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## Re: [CT] DISCUSSION GERMANY/CT-The Story Behind Germany's Terror Threat

Released on 2012-08-12 00:00 GMT

Email-ID | 1948010
Date | 2010-11-22 20:13:51
From | ben.west@stratfor.com
To | ct@stratfor.com
List-Name | ct@stratfor.com

Interesting parts I think are facts that balkan criminals were implicated
in smuggilng weapons and that Dawood Ibrahim was also implicated. Lots of
shady stuff comes out of the Balkans, so getting weapons to Germany from
there would be no easy task.
Also, I'm not sure what role Dawood would play in this scenario. Remember
Indian officials blamed him for working with naxalites a few months back
but didn't offer much evidence. He's an all around south asian bogeyman -
any reference to him sends a clear message that somebody is up to no good.
On 11/22/2010 1:01 PM, Jaclyn Blumenfeld wrote:
Here are some of the thoughts and inconsistencies I found - I had
summarized the der spiegel to pick out the bits I found important and
added some info from other OS articles in blue.
-Call from abroad (likely Pakistan) from "Nova" a terrorist wanting to
surrender and return to his family in Germany
-now working with German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and was
reason behind threat increase on Wednesday, so far three calls have
taken place between "Nova" and BKA
-warned of small group attacking Reichstag on Monday and security has
since been increased, authorities are secretly monitoring
communications, conducting surveillance operations and launching
undercover investigations.
According to "NOVA":
-AQ and associate groups (Pakistan's Islamic Jihad Group) planning
together in Pakistan for attack(s) in Germany.
-One idea was to remotely detonate a bomb using a mobile phone. Another
called for a small group of terrorists to storm the Reichstag with guns
blazing, take hostages and end everything in one calamitous bloodbath.
-Plan called for the terrorists to procure the submachine guns,
automatic rifles, explosives and whatever else they would need in the
Balkans.
-He said that two men had already traveled to Germany six to eight weeks
earlier, adding that one had the nom de guerre of "Abu Mohammed" and
that the other one was a German of Turkish origin
-Both apparently had roots in the Greater Berlin metropolitan area, were
currently unemployed and living off of welfare payments and had immersed
themselves in the anonymity provided by a major city -- until the time
should come for their activation.
-Four others involved were waiting to travel to Germany at training
camps in Pakistan - including a German, a Turk, a North African and
another jihadist of unknown identity
-Attack slated for February or March (if German intel had this knowledge
why would they close the Reichstag today? are they sending a statement
to AQ and affiliate group that they are aware and ahead of the
planning?)
According to FBI (which was recieved shortly before the call from "Nova"
(there are some inconsistencies between the intelligence)
- FBI included warnings about the obscure Indian group "Saif" which
although Shiite had allegedly made pact with AQ and sent five men to
Pakistan for training - what the connection to the Germany plot not
specified - the 6 members described in the Reichstag plot were described
by caller as various nationalities - none Indian)
-FBI also shared that two members with visas allowing them to travel
freely in EU schengen zone were already enroute to Germany and would
enter via UAE on Nov 22 (compared to caller saying that two had already
entered two weeks prior - time gap - so maybe there are four now in
Germany unless FBI intel was outdated and the men came earlier - or
caller was not accurate?)
-FBI warnings claim the two in Germany were dispatched by Dawood Ibrahim
Kaskar, an Indian organised crime baron linked to al-Qaeda based out of
Karachi (this seems out of place - two mentions by the FBI of an Indian
connection)
-One of the men is supposedly named "Khan" (versus caller's info he was
named Abu Muhammed and the second guy was of Turkish descent - Khan is
not Turkish, Khan and Abu Muhammed could be the same guy though)
Ben West wrote:
Europeans have still found a way to blame Americans for warnings in
the past.
And yes, something very well could be in the works, but given the fact
that jihadists constantly want to attack the west, is it really at all
significant that something is in the works?
