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

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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