Neo-Nazi extremists plotted bombs at Munich synagogue
By The Associated Press
BERLIN - A foiled plot to bomb a ground-breaking ceremony at a new Munich synagogue shows the "quality of terror" neo-Nazis are capable of, Germany's interior minister said yesterday.
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"One could [even] say there is a new quality of terror, though we know from previous times that in right-extremist circles bombing attacks were planned and carried out," Interior Minister Otto Schily said on ZDF television, referring to the 1980 neo-Nazi bombing at Oktoberfest that killed 13 people.
"I have year-in and year-out indicated these right extremist groups are really a great potential danger for our society ... and this has now been dramatically confirmed," he said.
Schily complimented police for moving swiftly to arrest at least 10 neo-Nazis in the last week on suspicion they were part of the plot, including well-known extremist Martin Wiese.
Jewish community leader Paul Spiegel, in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio, said Germany's Jewish leaders have long warned of the threat posed by neo-Nazis, like the at least 10 people arrested last week on suspicion they were part of the Munich plot.
"Such groups will continue to agitate until the people finally understand that such attacks are not against Jews ... but attacks on democracy and humanity in this country," Spiegel said.
"It's not about protecting Jews. It's about protecting this land from rightest terror."
The group is suspected of plotting a November 9 attack on the ceremony at the synagogue, where hundreds of people, including German President Johannes Rau, Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber and the country's main Jewish leader, Paul Spiegel are expected.
The day is the anniversary of the Nazi's 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom in which thousands of Jewish businesses and synagogues were vandalized, about 100 Jews murdered and thousands more deported to concentration camps.
In the first raids last week, police seized 1.7 kilograms of TNT, 14 kilograms of suspected explosives and two hand grenades.
Bavarian Interior Minister Guenther Beckstein said they also found a "hit list" detailing other racially motivated locations to attack, including several Munich mosques, a Greek school and an unspecified Italian target. Beckstein said there were no known concrete plans for attacks on the targets found on the list.
Officials have said there is no evidence that the suspects were targeting this year's Oktoberfest folk festival, which opens next weekend.
In a related case, Munich police said yesterday that two of the 11 skinheads they took into custody Sunday for attempting to assault a black U.S. man were connected with Wiese's group. No further details were given.
Police intervened before the man could be injured. Two of the skinheads were set free but nine remain in custody
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