Terror plot strikes fear into newspaper staff but intelligence agency says no attack imminent

FBI agents have been working in close cooperation with their Danish counterparts to foil a terror plot involving Jyllands-Posten newspaper and other possible Danish targets.

Two Chicago men have been charged with plotting attacks on ‘employees and facilities’ at Jyllands-Posten offices in Copenhagen and Århus.

David Coleman Headley, 49, a US citizen born in Pakistan, has been charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a 48-year-old Canadian citizen also of Pakistani descent, is accused of supporting him.

Rana has denied the accusations and lawyers for Headley have yet to comment.

Headley was arrested at Chicago O’Hare airport on his way to Pakistan early this month. Authorities found a disc with surveillance video images of the newspaper’s buildings, as well as Copenhagen’s central train station. He was due to return to Denmark on Friday morning.

The suspect had twice been to Denmark on scouting missions and gained entry to the Jyllands-Posten offices in Århus and Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen, in January under the guise of wanting to place an advertisement for Rana’s company, First World Immigration Service.

Management at the paper said they did not remember Headley’s visit and were searching through their records for more information on him.

Headley allegedly told FBI agents after his arrest that he had trained with radical Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has been linked to the Mumbai terror attacks.

He also is said to have admitted scaling back plans for a full-blown attack on the offices to targeting culture editor, Flemming Rose, and one of the cartoonists behind the Mohammad drawings, Kurt Westergaard.

Jyllands-Posten management was informed of the threat on Tuesday afternoon by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), who they have been in close contact with over the last four years following the initial publication of the cartoons that drew consternation in the Muslim world.

An internal memo was quickly forwarded to all staff in the JP/Politikens Hus building on Rådhuspladsen to where Jyllands-Posten recently moved its Copenhagen operations.

A union representative for the newspaper’s journalists said they were disturbed by the news.

‘It’s been both surprising and worrying because most of us thought that the repercussions of the Mohammed case had died down,’ union rep Jørgen Rye said.

The plan to attack Jyllands-Posten had been more than a year in the making and was dubbed the ‘Mickey Mouse Project’.

Despite the prospect of this latest planned attack, PET has not changed its outlook on the terror threat against Denmark.

Head of PET, Jakob Scharf, told media there was no immediate threat but serious terrorist attacks had been specifically planned.

‘A number of possible forms of attack would have included the use of hand weapons as seen in the Mumbai terror attack, but also the use of explosives,’ he said in a statement.

Scharf didn’t rule out further arrests being made in the case as Pakistani, US and Danish authorities work together in close cooperation.

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen reacted angrily to the news.

‘I wasn’t surprised, but I was angry,’ said Rasmussen. ‘I know there are people in this world who are fanatical in their beliefs and will take up arms to fight against our values, but I won’t accept it.’

The Muslim Council in Denmark was also quick to condemn the terror plot, saying it went against core beliefs of Islam and basic social values.