I think we'd seen past plots with travel plans... I'd have to look
harder to get specifics, but I don't think that's all that novel.
Agree that the security officials are in a catch-22 situation.
On 11/22/2010 11:43 AM, Sean Noonan wrote:
There is a notable difference here. And that is the German warning
issued last week. It was based on their own intelligence not
American intelligence--so no blaming americans this time. Yes, it's
true that they don't have the capability to attack the Reichstag,
and theat the attack is not imminent, as I pointed out. But on the
other hand, like with cargo parcels, it doesn't mean that something
is not in the works. Have we ever seen information this specific
before on the individuals and their travel plans?
This is the conundrum of warning intelligence, when the warning is
given (just to policymakers, or to the public), measures are taken
that prevent it. It then comes the boy-who-cried-wolf, even if the
warning was originally accurate.
Not to mention, given what happened with the last double agent to
become public (Khost), it will be interesting to follow this one.
On 11/22/10 11:33 AM, Ben West wrote:
I agree that the spiegel article was good - but this is the kind
of thing we've seen over and over again in Europe. Source from
durkastan says that aq is going to target Europe and kill lots of
people and that attackers are en route. Everyone gets freaked out.
Nothing significant happens. Europe blames US of scare mongering.
Certainly islamists have europe in their cross-hairs, but if an
attack is going to happen, it's not going be preceded by this kind
of publicity.
Also, attacking the reichstag? I mean, it's possible to ATTACK it,
but they've got a pretty heavy security presence there that would
prevent a hostage situation. I was there a few years ago. The
public entryway is confined to one doorway with a heavy guard
presence, metal detectors, x-ray machines, etc. If anything, an
attack could kill lots of tourists lined up outside, but it would
take a very serious force to be able to gain entrance to the
reichstag and an even more well trained force to actually hold
hostages. This sounds like a pipe-dream to me.
On 11/22/2010 11:04 AM, Sean Noonan wrote:
thoughts?
On 11/22/10 11:00 AM, Marko Papic wrote:
It is up to you and CT how you approach this. On the
short-term, this looks like something you can handle without
me. If you want to dabble in the more long-term view of what
is going on here, I would love to help.
On 11/22/10 10:58 AM, Marko Papic wrote:
In the more long-term, I think an analysis of the German
intelligence agencies would be good too. They have been
pretty decimated by the Cold War and by all the problems
associated with running an intelligence agency in a
post-Gestapo country. If Germany is ever going to become a
world power again, however, they would need to overcome
these deamons as well. That is sort of the last straw for
Germany, the one that is going to be most sensitive to
overcome. But perhaps this case may illustrate how they are
already overcoming these issues.
On 11/22/10 10:50 AM, Sean Noonan wrote:
Main problem is that Der Spiegel is just that good,
they've at least touched on most of what I would want to
say about it. The main thing here is how the politics of
a terror threat/alert coincide with the reality of the
threat itself.
We saw that Germany was fairly relaxed bout the earlier
threat in Europe released by the US. I'm not sure if that
was the same as the info that the FBI passed over about
this shia group, Saif (I don't know anything about them).
But something changed, as we noted last week in their
interpretation. That seems to go down to this virtual
walk-in. The one thing I was left confused about is
whether BKA had ever been in contact with this source
before. It sounds like he cold called them. It's common
knowledge that walk-ins, rather than recruits, are nearly
always the best sources. But at the same time, they are
very suspicious as double agents. If this was a US source
they would be freaking the fuck out after having Al-Balawi
turn on them. The germans seem to have cooler heads, but
they will be working 24/7 to verify the source (let me
make another plug for John Lecarre's A Most Wanted Man
here, most of his career was in Germany).
They've clearly got enough corroborating information that
they consider this a real threat. But politically they
are faced with the universal 'damned if you do, damned if
you don't' alert problem. If the Interior ministry
doesn't say something, they will be liable if an attack
occurs. Look at the constant press over information on
the warning intelligence for Mumbai. As we've said
before, simply issuing the warning may help to deter the
attackers.
