Is it ethnic profiling, racism, paranoia? Hmmm. Or is it in fact a sign of the times, and a testimony to the fact that the democratic world is truly threatened by Islamic extremists world wide.
PS: Liberals and Democrats around the world sure do sound alot alike.
quote:
BERLIN (Reuters) - German politicians warned at the weekend of a growing terrorism threat and called for new measures to counter it after authorities said a plot to blow up trains had failed only because the crude bombs did not go off.
Police said on Friday two men, who may have been part of a wider Islamic militant network, had come close to exploding makeshift bombs on two trains in Dortmund and Koblenz in July.
"The situation is very serious," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in an interview with German public television. "The danger has never been as high."
German police on Saturday detained one of two men they suspect of planting the bombs. The two were caught on video cameras in Cologne train station, dragging suitcases which contained the explosive devices on to the trains.
The federal prosecutor has described the man as a 21-year-old Lebanese student named Youssef Mohamad E.H., who has been living in Germany for two years. Police seized him in the northern city of Kiel
An investigating judge in Karlsruhe questioned the man on Sunday and issued a formal warrant for his arrest. The federal prosecutor said the man was suspected of belonging to a terrorist group and of trying to commit murder on a large scale.
Although the bombs, made with propane tanks and crude detonating devices, failed to go off, authorities said the complexity of the plot suggested the men had not acted alone.
The second suspect is still at large and the focus of an intense manhunt.
NEW GENERATION
Politicians said the incident highlighted the risk that a new generation of militants unknown to security services were ready to strike.
"That is the real reason for concern," Schaeuble said. "We don't know anymore who is living among us. Therefore, we need to use every tool at our disposal."
Schaeuble has been pressing for the introduction of a comprehensive anti-terrorism database that would better bring together information held by police, the intelligence services and federal, state and local authorities.
Some politicians remain opposed to a database they say would give authorities unfettered access to personal information. The legacy of the Nazis and East Germany's Stasi security service have complicated government attempts to introduce tougher anti-terrorism laws.
Wolfgang Bosbach, deputy head of the conservatives in parliament, said he hoped the failed attack would be a wake-up call for those opposed to tighter security.
But Social Democrat leader Kurt Beck and members of the opposition Greens and Left Party warned against an over-reaction that would infringe people's right to privacy.
Lindaland
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