Four Terror Suspects Arrested in Sweden on Suspicion of Plotting Attack
- Posted on September 11, 2011 at 12:50pm by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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Swedish police arrested four people on suspicion of preparing a terror attack and evacuated the Roda Sten art exhibition in Goteborg, Sweden's second largest city. (AP Photo/Adam Ihse/SCANPIX)
STOCKHOLM (The Blaze/AP) — Swedish police arrested four people on suspicion of preparing a terror attack and evacuated an arts center in the country’s second largest city, security officials said Sunday.
The four were arrested in the west coast city of Goteborg and were suspected of plotting terrorism, security service spokeswoman Sara Kvarnstrom said. She declined to give details on the arrests and wouldn’t say whether they were linked to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Kvarnstrom said Swedish security service SAPO saw no reason to raise its terror alert level, which has been at “elevated” since October.
“Our assessment is that there is no reason for public concern at the moment,” she told The Associated Press.
Swedish tabloid Expressen, citing an unnamed police source, said investigators suspect the men belong to a terror network with links to al-Qaida, and that they had acquired, or were trying to acquire, firearms, explosives and hand grenades. Security police declined to comment on the newspaper’s information.
Police in Goteborg said in a statement they had evacuated the Roda Sten arts center, located beneath the city’s landmark half-mile (930-meter) Alvsborg bridge, because of a threat deemed to pose “serious danger to life, health or substantial damage of property.”
Kvarnstrom declined to say if the arts center or the bridge were considered potential targets for a terror attack.
The Alvsborg bridge runs over Goteborg’s harbor to connect the mainland with the island of Hisingen. The six-lane passage is a vital link from the Norwegian capital Oslo to southern Sweden.
Goteborg police and Sweden’s Stockholm-based counterterrorism unit assisted security police with the arrests.
Henrik Wallgren, 46, says he saw a Swedish navy combat boat race back and forth on the river by the arts center just before he and others were evacuated from the center.
“We were sitting on a skateboard ramp behind the graffiti wall at Roda Sten,” when it happened, he told The Associated Press.
Roda Sten is a former heating plant that was abandoned for years before being reopened as an arts center in 2000, according to its website. About 400 people were celebrating the opening of an international biennial for contemporary art at the graffiti-covered brick building when police ordered everyone to leave, said Mia Christersdotter Norman, the head of Roda Sten.
“Around midnight I was called out by the police and they said there was a threat to the building and asked us to quietly stop the party, which we did and everyone left,” Christersdotter Norman told The Associated Press.
“Police have searched the building but they didn’t find anything,” she said, adding the arts center would reopen as usual Sunday.
She said she had no information about the arrests, and had not been aware of any threats against the arts festival or its participants before the police operation.
Klas Eriksson, a DJ, was just about to start playing at Roda Sten when police broke up the party. People were worried but there was no panic, he said.
“It was just after midnight. Police said that they had arrested four people and that the building had to be evacuated,” Eriksson told AP.
“I thought it was scary,” he said. “Your thoughts go to 9/11, because it was just after midnight. But you don’t know. It could be anything.”
In December, suicide bomber Taimour Abdulwahab blew himself up in downtown Stockholm among panicked Christmas shoppers, injuring two people and causing shock in a country that had largely been insulated from terrorism.
The 2007 drawing of the Prophet Muhammad by a Swedish cartoonist raised tensions in Sweden. In May, Lars Vilks was assaulted while giving a speech in Uppsala, and vandals unsuccessfully tried to burn down his home in southern Sweden. His cartoon was reportedly the inspiration for Abdulwahab’s attack. Vilks was not attending the art biennial in Goteborg.
In a report detailing the extent of extremist Islamist networks in Sweden, ordered months before that attack, SAPO had downplayed the risk of terror attacks in the Nordic country. Activity among radicalized Muslims in Sweden is primarily directed toward supporting militants in other countries, including Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, it said.
Magnus Norell, a terrorism expert at the Swedish Defense Research Agency, declined to speculate about what was behind the arrests, but said the general threat in Sweden remains low.
“It was low in December 2010 as well – but at the same time Sweden is a part of the world and a global context,” he said.
Scandinavia has largely been focused on Islamic terrorism since Sept. 11, but in the wake of Norway’s terrorist attack by a right-wing anti-immigrant Norwegian, the European police agency said it was setting up a task force of more than 50 experts to help investigate non-Islamist threats in Scandinavian countries.
The Swedish government said it would earmark 62 million kronor ($9.5 million) to set up a national action plan against all kinds of violent extremism, focused on prevention.
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MUDFLAPS
Posted on September 13, 2011 at 12:16amshoot them
Report Post »Menlo Bob
Posted on September 12, 2011 at 12:32pmWhen writing for an American news outlet Roma is spelled Rome. Why then does the AP use Goteborg (the Swedish spelling) instead of what Sweden’s second largest city is normally called in the American press-Gothenburg?
