Schmidt Target of Terrorists, Newspaper Says
Terrorists of the leftist Red Army Faction have targeted former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt for assassination, a newspaper reported Friday.
The mass-circulation Bild newspaper said a Red Army Faction strategy paper, “until now kept strictly secret” by security officials, contained Schmidt’s name at the top of a list of assassination targets.
Also on the list were Economic Cooperation Minister Juergen Warnke and Juergen Moellemann, a senior aide to Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Bild said.
The Red Army Faction has claimed responsibility for the Oct. 10 murder of another top Genscher aide, Gerold von Braunmuehl.
Security Increased
Bild said security protection for Schmidt, Moellemann and Warnke had been increased sharply as a result of the Red Army Faction list.
It did not say how security officials obtained the list. Bild’s report will appear in today’s editions, but was telexed to news agencies on Friday.
Schmidt, a Social Democrat, served as chancellor from 1974 to 1982.
Federal prosecutor’s spokesman Alexander Prechtel told reporters on Friday that the list cited by Bild “is not known to me.”
“Warnke, however, has been named as a target many times” in Red Army Faction documents confiscated in federal police raids, Prechtel said in a telephone interview.
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