The real important bit here, is that it seems the germans
have fairly good intelligence. While this attack is still
not happening tomorrow, they have a lot of details about
what might be in the works, rather than a single-source
intercept that indicates some vague threat. It seems
they've increased security pretty well at the Bundestag,
and want to add to the presence at any possible target.
This is where we seem them scrambling, and where their
intelligence holes are.
The task now for the germans is to verify this source.
Maybe even pick him up and put him on ice somewhere
(Fred/Stick?), not in GErmany but in
Pakistan/Afghanistan. That will require some cooperation
with either/both the Americans and Pakistanis. They also
need to verify all the bio information they have on these
4-6 guys trying to get into germany and watch travelers
very carefully. The germans seem to be very good at
surveilling these threats within Germany, so their best
luck may come when one of the guys overseas contacts a
local already under surveillance.
At minimum, this could be a pretty interesting tearline
this week. Both the walk-in issues and the CIA/FBI
liaison conflicts that I havne't gotten into here.
On 11/22/10 10:34 AM, Marko Papic wrote:
Any thoughts on where you guys are thinking of going
with this?
Der Spiegel article is indeed interesting.
On 11/22/10 9:28 AM, Sean Noonan wrote:
Great report from Der Spiegel (thanks Mikey). I
suggest anyone interested to read the whole thing.
They ask the right questions, and while not as much
detail as I hoped, give us a much better understanding
on the threat in Germany.
The BKA (germany's FBI) must be extremely busy
verifying the details of this virtual walk-in. It
obviously caused the germans to shit their pants. But
the real questions are buried in the article---how
real was this plot, how real is the source, is the
source just trying to get back to the land of brezeln
and bier? Trying to double-cross them somehow?
Also note the tip off from the FBI (cue fred), not the
usual CIA liaison with BND.
For Eurasia, there's a lot in here on the internal
politics of the interior minister position, and the
relation between state and federal government.
On 11/22/10 8:55 AM, Michael Wilson wrote:
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [OS] GERMANY/CT-The Story Behind Germany's
Terror Threat
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:38:21 -0600
From: Graham Smith <graham.smith@stratfor.com>
Reply-To: The OS List <os@stratfor.com>
To: os@stratfor.com
11/22/2010 11:38 AM
Fears of a Mumbai Redux
The Story Behind Germany's Terror Threat
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,730377,00.html
By Matthias Bartsch, Yassin Musharbash and Holger
Stark
Germany is currently in a state of high alert.
Security officials are warning that they have
concrete information pointing to a possible terror
attack on the federal parliament building in Berlin,
a massively popular tourist attraction. The days of
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere's reserved
stances in dealing with such warnings appear to be
over.
The call came from abroad, and the man speaking
hurriedly on the other end of the line sounded as if
he feared for his life. He wanted out, he told the
officers of the German Federal Criminal Police
Office (BKA) -- out of the terrorist scene. He
wanted to come back to Germany, back to his family.
Then he asked if German officials could help him.
Right now, they're trying to do just that. The BKA
is pursuing the case under the codename "Nova." The
apparently remorseful man could be an important
possible whistleblower from a dangerous region of
the globe. In fact, he is also the most recent
reason why German Interior Minister Thomas de
Maiziere put the entire country in a state of fright
on Wednesday.
During a hastily called press conference that day,
de Maiziere stated that Germany faced the threat of
terrorist attacks that might be launched against the
country at some point in November. As he put it,
Germany is "presently dealing with a new situation."
Just two days earlier, the source had called for the
third time in just a short period and provided more
information. He told officials that a small group of
terrorists wanted to conduct a raid on the Reichstag
building in Berlin, which houses the federal
parliament, and that that was only one of the
targets included in their attack plans.
