4 Convicted in US/German Terror Plot

Group planned to attack Americans in Germany
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 4, 2010 10:11 AM CST
4 Convicted in US/German Terror Plot
Journalists wait in front of the entrance of the district court in Duesseldorf, Germany, Thursday, March 4, 2010.   (AP Photo/dapd/Hermann J. Knippertz)

Two German converts to Islam and two Turkish men were convicted today over a foiled 2007 plot to attack US targets in Germany and given prison sentences ranging up to 12 years. The case "has shown with frightening clarity what acts young people who are filled with hatred, blinded and seduced by wrong-headed ideas ... are prepared to carry out," the judge said. The men showed no reaction as the sentences were handed down. The Germans each got 12 years, the Turks 11 and 5, respectively.

The four men, operating as a German cell of the radical Islamic Jihad Union, had plotted bombing attacks against American citizens and facilities including the US Air Force's Ramstein base in Germany, the Duesseldorf state court found. The judge said the planned attacks could have been on a par with the 2005 London transport bombings or the 2004 Madrid train bombings. "There would have been a terrible bloodbath," he said. (More terrorism stories.)

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