German Police Make Further Arrest in Train Bombing Plot

[Liebling:-)))]

German Police Make Further Arrest in Train Bombing Plot

Police in the southern German city of Constance have arrested a third suspect in connection with the failed plot to blow up German passenger trains.

Federal prosecutors in Karlsruhe said that the suspect arrested on Friday moved in the same circle as Youssef Mohamad El Hajdib, the 21-year-old Lebanese man who was arrested in Kiel on Saturday as he was apparently trying to flee the country.

The prosecutor's office said it was not yet clear "if and to what extent" the suspect in Constance was involved in the failed plot to set off bombs on trains in Dortmund and Koblenz last month, but that police were searching the man's student residence.

Second suspect questioned in Lebanon

Meanwhile, investigators are hoping that more of their questions about the plot will be answered following the interrogation of the second suspect, 20-year-old Jihad Hamad, who turned himself in to authorities in Lebanon on Thursday.

A federal prosecutor and officials from Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) are taking part in Hamad's interrogation.

"We're confident that he will break his silence and that we'll know much more later in the day," BKA President Jörg Ziercke told public broadcaster ARD on Friday morning.

Both Hamad and El Hajdib were identified on security camera footage dragging suitcases loaded with crudely made bombs onto trains in Cologne.

Did they have help?

While investigators and political leaders have been pleased about the quick succession of arrests, big questions remain about the case, including whether the men were working alone or had the support of a terrorist network.


Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Ziercke says it's too early to say if the men belong to an international terrorist network
Ziercke said it is still too early to say if they belonged to an international network.

"We assume that this concerns a terrorist group here in Germany, which is also the view of the federal prosecutors," he told German broadcaster n-tv.

"We know that the suspects had accomplices. At the moment we're trying to determine whether this was an international network or if it was an autonomous terrorist group in Germany."

German terror expert, Elmar Thevessen, has pointed out that Hamad and El Hajdib lived hundreds of miles apart, raising the question of how they were able to communicate and gain each other's trust.

"We know from Jihad Hamad, who gave himself up, that he only arrived in Cologne in February of this year, just five months before the crime," Thevessen said. "Where did the contacts come from and how could he so quickly get himself set up to prepare an attack that almost succeeded?"

Searches of Hamad's apartment have turned up damning evidence, including DNA that matches that on the suitcases, as well as receipts for the gas canister and gas used in the failed plot.

The plot has reminded Germans that they are not immune to international terrorism. Wolfgang Bosbach, a domestic policy expert for Berlin's conservative CDU/CSU parliamentary group, has warned that there are an estimated 32,000 Islamists in Germany and some 3,000 of these were considered extremists. That, he said, represents a "considerable threat potential for our country."

German Police Make Further Arrest in Train Bombing Plot | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 25.08.2006

It must be scary image if Police didn´t pay their attention... *goose bumps* What have we (Germans) done anything wrong toward Islamians after what we do everything for them here in Germany... *shake my head disgusit*. Those people must be sick.

 

[TFWFalcon]

good arrest them quick before blow out. Save people live.

 

[sr171soars]

It must be scary image if Police didn´t pay their attention... *goose bumps* What have we (Germans) done anything wrong toward Islamians after what we do everything for them here in Germany... *shake my head disgusit*. Those people must be sick.

No, they are not sick. They believe in their cause which is why they do it whether or not deserved. The essential element that many seem to be missing is the understanding what drives these types. They see the West as hedonistic and contrary (even Godless) to the so-called ideals of Islam. In other words, they see the righteousness of their cause and they will kept coming until they are stopped. My question for Europeans, as well as for Americans and others that are considered Westernized, is whether or not there is a recognition of this fact. Until that happens, there will be more and more deaths and destruction until people decide to stand up to them.

 

[Reba]

...What have we (Germans) done anything wrong toward Islamians ....

That's the point we Americans have been trying to explain to you and other Europeans for years. Americans and Europeans are NOT "doing anything wrong" to cause Islamic terrorist attacks. The terrorists don't need a logical "reason" to do their dirty deeds.

Even if every American and European become Muslim, and agreed to destroy Israel, and pulled all of their military out of the Middle East, the Islamic terrorists would still attack America and Europe. After all, they even attack each other now.

 

[GalaxyAngel]

Liebling,

My theory is...

Islamic terroist want attack different any countries.. until you surreder(sp) let Islamic wants control all over the countries due their hog relgions reasons!

Pretty finds they are sick!

