Bust in Terror Plot to Kill Danish Cartoonist

Danish police this morning arrested several people suspected of plotting to assassinate a cartoonist who had offended Muslims with a cartoon insulting the prophet Mohammed. The newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which published a set of controversial cartoons in 2005, said the attempt was against one of 12 illustrators, Kurt Westergaard, who drew the prophet wearing a bomb with a lit fuse as a turban.

Westergaard, now under police protection, said “the impact of the insane response to my cartoon will last for the rest of my life.” He said he has "turned fear into anger and indignation." The secret service “decided to intervene at a very early stage in order to interrupt the planning and the actual assassination," said an official. The caricatures prompted demonstrations around the world after other newspapers reprinted them in early 2006. (More Denmark stories.)