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## Re: [CT] DISCUSSION GERMANY/CT-The Story Behind Germany's Terror Threat

Released on 2012-08-12 00:00 GMT

Email-ID | 1974554
Date | 2010-11-22 20:24:45
From | jaclyn.blumenfeld@stratfor.com
To | ct@stratfor.com
List-Name | ct@stratfor.com

thank you.
just wanted to add more of the timeline clarification
- Monday 11/15, FBI sends cable to Germany
- soon after Nova calls in (there were three phone calls and this probably
wasn't the first one based on the short period of time
- Wednesday 11/17, Germany decides to announce a heightened threat level
based on the caller's information
- Monday 11/22 - Reichstag partially closed even though intelligence
points to the attack taking place in either Feb or March (three months
later)
Sean Noonan wrote:
Great work, Jaclyn
the other interesting issue here is the CI issue from the attacker's
perspective. They've gotta be hunting this "Nova" down, no matter how
accurate his story is.
On 11/22/10 1:16 PM, Sean Noonan wrote:
including Eurasia on this one.
Where else do germans get weapons?
On 11/22/10 1:13 PM, Ben West wrote:
Interesting parts I think are facts that balkan criminals were
implicated in smuggilng weapons and that Dawood Ibrahim was also
implicated. Lots of shady stuff comes out of the Balkans, so getting
weapons to Germany from there would be no easy task.
Also, I'm not sure what role Dawood would play in this scenario.
Remember Indian officials blamed him for working with naxalites a
few months back but didn't offer much evidence. He's an all around
south asian bogeyman - any reference to him sends a clear message
that somebody is up to no good.
On 11/22/2010 1:01 PM, Jaclyn Blumenfeld wrote:
Here are some of the thoughts and inconsistencies I found - I had
summarized the der spiegel to pick out the bits I found important
and added some info from other OS articles in blue.
-Call from abroad (likely Pakistan) from "Nova" a terrorist
wanting to surrender and return to his family in Germany
-now working with German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and
was reason behind threat increase on Wednesday, so far three calls
have taken place between "Nova" and BKA
-warned of small group attacking Reichstag on Monday and security
has since been increased, authorities are secretly monitoring
communications, conducting surveillance operations and launching
undercover investigations.
According to "NOVA":
-AQ and associate groups (Pakistan's Islamic Jihad Group) planning
together in Pakistan for attack(s) in Germany.
-One idea was to remotely detonate a bomb using a mobile phone.
Another called for a small group of terrorists to storm the
Reichstag with guns blazing, take hostages and end everything in
one calamitous bloodbath.
-Plan called for the terrorists to procure the submachine guns,
automatic rifles, explosives and whatever else they would need in
the Balkans.
-He said that two men had already traveled to Germany six to eight
weeks earlier, adding that one had the nom de guerre of "Abu
Mohammed" and that the other one was a German of Turkish origin
-Both apparently had roots in the Greater Berlin metropolitan
area, were currently unemployed and living off of welfare payments
and had immersed themselves in the anonymity provided by a major
city -- until the time should come for their activation.
-Four others involved were waiting to travel to Germany at
training camps in Pakistan - including a German, a Turk, a North
African and another jihadist of unknown identity
-Attack slated for February or March (if German intel had this
knowledge why would they close the Reichstag today? are they
sending a statement to AQ and affiliate group that they are aware
and ahead of the planning?)
According to FBI (which was recieved shortly before the call from
"Nova" (there are some inconsistencies between the intelligence)
- FBI included warnings about the obscure Indian group "Saif"
which although Shiite had allegedly made pact with AQ and sent
five men to Pakistan for training - what the connection to the
Germany plot not specified - the 6 members described in the
Reichstag plot were described by caller as various nationalities -
none Indian)
-FBI also shared that two members with visas allowing them to
travel freely in EU schengen zone were already enroute to Germany
and would enter via UAE on Nov 22 (compared to caller saying that
two had already entered two weeks prior - time gap - so maybe
there are four now in Germany unless FBI intel was outdated and
the men came earlier - or caller was not accurate?)
