Pair arrested for 9/11 attack plan

Authorities suspect the pair were planning to target either the U.S. military base in Heidelberg or some other target in the city.

STUTTGART, Germany (CNN) -- German officials arrested a Turkish man and his American fiancee who they say planned an attack on a U.S. military base in Germany close to the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Authorities suspect the pair were planning to target either the U.S. military base in Heidelberg or some other target in the city, said Estefan Kleibach, a spokesman for the Minister of the Interior for the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg told reporters.

Police seized a cache of explosives when they arrested the couple at their apartment near the southwestern German city of Heidelberg, said Kleibach.

Inside the apartment, authorities found a poster of Osama bin Laden, more than 280 pounds of chemicals and five pipes which could have been turned into bombs with the addition of the chemicals, he said. He did not say what kinds of chemicals they were.

The 25-year-old man was raised in Germany and is employed by a store or a factory selling chemicals, Kleibach said.

His 23-year-old fiancee is a civilian employee of the U.S. military in a supermarket at the American base in Heidelberg where the U.S. Army is headquartered in Europe, Kleibach said.

Neither was identified by name.

Kleibach said the two are not cooperating with investigators. The man has a record of criminal convictions for petty crimes, including theft and drug use, and is not known to be a member of any terrorist groups, Kleibach said.

There were indications that an attack was planned for September 11, according to Thomas Schaeuble, the chief law enforcement officer for Baden-Wuerttemberg state, who refused to elaborate further.

Schaeuble said the Turkish man was a strict Muslim "who hates Americans and Jews."

The German prosecutor's office also said U.S. authorities had arrested an Afghan-born German from the city of Hamburg. Three of the hijackers involved in the September 11 terror attacks belonged to a Hamburg cell.

The prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe said U.S. officials had arrested the man in New York and said he was now being held in Virginia. U.S. officials told Germany there was evidence of possible attacks planned by the 39-year-old man, the office said. (Full story)

The Interior Ministry in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg refused to comment on an advance article in Saturday's Bild newspaper claiming officials were investigating a link to the al Qaeda terror network.

"I would put it this way -- when in these times you arrest someone and find a large quantity of explosives on him, you can suspect that, but the investigation is in progress and we can say nothing about that," Ministry spokeswoman Alice Loyson-Siemering told The Associated Press.

The U.S. Army Europe headquarters is in Heidelberg while U.S. European Command, which oversees the military operations in Europe and parts of Africa, is also based in Baden-Wuerttemberg, near Stuttgart.

U.S. military authorities had no immediate comment but security forces say they are not aware of any threats against installations in Stuttgart and there were no signs of heightened security at Heidelberg.

German Interior Minister Otto Schily said on Wednesday that authorities had reviewed 500 tips of possible new attacks since September 11, but had found no concrete evidence to suggest an attack to mark the first anniversary of the strikes on the World Trade Center and Washington was in progress.

Germany is on alert because Mohammed Atta, believed to have been at the controls of the first plane that crashed into the twin towers, had lived and studied in Hamburg, Germany.

CNN Correspondent Chris Burns and Producer Claudia Otto contributed to this story.

Copyright 2002 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.