Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider killed in car crash

[Ocean]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/austria/3179136/Austrian-far-right-leader-Joerg-Haider-killed-in-car-crash.html

Austrian far-right leader Joerg Haider killed in car crash


Austrian politicians have paid guarded tribute to one of their most controversial peers after the death of the charismatic far right leader Joerg Haider in a car crash.


By Colin Freeman and Bojan Pancevski in Vienna
Last Updated: 5:23PM BST 11 Oct 2008

The accident occurred near Klagenfurt, capital of the province of Carinthia, where 58-year-old Haider was governor around 2 am
Photo: REUTERS


Mr Haider, 58, who earned worldwide notoriety for making statements sympathetic to Hitler's Nazi regime, suffered fatal head and chest injuries when his car skidded off the road at high-speed near his home town of Klagenfurt.

The death of Mr Haider, who was governor of Carinthia province in southern Austria, comes less than a fortnight after a major resurgence in the far right's political support in the country, exploiting a wave of anti-immigrant and anti-European Union sentiment.

At parliamentary elections last month, his Alliance for the Future of Austria party polled 11 per cent of the vote, while the similarly-aligned Freedom Party, which Mr Haider founded but then split from, polled 18 per cent. The results meant nearly in three Austrians had voiced support for far-right movements, causing deep unease among the country's liberal politicians.

Yet while Mr Haider's abrasive brand of politics was reviled by Austria's mainstream establishment, he struck a connection with ordinary voters that they often failed to make, a fact duly acknowledged in the equivocal statements of condolence that many issued.

Austrian president Heinz Fischer, a member of the ruling social democrat coalition, called Mr Haider a "politician of great talent" who had "aroused enthusiasm but also strong criticism".

Meanwhile Green party leader Eva Glawischni, whose faction strongly opposed him, spoke of the "tragic death of one of the most outstanding and controversial Austrian political figures of recent decades".

Mr Haider's death has prompted concerns that his political support base will now pass to the current Freedom Party leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, who is seen as a much more hardline figure. Mr Haider was originally Mr Strache's political mentor, but the two fell out as Mr Haider splintered away to pursue more moderate policies in recent years.

"The far-Right camp can now reunite and Strache can claim Haider's legacy for himself without having to fight for dominance," said Hans Rauscher, a prominent Austrian political commentator. "It could trigger considerable changes in the constellation of power in the country."

The accident took place in the small hours of Saturday morning, as Mr Haider was driving alone in his official government car from a magazine launch party in town of Velden near Klagenfurt, where he had been guest of honour. Relatives said he was en route to his family property in the Carinthian town of Baerenthal to attend his mother's 90th birthday.

Police said he had just overtaken another vehicle when his VW Phaeton came off the road, hitting a concrete traffic barrier and rolling over several times.

Medics said the impact of the crash was so great that he suffered "extreme" injuries, with his left arm almost severed from his body.

The fractious, conspiratorial nature of the far right circles in which he moved means there has already been speculation that he might have been killed by political rivals or agents of the state. However, detectives said that initial inquiries suggested no sign of foul play. Tests are underway to establish whether he had been drinking at the time.

Born in Upper Austria, Mr Haider's father was a former member of Hitler's brown-shirted storm troopers, while his mother was a teacher who had been a Hitler Youth leader. Involved in politics since his teenage years, he caused an international outcry with a series of remarks where he appeared to imply an admiration for the Nazi era.

He once compared the employment policies of Austria's government with the "proper labour policies" of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, and on another occasion he referred to Nazi concentration camps as "penal camps" rather than death camps. Visits to see despots such as Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Colonel Gaddafi in Libya heightened his image as a pariah politician, and such was the opprobrium he earned among fellow European statesmen that when the Freedom Party entered into a coalition government with the conservative People's Party in 2000, it triggered temporary European Union sanctions against Austria.

The coalition deal then fell apart, leading to an early election in 2002 in which the Freedom Party lost heavily, followed by a remake of the coalition.