-FBI warnings claim the two in Germany were dispatched by Dawood
Ibrahim Kaskar, an Indian organised crime baron linked to al-Qaeda
based out of Karachi (this seems out of place - two mentions by
the FBI of an Indian connection)
-One of the men is supposedly named "Khan" (versus caller's info
he was named Abu Muhammed and the second guy was of Turkish
descent - Khan is not Turkish, Khan and Abu Muhammed could be the
same guy though)
Ben West wrote:
Europeans have still found a way to blame Americans for warnings
in the past.
And yes, something very well could be in the works, but given
the fact that jihadists constantly want to attack the west, is
it really at all significant that something is in the works?
I think we'd seen past plots with travel plans... I'd have to
look harder to get specifics, but I don't think that's all that
novel.
Agree that the security officials are in a catch-22 situation.
On 11/22/2010 11:43 AM, Sean Noonan wrote:
There is a notable difference here. And that is the German
warning issued last week. It was based on their own
intelligence not American intelligence--so no blaming
americans this time. Yes, it's true that they don't have the
capability to attack the Reichstag, and theat the attack is
not imminent, as I pointed out. But on the other hand, like
with cargo parcels, it doesn't mean that something is not in
the works. Have we ever seen information this specific before
on the individuals and their travel plans?
This is the conundrum of warning intelligence, when the
warning is given (just to policymakers, or to the public),
measures are taken that prevent it. It then comes the
boy-who-cried-wolf, even if the warning was originally
accurate.
Not to mention, given what happened with the last double agent
to become public (Khost), it will be interesting to follow
this one.
On 11/22/10 11:33 AM, Ben West wrote:
I agree that the spiegel article was good - but this is the
kind of thing we've seen over and over again in Europe.
Source from durkastan says that aq is going to target Europe
and kill lots of people and that attackers are en route.
Everyone gets freaked out. Nothing significant happens.
Europe blames US of scare mongering.
Certainly islamists have europe in their cross-hairs, but if
an attack is going to happen, it's not going be preceded by
this kind of publicity.
Also, attacking the reichstag? I mean, it's possible to
ATTACK it, but they've got a pretty heavy security presence
there that would prevent a hostage situation. I was there a
few years ago. The public entryway is confined to one
doorway with a heavy guard presence, metal detectors, x-ray
machines, etc. If anything, an attack could kill lots of
tourists lined up outside, but it would take a very serious
force to be able to gain entrance to the reichstag and an
even more well trained force to actually hold hostages. This
sounds like a pipe-dream to me.
On 11/22/2010 11:04 AM, Sean Noonan wrote:
thoughts?
On 11/22/10 11:00 AM, Marko Papic wrote:
It is up to you and CT how you approach this. On the
short-term, this looks like something you can handle
without me. If you want to dabble in the more long-term
view of what is going on here, I would love to help.
On 11/22/10 10:58 AM, Marko Papic wrote:
In the more long-term, I think an analysis of the
German intelligence agencies would be good too. They
have been pretty decimated by the Cold War and by all
the problems associated with running an intelligence
agency in a post-Gestapo country. If Germany is ever
going to become a world power again, however, they
would need to overcome these deamons as well. That is
sort of the last straw for Germany, the one that is
going to be most sensitive to overcome. But perhaps
this case may illustrate how they are already
overcoming these issues.
On 11/22/10 10:50 AM, Sean Noonan wrote:
Main problem is that Der Spiegel is just that good,
they've at least touched on most of what I would
want to say about it. The main thing here is how
the politics of a terror threat/alert coincide with
the reality of the threat itself.
