Fritz Gelowicz
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Fritz Martin Gelowicz (b.Sept. 1, 1979, in Munich) is a German best known to be the perceived ringleader of the Alleged 2007 bomb plot in Germany of the Uzbek Islamic Jihad Union of which police say they had stockpiled enough material to build bombs more powerful than those that killed 191 commuters in Madrid and 52 in London.
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[edit] Bio
Gelowicz moved to Ulm with his parents and brother at the age of 5. The city sits on the border between the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria, with Ulm in the former and the sister town, Neu-Ulm, in the latter. The Multi-Kultur-Haus, an Islamic centre preaching the strict Wahabi form of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia ,on the Bavarian side in Neu-Ulm, was the centre of the movement that became known in German intelligence circles as the Ulm Scene. Gelowicz converted to Islam as a teenager calling himself "Abdullah" afterwards and became friends with Turkish born Tolga Dürbin.
Intelligence officials say Gelowicz's path led him through Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria, and to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. ([1])
In 2004 police picked up Gelowicz and a friend, Atilla Selek, for setting a book on fire in front of a shop in Ulm. In the car the men were driving, investigators found "propaganda material", according to court documents, including a CD with information praising jihad, Osama bin Laden,
Soon after, an Iranian-born Kurd with German citizenship named Dana Boluri told investigators that he met Gelowicz and Selek in Saudi Arabia. Gelowicz would later take part in the surveillance of US military barracks in Hanau that refocused investigators' attention on him in the months before his arrest.
Gelowicz appears to have travelled to Syria and studied Arabic in 2005, according to a certificate from a language school in Damascus included in investigators' files.
"He was possessed with the desire to launch an attack," said August Hanning, state secretary at the German Interior Ministry...A leading mind, the one with initiative, the coordinator. He possessed enormous criminal energy. Very cold-blooded and full of hatred.”
Two other suspects said to be his associates, Daniel Martin Schneider and Adem Yilmaz were also arrested.
[edit] Statements
In July, two months before the arrests, Gelowicz had given an interview to the weekly Stern magazine.
Excerpts[1]:
Q: You have supposedly taken part in the surveillance of the American military barracks in Hanau in December 2006 with two acquantances.
A: The allegations naturally are absurd. I was in Frankfurt that day, this much is true. But it's incorrect that I've taken part in any kind of surveillance. We just visited someone there, that's all. Afterwards we drove around the area without any particular aim. We were just looking for a vantage point, it was New Year's Eve after all. We didn't find an adequate place so we drove around the block. They interpreted this as "surveillance". I didn't even know those were barracks.
Q: Did you come back as a changed man ? (about his trips to Arabia)
A: That you become radicalized there is utter nonsense. Anybody who knows their way around knows that Arabic countries are much stricter than we are. It's very dangerous to hold radical views there. For radicals there's no place in most Arabic countries. You can find them everywhere, you don't have to go to Arabia.
Q: What's life like for a so-called "endangerer"(Gefährder)?
A: I lead a normal life like any other citizen. I'm occupied with plenty of things like anybody else. But I don't feel as free as I used to.
Q: What's your vision for the German society?
A: Well, my vision is simply tolerance. People who don't interfere with anyone should be just left alone. You can expect that from muslims but also from non-Muslims. All I'm asking is that people let me live that way.
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[edit] References
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