Mr Haider then formed the breakaway Alliance for the Future of Austria in 2005, courting greater public acceptance by pursuing more moderate policies. In a national election in 2006, the Alliance only just scraped past the 4 percent threshold to enter parliament. But while critics insisted that his folksy charm did little more than deliver a sugar-coated xenophia, his party resurgence in last month's elections put him back as a key player again. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Mr Strache, 39, said: "Even if our ways have parted a couple of years ago, Haider was one of the most significant persons in Austrian post-war politics. He has heavily influenced Austrian politics and achieved previously almost unimaginable changes within the power monopoly of the Social Democrats and the People's Party."

 

[nicklebleu]

Hi,

Just found the following article on "politonline.ch", a swiss political website.

This article is unfortunatley only available in German, so I have LOOSELY translated the text into english.

For original see _http://www.politonline.ch/index.cfm?content=news&newsid=1050.

Suspicions surrounding death of Haider

According to journalist Wolfgang Eggert, there seem to be a number of suspicions arising around the death of Joerg Haider in a motor vehicle accident a few days ago.

Eggert is journalist and historian who has published 8 books about the dirty work of secret services and fundamentalist groups.

Media reported, that Haider had lost control over his vehicle on a straight stretch of road, without any obstacle, such as pedestrian, bike rider or other vehicles. This is astonishing, more so considering the fact, that Haider apparently didn't attempt to stop his vehicle: no break or skid marks can be found at all.

See pictures of accident scene: _http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-36045.html

This scenario is quite unbelievable considering the fact, that Haider was driving a VW Phaeton. This vehicle is said to be one of the safest in the world, especially at high speeds. It contains all-wheel drive, ABS, ESP and ASR - all highly evolved and "intelligent" safety programs, which are capable to react very quickly to dangerous situations and are able to break single wheels to prevent the car from careening. In the case of Haider these electronic systems seem to have failed. It must seem strange to every VW technician, how the 2.5t heavy vehicle could roll over in such a way as to be almost totally demolished, just having hit a road sign and then having touched the pavement and a low bush. Just a few hours after the accident, a professional driver wrote on one of the forums: "I have done a few seminars, amongst others with VW. It had been tried multiple times to destabilize a car having driven onto the green shoulder of the road at 100 km/h, but without success. And the Phaeton is an 4Motion?" It is indeed, and the idea behind ESP and 4Motion is to prevent careening and loss of control of the vehicle. He continues: "Of course if the driver was incapacitated, this would be different; but if not .... that would be strange indeed". The post-morten obviously has already ruled out a cardiac infarct.

Also weird and incomprehensible seem the many and grave injuries Haider sustained in this high-safety vehicle, his body was literally torn apart. His left arm was torn from the body. This is in sharp contrast to the way his car was built - to withstand nearly every conceivable accident nearly unscathed. The VW Phaeton is said to be the toughest vehicle in the world, even more so the armored variant that Haider presumably was driving. In their advertisement VW claims that this vehicle achieved the highest torsion stability of any vehicle body in the world. On top of that the vehicle is equipped with 12 airbags, which protect the vital parts of the body - face, head and chest. It should effectively be nearly impossible to die of injury in such a car, if the driver has fasten his seat belt. Why the car has been mangled in such a way is now being investigated by VW, which has organized the wreck to be transferred to Wolfsburg. They will try to answer the question, whether death didn't come form an entirely different direction: from within, which might explain why his left arm was ripped away and the safety restrain system (SRS) was activated on the empty seat next to the driver by ripping away the left door as if it was made out of paper. Or from above?

