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Anti-Terror Action Plan

Germany Heightens Security Ahead of Election

Germany's police and intelligence agencies are planning to beef up the country's security in the run-up to the September election. The heightened measures are a response to intelligence that al-Qaida is planning attacks on German targets in revenge for Berlin's mission in Afghanistan.

Germany is planning to implement a massive anti-terrorism action plan ahead of September's general election to thwart any possible attacks.

Intelligence agencies believe that al-Qaida is planning to hit German targets abroad and possibly at home in the run up to the Sept. 27 vote that will pave the way for the next chancellor in revenge for the Germany's military mission in Afghanistan and to put pressure on Berlin to withdraw its forces.

The German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the domestic intelligence agency, have devised an anti-terror plan similar to the one used during the World Cup in 2006. It envisages intensifying the country's anti-terrorism measures aimed at detecting any possible attacks as early as possible. The list of heightened security measures is to be discussed at a special meeting of federal and state interior ministers on July 9.

The plan includes a comprehensive monitoring of all passengers flying into and out of Germany if their journey includes a stop in North Africa or Pakistan. Any suspicious passengers would be questioned by intelligence officers directly at Germany's airports. There are also plans to pay a visit to the homes of the 140 Islamists that the BKA regards as a potential threat.

In particular the authorities are keen to keep an eye on the 45 former jihad fighters who have trained in camps in Afghanistan or Pakistan and are now living again in Germany. Intelligence agencies are also seeking to track down any German supporters of al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb, the North African branch of al-Qaida. And they are examining any possible intersection between terrorism networks and the drug trade.

At the end of May the US government told the German intelligence agencies that al-Qaida leaders in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region had decided to attack Germans ahead of the election and had given the Maghreb organization the task of carrying them out.

The targets could be German companies and citizens in North Africa as well as on German soil. The government in Berlin believes the increase on the attacks on German soldiers in Afghanistan and the shooting of an American teacher in Mauritania last week fit into this picture. Both Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND) and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution also want to approach the intelligence agencies in the North African countries and to coordinate with their counterparts in France, Spain, Great Britain and Italy.

SPIEGEL Staff