U.S. Alerted Germans to Terror Plot

Good thing we had an intercept on communications between Pakistan and Germany.

Otherwise the left would be screaming about domestic spying and fretting about the rights of terrorists.

US tip-off foiled German bomb plot, reports say

A tip-off from US intelligence helped to foil the terror bomb plot in Germany, it emerged yesterday.

"The first piece of hard evidence on the bomb plot against American military and airbases in Germany was transmitted to the German authorities from American intelligence officials," Rolf Tophoven, director of the German institute for terrorist research and security policy, said.

US satellite systems picked up on electronic contact between Pakistan and Germany more than 10 months ago, he said. "From then on, the operation progressed with the clandestine support of the US in the background."

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the US officials gave the Germans internet IP addresses - numbers that can help to locate a computer - and parts of names.

Seems some of the suspects were using an old Al Qaeda method.

Local reports said that instead of sending emails, the suspects saved messages in the draft folder of an email account which both parties had access to, a trick also used by al-Qaida planner Khaled Sheikh Mohammed in the run up to 9/11.