Germany on High Alert
Since then, Germany has been in a state of high
alert. The Reichstag is surrounded with barricades
and its popular cupola tourist attraction
temporarily closed to visitors. Police armed with
submachine guns are patrolling major railway
stations and airports. And vacations have been
called off for officials at the country's security
agencies. Wherever they have cause for doing so, the
authorities are secretly monitoring communications,
conducting surveillance operations and launching
undercover investigations. At the moment,
investigators seem to be at a loss; their modus
operandi: "We'll prod the shrubs and see if we can
flush out any birds."
"There is cause for worry, but no cause for
hysteria," de Maiziere assured his listeners. But
while he has never been much of an agitator, his
colleagues at the state level have described the
situation in much more drastic terms. Uwe
Schu:nemann, for example, who has been the interior
minister of the northwestern state of Lower Saxony
since 2003, stated that he had "never experienced a
heightened security situation like this one." And
Berlin Senator for the Interior Ehrhart Ko:rting,
whose position is tantamount to that of a government
minister in the city-state, has already even gone so
far as to call on the inhabitants of the German
capital city to report suspicious-looking
individuals of Arab origin to the police. "If you
suddenly see three somewhat strange-looking men who
are new to your neighborhood, who hide their faces
and who only speak Arabic," Ko:rting said, "you
should report them to the authorities."
Under heightened pressure, officials in Germany's 16
federal states are now checking to see when and
where major events are scheduled to take place this
coming week within their boundaries. And nothing
suggested as a possible target is being discounted,
no matter how unlikely. For example, officials in
Rhineland-Palatinate warned the state's interior
minister, Karl Peter Burch, that there was always a
lot going on at IKEA stores on Saturdays.[WTF]
Serenity, Scaremongering and Strategy
Since last week, German politicians at both the
state and federal levels have once again had to
figure out how they will handle themselves when
making warnings about terrorist attacks. They have
had to come up with a language that can
simultaneously convey both an alert and a sense of
calm.
This is no easy task. For one thing, this isn't the
first time this has happened. In September 2009, for
example, right before federal elections were held,
there were concrete threats that resulted in a
heightened security situation. But, in the end,
nothing happened. This time around, people are
wondering whether they are on the precipice of an
emergency or whether these are once again empty
threats.
Still, one thing is certain: For the time being,
Germany has become a different country -- more
nervous, more anxious, more agitated. And Germany's
domestic security policies are being put to the
test.
When Interior Minister de Maiziere assumed his
office in October 2009 in conservative Chancellor
Angela Merkel's government, he aimed to cool down
the heated sense of alarm regularly fanned out by
his predecessors. What's more, the man who had
served as Merkel's chief of staff in Chancellery
until being moved to the role of interior minister
in her new government, was given the task of
nurturing a more relaxed relationship between her
party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and its
new coalition partner, the business-friendly Free
Democratic Party (FDP). In particular, it was his
job to not draw out the long-standing conflict over
domestic security policies with the Justice
Ministry, which has been led since the 2009 election
by Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a member of
the FDP. Indeed, Merkel feared that the quarrelsome
FDP might try to capitalize on the issue to win over
more voters, so she assigned de Maiziere to prevent
that from happening.
In fact, the plan was to repeat the same strategy
that the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the
Christian Social Union (CSU), had used when they
were in the so-called "grand coalition" with the
center-left Social Democratic Party, between 2005
and 2009. At the time, they made a point of
undermining the SPD by championing what had
traditionally been the latter party's issues.
A Game-Changer
But now the game plan has changed. This November
will drastically alter de Maiziere's understanding
of his role in office. If he tries to return things
to their previous state of calm, he's going to have
a very tough time. In fact, it's much more likely
that he will be a completely different interior
minister.
