of the base today. Officials said they had not clamped down on security since the arrests, though it had been tightened after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The headquarters is in a 1930's-era building next to a main road. Though it is protected by concrete barriers and barbed wire, a car or truck laden with explosives could get within 20 feet of it. Apartments housing military families line both sides of the road. They have only low hedges and an occasional sentry post. Children play on a jungle gym with nothing separating them from the street.

At the PX, a mile from Campbell Barracks, soldiers checked cars at the entrance, pulling aside a few for random inspections. Still, the parking lot was full and shoppers did not seem visibly alarmed.

"I think people are taking this in stride," said Col. Carl J. Kropf, the chief of public affairs for the army's European headquarters. "I think people understand the context in which we live these days."

Col. William Taylor 3d, the commander of the Army Air Force Exchange Service in Europe, which oversees PX's, paid a visit to the shopping center early this afternoon to reassure visitors about security.

Not everyone was easily soothed. Soorin, who has run the dry cleaner at the PX for 35 years and who would give only her first name, said: "Of course I'm afraid of an attack. I'm afraid every day." She hastened to add that she was of Armenian, not Turkish, background.

[Miss Marple]

THIS is why random searches on planes are necessary.

John Walker Lindh
Richard Reid
Jose Padilla
Astrid Eyzaguirre

None of these people would be detected by profiling. All are terrorists.

[demlosers]

Heidelberg community tense after arrests

By Jon R. Anderson, Stars and Stripes European edition, Sunday, September 8, 2002

Pvt. Antonio Hollie, front, and Spec. Michael Sabol guard the front gate of the Army's headquarters at Heidelberg, Germany.

Bomb-plot suspect Astrid Eyzaguirre worked at this military liquor store at the Army shopping center in Heidelberg.

HEIDELBERG, Germany — Anxiety was running high among U.S. soldiers and their families in Heidelberg on Saturday amid revelations that a terrorist plot may have been narrowly thwarted in recent days.

And while the plot itself was enough to get everyone’s attention in this picturesque tourist city in southeast Germany, it is the news that an American, working for one of the local post exchange stores, is among the suspects that is leaving most people shocked.

Responding to a U.S. tip, German authorities arrested Osman Petmezci, 25, and his fiancée, American Astrid Eyzaguirre, 23, in the Heidelberg suburb of Walldorf on Thursday on charges that they were preparing to blow up U.S. facilities on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Heidelberg is home to about 16,000 soldiers, family members and Army civilians and is the headquarters of U.S. Army Europe.

Jon R. Anderson / S&S
Pvt. Antonio Hollie, front, and Spec. Michael Sabol guard the front gate of the Army's headquarters at Heidelberg, Germany.

Authorities said Saturday that the couple appear to have no link to the al-Qaida terror organization.

“That one of our own was involved, that’s the scary part,” said Army spouse Vanessa Stokes-Tabb while shopping in the same center where Eyzaquirre worked. “How can you screen Americans for something like this? It’s very scary.”

Jon R. Anderson / S&S
Bomb-plot suspect Astrid Eyzaguirre worked at this military liquor store at the Army shopping center in Heidelberg.

While Eyzaquirre worked at the Class Six liquor store at the shopping center, her ID card would have given her access to virtually all of Heidelberg’s military installations, including the Army’s headquarters compound known as Campbell Barracks.

Police found 287 pounds of chemicals, five pipe bombs that could have been used to detonate the chemicals, and a picture of Osama bin Laden in the couple’s apartment, German officials say.

The weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday that Eyzaguirre had expressed admiration for bin Laden to a friend, and that she had warned the friend to stay away from the post shopping facilities in the coming days. The friend reported the warning to U.S. military police.

While the overall threat condition remains stable, security was tightened slightly throughout Heidelberg with additional guards posted at several locations and a beefed-up presence by German police.

“Obviously, this is something that causes us to pay a lot of attention,” said Col. Carl Kropf, spokesman for Gen. Montgomery Meigs, commander of the Army’s approximately 62,000 troops in Europe.

Addressing concerns that more plotters still may be lurking, Kropf said, “That’s why we have force protection in place — to serve as a deterrent and to be the eyes and ears of the command.”

Kropf encouraged soldiers and family members to report “anything out of the ordinary.”

“We just want people to remain vigilant,” he said.

Sgt. Aye Ba, the sergeant in charge of the platoon of troops manning posts at Heidelberg’s shopping center Saturday afternoon, said that’s exactly what his soldiers are doing.

“Nobody is going to get past us,” he said.

While military shoppers continued to flow into the small fenced-in compound throughout the day, Ba said there has been a palpable level of anxiety in the air.

