Wednesday, September 5, 2007


Doffing my Cap to German Law Enforcement

Just hours after it was revealed that David Addington in 2004 was "preying" for another terrorist attack so the Bush maladministration could seize even more dictatorial power in the name of fighting terrorism, it was revealed that German police have arrested three terrorists who were in the final stages of preparation for bombing high-value targets in Germany that represent vital American interests.

“They were planning massive attacks,” the German federal prosecutor, Monika Harms, said at a news conference, outlining a vast six-month investigation. She said that the suspects had amassed huge amounts of hydrogen peroxide, the main chemical used to manufacture the explosives used in the suicide bombings in London in July 2005.

...The arrests came a day after the Danish police arrested eight people in a suspected terrorist plot there. The German interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said there was no evidence of a direct link between the plots, despite similarities, including a suspected link to Al Qaeda. Six of those suspects have already been released.

Germans officials said the attacks could have come within days, noting that the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks falls next week and that the German Parliament will soon take up a politically sensitive debate about extending the deployment of German troops in Afghanistan.

“There was an imminent security threat,” the German defense minister, Franz Josef Jung, said on state television.

Ms. Harms said the three suspects arrested Tuesday belonged to a German cell of the Islamic Jihad Union, a radical Sunni group based in Central Asia that split from the extremist Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

While this group has not been linked to terrorist attacks in Europe, it has claimed credit for suicide bombings in July 2004 near the United States and Israeli Embassies in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent. The group has called for the overthrow of the secular government in Uzbekistan.

I have a whole different outlook on terrorism and effectively combating it than most of my fellow Americans, because it has been on my radar for over 20 years. I was an Air Force wife in the 80's - Hello? Rome Airport, anyone? Lets just say that lots of couples never went out dancing in Germany, either, and leave it at that. Back then, spouses and children routinely took a different commercial flight to an overseas billet than the service member who was required to fly in uniform. I have the utmost respect for the European law enforcement community that stemmed those problems back then.

Europe has been dealing with terrorism, and doing so effectively, for many years now, and they have done so with common-sense security measures and with good, old-fashioned police work. Today, they led the way once again, showing us once more that the way to effectively fight terrorism is law enforcement, not blowing shit up, invading countries that didn't attack us, and terrorizing the citizens of said country.

Get it yet?