We saw that Germany was fairly relaxed bout the
earlier threat in Europe released by the US. I'm
not sure if that was the same as the info that the
FBI passed over about this shia group, Saif (I don't
know anything about them). But something changed,
as we noted last week in their interpretation. That
seems to go down to this virtual walk-in. The one
thing I was left confused about is whether BKA had
ever been in contact with this source before. It
sounds like he cold called them. It's common
knowledge that walk-ins, rather than recruits, are
nearly always the best sources. But at the same
time, they are very suspicious as double agents. If
this was a US source they would be freaking the fuck
out after having Al-Balawi turn on them. The
germans seem to have cooler heads, but they will be
working 24/7 to verify the source (let me make
another plug for John Lecarre's A Most Wanted Man
here, most of his career was in Germany).
They've clearly got enough corroborating information
that they consider this a real threat. But
politically they are faced with the universal
'damned if you do, damned if you don't' alert
problem. If the Interior ministry doesn't say
something, they will be liable if an attack occurs.
Look at the constant press over information on the
warning intelligence for Mumbai. As we've said
before, simply issuing the warning may help to deter
the attackers.
The real important bit here, is that it seems the
germans have fairly good intelligence. While this
attack is still not happening tomorrow, they have a
lot of details about what might be in the works,
rather than a single-source intercept that indicates
some vague threat. It seems they've increased
security pretty well at the Bundestag, and want to
add to the presence at any possible target. This is
where we seem them scrambling, and where their
intelligence holes are.
The task now for the germans is to verify this
source. Maybe even pick him up and put him on ice
somewhere (Fred/Stick?), not in GErmany but in
Pakistan/Afghanistan. That will require some
cooperation with either/both the Americans and
Pakistanis. They also need to verify all the bio
information they have on these 4-6 guys trying to
get into germany and watch travelers very
carefully. The germans seem to be very good at
surveilling these threats within Germany, so their
best luck may come when one of the guys overseas
contacts a local already under surveillance.
At minimum, this could be a pretty interesting
tearline this week. Both the walk-in issues and the
CIA/FBI liaison conflicts that I havne't gotten into
here.
On 11/22/10 10:34 AM, Marko Papic wrote:
Any thoughts on where you guys are thinking of
going with this?
Der Spiegel article is indeed interesting.
On 11/22/10 9:28 AM, Sean Noonan wrote:
Great report from Der Spiegel (thanks Mikey). I
suggest anyone interested to read the whole
thing. They ask the right questions, and while
not as much detail as I hoped, give us a much
better understanding on the threat in Germany.
The BKA (germany's FBI) must be extremely busy
verifying the details of this virtual walk-in.
It obviously caused the germans to shit their
pants. But the real questions are buried in the
article---how real was this plot, how real is
the source, is the source just trying to get
back to the land of brezeln and bier? Trying to
double-cross them somehow?
Also note the tip off from the FBI (cue fred),
not the usual CIA liaison with BND.
For Eurasia, there's a lot in here on the
internal politics of the interior minister
position, and the relation between state and
federal government.
On 11/22/10 8:55 AM, Michael Wilson wrote:
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [OS] GERMANY/CT-The Story Behind
Germany's Terror Threat
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:38:21 -0600
From: Graham Smith
<graham.smith@stratfor.com>
Reply-To: The OS List <os@stratfor.com>
To: os@stratfor.com
11/22/2010 11:38 AM
Fears of a Mumbai Redux
The Story Behind Germany's Terror Threat
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,730377,00.html
By Matthias Bartsch, Yassin Musharbash and
Holger Stark
Germany is currently in a state of high alert.
Security officials are warning that they have
concrete information pointing to a possible
terror attack on the federal parliament
building in Berlin, a massively popular
tourist attraction. The days of Interior
Minister Thomas de Maiziere's reserved stances
in dealing with such warnings appear to be
over.
The call came from abroad, and the man
speaking hurriedly on the other end of the
line sounded as if he feared for his life. He
wanted out, he told the officers of the German
Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) -- out of
the terrorist scene. He wanted to come back to
Germany, back to his family. Then he asked if
German officials could help him.
Right now, they're trying to do just that. The
BKA is pursuing the case under the codename
"Nova." The apparently remorseful man could be
an important possible whistleblower from a
dangerous region of the globe. In fact, he is
also the most recent reason why German
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere put the
entire country in a state of fright on
Wednesday.