Canada have nothing wrong w/terrorist so far but have no choice and have to stop them making ridcouisly contuine war.. Now so far Ive seen newspaper and news kept saying canada killed by terroirst at iran/iraq/afhakhasan and other places why can't they smell the FRIGG'N STRONG COFFEE??? To stop the war and let's peace country..

Can be related OIL too
*sigh*

 

[Buckdodgers]

See!!!! Thats why we need wiretapping survillance.Its Liberals like that stupid judge who favors the ACLU on stopping wiretapping survillances.Because we have a consitution.You see ENGLAND & GERMANY dont have a consitution thats why they have strict laws on harassing arabic people.We Have a lot of Arabs living in michigan and its very importaint that the US Goverment put wiretapping survillances on those people so we can trace their cell phone messages and stop the attacks before they can carry out such an attack.And The Editor of the NEW YORK TIMES should be arrested by the FBI for treason for printing secrects about our national security issue on money to trace terrorist.Do you realize if the NEW YORK TIMES printed military secrets back in WWII they would be arrested for treason and probly get the death penalty? Ever heard what happend to the rosenbergs who were sentenced to death because they sold nuclear secrets to the soviet union in 1950s? We need the Death Penalty back on people who print stories about secrets that would threat our national security.

 

[Liebling:-)))]

Updated:

Attempted Train Bomber Receives Life Sentence

A man guilty of trying to bomb German passenger trains was sentenced to life in prison. Investigators said the botched bombing could have ended in a bloodbath. The defense argued the devices were not intended to explode.

A Dusseldorf court Tuesday, Dec. 9, convicted the 24-year-old Lebanese Youssef al-Hajj Dib of planting bombs on two trains in Germany that would have caused mass carnage if they had exploded.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment for multiple attempted murders. His accomplice, Jihad Hamad, was convicted at a separate trial in Lebanon and is serving a 12-year prison term in Beirut.

German authorities said Dib was a hardened Islamic extremist who was trying to kill as many people as possible in revenge for the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in Europe.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The suitcases contained gas cannisters primed to explode
Men identified by police as Dib and Hamad were captured on security cameras placing suitcases packed with homemade explosives on two trains carrying 280 people on July 31, 2006.

The images ran in heavy rotation on national television as the country digested how close it may have come to the first Islamist attack on German soil since the anti-US suicide hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001, which were planned in part in the German port city of Hamburg.

"Germany was never closer to an Islamist attack," state prosecutor Duscha Gmel said.

Prosecutors argue that the explosions could have killed up to 75 people, saying only a technical fault prevented a massacre in a plot allegedly modeled on the deadly train blasts in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005.

Accused tells of plan to scare not murder

The defendant told the regional superior court in this western city on Dec. 2 at the end of his year-long trial that he had never planned to murder anyone but had aimed to frighten the German public over the Mohammed cartoons.

"I swear by God Almighty that it was never my intention to kill," he said in a final statement to the court, adding that he knew "there would be no explosion" when he left the device on the train.

He said Hamad, who is serving a 12-year sentence in Beirut over the case, was lying when he told Lebanese investigators that the two had plotted mass murder.

"It is because he was tortured," Dib asserted.

Would-be bombers fled to Lebanon

Both men had lived as students in Germany. After putting the suitcases on the trains, they each disembarked at the next station and flew from Cologne to Istanbul and then Lebanon, where Hamad was captured.

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Jihad Hamad is serving 12 years in Lebanon

Dib was arrested after he returned to Germany days later.

His defense lawyer Bernd Rosenkranz told the court that his client had made a conscious decision not to include oxygen in gas canisters used in the homemade bombs -- the missing ingredient necessary for an explosion.

"The aim was to frighten people with a mock-up," he said ahead of the verdict.

Presiding judge Ottmar Breidling expressed doubts about this version of events in a hearing in late October, noting that dummy explosives would have no need for detonators, as were found in the suitcases on the trains.

A "foothold" in religious extremism

Dib is the youngest of 13 children. Two of his brothers were killed combat in the Middle East, while two others are being held in Lebanese prisons on suspicion of terror.

Due to his limited knowledge of German, Dib's university applications in Germany were repeatedly turned down. Court psychologists said he likely turned to Islamic extremism because he could not live up to his parents' expectations. They had apparently hoped he would return to Lebanon with an engineering degree.

After his rough start in Germany, Dib found a "foothold in religion," he'd told the court.

Attempted Train Bomber Receives Life Sentence | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 09.12.2008