[MSN] Berlin police place protective blocks in front of Jewish Museum

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 Berlin police place protective blocks in front of Jewish Museum

Berlin - Berlin police placed concrete blocks around the approaches to the
city's Jewish Museum Tuesday in response to an increased threat of terrorist
attack emanating from Lebanon. A crane placed more than a dozen metre-high
blocks on the pavement in front of the building, designed by renowned US
architect Daniel Liebeskind and opened to the public in 2001.

Over the weekend it was reported that the German security authorities had
issued a warning on January 11 to the Jewish community of an increased
threat of terrorist attack.

Stefan Kramer, general secretary of the Central Council of German Jews, said
that increased precautions were being taken. The threat was to synagogues
and Jewish schools across the country, not just in Berlin, as initially
reported, Kramer said.

Kramer referred to information from Lebanon and a possible link to the
current trial in Dusseldorf of a Lebanese man, Youssef al-Hajj Dib, 23, on
charges of attempting to blow up German trains with suitcase bombs in July
2006.

The weekly Focus newsmagazine reported that four Arab men had been arrested
while acting suspiciously near Jewish insitutions in Berlin, although three
of them had subsequently been released, while the fourth was being held for
unrelated offences.

It also reported details of a possible bomb plot involving a stolen army
minibus and a quantity of explosives found by police.

There are estimated to be some 200,000 Jews in Germany, half of whom belong
to a synagogue or similar institution.