http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6169
US, German intel: Al Qaeda plots multiple attacks on US-, Israel-bound airliners
DEBKAfile Special Report
July 7, 2009, 9:54 PM (GMT+02:00)
Western anti-terror agencies have warned that a large group of 15-20 al Qaeda terrorists, trained in Pakistan and Algeria to hijack and blow up airliners, deployed secretly in at least six European and Middle East countries in early July. They are standing ready to carry out multiple terrorist attacks.
The terrorists are believed to have landed in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey and Egypt.
The dates to watch, local authorities were warned, were July 4, July 7, the fourth anniversary of the 7/7 attacks on the British transport system in which 52 people died, and July 8-9, when the G8 summit meets in the Italian town of L’Aqila. US president Barack Obama will fly in from talks with Russian leaders in Moscow.
Al Qaeda planners, say the Western sources, know it is extremely hard to break through the massive security cordons protecting summit leaders. They are therefore planning to hijack passenger planes of airlines belonging to the targeted states and blow them up in mid-air.
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report the first specific red alert on Saturday, July 4, referred to the possible hijack of Turkish Airways planes taking of from Turkish airports for US destinations or Tel Aviv. Special precautionary measures were put in place at both ends of their routes.
The alert is still in force.
Many on FR ridicule Debka, but more often than not, they are spot on. I’ve been a bit concerned about the G8 Summit. Now, even more so.
BERLIN — A German man of Turkish heritage has been charged with membership in al-Qaida on allegations that he helped procure equipment and funds for the terrorist group, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Sermet I., 31, whose last name was not given in line with German privacy laws, was charged with membership in a foreign terrorist organization and violating German export laws. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. The suspect's attorney was on vacation and could not be reached for comment. A trial has not yet been scheduled.
Sermet I. was arrested Feb. 6 at Stuttgart airport as he entered the country and was charged June 19, prosecutors said. They did not say where he was travelling from. He is alleged to have supplied range finders and other items with possible military applications, along with cash, to Aleem N., a German of Pakistani origin who was arrested in Germany in February 2008. Aleem N. is then accused of then having transported the equipment and money to al-Qaida contacts in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hPNyC-0jVFWICHkg4eBThjbb2eGg