In this respect the internet portal PI-news discussed the strange dent in the roof of Haiders vehicle. Someone wrote in a forum: "It is surprising to see such a deformity in one of the most secure vehicles, given the circumstances of where the accident happened". If you have a close look at the picture, you can see a circular dent, unfortunately just over the driver's seat. It looks like a foot-ball sized, almost circular hole, which must have been the result of a very high impact. Below this hole - and there only - the inner part of the roof was damaged and dented inwards, which certainly caused the lethal wounds in Haiders head and chest. The energy delivered was such that both massive doors and the pillars had been pushed outwards. The remainder of the vehicle interior shows very little damage, in line with expected damage of such a vehicle after a roll-over. Any other person in this car would probably have survived this accident relatively unscathed. The back of the car is virtually untouched, neither the rear window, nor the wheels and back axles show significant damage.

The hole in the roof is nearly circular, so cannot be caused by hydraulic equipment operated by the fire brigade. Also the fire brigade usually underlies their equipment with wooden blocks to prevent damage to the underlying metal structure. It is also unlikely to have been caused by a stone, as the hole is too regular. Also it is unreasonable to suspect the concrete pillar hit by Haiders car, because the vehicle rammed this pillar actually before rolling over. This all looks like the car had been hit by a brick (but made of different material). The fact, that no break marks could be found, is consistent with the supposition, that the dent in the roof was not caused by the accident, but rather may have been the cause of this tragedy. Some things come to mind: When the Red Army Fraction (leftist german terrorist group active in the 70s and 80s) killed Alfred Herrhausen in Bad Homburg 1989, the fatal effect didn't come from the explosive, but from a steel plate incorporated into the explosive device, which was accelerated up to 40'000 km/h .... this caused the vehicle to be lifted into the air many meters high and tore through the body despite the armor.

The terrorists had learned their skills in special courses led by the GDR secret service (German Democratic Republic = former East Germany). They also used a variety of other methods to get rid of their political opponents: One technique was called "blinding", the use of portable and high-powered lights which simulated a big truck and forced the driver to react in a typical manner to drive himself off the road. This was often done in wooded areas which increased the force of impact. These methods have been used by the MfS (ministry for state security) multiple times with success. Furthermore this process was facilitated by the use of gun shots into the tyres, the clandestine administration of drugs or gases, which sent the driver into sleep within a few minutes. The most prominent victim of these methods was the soccer star Lutz Eigendorf.

Nowadays such high-energy lights capable of delivering intense light beams within a few milliseconds even in broad daylight and are routinely being used in security circles to practically blind a person for a certain time. Such gadgets are also being used by the military, but this technology has found its way into criminal and politically extremist circles. Blueprints of such apparatus can even be found on the internet, together with precise explanations as to how to deploy, position and operate such technology. Some leftist websites advocate this technology as adequate and traceless means of disposing of political adversaries.

Secret services may also have been able to manipulate the electronics of Haiders vehicle. Modern vehicles with their complex electronics are easier to manipulate then "old-timers". It is theoretically feasible to exchange the controller chip by another one which is programmable. All sensor data is interfaced in this chip and may be altered in a way to actually misinterpret data and worsen machine interventions.

The thesis that Haider may have been murdered is widely discussed in Austria, despite the dampening stance that the mass media have taken. As a possible motive some coincidences have been mentioned: Haider was currently at the centre of a power struggle which had the potential to propel him to very high power - similar to the netherland populist Pim Fortuyn, who was murdered in 2002. Less than two weeks ago the two separated right-wing parties had made big wins in the election of federal representatives. And less than a week ago the two party heads Haider and Strache had held talks about a potential coalition. A coalition goverment between these two parties had the potential to drive Austria out of the EU. The potential of negative sentiment towards the EU or even a separation in political and fiscal terms would have been a disaster for the whole of the EU. As such the tracks of this vehicle accident may very well lead to Brussels.

As an aside: Accidents of dissident politicians hves not been all too rare in the past. In August 2005 the british foreign minister from 1997-2001 Robin Cook died on a easy hike in Scotland of "high blood pressure". On top of that he broke his neck as a result of collapsing. Cook had only 4 weeks prior to that declared, that Al Kaida was "the databank of the CIA" and said that this organisation had no influence outside the western secret services (Robin Cook: the struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means; The Guardian, 8th July 2005).