Possible German link to terror plot suspects

Suspects in an alleged plot to blow up US-bound jetliners apparently had some contacts with Germany, a senior German official was quoted as saying today.

“Apparently there were some contacts by the suspected attackers with Germany - we are checking these contacts,” August Hanning, a deputy interior minister, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in a preview of an article to be printed tomorrow.

The Interior Ministry confirmed his comments, but declined to elaborate.

The report did not give details on the timing or nature of the suspected contacts. However, Hanning said that “Germany was not immediately affected by the attack plans”.

In comments aired today on ARD television, Hanning said that, while the apparent contacts were being looked into, “we have no indications that a trail from the events in London leads here, to Germany”.

German federal prosecutors would not confirm a report in the Focus weekly, which cited no sources, that one of the people arrested in Britain had contact with Nese Bahaji, the wife of fugitive September 11 suspect Said Bahaji.

“We have no knowledge of there having been concrete links to Germany,” said Petra Kneuer, a spokeswoman for federal prosecutors.

The Focus report did not specify the suspect involved or say when the contact occurred.

Said Bahaji, a German national, is believed to have provided logistical support for the Hamburg cell that included three of the September 11, 2001 suicide pilots.

He fled Germany shortly before the September 11 attacks and remains at large, sought on an international arrest warrant issued by Germany.