German investigators seized a treasure trove of al-Qaida documents — some encrypted inside pornographic videos — from an Austrian last year that indicate the terror group had plans to seize cruise ships and wreak havoc throughout Europe,
CNN reports.
The 22-year-old Austrian, Maqsood Lodin, was detained May 16, 2011, and searched by investigators in Berlin, who found he had digital storage devices and memory cards in his underpants.
Buried inside them was a pornographic video called "Kick Ass" — and a file marked "Sexy Tanja."
After decoding the devices, investigators discovered encoded inside the actual video more than 100 al-Qaida documents that included details of the group's biggest plots and future operations.
Among them: Seizing cruise ships and new attacks in Europe similar to the attacks in Mumbai where 10 gunmen killed 164 people in a three-day rampage.
U.S. intelligence sources told CNN that the documents are the most important since the trove discovered during the killing of Osama bin Laden last year.
In the attacks on cruise ships, the documents talk about holding passengers hostage to create public pressure, dressing passengers in orange jumpsuits, like those worn by Guantanamo prisoners and videotaping their executions.
The documents, according to CNN's report, indicate al-Qaida is under pressure as Western intelligence agencies become better at foiling attacks, and suggest the terror organization in the short-term would try to mount smaller, low-tech attacks in Europe and elsewhere while planning bigger, more deadly attacks in the long-term.
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