US Soldiers Shot Dead At Frankfurt Airport

[Turborama]

Source: Sky News

Two US soldiers have been killed in a shooting at Frankfurt airport, Sky sources have said.

Two other people are said to have been injured in the incident and police have reportedly arrested a 21-year-old suspect from Kosovo.

The shots were fired on or near a bus carrying soldiers, according to reports.

It happened in front of terminal 2 of the airport, which is Europe's second-biggest, a spokesman at the airport said.

More to follow...

Read more: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Frankfurt-Airport-Shooting-Two-People-Have-Died-In-A-Shooting-At-Frankfurt-Airport/Article/201103115944217?lpos=World_News_First_Home_Article_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15944217_Frankfurt_Airport,_Shooting

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[spinbaby]

3. Wow

That airport has some of the tightest security I've ever experienced.

[CTyankee]

4. Holy sh*t! I've used that airport...how on earth could this happen?

Security was pretty tight when I was there in 08...

[Mojorabbit]

9. I was there 1 and 1/2 years ago

and security was tight then too. This is really odd.

[VermeerLives]

11. Is security tight outside the Airport?

Those wishing to carry out such acts will find the weak points. Like lines of passengers going through TSA abuses inside the airport, before they get on the plane. Passengers are are sitting ducks in these situations. There really is nothing stopping someone from carrying out an attack.

[Blue_Tires]

10. I was there last summer and have no idea how this shooting could have gone down....

[VermeerLives]

12. No idea?

I have a couple. 1) There is no security outside the airport and 2) someone is casing the airport to find out when U.S. soliders come and go. The bus sits there while passengers get off and on, creating an "opportunity". That doesn't take a sophisticated level of planning, IMO.

[JonLP24]

18. Actually I'm thinking of another airport

It is Frankfurt-Hahn I was thinking of. That is the one I've been to. I know it is about 75 miles or more from Frankfurt and I think the article is referring to the one actually in Frankfurt.

[VermeerLives]

16. The bus was sitting outside the Airport

http://www.startribune.com/world/117237268.html

FTA: "Frankfurt police spokesman Manfred Fuellhardt says the attack Wednesday afternoon came as the bus sat outside Terminal 2 at the airport."

So our soldiers were sitting ducks. And the shooter probably knew they would be there.

[VermeerLives]

29. So I'm right -- it was jihad

Gunman shouted "Allah Akbar". When are we going to wake up?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gunman-shouting-allah-akbar-kills-us-airmen-germany/story?id=13037467

[Turborama]

36. "When are we going to wake up?" - To what and do what? n/t

[johnroshan]

40. You know...

to realize that all muslims are out there to kill, murder, bomb, shoot, poison and mutilate us!

[nyy1998]

23. Same here albeit 5 years ago nt

[MineralMan]

5. Uh-oh...look for more security around airports soon, not just

inside them.

The areas outside of terminals are pretty much unprotected, with some exceptions. I've been stopped and had my car searched when driving to LAX to drop someone off, but that's a rare thing.

[AnneD]

25. "Uh-oh...look for more security around airports soon, not just

inside them".

But the excess security will only take place in the USA. Any excuse for HS and TSA. That is why they were doing a 'pre-emptive' grope of those tourist AFTER they were leaving the train in Savannah 2 weeks ago.

http://www.plamero.com/2011/03/tsa-pat-down-savannah-train-video-full-first-hand-account-what-happened-during-tsa-search-af

(I can't post youtube here)

Their excuse....

http://blog.tsa.gov/2011/02/screening-of-passengers-at-savannah.html

Judge for yourself. If I had a budget ax, I can tell you the first place I would cut.

[Iterate]

6. Police vehicles at Frankfurt Airport's Terminal 2,

where two people were killed on Wednesday in a deadly shooting that may have been aimed at US soldiers.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,748699,00.html

It looks like arrival on the lower level.

[VermeerLives]

7. "police have reportedly arrested a 21-year-old suspect from Kosovo"

Jihad?

[Lars77]

8. Might be, but i find it odd that people immediatly speculate.

Kosvars in general loves America more than most people around the world.

They have a staue of Bill Clinton in Pristina, and roads named after several Americans that helped them against the Serbs.

90% of the country are muslims, but they are mostly secularized.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. How often is a multiple killing of people from one country by someone from another, in a 3rd country

*not* terrorism? I'd say extremely rarely. What are the chances a 21 year old from Kosovo has a personal grudge against multiple American soldiers in Germany? It doesn't sound like a shooting in a robbery, does it?

