By Jürgen Dahlkamp and Holger Stark
Intelligence agencies in Africa, as well as the CIA, have noticed for some time that "Al-Qaida in the Maghreb," the terrorist organization's North African branch, is paying more and more attention to Germany. This is not good news for Schäuble, and it corresponds to a warning from the CIA, which notified Berlin in late May that al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan had decided to attack Germany or German interests abroad -- and had assigned the task to the Maghreb organization. "Germany has been singled out," say officials in Washington.
The enemy already has a name: Abu Zayd.
The Moroccan national, the leader of a division of al-Qaida in North Africa, is a veteran of the terrorist milieu and has been active for at least six years. In fact, intelligence agencies are only too familiar with Abu Zayd, who is believed to be the leader of a group that kidnapped Marianne P., a teacher from the southwestern German city of Darmstadt, while she was on a desert trip this spring. Only after months of negotiations and the release of an al-Qaida supporter from a prison in Mali did the commander release the hostage at the end of April.
The authorities believe that Abu Zayd is the man who is planning attacks against German interests. These interests could include German companies involved in the construction of a subway system in Algiers, or the German Embassy in the Algerian capital. Or perhaps nothing will happen at all. The authorities are unclear about the details, but they do believe that they know why Germany is being targeted.
"Al-Qaida has made it its mission to drive foreigners out of Afghanistan," says Hanning. Germany has the third-largest troop contingent in Afghanistan, next to the United States and Great Britain, and in hardly any other country is public sentiment so critical of its country's Afghanistan mission. Hanning believes that the Islamists' goal is to "attack the supposedly weakest link in the chain of Western nations." The threats of attacks leading up to September elections are meant to force Germany to withdraw, just as the Madrid train bombings prompted Zapatero to pull out Spanish troops from Iraq in 2004.
The Islamist Potential
The German military's most recent offensive in northern Afghanistan only heightens this image of Germans as the enemy rather than participants in the reconstruction effort. This has prompted Bekkay Harrach, an Islamist from Bonn, to threaten that it is "high time" to "give them something to think about." Harrach, who has gone to Pakistan to join al-Qaida, is seen as one of the driving forces behind the escalation.
Berlin's response has been to mobilize law enforcement officials to a degree not seen in years. In mid-July, Hanning hosted a meeting at the government's counterterrorism center in Berlin with his counterparts from the German states. Jörg Ziercke, the president of the BKA, presented his assessment of the situation. What he described was a summing up of Islamist potential in Germany.
According to Ziercke, 99 Islamists in Germany are considered "threats," meaning that authorities believe them to be capable of staging an attack. Another 324 suspicious individuals are classified as "relevant persons," including "Sheikh Ali" from Essen. They are part of an environment the government referred to as the "sympathizer scene" in the days of the Red Army Faction terrorist group. Of this group, 142 apparently went to suspicious countries voluntarily, including 60 who are believed to have completed terrorist training before returning to Germany.
The numbers sound menacing, but they also highlight the authorities' helplessness. In fact, German authorities are not even sure where exactly many of the supposed 60 returnees from terrorist camps are, while the number of sympathizers of the North African al-Qaida organization identified in Germany is straightforward: zero. A senior security official criticizes the government action plan for being "a mixture of being active geared toward public relations and poking around in the fog."
In the case of "Sheikh Ali" from Essen, at any rate, the authorities are pleased that they came across him, albeit accidentally. Nevertheless, the imam has filed an application for asylum at the Büren prison. He claims that because his relatives in Gaza sympathize with the Fatah Movement, he could face a Hamas-initiated "blood feud" upon his return, which is why he is requesting asylum in Germany. "I have not been involved in any political organization," says Ali R. He claims that he was only active in a group that offers advice to Muslim patients at the University of Essen Hospital.
Investigators are also looking for possible accomplices and other incriminating information. If the evidence remains insufficient for an indictment, "Sheikh Ali" will be deported to his native Gaza. His asylum application has been rejected.
If that happens, the list of relevant persons will have been reduced to 323 names.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
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