Germany: Need to purge "new quality" of terrorism

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Germany saw only a slight rise last year in the number of potentially radical Islamic extremists, but Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday that a failed bombing attempt and other incidents showed the country was facing a "new quality of terrorist activity." "The biggest threat for the stability and security of Germany comes again from Islamic terrorism," Schaeuble said in prepared remarks as he presented the government's report on extremism for 2006. He noted the failed attempts last year to blow up two regional trains - in which the bombs were planted and detonators went off but the devices failed to explode - and a sophisticated video posted on the Internet earlier this year threatening Chancellor Angela Merkel and her entire Cabinet if the country did not withdrawal its troops from Afghanistan.