Three terrorists arrested in Germany for plotting a massive bomb attack on the Frankfurt international airport and Ramstein Air Base have again illustrated the maxim that idle hands are the devil's workshop:
The three suspects - two Germans and a Turk - first came to the attention of authorities because they had been observing a US military facility at the end of 2006, officials said. . . . .
The three had no steady work and were drawing unemployment benefits while their main occupation was the plot, officials said.
As I've argued before, when it comes to terrorism, idle hands are truly the devil's workshop. Unemployment and public policies that support it help facilitate much terrorist strife around the Arab world. The phenomenon is often observed in the Palestinian territories, for example.
Unemployment benefeits certainly bought these three madmen in Germany the luxury of time to plan a massive attack:
"They were planning massive attacks," federal prosecutor Monika Harms told reporters today.
She said the suspects had amassed vast amounts of the chemical needed to make the bombs used in the suicide attacks in London in 2005 which killed 56 people.
They planned to attack Frankfurt's international airport along with the Ramstein Air Base, a key US military hub, Harms said.
They also planned to hit and nightspots popular with Americans.
"As possible targets for the attacks, the suspects named discotheques and pubs and airports frequented by Americans," she said.
The trio had trained at camps in Pakistan run by the Islamic Jihad Union, and had formed a German cell of the group, officials said.
They had procured some 700kg of hydrogen peroxide for making explosives.
Officials said the 35-per cent solution of hydrogen peroxide, stored in a hideout, could have been mixed with other additives to produce a bomb with the explosive power of 550kg of TNT.
"This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid bombings," Joerg Ziercke, the head of Germany's Federal Crime Office, told reporters.
If we want to see more terrorism, the solution is clear: We should be sure to subidize large numbers of people with public support that demands little or nothing in return, freeing up the time of terrorists for their all-important plotting and bomb making activities.
Why do you use the term "madmen"? They are, in fact, intelligent and dedicated and resourseful. But also Ignorant and without personal or family pride. They view themselves as victims and blame everyone else and everything else for their powerless situation. Lacking
any feeling of personal worth, they turn to methods of
striking out. The appearance of religion in the equation is just a convenience to receive training and a feeling of belonging to something.
I have to agree with the frustration of realizing that
we make it easier for them with public assistance.
Posted by: robert fulton | September 05, 2007 at 02:06 PM