Something stirs up: al-Qaeda™ "shows" up in Germany

[Gawan]

Hi there,
I'm not sure if this topic should be in "Sott news discussion", or in "our Orwellian world" so feel free moderators to move it where it is more appropriate.

Well, something is going, in one week there showed up three-videos from al-Qaeda™ in Germany, also covered with an article on sott.net Propaganda and Fear Germany on high alert amid terror threats, then this weekend there is the "big" election for the new government the -Bundestag-.

German police arrest video terror suspect

German police say they have arrested a Turkish man suspected of posting an al-Qaeda video two days before the country goes to the polls.
The 25-year-old suspect is known to authorities as a supporter of islamist activists and is said to have been under police observation.

Police from Germany's southern city of Stuttgart say the man is not thought to have taken part in producing the internet video that threatens Germany ahead of the country's national elections on Sunday.

"In searching his apartment, investigators secured numerous items of evidence. The unemployed suspect, who lived alone, was apparently intensely active on notorious Internet platforms,” the police statement said.

Three videos have appeared on the internet in the past seven days showing German-Moroccan Bekkay Harrach warning of a, "rude awakening" for Germany if the country does not withdraw its 4,200 troops from Afghanistan.

[...]

The video was posted under the title, ”Oh Allah, I love you (II)”

The German government has played down a travel alert issued by the US State Department on Wednesday (Sept. 23) warning American citizens in Germany to be vigilant.

The Interior Ministry said no new direct threat had been made against Germany, adding Thursday's message was a continuation of a previous al Qaeda video which called on Muslims in Germany to take part in Jihad, or Holy war.

German officials have heightened security in public spaces and train stations as a precaution.

[...]

Of the five parties in Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, only the far-left "Linke" or Left Party is calling for an immediate troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

emphases mine

_http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4724542,00.html

Also the dead man from the cave is showing up:

'Bin Laden message' to Europe appears on Internet


The brief message in Arabic, which appeared Friday on radical Islamic Web sites, has subtitles in English and German.

Bin Laden issued his last message on September 13, two days after the eighth anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks in the United States.

The authenticity of the message could not immediately be established.

Al Qaeda has recently released threatening videos aimed at Germany, where voters are scheduled to go to the polls Sunday. The militant group has warned Germans not to choose leaders who support the war in Afghanistan.

"It won't be long until the dust of war clears in Afghanistan, at which point you won't find a trace of any American," he adds.

"You are aware that oppression topples those who commit it and injustice has unhealthy consequences for the unjust, and that one of the greatest forms of injustice is to kill people without right, yet this is exactly what your governments and soldiers are committing under the umbrella of the NATO alliance in Afghanistan," bin Laden warns.

He rails against the United States for attacks that he says are aimed at the Taliban and al Qaeda but that kill and wound civilians.

"An intelligent man doesn't waste his money and sons for a gang of criminals in Washington, and it is a shameful thing for a person to be in a coalition whose supreme commander has no regard for human life and intentionally bombs villagers from the air, and I am witness to that," he says.

[...]

"It fits into the massive propaganda flood that we have been seeing ahead of the elections," Paris said, and added, "We will not be forced into a state of panic by this message. We will continue to do our work meticulously and clear-headed."

Paris said there is no evidence of specific terror plots in Germany. He believes the video was clearly targeting Germany, because it has German subtitles and was released just a day and a half before the German elections.

[...]

emphasis mine

_http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/09/25/binladen.message/index.html#cnnSTCText


To me it looks that this incident is also connected somehow:

It's high time the German government mapped out a clear plan for withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan, write German media commentators. Shocked by last Friday's deadly air strike, voters in Germany want a new strategy that will lead to a pullout.

Last week's Afghan air strike has revived a debate in Germany about the deeply unpopular mission in Afghanistan -- a majority of Germans oppose it, polls regularly show -- at an uncomfortable time for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats they share power with. Less than three weeks before the Sept. 27 election, neither party can credibly promise a swift withdrawal of troops or even set a deadline. Merkel reaffirmed on Tuesday that Berlin is committed to protecting democracy and reconstruction in Afghanistan, and is bound by international alliances and will not pull its troops out unilaterally.

[...]

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung has come in for intense criticism from opposition politicians and media commentators for ruling out too soon that there were civilian casualties in Friday's air strike. He has had to backtrack since the weekend.

[emphasis sott.net]Commentators want the government to stop pretending that Germany's 4,200 troops in Afghanistan are focused on civil reconstruction, and to admit that they're in a war zone. Above all, they want the German government to come up with a clear, concrete plan that will eventually allow German forces to withdraw.

