Hamburg accused of overreacting to terror threat

Hamburg officials were today accused of overreacting when they placed a ring of steel around a German military hospital after being told of a terror threat.

They defended their decision, saying they received a concrete tip from US officials that Islamic extremists planned to attack the hospital.

More than 100 officers wearing bullet-proof vests and dozens of armoured police vehicles were sent in to block off streets surrounding the hospital and search cars parked nearby yesterday afternoon after security officials said a US intelligence agency tipped them off to the planned attacks.

The action testified to European jitters amid warnings of possible terror attacks around the holidays.

In Italy, the government closed access to airspace over Rome to private planes until January 6.

Hamburg police said they had turned up nothing suspicious and no one had been arrested, but the hospital in the suburb of Wandsbek would remain under tight security until further notice.

Germany’s top security official criticised Hamburg authorities for acting too swiftly, saying the tips were ”unsubstantiated.”

“It is unfortunate that the indications were made public too swiftly, making it more difficult to follow up on them,” Interior Minister Otto Schily said.

Hamburg officials countered the criticism, arguing the information was concrete and the city’s recent history with terrorists – Hamburg was home to an al-Qaida cell that included three of the September 11 suicide pilots - underlined the need to react quickly.

“Both the federal and state branches of the German Agency for Internal Security informed us in writing about the concrete risk of a terror attack,” Hamburg interior minister Dirk Nockemann said.

Nockemann said the tip concerned two alleged suicide attackers linked to the Ansar al-Islam group who had entered the country earlier this month. They allegedly planned to target a German military facility in Hamburg with a car bomb in the first weeks of January.

Some German media also accused Nockemann, whose party rode to power in Hamburg on a platform of anti-immigration and beefed up security following the September 11 attacks, and faces elections in the new year, of overplaying the event to draw attention to his policies.

Security officials in the western state of Hessen said they had increased security at “particularly sensitive facilities,” including the US Rhein-Main Air Base in Frankfurt and another US military base in nearby Wiesbaden, after receiving information from US authorities of possible terror threats. He refused to elaborate.

“We have received the same information as our colleagues in Hamburg,” said Peter Freier, a state interior ministry spokesman. “We are in constant contact with US and German federal authorities,” Freier said.

Officials with the US Air Force Europe have said they were not aware of any threat to their bases.

US officials believe Ansar al-Islam, a group based in northern Iraq, has links to al-Qaida and recruits holy warriors in Europe for suicide missions in Iraq. In November, Hamburg police acting on an Italian warrant arrested the alleged ring leader of a group seeking recruits for a training camp run by Ansar al-Islam.

Meanwhile, the Italian government’s decision to limit access to Roman airspace came after Premier Silvio Berlusconi told an Italian newspaper that terrorists planned to attack the Vatican with hijacked plane on Christmas Day. The premier later distanced himself from the comments, but his office didn’t deny he said them.

Security is tight all over Italy – 12,000 police and 4,000 soldiers have been deployed throughout the country to patrol some 8,000 possible targets.

:: A letter bomb addressed to the European Central Bank’s president at his Frankfurt office reached his secretary, who opened it and alerted police.

Police had said earlier the letter had been intercepted in the ECB’s mailroom.

But it was revealed today that Jean-Claude Trichet’s secretary opened it and alerted police when she noticed suspicious powders inside the envelope.

The letter was one of four bombs mailed to prominent European organisations in the past week. All are believed to have come from Bologna, Italy and investigators suspect the same Italian anarchist group is responsible for all the bombs.