Friday, August 18, 2006

German Government Publishes Images Of Suspects

German police now say that the bombs found in trains in Germany last month were primed to go off.

"We're accusing as yet unknown suspects of having tried to ignite unconventional flammable and explosive devices on July 31, 2006, in the cities of Dortmund and Koblenz with the aim of killing a high number of people," Federal Prosecutor Rainer Griesbaum said at a press conference in Wiesbaden, Germany, today. The perpetrators are suspected of being members of a "domestic terrorist organization," Griesbaum said.

A suitcase found abandoned on a regional train from Aachen to Hamm in western Germany was turned in by the train's conductor in Dortmund. It contained a propane gas bottle, three bottles filled with gasoline and a detonating device, the Federal Prosecutor's Office said Aug. 1. On the same day another piece of luggage was found on another regional train from Moenchengladbach to Koblenz about 75 miles to the South. It too contained a propane gas bottle.

"We have to take this event very seriously," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in a faxed statement today. "We have to expect that the danger of a repeat attempt still exists."


In other words, it looks a lot like the London and (especially) Madrid bombings. There is a difference and that is that the bombs weren't set to go off at a station, but instead 10 minutes before arrival in Dortmund and Koblenz.

German police have published images of (some of) the suspects. They're especially looking for:
two males, who transported the two suitcases at Cologne train station.


Bloomberg explains that Germany isn't exactly free from terrorists:
Germany is clamping down on Islamic extremists after discovering that three pilots involved in the Sept. 11 terror attacks -- Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Ziad Samir Jarrah - - had lived in the northern port city of Hamburg.

Other members of the Hamburg terror group included Ramzi Binalshibh and Said Bahaji. While Binalshibh has been held by the U.S. at an undisclosed location since his arrest in Pakistan in September 2002, Bahaji, a suspected organizer of the terrorist attacks, is still at large. Bahaji disappeared from Germany just prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and is suspected to be in Pakistan.


The German newspaper the Deutsche Welle has an image up up the two suspects:



The person who provides the police with information that will lead to the arrest of the suspects will be rewarded with 50 000 euros ($64,195).

There is, logically, a debate going on in Germany right now about whether or not they should increase video surveillance in railway stations and in trains. This seems to, sadly, be a necessary step.

2 comments:

Pastorius said...

Sadly, the threat of worldwide Islamofascist terrorism comes at the same time as we are beginning to develop the technology for virtual omniscient surveillance. By the time this war is over it is possible that we will all be downloading and uploading data between computer and brain. The temptation will be to surveil thoughts directly. Who will decline to have direct access to the thoughts of terrorists?

We are preparing the annilhilation of the human will, which is based in the freedom of privacy.

And yet the decisions we are making seem necessary.

Anonymous said...

UK ISLAMIC INFESTATION OUT OF CONTROL ?

Every police force in the UK is now involved in the investigation into the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners, it has emerged.
The 43 forces in England and Wales, eight in Scotland and the Police Service of Northern Ireland have sent, or are sending, officers to assist.

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5263330.stm

What the hell is going on????