Germany
European police begin controversial hunt for thousands of ‘irregular’ migrants
By Sarah Joanne Taylor 13/10 16:57 CET
A Europe-wide police operation has been launched in an effort to detect, detain and potentially deport tens of thousands of so-called “irregular” migrants; people living clandestinely, without official documentation permitting them to stay.
Coordinated by Italy, the 14-day Operation Mos Maiorum will see some 20,000 police officers from 25 countries stake out railway stations, bus depots and motorways throughout the continent.
It is a controversial move. While Europeqn Union officials say the operation is integral to the combat of human smuggling rings, rights groups have denounced it as inhumane. Read the rest of this entry »
Iran Unveils New Missiles, Drones
Aug. 24, 2014 – 03:45AM | By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE |
A handout picture released by the official website of the Iranian President, shows president Hassan Rouhani, center, and Iran‘s Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan, second right, visiting Iran’s defense capabilities exhibition on Aug. 24 in Tehran. (AFP)
TEHRAN, IRAN — Iran on Sunday unveiled two new missiles and two new drones it said have been added to its arsenal, in a ceremony attended by President Hassan Rouhani.
The Ghadir (Mighty), with a range of 300 kilometers (185 miles), is a ground-to-sea and sea-to-sea missile, the official IRNA news agency said.
It is in the same family as the Ghader or Qader cruise missile, which has a range of 200 kilometers.
The other missile unveiled on Sunday, the Nasr-e Basir (Clear Victory), is equipped with a seeker homing head. Its range was not given. Read the rest of this entry »
Germany outlaws ‘Hezbollah fundraising group’
Berlin (AFP) – German authorities banned a group Tuesday accused of raising millions for the Lebanese militant organisation Hezbollah and staged raids across the country against its members.
The interior ministry said it had outlawed the “Waisenkinderprojekt Libanon” (Orphan Children Project Lebanon) with immediate effect.
“The name of the group masks its actual purpose,” ministry state secretary Emily Haber said in a statement.
She said the organisation, based in the western city of Essen, had raised 3.3 million euros ($4.6 million) in donations between 2007 and 2013 for the Lebanese Shahid Foundation, an “integral” part of Hezbollah. Read the rest of this entry »
UK lifts sanctions on Al Qaeda henchman
Ramzi bin al-Shibh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
September 10, 2013
The British have removed Mohammed Daki—who is the former roommate of a 9/11 planner, a convicted forgery expert, and a recruiter for the Iraq insurgency—from their list of sanctioned terrorists. Mr. Watchlist notes that the decision follows similar de-listings of Daki in August by the United Nations, Australia, and Canada.
As is usual in such cases, no explanation for the removal has been provided, but the move is clearly the result of yet another cryptic recommendation made by a UN ombudsman. Like instances covered by Money Jihad here, here, here, and here, the ombudsman makes confidential reports for removal with no opportunity for public hearings, public comment, or testimony from Al Qaeda’s victims or their families. The decisions are made in closed-door meetings between the ombudsman and undisclosed parties. There are no apparent disclosure requirements on who may be lobbying the ombudsman, such as wealthy Saudis and their lawyers.
German intelligence: al-Qaeda all over Syria
Jul 24, 2012
By John Rosenthal
German intelligence estimates that “around 90” terror attacks that “can be attributed to organizations that are close to al-Qaeda or jihadist groups” were carried out in Syria between the end of December and the beginning of July, as reported by the German daily Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). This was revealed
by the German government in a response to a parliamentary question.
In response to the same question, the German government admitted that it had received several reports from the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, on the May 25 massacre in the Syrian town of Houla. But it noted that the content of these reports was to remain classified “by reason of national interest”, Like many other Western governments, Germany expelled Syria’s ambassador in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, holding the Syrian government responsible for the violence.
Meanwhile, at least three major German newspapers – Die Welt, the FAZ, and the mass-market tabloid Bild – have published reports attributing responsibility for the massacre to anti-government rebel forces or treating this as the most probable scenario.
Writing in Bild, longtime German war correspondent Jurgen Todenhofer accused the rebels of “deliberately killing civilians and then presenting them as victims of the government”. He described this “massacre-marketing strategy” as being “among the most disgusting things that I have ever experienced in an armed conflict”. Todenhofer had recently been to Damascus, where he interviewed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for Germany’s ARD public television. Read the rest of this entry »
Germany reveals secret techie soldier unit, new cyberweapons
We have ways of making you pwned
By John Leyden • Get more from this author 8th June 2012 11:29 GMT
CyCon 2012 Germany has confirmed that its military maintains an operational cyberwarfare unit with offensive capabilities.
The admission, which appeared in parliamentary documents published on Tuesday, gave no details of the size of the unit much less any operations that it might have run. However documents delivered to the German federal defence committee did reveal that the unit has been operating for six years since 2006, a year before the cyber-attack on Estonia and four years before the discovery of the infamous Stuxnet worm.
http://ds.serving-sys.com/BurstingRes/Site-27237/Type-2/e53ce8c1-9790-4f5e-b89e-03b2539b45a7.swf“The initial capacity to operate in hostile networks has been achieved,” the papers explain, adding that the Computer Network Operations Unit had carried out “simulations” of attacks in a “closed laboratory environment”, German press agency DPA reports.
The unit reports to the joint forces strategic intelligence command. Legislators reportedly expressed surprise at the existence of the unit and questioned whether military commanders had the legal authority to launch attacks on foreign networks.
Prof Dr Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg, a professor of law at European University Viadrina Frankfurt in Germany, told El Reg that the armed forces of many nations are probably building up an offensive cyber capability. The only difference is that Germany and (also recently) the Obama administration is the US are publicly talking about it.
