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A German soldier suspected of planning a terror attack on refugees has been arrested

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Oersted

Member
The 28-year-old, whose name was not provided due to privacy laws, was arrested by police during training at the Bundeswehr base in Hammelburg, Bavaria. Police also searched 16 locations in Germany, Austria and France that yielded evidence.

Investigators believe the lieutenant was motivated by a "xenophobic background" to plan an attack, possibly on migrants and refugees.

Prosecutors said the man hid a loaded weapon in a bathroom at Vienna airport in January. He was then briefly arrested by Austrian police when he returned in February to retrieve it.

They released the soldier again due to insufficient evidence. However, the suspect's fingerprints indicated he had in late 2015 used an alias to falsely register as a Syrian refugee in Germany. In early 2016, he applied for asylum. He was subsequently granted accommodation and even received aid money.

The soldier apparently didn't attract the attention of authorities, even though he spoke French but no Arabic. During this time he was stationed in Illkich, France, where there is a joint German-French brigade.

~
Police also arrested a 24-year-old student in the soldier's home town of Offenbach, near Frankfurt. Authorities believe he has a far-right extremist background and found items prohibited under weapons and explosives laws in his home.

Investigators are uncertain about all motives, but they have not ruled out the two men sought to carry out an attack in order to blame it on refugees.

The Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) is currently investigating 275 cases of right-wing extremism within the Bundeswehr, in addition to dozens of cases of suspected radical Islamists and left-wing extremists.

More here

http://m.dw.com/en/german-soldier-arrested-for-alleged-terror-plans/a-38609200

Lock if old
 

KingSnake

The Birthday Skeleton
So he registered as a refugee so he can make a terrorist attack as a "refugee"?

Some people are fucking sociopaths. Glad they arrested them.

The fact that he managed to hide a weapon inside the Vienna airport is pretty scary.
 
How do you hide a firearm in a airport toliet for a month?
Every airport I have been to, whole toliet is tamper proof, cant even access ducts or water flush area (just button on wall).
 
How do you hide a firearm in a airport toliet for a month?
Every airport I have been to, whole toliet is tamper proof, cant even access ducts or water flush area (just button on wall).

Well, if he had hidden it end of January and retrieved early in February that'd be in the span of a week.

Otherwise, would vary with the age of the building and the nature of the architecture. If there's ceiling panels it might not take much to slip something somewhere. Alternatively, a barely used wastebin could have something hidden under the bag, for example.

Or maybe a bag was just left in a corner and somehow it was paid no mind.
 

vewn

Member
So he registered as a refugee so he can make a terrorist attack as a "refugee"?

Some people are fucking sociopaths. Glad they arrested them.

The fact that he managed to hide a weapon inside the Vienna airport is pretty scary.

What's even scarier is that after being arrested by airport police he was set free...?
Right now there's too many unanswered questions.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Well, if he had hidden it end of January and retrieved early in February that'd be in the span of a week.

Otherwise, would vary with the age of the building and the nature of the architecture. If there's ceiling panels it might not take much to slip something somewhere. Alternatively, a barely used wastebin could have something hidden under the bag, for example.

Or maybe a bag was just left in a corner and somehow it was paid no mind.

It says they arrested him when he came back to retrieve the gun so maybe they found it there and just waited to see who came for it. The article talks about insufficient evidence so maybe he claimed he found the gun there so they couldnt prove he was the one who planted it.
 

Dingens

Member
It says they arrested him when he came back to retrieve the gun so maybe they found it there and just waited to see who came for it. The article talks about insufficient evidence so maybe he claimed he found the gun there so they couldnt prove he was the one who planted it.

from all the articles I read, it sounded this way, yes. According to the article cited below, he claimed that he just found the gun.

The story is still developing and a few new bits of information have surfaced

apparently his fascist world view has been long known from his masters thesis in 2014 but was mostly ignored because the military "didn't know about it" which seems more surprising since he graduated from some sort of military academy.

The Gun in question was a "French Unique", calibre 7,65 - a second world war pistol and more of a collectors item. This made some question weather of not he was truly planing an attack.

http://derstandard.at/2000056773579/Spiegel-Rechte-Gesinnung-von-Fluechtlings-Offizier-lange-bekannt

A more recent article describes a "death list", where the suspect listed people he planed to kill including politicians from the German leftist party "die Linke". Furthermore, according to the article, it seems likely that he was indeed planing some sort of false flag attack.

Even though he wont be able to reach his main target, the whole fiasco still puts the German screening process in a bad light, since lots of contradictory facts surfaced (not just the not speaking any Arabic thing) exposing severe weakness and neglect. It surely strengthens the rhetoric positions of those, who argue that terrorists and "economic refugees" may use this route to get into the country.

derstandard.at/2000056788633/Festgenommener-Bundeswehrsoldat-soll-Todesliste-gefuehrt-haben
http://derstandard.at/2000056744563...Soldat-sorgt-fuer-scharfe-Kritik-an-Behoerden

Exposing the weaknesses in the system (by accident) was probably a good thing, but I can't help but feel that instead of making the system better, all it's going to do is help the scaremongers with their anti refugee rhetoric.
Oh no! think of all those terrorist walking/hitch hiking hundreds or thousands of kilometres with the constant uncertainty of ever reaching the target instead of simply taking a plane... or, as it has been the case until now, simply recruiting citizens of the target country. But nah, terrorists hid between refugees, that's the only certainty.

edit: sorry, I don't have any english sources
 

Xando

Member
Small update on this.


Federal goverment has taken over investigation(they always do if terror related)
Defense department apparently found a cell of up to 5 far right wing terrorists
Kill list had people like former president Gauck or Justice minister Maas on it.

Bundeswehr had info on his right wing affiliation since 2014 and noticed munition went missing at one of his bases.

German sources:

http://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschl...ungsministerin-ursula-von-der-leyen-usa-reise
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deuts...alt-ermittelt-im-fall-franco-a-a-1145773.html
 
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