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Terrorism threat still high: EU official

The EU's top justice official said yesterday that the threat of a terror attack remained high in the 27-nation bloc.

EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said the EU executive would push ahead with plans to set up an EU-wide airline passenger data recording system modeled on a system developed by the US, despite privacy concerns voiced by some EU parliamentarians.

"It's a useful tool to protect our citizens, who deserve the same protection as US citizens," Frattini told the European Parliament.

Other measures in the works include a plan to set up an EU-wide explosive database to provide an early warning system on lost or stolen explosives that could end up in the hands of terror groups, and new provisions to deal with the misuse of the Internet by terrorists, Frattini said.

"The threat of new terror attacks continues to be high," Frattini said, citing Belgium, Spain, Italy, Britain and Germany as countries where the risk has been the highest.

Frattini spoke a day after three men were arrested in Germany on suspicion of plotting attacks on Frankfurt's international airport and the nearby US military base in Ramstein.

In Denmark, the intelligence service said on Tuesday it thwarted a bomb plot when anti-terror squads rounded up eight Islamic militants with alleged links to senior al-Qaeda terrorists.

The pre-dawn raids sent jitters through a country that stirred Muslim anger and deadly protests last year after a newspaper printed 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

"This could indicate that [al-Qaeda] now is able to pick up the phone and order a terror act in Denmark," said Hans Joergen Bonnichsen, who retired as operative head of the PET intelligence service last year.

However, Jakob Scharf, head of the PET, said the foiled terror plot was not connected to either the uproar over the prophet cartoons or Denmark's involvement in the US-led coalition in Iraq.

The suspects -- six Danish citizens and two foreigners with residence permits -- had been under surveillance for some time when they were arrested.

"With the arrests, we have prevented a terror attack," Scharf told reporters in Copenhagen.

He did not identify the target.

The suspects, aged 19 to 29, were not identified but Scharf described them as "militant Islamists with connections to leading al-Qaeda persons."

Two of the suspects, both 21, were arraigned in court later Tuesday on preliminary charges of acquiring material to make one or more bombs for terror attacks in Denmark or abroad.

They sat quietly with their arms crossed listening to the preliminary charges before reporters were ordered to leave the court room.

The court ordered both held in custody for 27 days -- the first 13 days in solitary confinement -- while investigators continue to the probe. It was not immediately clear when the six others would be arraigned.

Scharf declined to say whether more people were being sought.

The TV2 News channel reported that a 19-year-old electrician was arrested in Ishoej, while a taxi driver in his early 20s was arrested in Noerrebro.

TV footage shot from a helicopter showed bomb squads and forensics agents at those locations.

In Ishoej, Denmark, anti-terror police broke down the door of the apartment where a Turkish family was living, said Karina Elbaek, who lives on the floor below.

"They were ordinary neighbors, really friendly, helpful and extroverted," Elbaek said of the family.

Sadie al-Fatlawi, who lives on the floor above the cab driver in Noerrebro, said police ordered him and other neighbors to leave the building during the raid.
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