Arrests made in Danish terror plot
AP/Houston Chronicle:
There is also no mention of whether the plot may have had something to do the the Danish cartoons which sparked Muslim tantrums and death threats. Instead it speculates about whether the Danish participation in the coalition of the willing in Iraq might be responsible.
The CBS News report pulls no punches:
Gates of Vienna gets a report from its Denmark correspondent.
Several people were arrested in Denmark on suspicion of preparing an act of terror involving explosives, the Danish intelligence service said today.The story does not indicate whether Islamist were behind the alleged plot, but they probably were. In one of the previous plots the story says, "... a court sentenced Abdul Basit Abu Lifa, a Danish citizen of Palestinian descent, to seven years in prison for his involvement in a Bosnia-linked plot to blow up a target in Europe...."
The suspects, who were not identified, were arrested late Monday in the Copenhagen area, the intelligence service, known as PET, said in a brief statement.
The men had been under surveillance, the agency said.
The TV2 news channel said police had cordoned off a street in Noerrebro, an immigrant district in Copenhagen. Helicopter footage showed a police bomb squad and forensics agents in the area, but it was not immediately clear if the operation was related to the terror arrests.
Danish radio said police had also searched an apartment in Ishoej, a southern Copenhagen suburb with a large immigrant population.
Police declined to comment on those operations.
It was the third time Danish police cracked down on suspected terrorist networks since 2005.
...
There is also no mention of whether the plot may have had something to do the the Danish cartoons which sparked Muslim tantrums and death threats. Instead it speculates about whether the Danish participation in the coalition of the willing in Iraq might be responsible.
The CBS News report pulls no punches:
Denmark's intelligence service arrested eight Islamic militants linked to leading al Qaeda figures in anti-terror raids in the Danish capital, the head of the agency said TuesdayYou have to wonder if some of those cooperating partners were listening to the conversations of the plotters. Hopefully, none were routing their calls through the US so they would be protected by Democrats and terrorist rights advocates.
The men, between ages 19 and 29, were suspected of preparing a terror act involving explosives, said Jakob Scharf, the head of the PET intelligence service.
...
The advisor, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity, said he believes the eight men were planning an attack on an "iconic target." He said a previously-disrupted plot had targeted Copenhagen's main railway station.
Those arrested were six Danish citizens and two foreign nationals with Danish residence permits, Scharf said. The suspects had been under surveillance for a longer period and were arrested after police gathered enough evidence against them, he said.
"They also have been producing an unstable explosive in a densely populated area," Scharf said.
He said Danish investigators had worked with "several foreign cooperation partners" in the probe.
"Those arrested are militant Islamists with connections to leading al Qaeda persons," Scharf said, but did not name those people. "According to our assessment, there is a direct connection to al Qaeda."
The suspects - of Afghan, Pakistani, Somali and Turkish origin - were arrested without incident in separate raids at 2 a.m. local time,...
...
Gates of Vienna gets a report from its Denmark correspondent.
Good reporting! Denmark has been too lenient, too long. But they also have a formidable intelligence service and cops that pull no punches. If any country in Europe can stop these people, it's them. I'm a lot more concerned about what will happen when the terrorists move their activities to Sweden instead. Their cops are corrupt and basically incompetent.
ReplyDelete