I almost forgot - RAMADAN
With the arrests of three suspected Islamist terrorists on Tuesday, German investigators may have foiled a plot to cause massive explosions -- but their work is far from over. They are still looking for at least seven other named suspects in connection with the case -- and want to find them as soon as possible. And they are also trying to discover the identity of two men located abroad, who they know only by aliases and e-mail addresses.
The Federal Prosecutor's Office is investigating the seven other men for membership in a terrorist organization. The cell of ten radicals is made up of Turks and some Germans who have converted to Islam. They are thought to have set up their own branch of the Uzbek "Islamic Jihad Union" (IJU) and to have started to plan terrorist attacks on US targets in Germany. The three arrested suspects had all been at training camps in Pakistan and possibly met members of the IJU there.
The investigators are also focusing on two unknown people, who they only know by their aliases. Based on intercepted e-mails with Fritz G., one of the three suspects arrested on Tuesday, German authorities think the two men may have been the masterminds behind the planned attacks. They are believed to be in Pakistan, and the e-mails show that they didn't seem to give specific orders to the German cell but rather acted as mentors.
Fritz G., thought to be the ringleader, attempted to avoid detection by not sending e-mails directly, but by putting them in a drafts folder that could be accessed by both sides. It was an old trick, used by the men who planned the Sept. 11 attacks -- and one that the German authorities quickly saw through.
In fact the intelligence agencies had been reading Fritz G.'s e-mails since spring 2007. The communications included discussions of possible targets for attack, as well as logistical details. The authorities are still not sure about the structure of the German terror cell. One theory is that there was an inner and outer circle, with some members not knowing the exact details of the bomb plot.
The authorities are now looking for a 22-year-old Turk, Zafer S. who was born in the same town as one of the arrested men, Daniel S. He left the country recently and is thought to be in Turkey. He is also believed to have been in a Pakistan training camp. The authorities are also looking for three Turkish men, who are acquaintances of Fritz G.
And investigators are also looking for the Lebanese Hussein al-M., who was arrested along with the German Islamist Tolga D. on the Pakistan-Iran border in June. He was expelled from Pakistan and arrived at Frankfurt airport on Tuesday, where he was interviewed by police before being released. Now the police would like to have a few more words with him.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,504327,00.html
The Pakistani road to German terror
Sep 7, 2007
SNIP:
It is entirely possible that the men trained in Pakistan, in which case their teacher would have been al-Qaeda commander Abu Hanifah, who has a base in the town of Mir Ali in the North Waziristan tribal area.
"Abu Hanifah was commanding 27 Turks when last he was seen in Mir Ali, and if the people who were arrested in Germany are genuinely part of al-Qaeda and confessed to be trained in Pakistan, they could only be trained at Abu Hanifah's camp," a contact in North Waziristan told Asia Times Online.
The control of all foreign fighters in North Waziristan and South Waziristan from different regions of the world is generally in the hands of Arabs, the most astute and trained commanders. For example, Abu Nasir commands Chinese, Uighurs and Pakistanis; Abu Akash looks after Uzbeks and Tajiks, while Abu Hanifah takes care of Turks, Kurds and Bosnians.
Abu Hanifah was among the al-Qaeda commanders expelled from Mir Ali by the Pakistani Taliban early this year in a conflict between the local tribals and foreign fighters, whose authority the Taliban resented. Several hundred Uzbeks were massacred in the unrest. Abu Hanifah, along with Abu Akash and Abu Nasir, took refuge in the isolated and inhospitable Shawal, a no-man's land that spans the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Excerpted
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/II07Df03.html
UPDATE:
USF students' box of bullets adds intrigue
Sept 6, 2007
Bullets were in the car of arrested USF pair.
TAMPA -- Bullets were among the items investigators found in the car of two University of South Florida students. The deputy who pulled over Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, found a box of bullets near the seat, several pipe bombs in the trunk and "other suspicious items," according to the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office. The men have said they had only fireworks, but deputies found no sign of any commercial fireworks, said Berkeley County Chief Deputy C.W. Henerey. The new information only deepened the mystery of why the two engineering students ended up on Aug. 4 in Goose Creek, S.C., a suburban city near Charleston.
Excerpted
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/06/Hillsborough/USF_students__box_of_.shtml