German bomb suspect may have ties to al Qaeda

Reuters/Washington Post:

A man held in Lebanon in connection with a failed attack on German trains has confessed to planting a suitcase bomb and investigations suggest he might have links to al Qaeda, the Lebanese government said on Friday.

"When he saw the pictures, he admitted that he planted the bomb," Lebanon's acting Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat told Reuters television.

"There is nothing clear now, but in his computer, we found something that can be related to al Qaeda, some contacts. He denied any contact till now with al Qaeda, but maybe he was working without knowing (it) himself under the umbrella of al Qaeda," he added.

Fatfat was referring to Jihad Hamad, a 20-year-old Lebanese man who turned himself in to authorities in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Thursday.

Hamad and a 21-year-old Lebanese man named Youssef Mohamad E.H., who was arrested in Germany at the weekend, were caught on security videos dragging suitcases on to trains in Cologne last month.

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Intelligence agencies continue to harvest information from another failed attack. It is possible that al Qaeda was planning a terror "swarm" close to 9-11 to attempt to claim some relevance after its loss in Iraq. I still believe that attrition has forced it to use lesser players at the same time the West's intelligence efforts are getting more focused and better at spotting their plots. Perhaps it is just a coincidence taht Iran is activating many of its assets at the same time which adds to the swarm effect. While there has been a lot of noise and smoke, so far the fires have been of minimal impact on the West and the failures for al Qaeda continue to be debilitating.