Germany’s former capital narrowly escaped a deadly bombing last week when a device placed on a train station platform failed to detonate. The authorities suspect radical Islamists, but they are having trouble finding the perpetrators due to a lack of recorded surveillance images. The case has reignited calls for greater use of CCTV in Germany.
The first surveillance camera at the main train station in Bonn records visitors in the entrance hall. It’s on the right-hand side, above the information desk, and it seems to be capable of monitoring everything that goes on. Just a few steps outside the entrance hall, a circular camera covers Platform 1. In total, there are seven cameras installed at this train station, and they are all connected to Deutsche Bahn’s main office for service, safety and station cleanliness in Cologne. The employees there monitor everything that happens in the station and on the platforms live, and they can even move the cameras in Bonn using a joystick. It’s as if Big Brother were always keeping an eye on things in Germany’s former capital.
But one thing the cameras didn’t capture was the person who placed a blue gym bag containing a bomb on Platform 1 last Monday, and at what time this occurred. At that moment, the electronic eye was pointing at the emergency call box. But even if it had captured the crucial images, they wouldn’t have helped investigators.
That’s because the images taken by the security cameras in Bonn are not stored in memory. As a result, there are no images of the platform that could help authorities reconstruct the near-catastrophe and identify the culprits. Nevertheless, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, which took over the investigation on Friday, suspects Islamist involvement.
The failed attack in Bonn is fueling a dispute that has been smoldering for years between security officials and the management of the German national railway company, Deutsche Bahn. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), has now waded into the controversy, saying the bomb discovery in Bonn, together with the recent brutal killing of a young man on Alexanderplatz square in Berlin, “show that we need efficient video surveillance and video recording in public areas and train stations.”
The German Federal Police, who are responsible for security in trains and stations, want to use far more electronic eyes, and they cite Britain as a model to follow. Extensive recorded video surveillance tapes enabled authorities there to identify the perpetrators in the July 2005 London bus and subway bombings within six days. In 2006, it took German authorities using video surveillance images taken at the Cologne train station three weeks to track down two would-be bombers.
New Focus on Lone Wolf Attacks
In video appeals, they call upon supporters to commit autonomous, decentralized acts. The messages state that anyone who feels committed to jihad should strike wherever he can, irrespective of instructions coming from terrorist centers in countries like Pakistan, Yemen and Mali.
Arid U., who shot and killed two American soldiers at Frankfurt airport in March 2011, was one of these satellite terrorists, who took action even though he had no connection with like-minded individuals. It seemed obvious that others would try to imitate him.
In addition, there are combatants in Germany who have joined Islamist organizations in Pakistan, North Africa and Somalia. Law enforcement officials are monitoring more than a dozen Islamists in these groups, who they believe are capable of committing attacks in Germany.
There are some indications that people who were either acting independently or had contacts in North Africa were behind the bomb in Bonn. The trail leads to the Salafist community. Investigators believe that Somali-born Omar D. is a key figure, and he is currently the top suspect. His attorney denies that D. has any connection to the attempted attack.
Police officers arrested D. at a call shop on Kölnstrasse in Bonn at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday. According to their report, a witness had “recognized him and stated that he was “very likely the person who left the bag at the Bonn train station,” the investigators’ report reads. Two young people had told the authorities that a dark-skinned man had pushed the bag containing the bomb in front of their feet.
Spiegel has the full article