“People are shocked,” he said. “We all are. It’s unbelievable that one of the people plotting something like this could have worked right here.”

The shopping center was the scene Friday of another mysterious arrest.

Two ethnic Albanian men, one of them another Army and Air Force Exchange Service employee who has worked as a barber here for seven years, were hauled away by German police after U.S. Criminal Investigation Command agents arrested them Friday afternoon.

U.S. officials have remained tight-lipped about the case, referring all questions to German authorities. While German police say the two sets of arrests are not related, they have so far not released any details on why the two ethnic Albanian men were apprehended.

“They say it’s not connected, but I don’t believe it,” said one soldier who witnessed the arrest. “They evacuated the whole building in a big hurry. They were worried something was going to happen.”

Neighbors in Walldorf, a town of 14,000 that houses a large American military community, described Petmezci and Eyzaguirre as “pretty friendly.” But one man recalled that Petmezci openly discussed his hatred of Jews.

Despite Petmezci’s Islamic beliefs, Jürgen Meyer said they’d drunk beer together watching soccer — and that in the context he didn’t take the talk seriously.

“I thought it was all nonsense,” Meyer said.

Jessica Rosarius, who lives on the same floor as the couple, said she saw Eyzaguirre standing in the hall outside her third-floor apartment shortly after noon on the day of the arrests.

“I asked her if she locked herself out and she said, ‘Long story,’” Rosarius said.

As she left the building, Rosarius said she saw several police vans and a police dog unit, but did not see authorities remove anything from the apartment.

Though both Rosarius and Eyzaguirre are German-Americans, roughly the same age, living in the same building and working on base in civilian jobs, Rosarius said their interaction was confined to casual greetings and that neither had visited the other’s apartment.

Nor, Rosarius said, did she ever pick up any anti-American sentiment from Petmezci.

Despite any concerns that more attackers still may be plotting, many refused to allow their anxiety to stop them from getting out on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

“I’m relieved they caught them, but if I let something like this disrupt my life, then the bad guys are winning,” said Sgt. Keith Mattison, with the 501st Military Intelligence Battalion, based in Wiesbaden.

Across town, the news didn’t stop the annual German-American Volksmarch either.

Several military families participating in the community hike, however, said their guard is up.

“We’re very concerned,” said the wife of a USAREUR officer, “especially because we live in off-post housing.”

“I think everyone is worried,” said a medical officer who works at the nearby Army hospital. “As a soldier, you kind of expect danger, but as a father, there’s certainly concern.”

Bill Henry, a Patch High School football coach who had brought his team from Stuttgart for a scrimmage with Heidelberg High, said his students “were just shocked.”

“We were just worried it would cancel our game,” said one of the players while eating Popeye’s chicken at the shopping center.

Sean Martin, civilian employee with the Army’s Child and Youth Services, said he hopes the incident leads to a review of AAFES’ hiring policies and, perhaps, better background checks.

“It’s a tough issue,” he said, “I’m just not sure how you can control something like that.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=10372

[JCG]

Interior Minister Otto Schily said today, though, that, "Based on what we know so far, we are dealing with an individual who has shown no indication of participation in a terrorist network."

Uh, huh. It's always that way -- at first.

Here's a happy thought from Middle East expert Daniel Pipes:

Islamists constitute a small but significant minority of Muslims, perhaps 10 to 15 per cent of the population. Many of them are peaceable in apearance, but they all must be considered potential killers.

How does 400,000 to 800,000 -- in our country -- potential killers sound?

Pipes article here...

Muslim population in America

Meet an Islamist -- peaceable in appearance, killer

America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
New Link: Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)

[Lacey]

The headquarters is in a 1930's-era building next to a main road. Though it is protected by concrete barriers and barbed wire, a car or truck laden with explosives could get within 20 feet of it. Apartments housing military families line both sides of the road. They have only low hedges and an occasional sentry post. Children play on a jungle gym with nothing separating them from the street.

Leave it to the NYT to all but issue an open invitation to anybody with terrorist inclinations to "come on down! here's an easy target!" Thanks, you clymers.

[Born on the Storm King]

This is the type of modus operandi I encountered while investigating the La Belle Discotheque bombing (check my resume.) My fellow investigators just couldn't get it into their heads that good-looking German women were attracted to Moslem men. I actually broke that case because I shared my office with the elderly German woman translator in our criminal investigation office who explained to me some of the romantic inclinations of German women.

[csvset]

Is there a photo of this Astrid Eyzaguirre person? As an American, will she be brought back to the states for trial? Camp X-Ray would be ideal for her and her hubby, imho.

