Terrorist Round Up in Europe

By Rick Moran

Three terrorist attacks on targets in 3 different European countries that were still in the planning stages have been foiled by authorities.

Yesterday, AT reported on the arrests in Denmark of 8 suspects involved in an unnamed plot to carry out an attack. Today, we have further news from Germany and Norway about more arrests and the thwarting of what appears to be a "massive" terrorist strike against our bases in Germany:

Germany said on Wednesday it had foiled a plan by Islamist militants to carry out "massive bomb attacks" against U.S. installations and arrested the three men behind it.

Federal prosecutor Monika Harms said the men, two German nationals and one Turk, had been on the verge of launching their attacks after acquiring enough material to make a bomb with explosive power equal to 550-kilograms of TNT.

"Thanks to the cooperation of federal and local police over several months, we were able to ... prevent massive bomb attacks," Harms told a news conference in Karlsruhe.

The third shoe dropped in Norway:

Three men have been indicted on charges connected with an attack on an Oslo synagogue or plotting to attack the U.S. or Israeli embassies in the Norwegian capital, the national prosecutor said Tuesday.

All charges related to the cases were dropped against a fourth man, said prosecutor Kristine Rise. He had been identified in earlier court rulings as 29-year-old Mohammed Adnan Nabi.

The others have also denied any wrongdoing, and their attorneys said the basis for the indictments was weak. Arfan Bhatti, 30, was indicted on charges of firing gunshots at Norway's main synagogue in September 2006, for conspiring to commit a terror attack on the embassies and on other unrelated charges.

Andreas Bog Kristiansen, 27, was indicted with Bhatti on charges of plotting to use explosives or weapons to attack the U.S. or Israeli embassies, and conspiring to commit armed robbery. Ibrahim Oezbabacan, 29, was indicted, with Bhatti, for either firing or being an accomplice to 13 shots being fired at the Oslo synagogue.

As AT Political Director Rich Baehr quipped:

Christiane Amanpour reports today on the arrest of suspected terrorists in Norway, Germany and Denmark. The terrorists were in one case Jewish extremists, in one case Christian extremists, and in one case Muslim extremists, all of whom were planning attacks.

Oh wait, correction. In all three cases, the attacks were planned by Muslims

Baehr is referring to the recent CNN series about religion that sought to portray Christianity and Judeism as religions equally prone to producing terrorists.

Needless to say, these recent arrests in Europe kind of puts a damper on that notion.

Hat Tip: Richard Baehr