Germany - 9 People Detained As Germans Raid Islamic Centers

Source: IHT, 23 Apr 08

Scores of German police officers carried out raids on Islamic centers in several big towns and cities Wednesday, detaining nine German citizens suspected of trying to establish a criminal organization and winning over converts to their radical form of Islam, prosecutors said.

            No terrorism charges were filed, they added. The 16 raids, carried out by 130 police officers, took place in Ulm , Bonn , Berlin and Leipzig . The security authorities had been observing cultural centers, a publishing house and private houses for more than two years. One of the main focuses of the raid was the Bavarian town of Neu-Ulm , where several raids have been staged over the past few years during anti-terrorist operations. There, according to the police, the Multi-Kultur-Haus, an Islamic cultural center, had become a meeting point for radical Islamists. At one stage the center was under surveillance by U.S. anti-terrorism agencies, according to media reports here. The Multi-Kultur-Haus was formally dissolved in 2005 order to pre-empt a prohibition order, but the authorities said they suspected its members had remained covertly active. One of the members of the center was Reda Seyam, a German of Egyptian origin considered by law enforcement to be linked to Al Qaeda, although he had never been charged. The police said the individuals detained Wednesday would be charged with belonging to a criminal group whose aims were to encourage radicalism among Muslims, particularly Germans who had converted to Islam. They said the suspects had used the Internet, as well as audio and video materials, for anti-constitutional pursuits. They are also suspected of sedition.

            Those detained, ages 25 to 47, all have immigrant backgrounds, the prosecutors said. None were identified by name. The raids are a continuation of an investigation into the Multi-Kultur-Haus. Last year, the German police arrested three men in the rural village of Oberschledorn , saying that they were planning a terrorist attack. Two of them were German converts to Islam, one of them a man from Ulm . The raids coincide with a heated debate about the limits of police surveillance on individuals. Last week, the interior and justice ministries agreed on a new set of online surveillance guidelines, despite strong opposition from the Social Democrats who share power with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc. Even some members of Merkel's own Christian Democrats spoke against the proposal. Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said that under the proposals, which could become law by summer, the measure would allow German investigators to use wiretaps and surveillance cameras in homes of innocent citizens to keep tabs on terror suspects. The federal police would be permitted to install "hidden technical equipment, that is to say bugs or cameras inside or outside apartments" in case of "a pressing danger for state security," the Interior Ministry spokesman, Stefan Paris, said at a news conference Friday. "I would urgently like to stress that there are very, very strict conditions," he said. "It is not the case that everywhere in this country secret cameras or listening devices will be installed in living spaces." According to the draft law, recording and filming must normally be restricted to the suspect and the suspect's own home, but exceptions are possible.

German Police Raid Homes Of Islamist Suspects

Source: Reuters, 23 Apr 08

German police said on Wednesday they were searching the homes and offices of nine Islamist suspects, who are accused of trying to radicalise Muslims and non-Muslims in Germany.

            Officials were searching 16 sites across Germany , including apartments and offices in the western city of Bonn and the eastern cities of Berlin and Leipzig , police said. "The suspects are ... suspected of purposefully influencing people with their activities and encouraging their readiness for jihadi activities at home and abroad," police in the southern state of Bavaria said in a statement. The suspects were German nationals, mostly of immigrant origin, and were aged between 25 and 47 years, it said. Authorities said no arrests had been made. Germany has not suffered a major domestic attack in recent years, but the government has said the threat of one is high. Last year, German authorities arrested three men they said were planning to carry out bomb attacks against U.S. installations in Germany .

Agency Admits Spying On Afghan Politician And Spiegel Journalist

Source: Der Spiegel, 24 Apr 08

The head of Germany's foreign intelligence agency has come under fire over admissions his employees monitored e-mails exchanged between a minister in the Afghan government and a SPIEGEL journalist.

