German authorities nab suspected terrorist ring; "massive attacks" planned

By Michael J.W. Stickings

It is being reported that, to quote The New York Times, "German police have arrested three Islamic militants suspected of planning large-scale terrorist attacks against several sites frequented by Americans, including discos, bars, airports, and military installations."

The arrested ("[a]t least five lesser figures were still being pursued"), who are suspected of having "close ties" to al Qaeda (according to Jörg Ziercke, head of the German Federal Crime Office), "were in advanced stages of plotting bomb attacks that could have been deadlier than the terrorist strikes that killed dozens in London and Madrid". "'They were planning massive attacks,' the German federal prosecutor, Monika Harms, said at a news conference Wednesday, outlining an intense six-month investigation. She said the suspects had amassed large amounts of hydrogen peroxide, the main chemical used to manufacture the explosives used in the suicide bombings in London in July 2005."

Needless to say, this is good news -- although, as usual, it is not exactly clear just how advanced the planning was, how imminent the attacks were, how massive the attacks would have been, and how close the relations with al Qaeda were.

But let's acknowledge, for now, that this was indeed a serious terrorist ring with the capacity to launch serious attacks against American targets. Given that acknowledgment, I cannot disagree with Andrew Sullivan's sober assessment of the situation:

Congrats to the Germans. Some obvious points: these men are educated, two of three are German nationals, all seem to have been trained not in Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan, but in Pakistan, a putative ally. It is hard to see how the Iraq war - whether a failure or a success - would have any impact on this tiny cell's attempt at mass murder in the name of God. This is simply the religious violence we have to contend with for the indefinite future. All we can do is what the Germans did: keep up surveillance (with protections against abuse), and run as many to ground as we can.

Yes, this appears to have been "a major success story," to quote Steve Benen.

Still, it is worth reminding ourselves, as Steve does (and always does in response to such successes), that this was a police action, not a military one. On this key point -- i.e., that the so-called war on terrorism is better waged by the police than by the military, that terrorism is more effectively combatted through civilian law enforcement activity -- John Kerry was right in 2004 and Bush was wrong. In fact, on this key point, Bush has been consistently wrong all along, which means that his so-called war on terrorism has been wrong all along, and fundamentally so.

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The right has had a lot to say about this -- screaming bloody murder, as usual -- but, for more sober reflections along the lines of Andrew's and Steve's, see Taylor Marsh, Barbara O'Brien, Kevin Hayden, Matt Yglesias, John Cole, and our own Libby Spencer.