Posted on 02/08/2003 1:22:49 PM PST by tessalu
Authorities raided two Islamic centers Thursday on suspicion they were sheltering a terrorist group and questioned three of the centers' leading members.
Prosecutors said that the group their searching for planned to attack a U.S. target in Germany and had links to the Hamburg cell of Sept. 11 suicide pilots.
The three, who belong to centers in the western cities of Muenster and Minden, were questioned for several hours and then released without being charged, said Frauke Scheuten, a spokeswoman for German federal prosecutors. The investigation was continuing, she said.
Federal prosecutors said in a statement that two of the men are suspected of forming a group planning attacks in Germany in late 2001 or early 2002, including an attack "on an American installation in the Frankfurt metropolitan area."
Frankfurt is home to Rhein-Main Air Base, a large U.S. consulate and Amerikahaus cultural center and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The third suspect was being investigated for allegedly supporting that group and the Hamburg terror cell that included three Sept. 11 suicide pilots, most notably lead hijacker Mohamed Atta.
Scheuten declined to provide more details on the men or their suspected connections to Sept. 11 terrorists. Prosecutors said there was no initial evidence the suspects were involved in those attacks.
Officials were studying the evidence collected in the six dawn raids to determine whether charges could be filed against the three men. Investigators also were searching for other suspects.
Muenster residents said Islamic center members kept to themselves, holding Friday prayers in their building in a blue-collar neighborhood of the Westphalian city.
"I had the impression that most of them were students from Muenster," said Joachim Wedhorn, who owns a nearby drug store. "I did wonder why they always had their curtains drawn shut."
Calls to the center, which has been observed by federal security agents for more than a year, went unanswered.
Neighbors of the second center, on the outskirts of Minden, said police searched the premises several times before federal agents arrived Thursday.
By afternoon, however, the faithful returned to pray.
Germany has pressed investigations against suspected Islamic extremists since it emerged that three Sept. 11 hijackers had lived and studied undetected in Hamburg.
A Hamburg court is holding the first trial anywhere of a suspect in the terror plot that crashed planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a rural Pennsylvania field.
Prosecutors Wednesday demanded a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for Mounir el Motassadeq, who is charged with more than 3,000 counts of being an accessory to murder and membership in a terror organization.
Germany is lower than Cuba and Libya.
Because people like him are always trying to look in!;-)
AMERICA has allowed Islamic terrorists to set up camp on their soil. So anything can be expected of AMERICA, and I think she will pay a high price for her foolishness
I am going to yell now. IF THERE IS ANOTHER HIT ON OUR COUNTRY, AND A LOT OF US ARE IN THE SAD CONDITION OF ACCEPTING THIS AND EXPECTING AN ATTACK NEXT WEEK, IT'S BECAUSE WE DID NOT ROUND UP THE SUSPECTS MONTHS AGO. We still do not want to wake up in this country. IT IS GOING TO TAKE AT LEAST ANOTHER TERRIBLE HIT for enough people to get real. How very very sad. I hope and pray that I am wrong.
BBC NEWS.com: "GERMANS GUILTY IN IRAQ SUPERGUN CASE" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A court in the German city of Mannheim has convicted two businessmen of supplying weapons-making equipment to Iraq in violation of UN sanctions. Engineer Bernd Schompeter was sentenced to five years and three months for dealing in drills that can be used for boring tubes for long-range cannons, capable of launching nuclear, chemical or biological warheads. A second defendant, Willi Heinz Ribbeck, was given a two-year suspended sentence for failing to alert his superiors to the sale of the drills to Mr Schompeter by his Burgsmueller machine company.") (January 31, 2003)
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH - INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2002: "STEALING THE FIRE" (NY Premiere) - "Stealing The Fire" is directed by John S. Friedman and Eric Nadler. This documentary video was produced in USA/Germany. (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Filmed over five years on four continents, Stealing the Fire focuses on Karl-Heinz Schaab, a German technician convicted of treason in 1999 for selling top secret nuclear weapons plans to Iraq. The film unflinchingly exposes a web of government and corporate intrigue and lays bare an unbroken chain of events and people that connects today's nuclear weapons underground with the atomic bomb program of Nazi Germany. Stealing the Fire investigates the 60-year history of a German multi-national corporation that directly profited from the Holocaust and in recent decades became a leading supplier of nuclear weapons technology to developing nations, including Iraq and Pakistan.")
Islamic extremist (phrase, German SDP) - a Muslim who sees the destruction of Israel and the emasculation of the US as only a pair of stepping stones to world domination instead of end goals
I'm sure these three were privately told that they weren't really under arrest, but that the Germans had to use them to put on a little dog-and-pony show.
Germany has pressed investigations against suspected Islamic extremists since it emerged that three Sept. 11 hijackers had lived and studied undetected in Hamburg.
Trying to save face by convincing us that they really are on our side in the war on terrorism. Unfortunately, investigating something does no good when you don't intend to do anything with the evidence you develop. Notice that Germany has yet to allow us to extradite a single suspect to America to stand trial here. And they never will - their excuse is that we have the death penalty.
A Hamburg court is holding the first trial anywhere of a suspect in the terror plot that crashed planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a rural Pennsylvania field.
What is left unsaid is that this suspect is on the verge of acquittal, so much so that the prosecutors are thinking that they "overcharged" the defendant.And don't think that the government isn't relishing the prospect of this acquittal. There's nothing like a little "jury nullification" to give Schroeder the perfect excuse to drop even this flimsy appearance of cooperation in the war on terrorism.
Prosecutors Wednesday demanded a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for Mounir el Motassadeq, who is charged with more than 3,000 counts of being an accessory to murder and membership in a terror organization.
With time off for good behavior and a vocal chorus of left-wing lawyers, activists and media outlets taking up his cause, the most he'll serve is a few months. My guess - he won't spend a night in prison. Assuming he is even convicted (see above), he'll be permitted to post bond for the time until his sentencing hearing, and will then be quietly spirited out of the country, with help from the German government.
And don't even get me started about what an insult it is to the victims of 9/11 and the rest of the citizens of this country that the maximum sentence for the deaths of 3,000 Americans is 15 years - that works out to 1.83 days per victim.
They don't deserve the pleasure of our company.
And don't tell me you're doing research.
I hope you reported each one to whatever agency was available to report to.
REPEAT: They do not deserve the pleasure of our company.
I'm extremely critical of German policy and sentiment, but let's keep a sense of perspective, please.
Our open border, free for all is so out of control, Osama or his good buddies could be sitting at a hotel bar in Houston wearing a NY Yankees cap, and we wouldn't have a clue.
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