Berlin - Five Islamists living in the Frankfurt area of
Germany were reported Saturday to have been behind the threat which
led to a major anti-terrorism alert at nearby US military bases last
month.
The April 20 alert, which was widely reported at the time,
resurfaced Friday in US television news reports, but both German and
US officials denied there had been any fresh alert.
The German weekly news magazine Focus said Saturday it had
reported a week ago on the Islamists, two of them German converts to
Islam and the other three Germans of Turkish origin.
Quoting police sources, it said they had filmed valedictory
messages by men who intended to die in an attack on a base. There are
numerous US facilities within two hours drive of the Frankfurt
metropolitan area.
Focus saying they belonged to Islamic Jihad Union, a group
affiliated to al-Qaeda which has been blamed for 52 killings in
Uzbekistan. The five Germans had undergone military training in
Pakistan.
German federal prosecutors, who lead the fight against terrorism,
declined comment Saturday on the Focus story.
ABC and CNN television of the United States reported Friday that
the plot was at an advanced stage.
ABC suggested the US supreme command for Europe in Stuttgart might
have been the target, with the attackers planning to invade it with
guns and bombs.
The US embassy in Berlin said April 20 that security was being
increased at diplomatic posts and military installations and urged
Americans in Germany to take steps to protect themselves.
'This is the threat that is still out there,' said a US official,
who spoke to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity.
'A lot of people in a lot of places are working hard to unravel'
the threat, the official said Friday.
In Berlin, an interior ministry spokesman said there was no
immediate danger to US installations in Germany.
The spokesman said the plot 'concerns a known issue that prompted
US officials to issue a warning to Americans in Germany several weeks
ago.'
Focus said there had infighting among security agencies over the
inquiry.
The US Central Intelligence Agency CIA and its German domestic
intelligence counterpart, the BfV Office for the Protection of the
Constitution, agreed not to tell German police about surveillance of
the five for fear of leaks.
However the Air Intelligence Agency, a branch of the US Air Force,
told the chief of Stuttgart police, who circularized German police
nationwide.
The German police were scathing about the BfV, saying BfV agents
waited in a car outside one of the suspects' apartments and were
immediately noticed by him, Focus said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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