“The German MoD see a potential in having an offensive cyber-op capability as well as an ability to defend critical infrastructures”, most notably military systems, Dr Heintschel von Heinegg explained. Read the rest of this entry »
The Germans Are Shocked, Shocked. . .
English: i.n.s. dolfin עברית: אח”י דולפין (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
June 8, 2012:
German media are running stories revealing proof that German built Israeli submarines were equipped, in Germany, with a special hydraulic ejection (from torpedo tubes) systems for launching missiles with nuclear warheads. This is actually misleading, as well as being old news. The German built Dolphin class subs have long had the ability to launch Harpoon anti-ship missiles and longer range cruise missiles from the torpedo tubes. It makes no difference is the warhead has high-explosives or a nuclear bomb in it.
For over a decade Israel and Germany have played down this capability. For example, a decade ago Israel denied that it had submarines capable of firing cruise missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. But the U.S. navy had reported spotting such missiles being tested by an Israeli sub in the Indian Ocean two years earlier.
Twelve years ago it was widely reported that Israeli’s Dolphin class subs were being equipped with nuclear weapons. The 135 kilometer range Harpoon missiles were being modified to carry a nuclear warhead and Israel was developing a submarine launched 350 kilometer range cruise missile. Both of these weapons were launched from the subs torpedo tubes. Since then Israel has developed a new cruise missile, with a range of 1,500 kilometers and carrying a 200 kiloton nuclear warhead. These nuclear equipped subs were to provide an extra degree of security as all other Israeli nuclear weapons were in land bases and, in theory, could be wiped out by a surprise missile attack. A nuclear missile equipped submarine at sea would be a much more difficult to find target.
Germany – Cops ‘quizzed neo-Nazi terror cell woman’ in 2007
Published: 29 Jan 12 12:38 CET
Police questioned a member of a neo-Nazi terror cell just months before the gang killed a policewoman – but asked her about water damage to a flat, having no idea she was connected to a string of shootings, it emerged on Sunday.
In what will be an embarrassing revelation for the authorities, Der Spiegel magazine reported that officers questioned Beate Zschäpe in 2007, but did not realise that her inconsistency could have been connected to anything sinister.
She is considered a crucial member of the self-styled National Socialist Underground (NSU) which claimed responsibility for killing nine small business owners and workers between 2000 and 2006. Eight of the victims were of Turkish origin and one was Greek.
The gang are thought to have shot a policewoman to death and stolen her weapon in 2007, three months after Zschäpe was questioned.
German Taliban Part Of Al-Qaida´s Euro-Plot | Jih@d
by Florian Flade
Yusuf O. from Berlin in terror propaganda tape (September 2009)
Two European Islamists have been charged in Berlin with being members of Al-Qaida. Yusuf O. of Berlin and Maqsood L. from Vienna have been trained in the terror camps of Waziristan and are allegedly part of an Al-Qaida plot to carry out attacks in Europe.
Berlin Islamist Yusuf O. traveled to Pakistan in May 2009 alongside his friend Fatih T. and joined the “Taifatul Mansourah” Group in Waziristan tribal area. Later the German Jihadi militants together with several other German Islamists who arrived in Pakistan in September 2009 founded a new group named “German Taliban Mujahidin” (DTM).
In a propaganda tape released just prior to the September 2009 German Parliamentary Elections the DTM threatened attacks in Germany. Spokesman in that video was 26 year-old Yusuf O. aka “Abu Ayyub al-Almani”.
According to the complaint filed by German prosecutors in November Yusuf O. left the DTM somewhere around May 2010 and joined Al-Qaida. During the training program he received, Yusuf O. met Maqsood L., a 22 year-old Austrian national of Afghan descent. The two befriended and were than choosen by Al-Qaida´s Chief of External Operational, Sheikh Younis al-Mauretani who was arrested in Pakistan back in September.
The Al-Qaida commander tasked Yusuf O. and Maqsood L. to return to Europe and recruit Islamists for terrorist attacks in European cities. Documents discovered by German counter-terrorism officials lead to the conclusion Al-Qaida wanted the German Islamists to carry out kidnappings and killings. Al-Mauretani´s plot involved assault attacks in which hostages would be killed in long standoff with police – the “Mumbai Style” of terrorist attacks.
In May 2011 Maqsood L. and Yusuf O. traveled to Budapest (Hungary) via Iran and Turkey. Yusuf O. made his journey to Austrian capital Vienna and arrived in the city carrying a audio tape recorded by Maqsood L.. He played the tape to Maqsood´s old friends, urging them to support the Jihad and join the terror network.
After Yusuf O. returned to Budapest he sent Maqsood L. to Berlin. Apparently Yusuf O. thought sending a foreigner instead of traveling himself would not alert the authorities. Yusuf O. was wrong. Maqsood´s task was recruit about a dozen of Yusuf´s friends from several radical mosques in the German capital. The Austrian Jihadi was able to rally supporters amongst Berlin´s Islamist community and collect about 1.000 EUROs in donations, before he was arrested on May 16. Read the rest of this entry »
Low Levels of Radiation detected throughout Europe
The International Atomic Energy Agency is reporting that “very low levels of iodine-131 have been measured in the atmosphere,” in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe.
The agency is not saying where the Iodine-131 is coming from or what other countries are being effected, but they are saying it’s not the result of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. The IAEA said the current levels of iodine-131 are not high enough to justify a public health scare but they’re not saying much more than that.
Despite little information coming from the IAEA, some officials are reporting that the release appears to be continuing and that tests were under way to identify the source of radiation.
In Prague, an official at the Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety said he was “100 percent sure” that the radiation was not from any Czech nuclear power plant or from any other source on Czech territory. Authorities in Austria and Germany have also reported an increase in radioactive particles and Austrian officials believe the particles are coming from the south east. Read the rest of this entry »
The Roman Gate 