August 21, 2006: After a spectacular effort early Saturday morning in the northern German city of Kiel, German police arrested a 21 year old university student from Lebanon as a suspect in the bungled suitcase bombing of two German regional trains three weeks earlier. Acting on a tip, a combined special police unit sealed off the Kiel main train station and an adjoining hotel and made the arrest.

The suspect was later flown to Karlsruhe, where a judge at Germany's highest court formally charged him today with membership in a terrorist organization and attempted murder. According to Germany's "FBI", the Bundeskriminalamt, the suspect was positively identified by DNA evidence and fingerprints collected from one of the suitcases used for transporting the bombs.

On July 31, 2006, two suitcase bombs were placed on commuter trains at the Cologne main train station. One of the suitcases was put on a train headed for the city of Hamm, north of Cologne, and the other was deposited on a train headed for Koblenz, south of Cologne. The suitcase in the northbound train was discovered in Dortmund, and the other bomb was found when the southbound train reached Koblenz. Because of a design flaw in the composition of the bombs, detonators set for 2:30 p.m. failed to ignite the charge.

After a thorough examination of the two suitcase bombs, Germany's "FBI", the Bundeskriminalamt, released information about the destructive potential of the bombs if they had gone off as planned. Widespread damage to the trains and many dead and injured commuters was the grim assessment. According to experts, the bombs would have killed anyone within a 100 meter radius. The bombers also placed food starch and other materials inside the suitcases in an apparent attempt to give the impression that a chemical bomb had been detonated, if the bombs had gone off as planned.

Surveillance cameras in use at the Cologne main station caught images of the two bombers depositing their bombs. Both were obviously of Middle Eastern background, and one was wearing a jersey featuring the number of German soccer star Michael Ballack. Police released the surveillance video (including the photo on the right), apparently causing one of the two suspects to panic (the fellow wearing the jersey). His arrest at the train station in Kiel was a quick response to an apparent attempt to get out of Germany as quickly as possible.

Police are now centering their efforts on finding the other suspect. The discovery of the two bombs and the realization that Germany is a potential target for Islamic terrorists has sent shock waves through Germany. Describing the situation as "unusually serious," Germany's interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble warned that "the threat has never been so near."

While no one in Germany supports nationwide video surveillance, opinion polls show a majority of Germans are in favor in extending video surveillance in public places. Political leaders generally agree on the need to use more video cameras at major train stations. "When one remembers the hysteria that made data protection a mantra in the 1980s over a harmless issue like a census, the mental change in recent years is enormous ... The world has changed and with it the Germans, both in foreign policy and domestically. Today even the data protection watchdog voices support for an anti-terror file," according to the conservative daily "Die Welt" (August 21, 2006).