The terrorism expert Peter Neumann points out that in almost every terrorist plan that has been uncovered in recent years, the crucial clue has come from the US secret services. Germany is still very dependent on America’s secret services when it comes to fighting terrorism internally. “Actually, this should have the consequence that here in Germany one tries to build up such skills in order to reduce this dependency,” said the professor at King’s College in London on Sunday at the exam of the CSU members of the Bundestag in the Bavarian monastery Seeon.
Neumann said there is a need to stop pitting different extremist threats against each other. “A large, mature and wealthy state like the Federal Republic of Germany should be able to combat several extremist threats at the same time. And of course that means that you shouldn’t be blind in any way.”
Neumann: The threat still exists
The security expert sees the attack, apparently planned in the Ruhr area and prevented by the police, as proof that the Islamist threat in Germany still exists. “The threat is less than it was six or seven years ago, but it’s still there. You can’t forget that.”
Anti-terror investigators had previously arrested a 32-year-old in Castrop-Rauxel in the northern Ruhr area, who is said to have prepared an Islamist attack. The Iranian national is suspected of having obtained the toxins cyanide and ricin for the crime, the public prosecutor’s office and the police said.
