Travel
alerts to U.S. citizens in Europe came amid warnings that young German men were
among the would-be jihadists seeking to join terrorist groups along the
Afghan-Pakistan border. According to the scant information publicly available,
one of these men has returned to Hamburg
in the meantime. There he has associated with individuals linked to one of the
9/11 hijackers. Another 15 to 20 young people supposedly left Afghanistan for Europe as well with the
intention of staging Mumbai-style attacks in the UK,
France, and Germany. While
the border area seems to attract mostly misfits and malcontents, who enjoy
playing the role of amateur terrorists, the German Foreign Intelligence Service
(Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) is taking the warnings seriously. Observers fear
that there may not be very much professionalism necessary for staging a
bloodbath (FAZ).
A number of
young German men from Berlin
in particular are reported to have been killed in their endeavors to join the
Afghan jihad in recent weeks. One of their comrades is supposedly now
unaccounted for and may have returned to Germany in search of a target for
an attack (Spiegel).
However, security considerations necessitate that much of the information
remains obscure or "abstract," as the German Foreign Minister, Guido
Westerwelle, puts it. At this moment he sees no reason for increased vigilance
in Germany,
despite terror warnings circulated in the American and British media. The BND
had long been aware of the relevant information and had not judged it necessary
to alert the public (Tagesschau).
The U.S. National Security Advisor, James Jones, also pointed out that no
specific targets were known to the Western intelligence community, despite
media reports to the contrary (Handelsblatt).
Indeed, the
German Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maizière, has warned of
scaremongering in this context. He claims that it has been more than a year now
since intelligence services had already informed him of the terrorists' plans,
which have now surfaced in the media reports. Berlin's Senator (=Minister) of the
Interior, Ehrhart Koerting, agreed with the Interior Minister on the matter.
Moreover, international travelers do not appear unduly unsettled by the
reports. No cancellations by business travelers or tourists to Berlin have been noted
to date (Focus).
Unnamed German experts are reported to suspect that the threats against Germany, as
reported on by the U.S. Fox news channel, were intended to exert pressure on
the Obama Administration. Some U.S.
observers feel that Washington
does not take the terrorist threat serious enough anymore (Tagesspiegel).
Even if the
situation remains relatively calm in Germany,
an escalation of violence has recently been noted in the northern part of Afghanistan -
the area secured by German forces. An ambush in early October left one German
soldier dead and six injured. The Minister of Defense, Karl-Theodor zu
Guttenberg, continued to defend the mission as essential to the national
security of Germany
(Welt).
In the first
week of October, the Governor of the Afghan Kunduz province, Mohammad Omar, was
killed as a result of a suicide attack during Friday prayers. Since German
troops in Afghanistan are
mainly located in this region, this news contributed to a sense of foreboding
in Germany.
The Minister of Defense seized the occasion to point out that Germans should be
realistic about which goals can be accomplished in Afghanistan. The Foreign Minister
meanwhile expressed his condolences to the Governor's family and the people of Afghanistan. He
emphasized that the murder of the Governor represented an attack on everything
which Germany was striving
to achieve in Afghanistan,
namely, a safe, sovereign and secure state. He assured the Afghans that Germany would
not forsake this aspiration even when faced with brutal acts of violence (Deutsche Welle).
The repercussions of these events on the planned withdrawal of German troops
from Afghanistan
next year remain to be seen.
Photo Licence: CC-BY-SA Bundeswehr-Fotos
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