Al-Qaida´s Plan To Kill German TV Celebrities

by Florian Flade

Germany, November 2010. A call from Waziristan set German security officials on high alert. Al-Qaida has set sights on Germany, the caller claimed, a terrorist cell of Moroccan nationals is already in the country planning terror attacks. The caller was a German Jihadist who had traveled to Pakistan´s tribal region in early 2010. He had joined Al-Qaida but after a US drone strike had killed his younger brother he was fed up with Jihad. He was eager to leave Al-Qaida and therefore asked German officials to help him – with money and flight tickets to Turkey. In return he offered inside information about an alleged Al-Qaida plot to target Germany.

German officials were discussing the threat. In the end no deal was made. No more calls were coming from the Jihadi defector. Nevertheless Germany´s Ministry of Interior gave out a nationwide terror alert. Police was intensively patrolling at airports, train stations and at the German parliament. In the background intelligence agencies were now on the hunt for the “Moroccan Al-Qaida Cell” operating in Germany. Who could be a possible Al-Qaida sleeper? Which person had been trained in Waziristan and returned to Germany?

Dozens of potential Jihadi terrorists were checked. By December 2010 German counter-terrorism officials came across one man they believed could be Al-Qaida´s man for the job – Abdeladim El-K.. The Moroccan national had been to the Al-Qaida training camp “Badr” in early 2010 and then returned to Germany living a secret life. El-K. was an illegal resident by then. His behavior led intelligence analyst to believe he could be planning for something.

The federal police (Bundeskriminalamt) formed a special unit named “Komet” and started observation on El-K. and two other men in the Düsseldorf region of Northrhine-Westphalia. Over the course of a few months it became clear that the Moroccan was in contact with high-ranking Al-Qaida figure Sheikh Atiyyatullah and had formed a cell in West Germany. He recruited Jamil S. and Amid C. and step-by-step went forward with a plan to build a bomb. Security officials now called them the “Düsseldorf Cell”.

Read the full story of “Al-Qaida´s Düsseldorf Cell” here

In April 2011 police decided to strike on El-K. and his comrades. All three men were arrested in various raids. A fourth member of the “Düsseldorf Cell”, Halil S., was arrested in December 2011 after months of surveillance. After El-K. and the others were arrested, Halil S. wanted to continue with the deadly plan to carry out a bomb attack in Germany.

Now the “Düsseldorf Cell” is on trial. Loads of details are made public including information on what the possible target of the terrorist attack could have been. The chief of the federal police´s “Komet”-Unit testified in court. He talked about documents and possible target lists found in the cell´s flat. One of the papers, a notebook, belonged to El-K..

There were several names written on the target list including “Markus Lense” and “Ingo Appell”. Both are TV celebrities in Germany. Markus Lanz is probably the most popular talk-show anchorman in the country soon to be presenting Germany´s prime time entertainment show “Wetten dass…?”.

Why would the Al-Qaida terrorists want to kill Markus Lanz? One possible reason: Lanz interviewed Kurt Westergaart, the Danish cartoonist who had drawn some of the controversial Mohammed Cartoons which triggered international protest by Muslims in numerous countries back in 2005.

Ingo Appelt is a famous German comedian known for his harsh and sometimes very insulting humor. Also on El-K.´s target list was Hans-Christoph Ammon, the former Chief of the “Kommando Spezialkräfte” (KSK), the German military´s special forces unit, and “Charlie Hebdo”, the name of a French Satire magazine which had re-printed the Danish Mohammed Cartoons. And there was the “Gafenwöhr/Crafenwöhr” found on the paper, a town in southern Germany where a US military base is located.

The “Komet” chief told the judge the list can be treated like a “possible target scenario” but there that was no information found during the investigation that could proof the “Düsseldorf Cell” was absolutely willing and in detail planning to kill the people on the list.

“Böses Vaterland” – Deutscher Islamist Mounir C. droht mit Anschlägen

von Florian Flade

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Demonstrativ wird sein Pass eingeblendet: Mounir Chouka, geboren 1981 in Bonn Bad Godesberg, Staatsangehörigkeit: Deutsch.

Doch mit seinem Heimatland, das er “Böses Vaterland” nennt, hat der 30jährige Bonner längst gebrochen. Vor Jahren schon ist Mounir Chouka zum Mudschahid “Abu Adam” geworden, einem islamistischen Krieger, der in Waziristan für die Einführung der Sharia kämpft. In einem neuen Propagandavideo der “Islamischen Bewegung Usbekistans” (IBU) vollzieht Mounir demonstrativ den endgültigen Bruch mit Deutschland – und droht den Bürgern der Bundesrepublik mit Terroranschlägen.

