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European intel warns { November 15 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57037-2002Nov14.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57037-2002Nov14.html
Europeans Warn of Attacks
Intelligence Alerts Heighten Concern
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, November 15, 2002; Page A01
BERLIN, Nov. 14 -- Normally circumspect European intelligence and law enforcement officials have issued a wave of stark warnings in the last two weeks in an echo of U.S. fears that another terrorist attack may be on the way, including the possibility that al Qaeda could employ chemical or other weapons of mass destruction against European targets.
The statements -- by officials in Britain, Germany and France, as well as by the head of Interpol, the international law enforcement agency -- represent a breadth of concern that the continent has not experienced since immediately after the attacks in New York and at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, that killed more than 3,000 people and galvanized international efforts to combat terrorism.
Some European politicians, fearing public panic, have attempted to play down any clear and present danger. But the release Tuesday of a tape-recorded statement attributed to Osama bin Laden threatening Britain, France, Italy and Germany, as well as Canada and Australia, has compounded the sense of threat.
"There is very real concern," a German official said today. The surge in alerts from agencies and officials in different countries, he added, should be read as an expression of anxiety among European intelligence analysts that runs parallel to that expressed by U.S. intelligence agencies.
The United States has issued numerous threat assessments since Sept. 11, 2001, a policy whose wisdom was quietly questioned in Europe because officials believed the information was too vague to warrant alarming the public. But the frank tone in Europe in recent days signals a concern that there is now sufficient intelligence to signal that danger may be gathering.
"The threat is higher today than yesterday and will be higher again tomorrow," Jean-Louis Bruguiere, France's leading anti-terrorism judge, said today in an interview with Europe 1 radio. "The operational cells and networks are still working in Europe. . . . People in Europe, and especially in France, need to know that the risk is real and high."
One German official said that intelligence and law enforcement agencies seem willing to buck the caution of their political superiors to get that message out. The starkest and most specific warning was issued by Hans-Josef Beth, head of Germany's international counter-terrorism unit. He told a meeting of the German-Atlantic Society in Berlin last week that Abu Musab Zarqawi, an al Qaeda leader trained in the use of toxins, could be planning an attack in Europe.
"Something big is in the air," said Beth, noting that Zarqawi "has experience with poisonous chemicals and biological weapons."
Zarqawi, a Jordanian, has been sentenced to death in his own country for planning bombings. He is believed to have traveled extensively since the Sept. 11 attacks, including in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey, European officials said. He is believed to have carried a poisonous substance disguised as an ointment into Turkey.
"This guy is very dangerous, especially with regard to the mixing of toxins and biological material," a senior German intelligence official said in a briefing for reporters.
Intelligence officers fear that Zarqawi's movements may indicate he is attempting to prompt al Qaeda followers to travel to Europe for new attacks. "We know people have come to Western Europe," the German intelligence official said. He said the information was based in part on interrogation of al Qaeda suspects captured in Arab countries after visiting Europe in recent months. "We are in a stage where we have some facts, but we are lacking concrete details."
Beth's comments were followed by a similar warning from his boss, August Hanning, head of Germany's federal intelligence service. "We have to count on a new attack, an attack of a much larger dimension," Hanning said on the German public television station ZDF. "There is a big threat, also in Germany."
On the day Beth first spoke in Berlin, the British Home Office issued an alert that al Qaeda could employ a "dirty bomb" or launch a poison gas attack. The Home Office, or interior ministry, also warned that al Qaeda could use boats or trains to infiltrate cities. And the home secretary said Islamic terrorists, employing tactics seen recently in Tunisia, Pakistan and Indonesia, could carry out car bombings or assassinations.
"As we have seen with the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, the theater siege of Moscow, the attack on a French ship off Yemen, the scale of the attacks in Bali, today's breed of terrorist is looking for ever more dramatic and devastating effects," said a 35-page Home Office report.
The alert was withdrawn 30 minutes after it was released and journalists were asked to return the document. A milder draft that made no mention of dirty bombs or poison gas was substituted. British news reports suggested that politicians ordered the first document pulled back. Political leaders in Germany and France also have issued statements saying the threat level, while serious, is not new. But professional intelligence officials rejected that assertion.
"It is a fact that the situation has grown more critical," Hanning said when confronted with charges of alarmism at a conference outside Munich last week.
"All intelligence experts are agreed that al Qaeda is preparing a major terrorist operation, simultaneous attacks that would not target the United States alone but several countries at the same time," Ronald Noble, the head of Interpol, said in an interview with the Paris daily newspaper Le Figaro last week.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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