Law Enforcement Confronts Home-Grown Terrorism in

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 FRANKFURT 002057 DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/AGS, EUR/PGI, DS/IP, DS/ITA, AND S/CT SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/24/2018 TAGS: PTER KHLS KJUS PGOV ASEC GM SUBJECT: Law Enforcement Confronts Home-Grown Terrorism in Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland REF: 08 Frankfurt 1020 Classified By: CG Jo Ellen Powell for Reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The arrests of home-grown Muslim extremists who come from Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland, two small German states with few large cities, have drawn significant media attention and highlighted law enforcement's ongoing struggle with domestic terrorism in Germany. Currently both Aleem Nasir and Daniel Martin Schneider await trial for their alleged terrorist activities, while a twenty year old convert to Islam named Erik Breiniger has released two videotapes where he expresses his intention to carry out an attack. Law enforcement has to date expressed confidence that they are tracking extremists, but the danger presented by extremism in Germany remains. END SUMMARY. R-P: A Small State with its Own Extremists -------------- ¶2. (C) On June 18, ConGen off met with Klaus Mohr, Chief of the Anti-Terror Department in the Rheinland-Pfalz State Office of Criminal Investigations (LKA),to discuss recent developments in Muslim extremist activity in this small federal state. Mohr said that the police had currently identified nine potentially dangerous Muslim extremists (Gefaehrder),but several of them were already in pre-trial detention. Hot spots for Muslim extremist activity in the state are the towns of Germersheim, neighboring Ludwigshafen, Kaiserslautern and Trier. Mohr also mentioned a hate preacher in Ludwigshafen, Gamal El-Hawafshi, who is of concern but may soon leave for France. ¶3. (C) The state's most prominent alleged extremist is Aleem Nasir, who was arrested on February 14, 2008 and remains in pre-trial detention in Frankenthal. The Federal Prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe has charged Nasir with supporting a terrorist organization by acting as a money handler and also providing equipment such as night vision goggles. The trial against Nasir is likely to begin in the fall of 2008 at the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz. After Nasir's arrest, police searched his home in Germersheim and confiscated documents including his will and bomb-building instructions. ¶4. (C) Nasir, a naturalized German citizen, came to police attention as early as 2001. From April 2005 to June 2007, Nasir allegedly traveled to Pakistan four times with money and equipment that he delivered to members of Al Qaeda. During his last trip, Nasir is suspected of having offered to commit terrorist attacks and underwent training in a terror camp. He is also charged with recruiting a person in Germany to join Al Qaeda in the spring of 2006. After his arrest in Pakistan, Nasir was extradited to Germany on August 28, 2007 and was under surveillance until his arrest last February. ¶5. (C) Mohr confirmed that Nasir had been in touch with the Sauerland terrorist cell, whose members were arrested on September 4, 2007 in North-Rhine Westphalia for plotting attacks in Germany and await trial, as well as other Muslim extremists, including Oemer Oezdemir, a radical Muslim in Baden-Wuerttemberg. However, to date police have no evidence of Nasir plotting specific attacks with associates. Saarland: A Border State with Home-Grown Extremists -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) On May 8, ConGen off met with Harald Weiland, Director of the Saarland State Police (LKA),and other state law enforcement officials. The officials said that the existence of an extremist movement in the small city of Neunkirchen has little to do with the Saarland's position on the border with France, and stems from a few extremists who are active in the area. Most prominent among them is Daniel Martin Schneider, a German convert to Islam and one of the three suspects arrested in Sauerland. Another convert from the Neuenkirchen scene, is twenty year old Erik Breininger who has to date sent two videos from Pakistan threatening to carry out terrorist attacks, potentially against German forces in Afghanistan. ¶7. (C) Weiland said that the main challenge with the Neuenkirchen scene was that there were no discernable patterns in activity, but he also said it represented no imminent threat within the Saarland. In fact, the officials said that extremists often left the Saarland for FRANKFURT 00002057 002 OF 002 other more prominent centers of extremism, such as Ulm in Baden-Wuerttemberg, when they became more active. The officials counted some 350 Islamists in the Saarland, but no one mosque or center where they gather. ¶8. (C) Comment: In both states, police saw their efforts against the extremists as largely successful to date, but viewed the main long-term challenge as setting up strong networks of cooperation in Muslim communities, where trust of the police does not always exist and community organizations are diverse and manifold. The recent cases in these two states underscore the difficulty that home-grown terrorism presents to law enforcement here and in other parts of Germany. End Comment. ¶9. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Berlin. POWELL