Phone Calls from Jihadist Seeking to Quit Prompted German Alert
BERLIN — Germany’s recent decision to declare a terrorism alert and dispatch heavily armed police around the nation was set off by phone calls from a man who said he wanted to quit working with terrorists and warned of a pending Mumbai-style attack, according to a law enforcement official with firsthand knowledge of the alert.
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“Whoever knows the personality of Minister for the Interior de Maizière knows that he is not a man of quick conclusions,” said Rolf Tophoven, director of the Institute for Terrorism Research and Security Policy in Essen.
But the caller, who claimed to have been a jihadist working with terrorists in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region, phoned the federal police three times providing what law enforcement officials said was concrete information: plans for a team of armed terrorists to rampage through the Reichstag, the popular tourist site that also serves as the home for Germany’s Parliament.
Even more alarming, the man said that there were already two members of the group in or near Berlin, and that four others would soon be trying to join them, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his work in intelligence and security matters.
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