            Chief spy Ernst Uhrlau will likely keep his job, but the scandal is expected to shake up the organization. BND chief Ernst Uhrlau says he first became aware that his agency was spying on an Afghan politician and a Spiegel journalist in December 2007, long after the operation had stopped. BND chief Ernst Uhrlau says he first became aware that his agency was spying on an Afghan politician and a Spiegel journalist in December 2007, long after the operation had stopped. Earlier Thursday, it looked as though Ernst Uhrlau, the head of Germany 's foreign intelligence service, might lose his job. Urhlau came under fire this week after it was revealed his agency had been monitoring e-mails exchanged between an Afghan government minister and a Spiegel journalist. A number of new details are emerging that suggest the head of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) lost control over some of the agents in his organization and failed to inform the Chancellery of Chancellor Angela Merkel or parliament in a timely manner about what he knew. The Chancellery is officially responsible for supervising the foreign intelligence agency's activities. But after a meeting of the German parliament's intelligence oversight committee Thursday, the panel's chairman, Thomas Oppermann of the center-left Social Democratic Party, said Uhrlau could keep his post. After a two-hour period of questioning, he said it was clear there would be consequences for BND personnel and that new structures would be put in place on the level of department heads and staff units. He said the relationship between the intelligence oversight committee and the BND had been damaged and that it had to be re-established. Oppermann also said these changes should be managed by Uhrlau, who is already working to correct other legacy problems at the foreign intelligence agency.

            Other politicians on Thursday, led by Hans-Peter Uhl of the conservative Bavarian party the Christian Social Union, had been calling for Uhrlau to step down. But during the oversight committee's meeting, the senior Left Party member on the panel, Wolfgang Neskovic, said his resignation wouldn't change anything. But the senior committee member from the business-friendly Free Democratic Party, Max Stadler, described the espionage case as evidence that the BND was turning into a state within a state. Stadler called for an increase in parliament's power over the BND's work. Speaking for the Greens, panel member Hans-Christian Ströbele concurred. Earlier Thursday, new information emerged about the incident first revealed last Friday that sparked this week's Bundestag hearings. For months, the BND monitored e-mails exchanged between Spiegel correspondent Susanne Koelbl and an Afghan minister during 2006. It has since emerged that Koelbl was not the BND's original target. The intelligence service was attempting to install a so-called "Trojan horse" computer program on the computer of Afghan Trade and Industry Minister Amin Farhang that would send copies of his e-mail to the BND. The agency had hoped to obtain information about Farhang. In its surveillance, the agency also came across e-mails exchanged between the reporter and the minister. At first, it was unclear why the BND wanted to monitor the Afghan minister, who also holds a German passport and lived in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia for years. The incident is also expected to raise new questions for the BND -- especially why the German foreign intelligence agency would spy on a minister of a foreign government. After all, Afghanistan is recognized by Germany as a sovereign state.

            In its previous reporting, Spiegel did not name Farhang because it had sought to protect him as a source for the magazine. But after his name began circulating amongst politicians in Berlin on Thursday, Spiegel obtained permission from Farhang to publish his name. Spiegel also announced on Thursday it would consider bringing a lawsuit against the BND over its actions. "Over a period of six months," the intelligence service "monitored e-mail between Susanne Koelbl and an Afghan politician." This is an "unacceptable situation," the newsmagazine stated. The situation isn't getting any easier for Uhrlau, who must now answer questions about how he, as head of the service, could be kept in the dark about such a sensitive operation undertaken by his own people. During a hearing in the Bundestag on Wednesday, Uhrlau said that he was first made aware on Dec. 21, 2007 that his agency had been monitoring e-mails between Koelbl and Farhang. Afghan Trade and Industry Minister Amin Farhang was the target of German espionage for six months. Afghan Trade and Industry Minister Amin Farhang was the target of German espionage for six months. So far, it is clear that in the summer of 2006, one BND sub-unit made the decision, without consulting with senior management, to place a tap on the computer of a member of the Afghan government. The operation included the installation of software on the politician's computer that monitored all of his communication and sent copies to the BND. The monitoring continued for a good six months, and BND employees first expressed their unease about the operation in November 2006. Shortly thereafter, the monitoring stopped. Uhrlau reportedly first learned of the operation in December 2007. Two months later, an anonymous letter began circulating in Berlin that provided details of the BND operation. The letter is believed to have originated from a BND employee who disapproved of the operation. The question also remains unanswered why the intelligence issues committee of the German parliament, the Bundestag, was informed so late by Uhrlau -- and why officials didn't tell Spiegel until last Friday that Susanne Koelbl's emails had been monitored. Koelbl has reported on war-ravaged Afghanistan for Spiegel for a number of years.