Left-Extremist Endeavours

Judicial inquiry instituted
against a terrorist
autonomous set-up
going underground]; the traces left by them after attacks seldom
lend themselves to evaluation and analysis, and in order to protect
themselves against penal prosecution, they give themselves
permanently changing names in their letters claiming responsibility
for actions.
To them, militancy is the direct expression of their opposition to
the "System". Thus, in a letter claiming responsibility for an attack
of 24 March on an overhead-system pole of Deutsche Bahn
AG [German Railways] near Dietersdorf (Brandenburg), "Autonomous
Groups" stated that it was necessary
"to develop and expand counter-power to the ruling
structures. ... The path to a liberated society is long and
strewn with many stumbling blocks - success will only be
attained if, apart from revolutionizing society, the individual
takes pleasure in changing his own person and in
experiencing such change. In pursuing this course, infraction
of the rules et by the opposing side is inevitable."
("INTERIM", no. 473 of 8 April 1999)
Attacks by terrorist autonomous groups (arson and bomb attacks,
attacks on communications and data networks and highvoltage
pylons, grapnel attacks on railroad lines of Deutsche
Bahn AG) caused material damage and economic consequential
loss totalling millions of DM over the past few years. Severe
damage to property is what the perpetrators regularly intend to
cause. In this way, the price of certain processes or projects is to
be raised to such an extent that they will be delayed or, for economic
and/or political reasons, will no longer be feasible.
As part of judicial inquiries into so-called grapnel attacks and on
the basis of a decision by the investigating judge of the Federal
Court of Justice (BGH), several premises in Berlin, Lower
Saxony, Hamburg and Bremen were searched on 6 July. These
law enforcement measures were based on investigations
concerning several individuals suspected of having formed a
terrorist association and having committed dangerous actions
against railroad traffic and other offences. The accused persons
are suspected of having taken part - at least in the years 1996
and 1997 in connection with CASTOR [Cask for Storage and
Transport of Radioactive Material] transports - in sabotage against
the railway network of Deutsche Bahn AG and of being affiliated
with terrorist structures.
2. Other Militant Left-Wing Extremists
In addition to the militant autonomists, there is a second complex
of violence-inclined left-wing extremists which comprises groups
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