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German Counter-Terrorism Agency Sees G8 Summit As Likely Attack Target
Text of report by German newspaper Die Welt website on 17 March
[Unattributed report: “BKA Sees G8 Summit as Most Likely Target”]
Despite the latest threats by video, the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation does not consider additional security measures in Germany to be necessary. Among other things, the BKA is worried about globalization opponents, right-wing radicals, and Internet crime.
Following the latest Islamist video message on the Internet, the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation sees an increased terror danger. But at the same time, President Joerg Ziercke warned against dramatizing the situation. “There is no cause for panic,” he said at the annual press conference in Wiesbaden. The BKA does not feel that significantly more extensive measures to avert the danger are necessary. But according to Ziercke, the distance from the United States, the UK, and Israel in the threat by Islamist terrorists has narrowed and the abstract threat has increased further. The BKA says the video message seized on 10 March with the call on Austria and Germany to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan reveals no concrete evidence of attacks. However, a threat situation has developed that could serve fanaticized individual perpetrators or groups as a source of legitimacy for an attack.
Ziercke and the “Digital Quantum Leap”
Ziercke called for a reorganization of bugging operations. Following the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court in 2004, acoustic residential surveillance came to an almost complete halt. Consequently, he now proposed that in the future the recordings from a residential surveillance would be presented to a judge who would then decide which parts the police may use.
In addition, the BKA president reiterated his demand for online searches of computers with a court order. “The digital quantum leap in virtual space demands new police methods of procuring information,” Ziercke said. He claims online investigation is necessary because criminals are increasingly using the Internet for exchange and planning. The confiscation of computers no longer yields anything since data are now stored on the Internet and protected by passwords. Prosecution is only possible “if we succeed in intercepting data online.” In 2005 there were 62,000 criminal offences recorded with information and communication technology and 118,000 offences using the Internet. The Internet plays a central role in, for example, child pornography. In 2005 there were 8,200 cases involving 6,400 suspects, a rise of 13.2 per cent. Besides the mostly no-cost traditional exchange of child pornography on the Internet, since 2000 the BKA has observed a growing market in commercial websites.
G8 Summit at the Top of the List
The BKA also notes that the Internet is increasingly being used as a means to commit crimes. One variant is to use spam e-mails to install Trojans on third-party PCs, department head Juergen Maurer said. Using the disguised programmes, an offender can use other computers for his purposes such as connecting them together unnoticed to paralyse company servers with massive inquiries. Using this power, the perpetrator can then blackmail the firms concerned. In the area of terrorism, the G8 state summit scheduled for the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm is right at the top of the list of potential attack targets. The agency is assuming a continuation of the “militant campaign” initiated last August. Thus far, leftist militant groups have committed 78 criminal offences nationwide. These included 18 arson attacks, eight in Hamburg and five in Berlin.
According to WELT ONLINE information, the number of right-wing extremist criminal acts rose considerably last year. An increase in so-called propaganda offences is primarily responsible for this. One reason for this, according to the BKA, could be that such acts were simply noticed more than before because of the strong police presence, for example at the soccer World Cup. A rising trend was also observed in violent acts. The right-wing scene is growing increasingly self-confident, said Klaus Wittling, the BKA department head for police state security. He said the new self-confidence among the right-wing can be seen in the increasingly public scenes of crimes and provocative action precisely in leftist neighbourhoods or alternative strongholds. Evidence of stronger structures of a “right-wing terrorism” was not recorded. But non-prohibited right- wing extremist parties formed a “people’s front” and are working together more intensively than before.
© 2007 BBC Monitoring European. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: BBC Monitoring European
Posted on: Saturday, 17 March 2007, 12:01 CDT
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