Turkish man and fiancee arrested in Germany, suspected planning to attack U.S. military installations

<br>STUTTGART, Germany (AP) _ A Turkish admirer of Osama bin Laden and the man's American fiancee who worked for the U.S. military were arrested for planning an attack on a U.S. base on the anniversary

Friday, September 6th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

STUTTGART, Germany (AP) _ A Turkish admirer of Osama bin Laden and the man's American fiancee who worked for the U.S. military were arrested for planning an attack on a U.S. base on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings, German authorities announced Friday.

The couple had 287 pounds of chemicals and five pipe bombs at the time of their arrest Thursday in an apartment near Heidelberg, where the U.S. Army in Europe has headquarters.

The 25-year-old Turkish man had a picture of Osama bin Laden at his apartment, in addition to Islamic literature and a book about building bombs, said Thomas Schaeuble, the chief law enforcement officer for Baden-Wuerttemberg state.

While he said there were indications an attack was planned for Sept. 11, Schaeuble refused to elaborate.

``We suspect that they intended to mount a bomb attack against military installations and the city of Heidelberg,'' Schaeuble said, adding that the Turkish man was a strict Muslim ``who hates Americans and Jews.''

His 23-year-old fiancee worked at a supermarket at a U.S. installation in Heidelberg where some 16,000 American soldiers, family members and civilian workers are stationed. Schaeuble said she was an American citizen.

U.S. law enforcement officials in Washington said the woman had dual American and German citizenship.

The man worked at a chemical warehouse in nearby Karlsruhe. They were arrested in their apartment in Walldorf, about six miles south of Heidelberg.

``Now we must examine whether he was acting alone or whether there were structures behind this,'' Schaeuble said, adding that the man was being questioned but not cooperating.

U.S. Army Europe spokesman Sandy Goss said he had no details about a possible target.

``All I know is there were two people arrested and we're monitoring the situation closely because we take all these reports seriously,'' Goss said.

There were no signs of heightened alert at the U.S. facility Friday evening. Joggers ran past the fenced-in headquarters and children played outside at military housing across the street.

If such a plot was underway, it would represent one of the largest planned terrorist attack to become public since Sept. 11.

German federal criminal authorities refused to comment, saying the case was being handled by state investigators.

Three of the suicide pilots in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States belonged to a Hamburg terror cell, living seemingly normal lives as students while they made plans to attack the United States.

Federal prosecutors said they believe that while the Hamburg cell carried out the plot, it was conceived elsewhere in the al-Qaida network. Members of the cell traveled to Afghanistan in November 2000, prosecutors said, where it is believed they received training and financial support.

Only one alleged member of the cell has been arrested, 28-year-old Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan accused of helping the cell with logistics. An indictment issued last week charges him with belonging to a terror group and some 3,000 counts of being an accessory to murder. His trial is to begin this fall in Hamburg.

German authorities have issued international arrest warrants for three other suspected members of the cell who disappeared before the attacks.

Earlier this week, federal Interior Minister Otto Schily said German authorities had no information on any plans for attacks in the country around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

In a separate incident, federal prosecutors said Friday they are investigating a 39-year-old Afghan-born man who lived in Hamburg and holds a German passport for possible terror links. The man was arrested by U.S. authorities after he traveled to the United States in mid-July, and was in custody in Alexandria, Virginia.

Federal investigators started their investigation on Aug. 20, a spokesman for federal prosecutors, Hartmut Schneider, said. He refused to give further details.

Three of the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States belonged to a Hamburg terror cell.