Austria arrests three suspected al Qaeda activists

Austrian authorities detained three suspected al Qaeda activists Wednesday in connection with a videotape threat against Austria and Germany for their role in Afghanistan, officials said.
Interior Minister Guenther Platter told a press conference that the two men, aged 20 and 26, and a 21-year-old woman were "in contact with al Qaeda networks" but did not form an "operational group" planning violence. "At no time did they represent a threat against Austria," he said, adding that they were still being questioned. Austria has only four military officers in Afghanistan.
Public security chief, Erich Buxbaum, said the three, all resident in Vienna, were second generation Austrian Muslims whose families came from the Arab world. Police said searches were also being carried out following the arrests in the Austrian capital.
Islamist militants threatened to attack Germany and Austria if they do not pull their troops out of Afghanistan in a statement read out on March 11 by a masked man on a website linked to al Qaeda. The warning on the Voice of the Caliphate online television included references to Austrian internal politics which implied some knowledge of the country. The two governments sought to play down the threat at the time, with Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer saying: "People have no reason to worry."
"In standing by the United States... you have provoked those whom you call terrorists to target you," the man said in Arabic, with a German translation appearing on the screen as the flags of Germany and Austria appeared in front of a burning background.
"Austria was and still is one of the safest countries in the world... But if Austria came on to the list of countries targeted by the mujahedeen (holy warriors), the situation will change," it said. "To Austria we say: your troops in Afghanistan do not represent a real force or a real threat to our brothers, the mujahedeen, but they represent important support for (US President George W. Bush) Bush and his gang," it added.
Addressing the government in Vienna, the statement said: "Don't destroy the security of a whole country just for five soldiers you have sent to Afghanistan." Austria has four staff officers with the International Security Assistance Force backing the Kabul government, whose mission is to end on December 31. In March Platter ruled out ending that mission, adding that Austria was not a "primary target for terrorists."
German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble for his part said Berlin "will not be blackmailed" into withdrawing its some 3,000 troops from Afghanistan. The Voice of the Caliphate was launched in September 2005 by the Iraqi branch of the al Qaeda network of the Western world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden.