German police began a nationwide sweep Monday of computer databases in a search for suspected terrorists in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States, regional interior ministers said.
Press reports said police were hoping to snare so-called "sleepers," suspected terrorists who live as ordinary citizens while waiting for their time to attack.
The first databases to be examined will be police registers in local administrations, registration lists in universities and insurance lists, said spokesmen for the ministers from 13 of Germany's 16 states.
Three states, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Bremen, are awaiting approval from their local parliaments to participate.
Foreigners who reside in Germany are required to register with police.
The head of the Moslem community in Germany, Nadeem Elyas, warned against the database sweep leading to discrimination against Muslims.
"Even if this is done for the better good of society ... we fear discrimination and prejudice against Muslims," he said in a speech announcing an open-door policy for visits to mosques in Germany on Wednesday.
He said the "profiling" expected to be used in the sweep, which checks records for racial and national origin, would lead to Muslims being targeted.
"We have already received the first complaints from Arab students, before the sweep began," Elyas said.
The sweep is apparently modeled on ones conducted in the 1970's to trace left-wing Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorists. These relied on cross-checking from different lists to find discrepancies, such as a name for a certain address not being the same as that used for a driver's license giving that address.
Germany is becoming more aggressive in watching suspected groups in the wake of the terror attacks in the United States.
It is considering lifting some restrictions protecting the privacy of personal data, in what would be a move away from strict safeguards imposed to avoid the horrors of the Nazi and East German communist eras.
Meanwhile, the weekly magazine Stern said police, following leads from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have questioned a 27-year-old Moroccan who has lived for the past six years in Hamburg about his alleged links to suspected terrorists.
The German federal prosecutor's office refused to comment on the Stern report.
Stern said the Moroccan, identified only as Monnir El M., was a member of the Islamic prayer group founded by terrorist suspect Mohammed Atta, who is believed to have flown one of the hijacked planes that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.
Monnir El M., who studies electrical technology at the university in Hamburg where Atta also studied and set up the prayer group, signed in 1996 the will left behind by Atta, Stern said, citing the FBI as a source.
But Monnir El M. told Stern he had not signed the will.
He also said that he had not for the past two years seen either Atta or another suspect Marwan Al-Shehhi, who had also lived in Hamburg with Atta.
Stern said Monnir El M. had in May deposited 2,100 marks ($910) in Atta's bank account, saying it was to buy a computer.
Monnir El M. also reportedly deposited on September 6, 2000, a total of 5,000 marks ($2,250) in the account of Ramzi Mohamed Abdullah Binalshibh, who is being sought by German authorities for his connection to Atta and the other suspected hijackers.
Monnir El M., who is married and the father of a small child, had power of attorney over Al-Shehhi's bank account.
He told Stern that the reason for these bank activities was that foreigners living in Germany helped each other out.
Germany had on Saturday begun two new investigations into suspected terrorist groups, amid press reports that the September 11 attacks on the US were plotted on its territory -- BERLIN (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
