2007 bomb plot in Germany
The 2007 bomb plot in Germany, planned by the al-Qaeda controlled,[1] Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) affiliated Sauerland terror cell (German: Sauerland-Gruppe, lit.
[3] Three men were arrested on 4 September 2007 while leaving a rented cottage[4] in the Oberschledorn district of Medebach, Germany where they had stored 700 kg (1,500 lb) of a hydrogen peroxide-based mixture and 26 military-grade detonators,[5][6] and were attempting to build car bombs.
[2] The perpetrators were primarily motivated by strong anti-Americanism fuelled by interaction with extremists inside Germany, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and their radicalization increased after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
He was raised in an upper middle class family where his father was a solar heating salesman and his mother was a nurse.
According to U.S. authorities, Gelowicz trained at camp belonging to the Islamic Jihad Union in tribal areas of Pakistan.
[20] The suspects had rented a vacation house in the remote town of Oberschledorn, where they amassed 700 kg (1,500 lbs) of hydrogen peroxide, and military-grade detonators from Syria.
[21] A 20 July conversation between two suspects mentioned targeting "a disco filled with American sluts," as well as Ramstein Air Base and Frankfurt Airport.
[22] A phone call from northern Pakistan in late August is purported to have set a 15 September deadline for the group's attacks.
[22] A routine traffic stop by police not involved in the investigation led to the officers mentioning that the drivers were on a federal watchlist, a comment that the suspects overheard (as was recorded by covert listening devices installed by German authorities in their rented car).
[26] The Pakistani terror camps had reportedly trained their members to make bombs using peroxide as it was easy to procure, and unlikely to rouse suspicion.
[4] U.S. President George W. Bush, after being briefed on the arrests, expressed his appreciation to the German authorities, saying that serious potential terrorist attacks had been prevented.
[3] The perpetrators were primarily motivated by strong anti-Americanism fuelled by interaction with extremists inside Germany, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and their radicalization increased after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