Deutschland sei ein Verbündeter der USA, ein Handlanger in den Kriegen Amerikas, so der aus Bonn stammende Dschihadist. Die deutsche Geheimdienste seien in den Kampf gegen Muslime involviert und hätten sich dabei mit Tyrannen und Diktatoren alliiert. Der Friedenseinsatz der Bundeswehr in Afghanistan sei in Wahrheit ein Verbrechen der USA mit umfangreicher deutscher Beteiligung, so Chouka.

“Die Wahrheit war und ist, dass die deutsche Regierung seit der erste Stunde mit im Boot der Amerikaner sitzt”, sagt Mounir C. über den Afghanistan-Einsatz der Bundeswehr, “Es war gewollt von den Amerikanern dass die deutsche Regierung bei diesem teuflischen und skrupellosen Krieg eine verdeckte Rolle übernimmt.”

“Die Wahrheit ist: Dass egal wo die Amerikaner auf der Welt gegen die Muslime kämpfen, ob in Somalia, in Palästina oder hier in Waziristan: die deutsche Regierung in selbem Maße mitwirkt, wenn nicht mit größerem Einsatz”, so der deutsche Islamist weiter.

“Unser Hauptfeind sind in erster Linie die deutschen Politiker und die deutschen Kräfte die im Hintergrund für die Juden arbeiten”, erklärt der aus Bonn stammende Terrorist, “Dennoch muss und wird es in Deutschland, so Allah will, eine Serie von Anschlägen auch gegen das Volk geben.

Der geplante Anschlag in Deutschland sei eine Art Rache und Lektion, so Mounir C.: “Warum sollen die Muslime in Angst leben und ihr in Sicherheit? Warum leben wir im Krieg und in Deutschland, das uns bekriegt, herrscht eine friedliche Atmosphäre?”

“Wir werden den Krieg bis vor eure Haustüren tragen”, warnt Mounir C. abschließend, “Der Dschihad in Deutschland ist nur noch eine Frage der Zeit! Wenn die deutsche Bundeswehr 70 mal aus Afghanistan ausrücken wird, so werden wir die Deutschen weiter bekämpfen. Wir werden sie solange bekämpfen bis wir ausreichende Rache genommen haben für ihre Verbrechen und bis Allahs Erde unter der Führung seiner Diener steht.”

German Military Fires Muslim Soldier

by Florian Flade

A few months ago an secret internal paper circulating in German military bases warned about former soldier Sascha B. who was suspected of being an Islamist.

B., a 28 year-old convert to Islam, joined the German army (Bundeswehr) in 2006 and served as a Lance Sergeant in Panzergrenadierbataillon 212 in Augustdorf. During his service time Sascha B. converted to Islam. He grew a beard and started praying. At that point he realized his new behaviour might be considered problematic by his superiors.

“I was not allowed to pray when I wanted to”, B. says. In summer 2009 the Muslim soldier was fined with a disciplinary punishment of 250 EUROs because he refused to trimm his beard to 2cm length – instead he spotted a 14cm Salafi beard.

A few weeks later Sascha B. refused to teach a young recruit how to shoot an assault rifle, claiming the soldier might be send to Afghanistan to shoot at Muslims. His supervisors reacted immediately and informed the German military´s internal intelligence agency MAD.

MAD agents spoke to Sascha B. about his behaviour and his belief. “The liberal democratic system to me is only the second best form of government”, B. said during the interrogations. For him, Shariah law, was the best system created for mankind. Sascha B. also confirmed that he ordered 1800 leaflets about Islam on the website of famous German Salafi preacher Pierre Vogel.

On March 15 2010, two weeks prior to his regular end of service in the military, the German Bundeswehr sacked Sascha B.. He was most likely considered a possible terrorist threat.

Eventhough he left the German military, the MAD seemed to be worried about the fact that Sascha B. was still in possession of his military ID card which might have enabled him to access German military instellations – therefore the MAD gave out the document warning about B.. It took months for the Bundeswehr to reacquire the ID card from Sascha B..

Yesterday Sascha B. lost a law-suite against the Bundeswehr he had filed because of his early release from service. The court decided that the release was justified due to Sascha B.´s behaviour and ideological background.

In court the Salafi convert, a father of two, said he was never a threat of any kind and was willing to work and fight for the democratic system he lives in.