For a while now, de Maiziere's softer stance has
prompted opposition by politicians on the right
involved with domestic security issues. But they are
now calling louder than ever for a tougher course to
be followed. Merkel is also adjusting to the new
situation and is reportedly happy with the way de
Maiziere handled himself last week. Likewise, no one
seems to have voiced any criticism last Thursday
evening during a meeting of the Coalition Committee,
a regular gathering of the parties that are part of
the government.
The almost complete lack of protest has a lot to do
with where the alarming information is coming from.
In fact, information regarding the supposedly
imminent attacks has come from two independent
sources. Shortly before receiving the telephone call
about the planned attacks, BKA officials had
received a cable from their American counterparts at
the FBI, America's federal police force, warning of
possible attacks.
Still, what truth is there in these
"security-related" pieces of information coming from
both domestic and foreign sources? And, given all
the discrepancies in the warning messages, just how
much do they deserve to be trusted? Indeed, even
among security officials themselves, there is some
doubt about how legitimate these statements are --
and about just how acute the danger threatening
Germany really is.
An Attack Modelled after Mumbai[plot details in this
section]
What the caller reported was undeniably alarming.
According to him, al-Qaida and associated groups
based in Pakistan were making joint preparations for
an attack in Germany. One idea was to remotely
detonate a bomb using a mobile phone. Another called
for a small group of terrorists to storm the
Reichstag with guns blazing, take hostages and end
everything in one calamitous bloodbath. Indeed, BKA
officials learned that the latter plan had been
modeled on the storming of luxury hotels in Mumbai,
the Indian capital, almost exactly two years ago, in
a massacre that left 175 people dead.
According to the caller, the plan called for the
terrorists to procure the submachine guns, automatic
rifles, explosives and whatever else they would need
to storm Germany's parliament building in the
Balkans. He said that two men had already traveled
to Germany six to eight weeks earlier, adding that
one had the nom de guerre of "Abu Mohammed" and that
the other one was a German of Turkish origin. Both
apparently had roots in the Greater Berlin
metropolitan area, were currently unemployed and
living off of welfare payments and had immersed
themselves in the anonymity provided by a major city
-- until the time should come for their activation.
Likewise, there were allegedly four other volunteers
-- including a German, a Turk, a North African and
another jihadist of unknown identity -- in the
training camps run by al-Qaida and related groups
waiting for the signal to travel to Germany. And,
according to the telephone source, al-Qaida's plan
was to attack in February or March.
The only question now relates to just how credible
the caller's statements are. He is an insider who
joined up with armed groups several months ago and
has earned a reputation as a fanatic fighter.
But could it be that he is only trying to tell
German officials the juiciest things possible in
order to raise his own market value and thereby
prompt them to extract him from the terror scene? Or
could it be that al-Qaida is even planning a second
spectacular coup like the one in December 2009, when
the Americans allowed a supposedly top-level
turncoat onto an American military base without any
sort of pat-down, who went on to detonate his
explosive vest and blow seven CIA officials to bits?
A Strange Message
A clear picture has yet to emerge. And one reason
for this is also the fact that it was only two weeks
ago that the FBI first decided to share information
about another possible attack with German officials.
In this case, even the way contact was made was
unusual. Under normal circumstances, liaisons from
the CIA station in Germany are the ones to
communicate American warnings to their German
counterparts. But, this time around, it was an
apparently particularly anxious FBI that chose to
directly notify the BKA.
The FBI told the Germans about an obscure Indian
group called "Saif," or "sword." Despite being a
Shiite group, it had allegedly made a pact with
al-Qaida, a Sunni organization, and sent five of its
men to the Pakistani province of Waziristan for
training. According to the FBI, two volunteers --
who were already equipped with visas allowing them
to travel freely within the 25 European countries
belonging to the Schengen zone -- were supposedly
already en route to Germany and would enter the
United Arab Emirates on Monday, Nov. 22. There, they
would allegedly be provided with new travel
documents before traveling on to Germany. One of the
men is supposedly named "Khan," which is about as
common in that part of the world as "Smith" is in
English-speaking countries. And no firm conclusion
had been made about their nationalities.