During a hastily called press conference that
day, de Maiziere stated that Germany faced the
threat of terrorist attacks that might be
launched against the country at some point in
November. As he put it, Germany is "presently
dealing with a new situation."
Just two days earlier, the source had called
for the third time in just a short period and
provided more information. He told officials
that a small group of terrorists wanted to
conduct a raid on the Reichstag building in
Berlin, which houses the federal parliament,
and that that was only one of the targets
included in their attack plans.
Germany on High Alert
Since then, Germany has been in a state of
high alert. The Reichstag is surrounded with
barricades and its popular cupola tourist
attraction temporarily closed to visitors.
Police armed with submachine guns are
patrolling major railway stations and
airports. And vacations have been called off
for officials at the country's security
agencies. Wherever they have cause for doing
so, the authorities are secretly monitoring
communications, conducting surveillance
operations and launching undercover
investigations. At the moment, investigators
seem to be at a loss; their modus operandi:
"We'll prod the shrubs and see if we can flush
out any birds."
"There is cause for worry, but no cause for
hysteria," de Maiziere assured his listeners.
But while he has never been much of an
agitator, his colleagues at the state level
have described the situation in much more
drastic terms. Uwe Schu:nemann, for example,
who has been the interior minister of the
northwestern state of Lower Saxony since 2003,
stated that he had "never experienced a
heightened security situation like this one."
And Berlin Senator for the Interior Ehrhart
Ko:rting, whose position is tantamount to that
of a government minister in the city-state,
has already even gone so far as to call on the
inhabitants of the German capital city to
report suspicious-looking individuals of Arab
origin to the police. "If you suddenly see
three somewhat strange-looking men who are new
to your neighborhood, who hide their faces and
who only speak Arabic," Ko:rting said, "you
should report them to the authorities."
Under heightened pressure, officials in
Germany's 16 federal states are now checking
to see when and where major events are
scheduled to take place this coming week
within their boundaries. And nothing suggested
as a possible target is being discounted, no
matter how unlikely. For example, officials in
Rhineland-Palatinate warned the state's
interior minister, Karl Peter Burch, that
there was always a lot going on at IKEA stores
on Saturdays.[WTF]
Serenity, Scaremongering and Strategy
Since last week, German politicians at both
the state and federal levels have once again
had to figure out how they will handle
themselves when making warnings about
terrorist attacks. They have had to come up
with a language that can simultaneously convey
both an alert and a sense of calm.
This is no easy task. For one thing, this
isn't the first time this has happened. In
September 2009, for example, right before
federal elections were held, there were
concrete threats that resulted in a heightened
security situation. But, in the end, nothing
happened. This time around, people are
wondering whether they are on the precipice of
an emergency or whether these are once again
empty threats.
Still, one thing is certain: For the time
being, Germany has become a different country
-- more nervous, more anxious, more agitated.
And Germany's domestic security policies are
being put to the test.
When Interior Minister de Maiziere assumed his
office in October 2009 in conservative
Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, he
aimed to cool down the heated sense of alarm
regularly fanned out by his predecessors.
What's more, the man who had served as
Merkel's chief of staff in Chancellery until
being moved to the role of interior minister
in her new government, was given the task of
nurturing a more relaxed relationship between
her party, the Christian Democratic Union
(CDU), and its new coalition partner, the
business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP).
In particular, it was his job to not draw out
the long-standing conflict over domestic
security policies with the Justice Ministry,
which has been led since the 2009 election by
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a member
of the FDP. Indeed, Merkel feared that the
quarrelsome FDP might try to capitalize on the
issue to win over more voters, so she assigned
de Maiziere to prevent that from happening.
In fact, the plan was to repeat the same
strategy that the CDU and its Bavarian sister
party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), had
used when they were in the so-called "grand
coalition" with the center-left Social
Democratic Party, between 2005 and 2009. At
the time, they made a point of undermining the
SPD by championing what had traditionally been
the latter party's issues.
A Game-Changer
But now the game plan has changed. This
November will drastically alter de Maiziere's
understanding of his role in office. If he
tries to return things to their previous state
of calm, he's going to have a very tough time.
In fact, it's much more likely that he will be
a completely different interior minister.
For a while now, de Maiziere's softer stance
has prompted opposition by politicians on the
right involved with domestic security issues.
But they are now calling louder than ever for
a tougher course to be followed. Merkel is
also adjusting to the new situation and is
reportedly happy with the way de Maiziere
handled himself last week. Likewise, no one
seems to have voiced any criticism last
Thursday evening during a meeting of the
Coalition Committee, a regular gathering of
the parties that are part of the government.
The almost complete lack of protest has a lot
to do with where the alarming information is
coming from. In fact, information regarding
the supposedly imminent attacks has come from
two independent sources. Shortly before
receiving the telephone call about the planned
attacks, BKA officials had received a cable
from their American counterparts at the FBI,
America's federal police force, warning of
possible attacks.
Still, what truth is there in these
"security-related" pieces of information
coming from both domestic and foreign sources?
And, given all the discrepancies in the
warning messages, just how much do they
deserve to be trusted? Indeed, even among
security officials themselves, there is some
doubt about how legitimate these statements
are -- and about just how acute the danger
threatening Germany really is.
An Attack Modelled after Mumbai[plot details
in this section]
What the caller reported was undeniably
alarming. According to him, al-Qaida and
associated groups based in Pakistan were
making joint preparations for an attack in
Germany. One idea was to remotely detonate a
bomb using a mobile phone. Another called for
a small group of terrorists to storm the
Reichstag with guns blazing, take hostages and
end everything in one calamitous bloodbath.
Indeed, BKA officials learned that the latter
plan had been modeled on the storming of
luxury hotels in Mumbai, the Indian capital,
almost exactly two years ago, in a massacre
that left 175 people dead.
According to the caller, the plan called for
the terrorists to procure the submachine guns,
automatic rifles, explosives and whatever else
they would need to storm Germany's parliament
building in the Balkans. He said that two men
had already traveled to Germany six to eight
weeks earlier, adding that one had the nom de
guerre of "Abu Mohammed" and that the other
one was a German of Turkish origin. Both
apparently had roots in the Greater Berlin
metropolitan area, were currently unemployed
and living off of welfare payments and had
immersed themselves in the anonymity provided
by a major city -- until the time should come
for their activation.
Likewise, there were allegedly four other
volunteers -- including a German, a Turk, a
North African and another jihadist of unknown
identity -- in the training camps run by
al-Qaida and related groups waiting for the
signal to travel to Germany. And, according to
the telephone source, al-Qaida's plan was to
attack in February or March.
The only question now relates to just how
credible the caller's statements are. He is an
insider who joined up with armed groups
several months ago and has earned a reputation
as a fanatic fighter.
But could it be that he is only trying to tell
German officials the juiciest things possible
in order to raise his own market value and
thereby prompt them to extract him from the
terror scene? Or could it be that al-Qaida is
even planning a second spectacular coup like
the one in December 2009, when the Americans
allowed a supposedly top-level turncoat onto
an American military base without any sort of
pat-down, who went on to detonate his
explosive vest and blow seven CIA officials to
bits?
A Strange Message
A clear picture has yet to emerge. And one
reason for this is also the fact that it was
only two weeks ago that the FBI first decided
to share information about another possible
attack with German officials.
In this case, even the way contact was made
was unusual. Under normal circumstances,
liaisons from the CIA station in Germany are
the ones to communicate American warnings to
their German counterparts. But, this time
around, it was an apparently particularly
anxious FBI that chose to directly notify the
BKA.
The FBI told the Germans about an obscure
Indian group called "Saif," or "sword."
Despite being a Shiite group, it had allegedly
made a pact with al-Qaida, a Sunni
organization, and sent five of its men to the
Pakistani province of Waziristan for training.
