Germany Files Charges in Frankfurt Airport Attack

Murder charges have been filed against Arid Uka, a 21 year old Albanian who is accused of opening fire on US servicemembers traveling through the Frankfurt airport in Germany, shouting “Allahu Akbar” as he killed two American airmen and wounded two others.

The indictment indicates Uka was a Muslim “radicalized by jihadist propaganda:”

Authorities have said that Uka confessed shortly after his capture at the airport to wanting to kill American troops because of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

According to the indictment, Uka was radicalized over time by jihadist propaganda he saw on the Internet, and the night before the act had watched a video that purported to show American atrocities in Afghanistan; it was actually a clip from a film. The investigation turned up no connections with any terrorist organization.

Killed were Senior Airman Nicholas J. Alden and Airman 1st Class Zachary R. Cuddeback.

In an odd description of the case, the prosecutors seemed to lay the blame on the internet:

He was a single person acting alone radicalized through jihadi Internet propaganda,” prosecutors’ spokesman Marcus Koehler told The Associated Press. “That shows, in the opinion of the federal prosecutors office, how dangerous jihadist propaganda on the Internet is.”

Apparently guns don’t kill people, internet videos do.

Also, Uka’s lawyer seems to be resigned to a conviction:

Uka’s attorney, Jens Joerg Hoffmann, said his client gave detailed statements to authorities and does not dispute the facts of the indictment…

“There are ample hard facts, ample witnesses, ample everything — what’s there to dispute?” he told the AP in a telephone interview from Frankfurt