HB BERLIN. Berlin After the foiled bomb attacks package warned Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière of further terrorist acts. "There are serious indications of attacks in Europe and the U.S.," said the CDU politician of the "Bild am Sonntag newspaper. He admitted the fault of the German security authorities. Before that, Al-Qaeda in Yemen known to the attempted attacks on Jewish institutions in the U.S. and announced further attacks. De Maizière will submit on Monday in Brussels, a five-point checklist in order to close security holes in air cargo.
The Interior Minister, who with terror warnings was far more reserved, was this time unusually clear: "The events are for me an opportunity to make my concerns for the first time publicly," he said with a view of the bombs from Yemen and the explosive device, the in from Greece Chancellor Angela Merkel had been sent. He urged the citizens to the highest attention. In his view, the attacks from Yemen had been no trial run, "but a very serious assassination attempt."
The transport of a package bomb from Yemen to Germany was by the German security forces initially classified as a false alarm. Therefore, it was also Chancellor Angela Merkel initially not informed, "said de Maizière. "Based on the information provided to us by the British at that time we had assumed that it was a false alarm. We wanted to wait for reliable results," said the minister.
Merkel went so uninformed on Saturday last week for talks with her British counterpart, David Cameron in London. She learned the details only from Premier.
The responsibility for the foiled attacks with air parcels became now the "Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula." The two bombs, which last week were caught in England and Dubai, were addressed to Jewish institutions in the United States. One of the bombs was transferred to the airport Cologne / Bonn. The Yemeni Al-Qaeda offshoot claimed to relevant Internet sites, including the crash of a UPS machine on 3 September in Dubai to be responsible.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Emirates had played only a few days relating to the parcel bombs from Yemen. Germany urges now waiting to close security loopholes in the EU soon. De Maizière intends to submit his EU counterparts on Monday in Brussels with concrete proposals. In a five-point checklist, it calls to put the aviation security at European level in one hand and cargo control of uncertain Third Countries. Therefore, a grid will be created that can be filtered out with suspicious packages.
Due to tightened security measures in air cargo De Maizière expect increasing costs for consumers. "There is no security there for nothing," he added. The Association (ADV German Airports) criticized the plan to tighten up in European airports, the inspection of air cargo from non-EU countries. "The better way is that concerns were not even get to the airports in Germany," said ADV CEO Ralph Beisel.
Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer (CSU) called the "Welt am Sonntag", to create blacklists of unsafe airports. Reportedly from government, the German security authorities are currently creating a safety assessment for air freight from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Arabian Peninsula, Maghreb and Sahel.
FDP and SPD threw de Maizière before to set wrong priorities. SPD Group CEO Thomas Oppermann again asked to make the planned reduction of 1,000 jobs to reverse the federal police. Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP) criticized the "Spiegel": "time and effort should have been better invested in the control of cargo held in constitutionally sensitive but technically dubious new developments such as the body scanner."
In an Emnid survey for "Bild am Sonntag", a majority of 59 percent of Germans demanded a tightening of anti-terror laws. 37 percent consider the current legal measures to combat terrorism to be sufficient. At the same time see 57 percent of Germany is currently not acutely threatened. In another Emnid survey on behalf of the news magazine "Focus" declined from 51 percent of Germans a possible launch of cargo aircraft used by terrorists as flying bombs. 40 percent of respondents were in favor.
In Yemen, the security forces intensified over the weekend to search for the bomb-maker and a hate preacher of Al-Qaeda. The first time in years, the U.S. set another Predator drones against al-Qaeda terrorists. However, the missiles are no targets have been recorded, reported the Washington Post on Sunday.
