September 06, 2007

Foiled Plot Raises Questions About Germany's Role In Afghanistan

After yesterday's announcement of three arrests in an alleged plot to bomb the Frankfurt International Airport and a U.S. air base near Ramstein-Miesenbach, German authorities are now searching for as many as 10 more suspects in the thwarted attacks.

According to the Washington Post, German officials are seeking Germans, Turks and suspects of other nationalities, several of whom are Muslim converts, who are "believed to be part of a support group helping with plans for a massive bombing to kill Americans." German Deputy Interior Minister August Hanning told public television network ARD that the al-Qaida affiliated group was not believed to be planning other attacks and no longer posed a security risk. Yesterday, Lebanese officials announced they had arrested a fourth man in connection with the case.

The thwarted attacks have raised concerns in Germany over whether the country's involvement in the Afghan peacekeeping mission in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. has made it a prime target for terrorists. Germany's mandate for that mission is currently up for renewal, and some lawmakers wanted to scale it back even before the recent plot was revealed.

But a U.S. State Department official responding to the arrests this week said the latest developments underscore the need for coalition forces to remain diligent. "It's all the more important that we... keep in Afghanistan where we're working to keep terrorism from coming out of that part of the world," Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for south and central Asia, said today. "To the extent that any ally, any country can be involved, we like them to be involved in more rather than less," he added.

If Germany were to pull out of the Afghan mission in response to the latest threat, security experts say it'd be playing directly into the terrorists' hands. "It is not entirely a coincidence that the foiled attacks... are part of a strategy by Al Qaeda," Thomas Ruttig of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs told the International Herald Tribune. "They want to try to influence the political debate here about the role of the German troops."

A new survey [PDF] from the German Marshall Fund details the increasing skittishness of Germans -- and Europeans in general -- toward the threat of terrorism and the Afghan mission. Bloomberg News has an analysis of the poll.

The New York Times' The Lede traces the events leading up to this week's arrests.

Posted at 12:00 PM
Posted to: Afghanistan, Al-Qaida, Europe, Germany, Terrorism
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