German Interior Minister De Maizière warns of imminent terror attacks

17-20 November 2010

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière on Wednesday warned the government had indications Islamists were planning terrorist attacks in Germany later this month.
“There is information from our foreign partners that planned attacks are allegedly to be carried out at the end of November,” he said in Berlin, describing a “new situation” regarding the Islamist threat towards the nation. “There’s reason to be worried, but no reason for hysteria,” he said, mentioning “concrete leads” being followed by the authorities.
Only last month, de Maizière criticized reports Islamists were planning imminent attacks in Germany as “alarmist” and said there was no reason to change the country’s security threat level. But the minister said on Wednesday security services had noticed growing signs that the terrorist network al-Qaida was planning attacks in the United States, Europe and Germany since mid-2010.
On Saturday, reports started warning of attacks on the Reichstag, the building of the German Parliament. German security authorities had received information from an extremist who has been phoning the federal criminal police (BKA) over the last few days. He supposedly wants to defect, and is therefore offering information about his jihadist colleagues’ plans.

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