Report Post »Mickey67
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 11:49pmWe shouldn’t let A-rabs in the USA and deport those that are here. None of this PC crap.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 8:01pmI am so glad that my “Morfar” left Sweden back in the 1920′s.
Report Post »davidstep
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 6:43pmWhy would anyone attack Sweden? They are like the Seattle Seahawks. They don’t hurt anyone.
Report Post »Look4DBigPicture
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 7:31pmSwedish troops have been fighting along side Americans in Afghanistan, Iraq and I think Libya. Americans seem to forget we aren’t alone in the mission against terrorism.
Wasn’t it a Swedish cartoonist who was decapitated by Muslim extremists?
Report Post »ida-russkie
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 4:29pmwhat has Sweden done to deserve this?
Report Post »abbygirl1994
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 4:58pmMost of Sweden is like Sodom and Gommorah!! I pity those there who have any Christian values, because it truly is a demoralizing country. Just like about everywhere!
Report Post »ILConservative
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 5:43pmThey let in a bunch of terroist muslims! Just like we are doing now! This will be happening here more too as more of these terrorists come in!
Report Post »holy ghostbuster
Posted on September 12, 2011 at 8:46amThe radical Muslims don‘t care if you’re Christian, Jewish, or a non-believer, It is all about propagating their Islam and taking over the world.
Report Post »PIGSWILLNEVERFLY
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 4:05pmSven & Ollie: Sure they can immigrate here…then, “We’ll get 50 experts to investigate and spend $9.5 million on prevention…..Ya, you bettcha!” Great plan…wonder where they went wrong?
Report Post »PAWatcher
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 2:17pmal Qaeda? wasn’t that the first response last time in Oslo? When we spoke out about it, then reversal to White, Christian terrorist and tea party to blame response. Will wait for further details.
Report Post »hi
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 7:39pmThe Scandanavian Bomber was not a Christian. The lib NYTimes published inaccurate information because they knew fools like you would never read the retraction and would forever think he was.
Report Post »hi
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 7:53pmI am sorry for calling you a fool.
Report Post »EcceCrucemDomini
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 1:24pmWe cannot live in fear.
Report Post »WeMustNeverForget
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 2:16pmI couldn’t agree with you more. I refuse to live in fear. Doesn’t mean I am not aware of my surroundings, but I refuse to live my life in a manner where I could potentially become physically sick. God bless America!
Report Post »cactusjoe
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 1:15pmLets see will the media spin this or ignore it??
Report Post »YepImaConservative
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 1:08pmCulling the herd is not just a term for ranchers anymore…
Report Post »chazman
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 1:23pmMuslims / Islam cannot be trusted. All muslim immigrants into th U.S. must be deported!
“Kill the disbelievers wherever we find them!” (SURA 2:191 of the Koran)
Report Post »YepImaConservative
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 1:38pmIncluding the weak Americans who convert to Islam and change their names in praise of Muhammad the pedophile.
Report Post »Edct
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 2:04pmWe had better get angry and tough and stop ignoring these infidel muslim terrorists in our country…they are only acting nice till they get enough of them here in our country and then they will try to take us over like they are doing in France. We need to make them feel very unwelcome so they will leave because some day they will try to kill us.
Report Post »kangaroo
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 3:37pmChaz, thats interesting. As many blogs that I have read, I have not seen the koran quoted, maybe we should all do that more often! Gotta be one published online
Report Post »holy ghostbuster
Posted on September 12, 2011 at 8:56am@Chazman – What is the difference between “Kill the disbelievers wherever we find them” (SURA 2:191 of the Koran) and “And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God (Deuteronomy 13:10 KJV)? Both books are evil in my opinion.
Report Post »Obama Bin Lying
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 12:57pmOnce again, the religion of perpetual outrage shows that no one is safe from them.
Report Post »chazman
Posted on September 11, 2011 at 5:51pm@KANGAROO
I have a bunch of quotes from the Koran inciting the ‘believers’ to kill the infidels in lots of nasty ways. It really is cult like, not a religion at all …
Report Post »holy ghostbuster
Posted on September 12, 2011 at 9:03amThe only difference between the Koran‘s teachings and the Bible’s is that radical Muslims have been acting on their “holy” book through acts of terrorism and Sharia law. As Christian fundamentalists flourish, could we see the same against gays, adulterers, non-believers, incorrigible children, all of which the bible instructs to kill? Blind faith over reason is a dangerous thing.
Report Post »holy ghostbuster
Posted on September 12, 2011 at 9:06am@Chazman – I have a bunch of quotes from the BIBLE inciting the “believers” to kill the non-beleivers in lots of nasty ways (usually by stoning.) Christianity is really cult like, as all religions are.
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