According to the FBI, two volunteers -- who
were already equipped with visas allowing them
to travel freely within the 25 European
countries belonging to the Schengen zone --
were supposedly already en route to Germany
and would enter the United Arab Emirates on
Monday, Nov. 22. There, they would allegedly
be provided with new travel documents before
traveling on to Germany. One of the men is
supposedly named "Khan," which is about as
common in that part of the world as "Smith" is
in English-speaking countries. And no firm
conclusion had been made about their
nationalities.
The FBI agents even named the presumed
masterminds behind the operation. A certain
Mushtaq Altaf Bin-Khadri, who is in charge of
finances and training for "Saif," allegedly
dispatched the terrorist squad. But the FBI
was not in a position to comment on the
targets of the two men in Germany.
One name came up time and again in the
communique, and one that pricked the Germans'
ears: Dawood Ibrahim. The 54-year-old arms
trader is "India's most-wanted man." The US
government has listed him as a "global
terrorist" and persuaded the United Nations to
place his name on a list of supporters of
terror. Ibrahim is rumored to be the head of
D-Company, a criminal syndicate named after
himself, and is believed to be in charge of
smuggling the suspected terrorists into
Germany.
Both the FBI and the BKA are attaching a lot
of importance to the information in the FBI
communique. But the intelligence services of
the two countries -- the CIA in the United
States and the BND and Office for the
Protection of the Constitution in Germany, the
country's foreign and domestic intelligence
agencies, respectively -- point to internal
contradictions as reasons for their
skepticism. As they see it, for example, it is
highly unlikely that a Shiite group would team
up with Sunni terrorists, especially since a
good part of al-Qaida propaganda vilifies
Shiites. Other reasons for doubt include the
facts that none of the intelligence agencies
was previously familiar with an organization
called "Saif," that there have been no
previously recorded threats against Germany by
Indian extremists, and that the whole scenario
seems rather implausible.
On the other hand, the FBI information is
uncommonly concrete. In addition to the names
of the suspects, it also provides information
about the exact day on which they are supposed
to arrive in the United Arab Emirates.
Moreover, Ibrahim is believed to be one of the
men behind the terror attacks in Mumbai. If he
really is involved, that alone would be reason
enough for worry.
Abnormal Circumstances
Under normal circumstances, a message of this
kind from the United States would no doubt be
cause for serious-minded scrutiny, but it
would not be a cause for alarm. For example,
the BKA would go through all recent visa
applications, and federal police officers
would take a closer look at all the people
entering Germany from Arab states. And the
intelligence services would make the rounds to
see if any of its partners had any helpful
information on the matter.
Indeed, under normal circumstances, there are
always a lot of these communiques, most of
which turn out to be false alarms. But these
are no normal circumstances. Germany is in a
state of emergency. Other countries, such as
the United States, employ a system of official
warning levels based on color codes that
change -- from yellow to orange, for example
-- when the danger level is thought to
increase. But, in Germany, the interior
minister is the barometer: He consults with
experts -- and then it is he who must call the
shots.
For the minister, a situation like this
presents a dilemma. If he remains silent and
something happens, he's a failure. If he makes
loud warning and nothing happens, he's just a
rabble-rouser trying to push through
controversial tougher security laws. And, of
course, the public never thanks you if
everyday life continues in a normal, peaceful
way.
Absolute Security Remains a Pipe Dream
When de Maiziere became Germany's interior
minister, he had planned to lead the ministry
in a level-headed way. For example, he prefers
to use phrases such as "internal calm" rather
than "internal security." And it was only six
weeks ago that he uttered the sentence:
"There's no cause for alarm." But, since then,
the chorus of warning voices has only
ballooned in size.
This change in course is the combined result
of everything that happened beforehand. It
might very well turn out that the alleged
Indian terror squad stays home and that the
raid on the Reichstag never happens. But what
will remain is a well-founded supposition that
there is a critical mass of terrorists in the
border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan
that is thinking about launching attacks in
Europe -- and certainly in Germany, as well.
