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

Released on 2012-08-12 00:00 GMT

Email-ID | 1674165
Date | 2010-11-22 17:50:16
From | sean.noonan@stratfor.com
To | analysts@stratfor.com

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