Holiday | LifestyleLetters to the editor

TWO TERRORIST TALES

27/04/2013 00:00

by MONITOR
ON Wednesday in Dusselforf the trial began of four suspected Islamic militants charged with plotting a series of bombing attacks on Frankfurt airport and other key targets. The men were arrested in September 2007 after being followed for six months and found to be in possession of military detonators and drums of hydrogen peroxide. The trial is expected to last for two years and to hear some 200 witnesses. Attorneys for the accused say that some of the evidence against them may be inadmissible because it is based on American surveillance.

Also on Wednesday, in Britain, nine Pakistani men arrested two weeks ago in connection with what Gordon Brown had described as a very big terrorist plot were released without charge; three others of the twelve originally taken into custody had been released earlier. The police said initially that a bombing attack involving mass casualties was imminent, probably in the Manchester area. Despite intensive searches of the properties and the computers of the twelve suspects and prolonged questioning of them, nothing incriminating was found except possibly for one email and some ambiguous telephone chatter. The principal victim of this incident proved to be Bob Quick, Britain's senior counter-terrorism officer, who resigned after secret documents were photographed as he entered Downing Street to brief the prime minister on the large-scale operation against the suspects which was to involve hundreds of policemen.