Terror Hits Germany, Too

By WILLIAM BOSTON | Berlin Monday, Aug. 21, 2006

SCRUTINY: A camera behind glass at the main railway station of Cologne which monitored a terror suspect

FRANK AUGSTEIN / AP

Monday, Aug 21, 2006

German investigators are racing against the clock to track down additional terror suspects following the weekend arrest of a Lebanese student linked to a failed attempt to detonate bombs on commuter trains.

The suspect arrested, whom the federal prosecutor has identified only as Youssef Mohamad E.H., was charged on Sunday with membership in a terrorist organization, multiple counts of attempted murder and consipiring to set off explosives. A second suspect is still at large. Investigators fear the second suspect, possibly acting with a larger group, is planning a repeat attack.

The arrests have rekindled years of inconclusive debate about national security. In a major shift, Germany's main political parties now seem ready to grant investigators greater access to files on suspected terrorists.

"Terrorism has reached us," August Hanning, Germany's deputy interior minister and former intelligence chief, told German television. "Terrorist attacks are also being prepared in Germany. We have to assume that this will happen in the future."

Police scored a major coup with the arrest of the 21-year-old Lebanese suspect on Saturday at the Kiel central station. The day before, Germany's Federal Crime Police, the equivalent of the FBI, set a reward of 50,000 euros for information leading to the capture of two young men, caught on video pulling suitcases through the Cologne train station the afternoon of July 31.

In the suitcases were crude homemade bombs using propane gas cartridges and detonators made from battery-operated alarm clocks. The men placed the bombs on trains bound for Dortmund and Koblenz. The plan, say police, was to set off the bombs simultaneously as the trains arrived at their destinations. The alarm clocks went off as planned at 2:30 pm local time, but the mechanism failed to detonate the bombs.

Police said the man arrested in Kiel is linked to the suitcases through DNA evidence and video footage taken on July 31 at the Cologne train station. Investigators say they have no further information about the identity or whereabouts of the second suspect.

According to an unconfirmed report on Monday on Germany's ARD public television, German authorities received a tip from Lebanese intelligence that led to the arrest of the suspect. After seeing his picture on German television, the student called his family in Lebanon. The conversation was monitored by Lebanese intelligence, who alerted Germany.