From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Sat Sep 07 2002 - 01:30:39 MDT
(Note also that the tragic Sept 6 '72 Munich attacks is still an important
and remembered 'anniversary' to people here)
STUTTGART, Germany (CNN) -- German officials arrested a Turkish man
and his American fiancee who they say planned an attack on a U.S.
military base in Germany close to the anniversary of the September
11 attacks.
Authorities suspect the pair were planning to target either the U.S.
military base in Heidelberg or some other target in the city, said
Estefan Kleibach, a spokesman for the Minister of the Interior for
the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg told reporters.
Police seized a cache of explosives when they arrested the couple at
their apartment near the southwestern German city of Heidelberg,
said Kleibach.
Inside the apartment, authorities found a poster of Osama bin Laden,
more than 280 pounds of chemicals and five pipes which could have
been turned into bombs with the addition of the chemicals, he said.
He did not say what kinds of chemicals they were.
The 25-year-old man was raised in Germany and is employed by a store
or a factory selling chemicals, Kleibach said.
His 23-year-old fiancee is a civilian employee of the U.S. military
in a supermarket at the American base in Heidelberg where the U.S.
Army is headquartered in Europe, Kleibach said.
Neither was identified by name.
Kleibach said the two are not cooperating with investigators. The
man has a record of criminal convictions for petty crimes, including
theft and drug use, and is not known to be a member of any terrorist
groups, Kleibach said.
There were indications that an attack was planned for September 11,
according to Thomas Schaeuble, the chief law enforcement officer for
Baden-Wuerttemberg state, who refused to elaborate further.
Schaeuble said the Turkish man was a strict Muslim "who hates
Americans and Jews."
The German prosecutor's office also said U.S. authorities had
arrested an Afghan-born German from the city of Hamburg. Three of
the hijackers involved in the September 11 terror attacks belonged
to a Hamburg cell.
The prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe said U.S. officials had
arrested the man in New York and said he was now being held in
Virginia. U.S. officials told Germany there was evidence of possible
attacks planned by the 39-year-old man, the office said. (Full
story)
The Interior Ministry in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg refused to
comment on an advance article in Saturday's Bild newspaper claiming
officials were investigating a link to the al Qaeda terror network.
"I would put it this way -- when in these times you arrest someone
and find a large quantity of explosives on him, you can suspect
that, but the investigation is in progress and we can say nothing
about that," Ministry spokeswoman Alice Loyson-Siemering told The
Associated Press.
The U.S. Army Europe headquarters is in Heidelberg while U.S.
European Command, which oversees the military operations in Europe
and parts of Africa, is also based in Baden-Wuerttemberg, near
Stuttgart.
U.S. military authorities had no immediate comment but security
forces say they are not aware of any threats against installations
in Stuttgart and there were no signs of heightened security at
Heidelberg.
German Interior Minister Otto Schily said on Wednesday that
authorities had reviewed 500 tips of possible new attacks since
September 11, but had found no concrete evidence to suggest an
attack to mark the first anniversary of the strikes on the World
Trade Center and Washington was in progress.
Germany is on alert because Mohammed Atta, believed to have been at
the controls of the first plane that crashed into the twin towers,
had lived and studied in Hamburg, Germany.
CNN Correspondent Chris Burns and Producer Claudia Otto contributed
to this story.
Copyright 2002 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press
contributed to this report.
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