Raw Nerves
Given such circumstances, there is a major
sense of alarm among German officials. Last
Thursday, just a day after de Maiziere's
shocking press conference, the BKA issued a
press release "in connection with the current
high-risk situation." It reported that a piece
of suspicious luggage had been discovered a
day earlier in Windhoek, the capital of
Namibia, before being loaded onto a plane
bound for Germany. The laptop bag contained
batteries, wires, a detonator and a clock --
in other words, all the ingredients you need
for a potential airborne catastrophe.
It sounded as if another terror plot had been
foiled. Had there been a plan to blow up Air
Berlin Flight 7377 en route to Munich? And had
the authorities, yet again, discovered an
explosive device at the last minute? In the
end, all the worry was unfounded. As it turned
out, the piece of luggage was a test device
built by a company that designs "real test"
suitcases to be used to test security
measures. It remains unclear who checked the
bag in. But the fact that the BKA was so quick
to go into alarm mode -- and publicly so --
has been a communications debacle.
Of course, these days, nobody wants to be the
one that wasn't sufficiently circumspect, the
one who took too long to speak up. No one
wants a replay of situations like the one from
the beginning of November, when de Maiziere
didn't know for hours whether the package that
had arrived at the Chancellery contained
actual explosives or was just a false alarm.
Now, the threshold for sounding the alarm is
already much lower.
Bonded by Fear
Of course, you can never be too sure. Over the
last 12 months, a series of attacks concocted
in the Afghan-Pakistani border region have
been foiled in the West. For example, in May,
a car bomb set in New York's Times Square by a
man with ties to the Pakistani Taliban failed
to properly detonate. In Copenhagen, al-Qaida
had made plans to storm the offices of the
Jyllands-Posten newspaper as revenge for its
2005 publishing of caricatures of the Prophet
Muhammad. In October 2009, David Headley, an
American citizen with Pakistani roots, was
arrested after having already visited the
newspaper's offices in order to scout them out
before the planned attack. Other targets
reportedly included the subway systems of New
York City and Washington.
On the other hand, absolute security is a pipe
dream. For example, British authorities had
even conducted rehearsals for how to respond
to possible attacks. But, even so, when
attacks claiming 56 lives (including those of
four attackers) did strike London, on July 7,
2005, they were unable to prevent them.
Likewise, US intelligence services had warned
India a number of times that terrorists were
planning attacks in Mumbai.
The new situation in Germany has at least had
one positive side effect: For the time being,
the traditionally quarrelsome interior
ministers from both the state and the federal
levels have refrained from their usual
bickering. Following informal talks held last
Thursday in Hamburg, Minister Bruch of
Rhineland-Palatinate noted that he had "never
experienced such harmony within this group"
that has apparently been bonded together by
their shared fear.
Translated from the German by Josh Ward
--
Sean Noonan
Tactical Analyst
Office: +1 512-279-9479
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com
--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Marko Papic
Geopol Analyst - Eurasia
STRATFOR
700 Lavaca Street - 900
Austin, Texas
78701 USA
P: + 1-512-744-4094
marko.papic@stratfor.com
--
Sean Noonan
Tactical Analyst
Office: +1 512-279-9479
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com
--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Marko Papic
Geopol Analyst - Eurasia
STRATFOR
700 Lavaca Street - 900
Austin, Texas
78701 USA
P: + 1-512-744-4094
marko.papic@stratfor.com
--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Marko Papic
Geopol Analyst - Eurasia
STRATFOR
700 Lavaca Street - 900
Austin, Texas
78701 USA
P: + 1-512-744-4094
marko.papic@stratfor.com
--
Sean Noonan
Tactical Analyst
Office: +1 512-279-9479
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com
--
Ben West
Tactical Analyst
STRATFOR
Austin, TX
--
Sean Noonan
Tactical Analyst
Office: +1 512-279-9479
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com
--
Ben West
Tactical Analyst
STRATFOR
Austin, TX
--
Ben West
Tactical Analyst
STRATFOR
Austin, TX
--
Sean Noonan
Tactical Analyst
Office: +1 512-279-9479
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com
--
Sean Noonan
Tactical Analyst
Office: +1 512-279-9479
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com