From Michael Slackman and Eric Schmitt, the New York Times:  Germany dispatched heavily armed police officers and bomb-sniffing dogs to train stations, airports and key landmarks on Wednesday as a new picture emerged of the terrorist threat that had already raised security levels in Britain and France.

In a hastily called news conference in Berlin, the country’s interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, said the government had “concrete indications of a series of attacks planned for the end of November,” and German, Pakistani and American officials offered similar accounts of intelligence that pointed to imminent attacks by terrorists trained in Pakistan or Afghanistan. …

In Washington, an American counterterrorism official detailed the intelligence behind a warning issued in October to Americans traveling in Europe. He said that about 25 fighters affiliated with Al Qaeda, organized into cells of three to five members, had been planning commando attacks in Britain, France and Germany. Since then, the official said, about 10 of the fighters have been killed or captured, most of them by drone strikes in Pakistan. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because his comments involved security matters. …

A high-ranking German intelligence official said reports had been streaming in for months that teams might be heading to Germany for a Mumbai-style attack or other terrorism strikes.

“The situation has developed over the past weeks and months,” the official said, also speaking anonymously. “There were new messages almost every day. The number of messages increased and concentrated on Germany.”

But, he said, the warnings included none of the specifics of the Saudi tip that allowed the authorities in Britain and Dubai to intercept powerful bombs hidden in air cargo shipped from Yemen late last month. …

Mr. de Maizière did not specify the exact nature of the new information, saying only that it had emerged after the interception of the Yemen bombs, one of which had passed through a German airport. …

Those concerns — underscored in Germany by the discovery of a package bomb from Greece that was found in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mail — are particularly troubling at a time of year when holiday purchases and gifts are flooding shipping agencies.  (photo: Getty)

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