[Aquinasfan]

Not everyone was easily soothed. Soorin, who has run the dry cleaner at the PX for 35 years and who would give only her first name, said: "Of course I'm afraid of an attack. I'm afraid every day." She hastened to add that she was of Armenian, not Turkish, background.

Armenian = Christian. Anyone remember the Turkish genocide of the Armenians? Oh yeah, no one cares about the massacre of Christians.

[demlosers]

Is there a photo of this Astrid Eyzaguirre person? As an American, will she be brought back to the states for trial? Camp X-Ray would be ideal for her and her hubby, imho.

I haven't seen any yet. You could check the German newspapers online. Gotta run....

[demlosers]

Two ethnic Albanians arrested in Heidelberg

By Jon R. Anderson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, September 7, 2002

HEIDELBERG, Germany — Heidelberg’s shopping center was locked down as two ethnic Albanian men were arrested by plainclothes German police Friday afternoon.

U.S. Military Police, who made the initial detention of an AAFES employee, a Kosovar Albanian from Mitrovica, and his friend, handed both over to German police.

The entrance and exits to the center were shut down after a cavalcade of MP SUVs rushed into the small, fenced base near downtown Heidelberg.

The arrests came a day after two others were apprehended in connection with what German officials believe was a terrorist plot to bomb the U.S. headquarters here. German officials, however, said the cases were unrelated.

“I can’t say what it is, but it’s not a bomb threat,” said one force protection security sergeant, as dozens of shoppers and office workers were told to quickly evacuate the shopping center’s biggest building, which includes an after-school children’s center, a post office, Heidelberg’s In and Out Processing Center and several stores.

The AAFES employee who was arrested was a barber who has worked at the shopping center for the past eight years, said his manager.

“He’s a good person, he’s worked here a long time. I don’t understand why this has happened,” she said.

Heidelberg’s Provost Marshall said his MPs were only assisting in the case and referred all questions to German police. German police officials could not be reached for comment at press time.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=10352

[aristeides]

Astrid Eyzaguirre? Last name looks Basque. If the father was a U.S. citizen and member of the military, I guess he was/is Hispanic. Mother German. I wonder why yesterday's Washington Post described Astrid as "of Turkish heritage."

[abner]

So what does this sound like?: Three mid-eastern men walked into a local video store and asked the clerk to remove all traces of them from the computer.

Later, they asked the clerk where they could rent a U-Haul. The clerk and my friend had a 'bad feeling' about these guys. My friend called the FBI and they didn't even get her name for a follow up.

This happened in Morgantown, Pa. about a week ago. I told my friend to call the local police, just so someone who cares would have it on record.

[aristeides]

U.S. Military Police, who made the initial detention of an AAFES employee, a Kosovar Albanian from Mitrovica, and his friend, handed both over to German police.

Hmmm, Kosovar Albanians.

[gr8eman]

Really? Storm King...were you MP? or other?...just curious. You da man!

[Born on the Storm King]

So what does this sound like?: Three mid-eastern men walked into a local video store and asked the clerk to remove all traces of them from the computer.

This is good criminal intelligence (and the rest of the story!) It's good you reported this!

[SLB]

My fellow investigators just couldn't get it into their heads that good-looking German women were attracted to Moslem men.

I was at a storage depot in the 1980's that was of interest to the Red Army Faction. They always had some good looking young ladies at the head of their demonstrations.

[SBeck]

Uh, terrorists have the ability to conduct their own reconnaisance. I'll give the Times a pass on this as I've seen more damaging information posted on FR.

[EverOnward]

So what does this sound like?: Three mid-eastern men walked into a local video store and asked the clerk to remove all traces of them from the computer.

Later, they asked the clerk where they could rent a U-Haul. The clerk and my friend had a 'bad feeling' about these guys. My friend called the FBI and they didn't even get her name for a follow up.

This happened in Morgantown, Pa. about a week ago. I told my friend to call the local police, just so someone who cares would have it on record.

Thanks for the warning. It appears we're on our own... So if the government is too busy to trace the whereabouts of these suspicious characters, I'm wondering where they are now? ...and where they'll be in the days a head? ...and if we're on our own, what we should be preparing for?

[Born on the Storm King]

Really? Storm King...were you MP? or other?...just curious. You da man!

Oh, Yeah, I consider myself America's foremost authority on the April 5, 1986 terrorist case---the carnage was unbelievable---I fled to the Pacific Northwest---911 did not surprise me at all.

[EverOnward]

Do you have any suggestions for those of us in the Washington DC area?