Now it’s Germany. Bloomberg reports that two suitcases containing bottles of gasoline, propane gas and a detonating device were found in German regional trains on July 31. The bombs were primed to explode. A deadly simultaneous bombing was only averted because the bombs were technically defective Investigators concluded that the bombs were designed so that simultaneous detonation would have been possible and that they would have generated “an explosive force so big that the explosion would have reached the dimension of the subway attack on London in the summer of 2005,”
The president of the Federal Criminal Police and Germany’s most senior police official, Joerg Ziercke, , said that the perpetrators are “likely to have a terrorist background.” Investigators found pieces of paper with Arabic letters and telephone numbers from Lebanon in clothes which were in the suitcases to pad the gas bottles, he said. They also found starch bags from Lebanon.
The letter:
Speaking in Berlin today, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble warned that Germany should brace itself for similar attempts: “Unfortunately, we must assume that the danger of a repeat of these attempted attacks.”
UPDATE
From the Financial Times: News of the aborted attack has caused shock in Germany, where opinion polls show terrorism ranking low on the list of people’s fears and far behind unemployment and declining income. Since last month’s find, several regional governments have said they wanted to boost video surveillance of stations and other areas. Such plans have failed before over privacy concerns.
Germany should pull out of Iraq. Problem solved.
One suspect has been arrested, a Lebanese student who has been in Germany since late 2004.
Tom, Thanks for the chuckle.
Karen,
How much of a play is this getting in the German media?
It’s leading the TV news, with sizable excerpts from the press conference. Fingerprints and DNA from the suitcases match those of the arrestee. They are pretty sure there is a student cell but they don’t know much about it yet. It’s too soon for public reactions. Spiegel will probably have more tomorrow. This evening they also closed the main train station in Hamburg because of a bomb threat, but that’s a totally different MO.