[Lars77]

14. Wow, are you actually upset that i think it's silly to speculate? nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. No, I'm not upset; I just think the speculation is fair

I think it's silly to think it's silly to speculate.

[Lars77]

21. Let's wait and see. You might be right

Then you can say "I told you so".

[JonLP24]

15. K&R

Crazy.

[windowpilot]

17. Ducks in a Barrel

Why doesn't the military use only Air Force bases to fly troops?

[iandhr]

19. maybe these troops were on leave.

[PavePusher]

41. Perhaps because Air Forces bases aren't located everywhere....

that a service member may need to go?

Sheesh.....

[Viva_La_Revolution]

22. Update: 2 killed, 2 wounded

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41868493

At the airport, taxi cab driver Salimi Seraidon said he was sitting at a stand about 200 yards (meters) away when the attack took place and said it was over quickly as police rushed onto the scene.

"We just heard the shots," he said.

Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi told AP that German police have identified the suspect as Arif Uka, a Kosovo citizen from the northern town of Mitrovica.

[nalnn]

24. found this on the intarwebz

'We cannot exclude anything at the moment, ' said the minister, 'We will have to take a very close look at the perpetrator.'

Police spokesman Jürgen Linker said; 'Everything happened inside the bus.'

Eyewitnesses said the man 'infiltrated' himself among the GIs before shouting out radical Islamic slogans and then reaching into a bag for his gun


--AND--


Although the motives for the attack are still unclear, many Kosovans are Muslims, raising the suspicion that Islamic extremism may have been a factor behind the attack

A member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Patrick Meehan, said that it looked like a terrorist attack'




.
.
.
FWIW

[rabs]

26. Al Jaz has a photo

and reporting the gunman boarded the bus and killed the driver and a passenger. Another person reported with serious wounds, and a fourth with light wounds.

From the photo, it appears the body of the driver is being covered from view and that the bus is a U.S. military vehicle used to ferry soldiers around.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/03/201132154234681931.html#
---------------------

Once again Al Jaz out in front with the story.

[Zax2me]

30. Family members described the suspect as a devout Muslim

No, didn't find ths info from your 'out front Al Jaz' link.
AP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110302/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_us_airport_shooting
Family members in Kosovo described the suspect as a devout Muslim, who was born and raised in Germany and worked at the airport.

Sorry, just sick of all the slobbering over al Jazeera which can carry its own agenda just like any other news outlet.

[rabs]

31. Funny, Hillary Clinton was "slobbering" over Al Jaz too. n/t

[Turborama]

33. How many news outlets have Code of Ethics like these publicly available?

Being a globally oriented media service, Al Jazeera shall adopt the following code of ethics in pursuance of the vision and mission it has set for itself:

1. Adhere to the journalistic values of honesty, courage, fairness, balance, independence, credibility and diversity, giving no priority to commercial or political over professional consideration.

2. Endeavour to get to the truth and declare it in our dispatches, programmes and news bulletins unequivocally in a manner which leaves no doubt about its validity and accuracy.

3. Treat our audiences with due respect and address every issue or story with due attention to present a clear, factual and accurate picture while giving full consideration to the feelings of victims of crime, war, persecution and disaster, their relatives and our viewers, and to individual privacies and public decorum.

4. Welcome fair and honest media competition without allowing it to affect adversely our standards of performance and thereby having a “scoop” would not become an end in itself.

5. Present the diverse points of view and opinions without bias and partiality.

6. Recognise diversity in human societies with all their races, cultures and beliefs and their values and intrinsic individualities so as to present unbiased and faithful reflection of them.

7. Acknowledge a mistake when it occurs, promptly correct it and ensure it does not recur.

8. Observe transparency in dealing with the news and its sources while adhering to the internationally established practices concerning the rights of these sources.

9. Distinguish between news material, opinion and analysis to avoid the snares of speculation and propaganda.

10. Stand by colleagues in the profession and give them support when required, particularly in the light of the acts of aggression and harassment to which journalists are subjected at times. Cooperate with Arab and international journalistic unions and associations to defend freedom of the press.

http://english.aljazeera.net/aboutus/2006/11/2008525185733692771.html

[chatnoir]

27. Airport worker, born & raised in Germany, according to an uncle

"Police initially stated he is Kosovan, but in an interview on Wednesday night, the man’s uncle claimed he was born and raised in Germany and worked at the airport.

