Germany’s Interior Minister has warned that his country is a “focus of international terrorism” and its only thanks to luck and the security services a big attack has not happened.
In an interview with Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ), German Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière described Germany as a “focus of international terrorism” both now and in the past.
He pointed out there have been documented examples of foiled plots, such as that of the so-called ‘Sauerland-Gruppe’ in 2007. The investigation into that saw the plotters arrested preventing the bombing of potential targets such as “a disco filled with American sluts”, airports, nightclubs or a U.S. military base.
Mr de Maizière praised the efficiency of security services and recognised the role luck had to play in preventing big attacks on German soil, but said that nobody could absolutely rule out such events happening. Specifically he warned that foreign intelligence services have said jihadists had hidden among refugees (backing a warning described as “real and genuine” by Nigel Farage some time ago, supported by others as Breitbart London previously reported).
The minister said the information “shows the importance of cooperation with other intelligence services, even if they come partly from countries which do not entirely share our constitutional liberal democracy.” He conceded that although Germany “takes all these seriously” and pursues the leads, to date none of these tip offs have led to anything other than investigations.
Mr de Maizière told WAZ no asylum seekers have yet been arrested on suspicion of terrorism, but that authorities remain “very vigilant”. Proof of identity is an area of particular care, he said, “especially when people come from conflict areas.” In addition, questioning migrants provides a great deal of data about the situation in their countries of origin.
In a separate development, German security services today repeated previous claims that Salafist Muslims have been promoting their extremist interpretation of Islam in refugee camps, reports Die Welt. While authorities say they fear these efforts could attract new followers and supporters it is unclear whether they have yet done so.
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