Suspect in Norway admits plot against Danish paper

An Iraqi Kurd living in Norway has admitted to planning a bomb attack against the Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammad five years ago, Norwegian authorities said on Tuesday.

Security police said Shawan Sadek Saeed Bujak, 37, confessed that he and two other suspects now in Norwegian custody had plotted to attack Jyllands-Posten, one of Denmark's largest newspapers, .

"He has explained his role in the case and confessed planning to commit terror," Siv Alsen, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Police Security Service, said. "The goal was Jyllands-Posten in Denmark."

Bujak is an Iraqi Kurd with permanent Norwegian residency. He and the other two suspects -- 39-year-old Norwegian citizen Mikael Davud and 31-year-old Norwegian resident David Jakobsen -- were arrested on July 8 and have been in custody since then.

The three have been charged with conspiring to commit terror in Norway, but Alsen said those charges could now be changed.

She said Davud, a Chinese Uighur by origin, and Jakobsen, an Uzbek, were being re-interrogated in light of Bujak''s remarks. She would not say whether Bujak has implicated them in any way.

"He has spoken about his role in the case in the way he felt he was contributing," she said.

Bujak's attorney Brynjar Meling told daily Aftenposten that his client denies being part of a terror cell and insists he had nothing to do with al-Qaeda.

Foreign intelligence sources have said that Davud, the presumed leader of the group, has had direct links with important figures in al-Qaeda, Aftenposten has reported.

Jyllands-Posten's chief editor, Joern Mikkelsen, told his newspaper that the confession in Norway was "shockingly new".

"Unfortunately it's one more example of a threat against us, but it's also one more example that we are well taken care of," he said. "We have great confidence in both PET and the police."

Denmark's security service, PET, issued a statement Tuesday saying that it was cooperating with the Norwegians.

"An act of terror, in the PET's view, was not imminent because the now jailed (suspects) were under close surveillance by the Norwegian security police up to the time of their detention," the service said.

"This is the second time within a short period that the public has learned that the newspaper Jyllands-Posten has probably been the target of a planned terror action. That naturally shows that among militant Islamists one priority is to carry out acts of terror directed against Denmark and symbols linked to the cartoon case."

The printing of the cartoons in 2005 set off a wave of violent protests across the Muslim world.