The bus driver and a passenger were killed, and one person suffered serious wounds and another light injuries. An air force spokesman said police had the suspect in custody and that all four men were based in Britain at Lakenheath airfield. Lakenheath is home to the 48th Fighter Wing, the United States' only F-15 fighter wing."
...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8357885/US-air-force-members-shot-dead-at-Frankfurt-airport.html

[WatsonT]

28. Tragic

I wonder what the motive was?

[rabs]

32. Stratfor on the attack

Preliminary analysis from Stratfor Global Intelligence

-----------------

There have been plots against U.S. military targets in Germany in recent years. The attack fits in the category of “armed jihadist assault” similar to what American-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki called for in mid-2010 in jihadist Internet chat rooms. Al-Awlaki had been tied to U.S. Maj. Nidal Hasan, who was charged with the November 2009 Fort Hood shooting.

The attack in Frankfurt appears to have been a soft-target attack. Soft targets are vulnerable to attack due to the absence of adequate security or standoff distance. Areas at airports outside the security check-in points are such targets. STRATFOR has for some time predicted that militants would seek out such targets, especially considering their fixation on airplanes. The recent bombing at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, for example, targeted the international arrivals area where families, friends and drivers awaited travelers emerging from the terminal. Such areas are difficult to secure because doing so would require essentially cordoning off the entire airport.

If reports of the attacker’s ethnicity are true, this would not be the first time ethnic Albanians have joined international jihad. A number of Albanian individuals were part of the Fort Dix plot in the United States in 2007. U.S. authorities broke up a militant cell in North Carolina that involved an individual of ethnic Albanian origin. In 2009, a U.S. citizen of Albanian descent from Brooklyn, New York, tried to go to Pakistan for militant training. Albanian militants fighting in the Kosovo Liberation Army, however, largely eschewed militant Islam during their fight against Serbia in the late 1990s and in fact allied with NATO against the regime of then-Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. Recent jihadist plots, however, indicate that the diaspora in the West has had a considerable number of cases of radicalization.


http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20110302-gunman-targets-us-soldiers-frankfurt-airport?utm_source=redalert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=110302%282%29&utm_content=readmore&elq=c4b75b8c8f4b4c76a54d8d6c2df7fcab

------------------

The other thing that came to mind was avenging the nine little Afghan boys slaughtered by "NATO" helicopters (NATO as in "U.S. helicopters.")

-------------

But, like others on this thread, will wait for real motive.

[VermeerLives]

34. The motive was to carry out Jihad

According to eyewitnesses, the gunman 'infiltrated' himself among the GIs before shouting out radical Islamic slogans and then reaching into a bag for his gun. Per Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi the gunman is a Kosovo citizen from the Mitrovica, but had recently been living in Germany.

Frankfurt is a hotbed of extremism in West Germany:

--9/11 terrorist Mohamed Atta was observed buying chemicals while he was based in Germany

--In 2007, terrorists were plotting to strike the airport on the sixth anniversary of 9/11. Prosecutors said they disrupted what would have been the 'worst terror attack in German history'.

[Codeine]

35. Pretty damned obvious, I'd say. nt

[Zax2me]

37. U.S. soldiers’ killer hates Jews and Israel, police say

Police said the gunman, who is in custody in Karlsruhe, had ties to well-known Islamic extremists but probably acted alone.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/03/06/3086293/killer-of-us-soldiers-hates-jews-israel

[Zax2me]

38. "I miss him. I really do."

A neighbor in Stanardsville, Diane Goerlitz-Blaisdell, said that after her husband died, Cuddeback would drop by to help.
"He was a wonderful young man," she said. Among other kindnesses, he climbed onto her roof and cleaned the gutters, she said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/06/AR2011030604166.html
An Associated Press account said the gunman, identified as Arid Uka, a Kosovo Albanian, approached a bus at the Frankfurt airport and asked Alden for a cigarette, then whether he was headed for Afghanistan.
Alden answered yes and was shot point-blank.
The gunman then clambered into the bus, shouting "Allahu akbar,"

[24601]

39. Unrec for calling Airmen Soldiers. And I'll wager that none of them

receive Purple Hearts because nobody has the balls to admit the shooter was an enemy.