# Politics and News > World Affairs >  German police thwart 'neo-Nazi model airplane bomb plot'

## Max Rockatansky

This isn't the first reference I've seen to terrorists attempting to use R/C aircraft to deliver bombs, but it's the first I've seen for Nazis trying to use them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24036964



> *German police say they have seized a "functional" bomb and several model planes that neo-Nazis planned to use against political enemies.*A man with links to far-right extremists was arrested on suspicion of commissioning the bomb, police in the south-western city of Freiburg say.
> It would have caused serious injury within a radius of 30 metres, they add.
> According to official figures, neo-Nazis committed more than 800 violent crimes in Germany last year.
> The flying bomb was discovered last week after police raided the homes of four suspects and a neo-Nazi meeting place in the city following a tip-off, officials say.
> They said the plan - which appeared to be at a very early stage - was to fly the device into a crowd of the political enemies of neo-Nazis.
> "They want to use it against left-wing or anti-Nazi activists," spokesman for the Freiburg prosecutor's office Wolfgang Maier told the Associated Press news agency.
> The main suspect - an unidentified 23-year-old man - had previously hurled fireworks at anti-Nazi counter-demonstrators during a far-right protest last month, police said.
> They said they were also investigating two other suspects. A third man alleged to have built the bomb had been detained but was later released on bail.
> The plot mirrors one the police said they discovered in June when they raided the homes of Islamists in Germany and discovered a similar conspiracy to make a flying bomb, the BBC's Stephen Evans says.
> ...

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Gerrard Winstanley (09-12-2013)

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## Max Rockatansky

A previous plot in the US:   http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice...oiled-FBI-says



> An American Muslim acting as a lone-wolf jihadi, who thought he was working with Al Qaedaoperatives, was arrested in Massachusetts Wednesday for plotting to kill US soldiers overseas as well as planning to attack the Pentagon and the US Capitol with explosives carried by remote control aircraft, according to federal officials.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-...e-terror-plot/



> A Massachusetts man was sentenced Thursday to 17 years in prison in a plot to fly remote-controlled model planes packed with explosives into the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.Rezwan Ferdaus, 27, of Ashland, pleaded guilty in July to attempting to provide material support to terrorists and attempting to damage and destroy federal buildings with an explosive. As part of a plea agreement between prosecutors and Ferdaus' attorney, both sides agreed to recommend the 17-year sentence.
> Ferdaus, a Muslim-American who grew up in Massachusetts and has a physics degree from Northeastern University, delivered a long, soft-spoken statement in which he offered no apology for his actions but thanked his family and friends for supporting him. He said he has accepted his fate and "can dream of a brighter future."
> Ferdaus did not make any direct anti-American statements, but he did refer to "a world filled with injustices."
> "Who other than God knows best what it takes to make a good human being," he said.
> Ferdaus was arrested last year after federal employees posing as members of al Qaeda delivered materials he requested, including grenades, machine guns and plastic explosives. Authorities have said the public was never in danger because the explosives were always under the control of federal agents.

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## Gerrard Winstanley

There are people on here who are going to defend these white supremacist loons, or at least muse about their "logic". Just warning you.

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Sinestro/Green Arrow (09-12-2013)

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## Max Rockatansky

I have little respect for Nazis, radical Muslims or any other group which uses terrorism as a tool for political change.  Same goes for their supporters.

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President Peanut (09-14-2013),Sinestro/Green Arrow (09-12-2013)

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## Gerrard Winstanley

> I have little respect for Nazis, radical Muslims or any other group which uses terrorism as a tool for political change.  Same goes for their supporters.


Same, but others are inclined differently.

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Sinestro/Green Arrow (09-12-2013)

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## patrickt

Are these the same as drones?

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## Max Rockatansky

> Are these the same as drones?


Remotely piloted vehicles.  Primitive drones limited to about 1/2 mile Line-of-sight range and payload.   A large, say 6 foot wingspan one might lift 15 lbs if it had a long, flat runway.

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## Sinestro/Green Arrow



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## patrickt

> Remotely piloted vehicles.  Primitive drones limited to about 1/2 mile Line-of-sight range and payload.   A large, say 6 foot wingspan one might lift 15 lbs if it had a long, flat runway.


So, you're saying it's a poor man's drone.

I've always wondered why the delivery of a bomb in a $300 million cruise missile is okay but in a $2,500 used Toyota isn't.

What we're fighting against is the WalMart of Weapons. We want weapons limited to those who can afford to shop at Bloomingdales.

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## Max Rockatansky

> So, you're saying it's a poor man's drone.
> 
> I've always wondered why the delivery of a bomb in a $300 million cruise missile is okay but in a $2,500 used Toyota isn't.
> 
> What we're fighting against is the WalMart of Weapons. We want weapons limited to those who can afford to shop at Bloomingdales.


Those R/C aircraft are only good for terrorism and are not very accurate.  I fail to see how it helps our nation to reduce our military to two college kids and a few pressure cooker bombs and R/C airplane.

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## patrickt

I didn't realize the thread was about how to help our side. I just want it clear that it's not some sort of moral high ground. I have no affinity for Nazis, I'm not a liberal, but the discussion was about weapons. 

How accurate does firebombing Dresden or Tokyo have to be? Carpet bombing was developed because it isn't "accurate". It tries to kill everything. Napalm? Phosphorus? One of my favorite essayists, Paul Fussell, won a medal in WWii for shrapnel wounds. He wrote saying he felt like a fraud because the wounds weren't shrapnel. They were his buddy. A mortar shell landed on his friend and blew bits of bone and gristle into Paul's body.

The pretend niceties about killing remind me of the woman who said, when discussing late-term abortions, "We don't consider it killing." How nice.

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## Max Rockatansky

> I didn't realize the thread was about how to help our side.


Only if you consider stopping terrorism helping "our side".

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## patrickt

I understand, Max. Terrorism is, by definition, their side. And, cost. An expensive bomb isn't terrorism. A cheap bomb is. A bomb delivered by a cruise missile isn't terrorism. Delivered by a donkey is. I really do understand your point, Max. 

I am delighted the German's caught this. My son is building drones. Not as sophisticated as government drones but he doesn't have the budget. He's a volunteer coach for a high school robotics team, too. And, cell phones are used to detonate home-made bombs. Apparently, IPads can hack a car's computer system and do bad things. Oh, and your cell phone can be activated remotely so it's a listening device. And we all know what pressure cookers can do besides cook beans. 

The technology isn't really the issue and in some ways neither are the teams. Our president sends men to a foreign country to murder an enemy and we cheer for our team. When Ghaddafi sent an assassin to my town to kill one of his enemies we didn't cheer. Amazing how that works, isn't it?

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## Max Rockatansky

Terrorism, whether it uses a pressure cooker bomb or a nuke, is about attacking purely civilian targets with the intention of inflicting terror on them.

Warfare is attacking military targets regardless if it is with a homemade bomb or a Predator drone.

The OP article states the plan "_was to fly the_ device_ into a crowd of the political enemies of neo-Nazis._"  That's terrorism.  You are free to compare the United States military to the Nazi skinheads, but I think most people can understand the difference.

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President Peanut (09-14-2013)

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