Center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"An election campaign must give account and provide an outlook regarding the most fundamental political issues of the day, and that includes the German army's mission in Afghanistan. Until now the German government has dodged this. But now the 500 pound bombs the Americans launched at Germany's request have bombed Afghanistan into the German election campaign."

[...]

"Germany muddled its way into a war and thought it could muddle its way through and back out -- without clarity or truth, without a tangible view of the mission and its purpose, without a fundamental debate in parliament and in the public. Without clearly stating the fact, Germany has become a warring party under US command."

"The German voters now expect as much clarity as possible. Everyone knows the soldiers can't stay for ever. Just stating that doesn't amount to a policy, it's fundamental self-evident. This isn't about whether the troops will be withdrawn, it's about how and when."

[...]

If not otherwise noted, emphases mine

So, citizens from Germany demand logically clarity about the issue in Afghanistan, after the attack where Germany has been involved and were innocent people got killed.

Since a few days, also this is covering the news:

Number of traumatized German soldiers soars

A growing number of German soldiers returning from missions abroad require psychological treatment. Unsurprisingly, most cases were registered among soldiers in Afghanistan, according to media reports.
Cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have been soaring among German soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, according to media reports.

The German daily newspaper Rhein-Zeitung reported on Thursday that the number of soldiers diagnosed for the first time with the mental disorder rose by 35 percent to 163 cases in the first half of 2009. Last year German authorities registered a total of 245 cases, with 226 of these originating in Afghanistan.

At the same time the German army, the Bundeswehr, does not have enough psychiatrists to treat the afflicted soldiers, according to the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The paper reported on Thursday that there was only one psychiatrist for the 4,500 German soldiers stationed in Afghanistan.

[...]

emphases mine

_http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4719392,00.html

Many strange things happened in just one month and it leaves an unpleasant gut feeling within myself, as if someone is looking for bringing people (citizens from Germany) over a tipping point, to raise fear and prepare them for war and that it is legitimate to have troops in Afghanistan "to hunt down terrorists" and that security issues are all right, to "save us".
If you like, have a look in here too, what else happened this month:

Two sad incidents in one week, coincidence?

 

[Rich]

This article looks like further attempts to condition Germans into believing there is also a threat of white Jihadists:

Pakistan discovers 'village' of white German al-Qaeda insurgents

Investigators have discovered a "Jihadi village" of white German al-Qaeda insurgents, including Muslim converts, in Pakistan's tribal areas close to the Afghan border.

The village, in Taliban-controlled Waziristan, is run by the notorious al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which plots raids on Nato forces in Afghanistan.

A recruitment video presents life in the village as a desirable lifestyle choice with schools, hospitals, pharmacies and day care centres, all at a safe distance from the front.

In the video, the presenter, "Abu Adam", the public face of the group in Germany, points his finger and asks: "Doesn't it appeal to you? We warmly invite you to join us!"

According to German foreign ministry officials a growing number of German families, many of North African descent, have taken up the offer and travelled to Waziristan where supporters say converts make up some of the insurgents' most dedicated fighters.

The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which has a foothold in several German cities, has capitalised on growing concern over the rising profile of German forces in Afghanistan. Their role has become increasingly controversial in Germany in recent weeks after dozens of civilians were killed in an air strike ordered by German officers.

Last night a foreign ministry spokesman told The Daily Telegraph they were now negotiating with Pakistani authorities for the release of six Germans, including "Adrian M", a white Muslim convert, his Eritrean wife and their four year old daughter, who were arrested as they were making their way to the "German village". They are particularly concerned about the welfare of the child.

They are being held in custody in Peshawar after their arrest in May shortly when they crossed the border from Iran. They are understood to have left Germany in March this year.

The spokesman said negotiations were "under way" with Pakistani authorities "concerning a group of German citizens" and that it had been aware that the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan had been recruiting in Germany "since the beginning of the year".

Their recruitment drive has been led by "Abu Adam", a 24-year-old German believed to be of Turkish or North African descent who was raised with his, and fellow Jihadi, Abu Ibrahim, in the smart Bonn suburb of Kessenich.

Adam, whose real name is Mounir Chouka, received weapons training from the German army as part of his national service, and later spent three years training at the Federal Office of Statistics where colleagues described him as a "nice boy".

He left in 2007, telling colleagues he was joining a trading firm in Saudi Arabia, but is believed to have joined a terrorist training camp in Yemen.

In another recruitment video released earlier this year he urged supporters to: "Die the death of honour."

Khalid Khawaja, a former Pakistan intelligence officer, who describes himself as a friend of Osama bin Laden, said he was aware of a German contingent and that there were a number of Swedish converts too who had arrived in Pakistan "for Jihad".

"The Europeans are there [in Waziristan]. The most dedicated people there are from Europe. They will do anything for Islam. They are not there because their father's are Muslim, but by choice," he said.