Hamburg Shocked At ”Sleeper” Terrorists In Its Midst

HAMBURG (dpa) – Hamburg remains shocked as newspapers around the world carry banner headlines linking the northern German city to the spectacular terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

The talk is of a classic terrorist cell active in the normally quiet city, made up of what experts call “sleepers” – people living for months or even years as outwardly normal citizens until activated by their terror masters.

German police never had any previous dealings with two of the men believed to have been on board the airliners that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York.

Marwan el Shehi, 23, and 33-year-old Mohammed Atta studied electronics and shipbuilding at the respected Technical University in Harburg. Both lived for a time together at a flat in a working class district of the city in the shadow of a huge rubber-making plant.

Whether the two men were involved in the logistical planning for the U.S. terror raids is unclear. A stunned Olaf Scholz, in charge of domestic security in the city, could only say: “They were studying here perfectly legally and had not done anything to break the law. They gave no rise to any suspicion whatsover.”

Spiegel magazine reported that the FBI had since given German police “conclusive evidence” that the two students were involved in the plot. When Atta booked his flight from Boston to Los Angeles he gave the same phone number as four other suspicious Arabs on the plane.

A third unidentified man from the Hamburg group was said to have been aboard the United Airlines flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. A fourth Hamburg man, an airport worker suspected of involvement, was freed Friday after questioning.

A counter-intelligence official in Hamburg, Reinhard Wagner, said officials had previously known of a only “handful” of people in the city who might be expected to use violence in pursuit of their Islamic fundamentalist beliefs and who had contact to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire-turned terrorist who is being blamed for masterminding the attacks.

It would be misleading to describe the mercantile city of Hamburg, where some 150,000 Moslems from many nations lives, as a hotbed of terrorist activity. But several areas of the city have a history of extreme leftwing terrorist involvement and subversion.

According to North German NDR television, radical Islamists from northern Germany were involved as far back as 1998 in a failed suicide bombing mission abroad. The broadcaster gave no further details

The central Schanzenviertel part of Hamburg, where many foreigners and students live, and the Hafenstrasse near the docks are home to groups of anarchists who have openly declared their support in the past for the Palestinians and other Moslem causes.

The Hamburg Islamic Centre (IZH) close to the central Alster lake is also known to have links to the highest echelons of the Islamic world and although it officially propagates tolerance, city counter- intelligence officials told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper that its “anti-western agitation is unmistakable”.

It seems Atta at least was a model student during his time at the Harburg University and according to its president Christina Nedess, he studied there for eight years and graduated with a degree.

Neighbours in the Harburg apartment block with the yellow facade remember the two men as being among a group of religious fanatics who could be heard chanting verses from the Koran late at night.

They also recall a steady stream of unknown male visitors to the flat in Marienstrasse 54 and a large number of shoes left on the doormat outside. Some of those who came here stayed for weeks at a time.

Police found little at the flat. The rooms were empty and all traces had been carefully cleaned. The walls had be repainted by the owner recently, as is customary in Germany before new tenants move in. “We’ll examine every square centimetre of it,” said police spokesman Reinhard Fallak.

Hamburg authorities were tipped off by the FBI about Atta, who was on the passenger list of American Airlines plane AA 11 and al-Shehi, who was on board Flight AA 175 – the two planes that hit the World Trade Center. The two men apparently entered the United States from Germany.