The FBI agents even named the presumed masterminds
behind the operation. A certain Mushtaq Altaf
Bin-Khadri, who is in charge of finances and
training for "Saif," allegedly dispatched the
terrorist squad. But the FBI was not in a position
to comment on the targets of the two men in Germany.
One name came up time and again in the communique,
and one that pricked the Germans' ears: Dawood
Ibrahim. The 54-year-old arms trader is "India's
most-wanted man." The US government has listed him
as a "global terrorist" and persuaded the United
Nations to place his name on a list of supporters of
terror. Ibrahim is rumored to be the head of
D-Company, a criminal syndicate named after himself,
and is believed to be in charge of smuggling the
suspected terrorists into Germany.
Both the FBI and the BKA are attaching a lot of
importance to the information in the FBI communique.
But the intelligence services of the two countries
-- the CIA in the United States and the BND and
Office for the Protection of the Constitution in
Germany, the country's foreign and domestic
intelligence agencies, respectively -- point to
internal contradictions as reasons for their
skepticism. As they see it, for example, it is
highly unlikely that a Shiite group would team up
with Sunni terrorists, especially since a good part
of al-Qaida propaganda vilifies Shiites. Other
reasons for doubt include the facts that none of the
intelligence agencies was previously familiar with
an organization called "Saif," that there have been
no previously recorded threats against Germany by
Indian extremists, and that the whole scenario seems
rather implausible.
On the other hand, the FBI information is uncommonly
concrete. In addition to the names of the suspects,
it also provides information about the exact day on
which they are supposed to arrive in the United Arab
Emirates. Moreover, Ibrahim is believed to be one of
the men behind the terror attacks in Mumbai. If he
really is involved, that alone would be reason
enough for worry.
Abnormal Circumstances
Under normal circumstances, a message of this kind
from the United States would no doubt be cause for
serious-minded scrutiny, but it would not be a cause
for alarm. For example, the BKA would go through all
recent visa applications, and federal police
officers would take a closer look at all the people
entering Germany from Arab states. And the
intelligence services would make the rounds to see
if any of its partners had any helpful information
on the matter.
Indeed, under normal circumstances, there are always
a lot of these communiques, most of which turn out
to be false alarms. But these are no normal
circumstances. Germany is in a state of emergency.
Other countries, such as the United States, employ a
system of official warning levels based on color
codes that change -- from yellow to orange, for
example -- when the danger level is thought to
increase. But, in Germany, the interior minister is
the barometer: He consults with experts -- and then
it is he who must call the shots.
For the minister, a situation like this presents a
dilemma. If he remains silent and something happens,
he's a failure. If he makes loud warning and nothing
happens, he's just a rabble-rouser trying to push
through controversial tougher security laws. And, of
course, the public never thanks you if everyday life
continues in a normal, peaceful way.
Absolute Security Remains a Pipe Dream
When de Maiziere became Germany's interior minister,
he had planned to lead the ministry in a
level-headed way. For example, he prefers to use
phrases such as "internal calm" rather than
"internal security." And it was only six weeks ago
that he uttered the sentence: "There's no cause for
alarm." But, since then, the chorus of warning
voices has only ballooned in size.
This change in course is the combined result of
everything that happened beforehand. It might very
well turn out that the alleged Indian terror squad
stays home and that the raid on the Reichstag never
happens. But what will remain is a well-founded
supposition that there is a critical mass of
terrorists in the border region between Afghanistan
and Pakistan that is thinking about launching
attacks in Europe -- and certainly in Germany, as
well.
Raw Nerves
Given such circumstances, there is a major sense of
alarm among German officials. Last Thursday, just a
day after de Maiziere's shocking press conference,
the BKA issued a press release "in connection with
the current high-risk situation." It reported that a
piece of suspicious luggage had been discovered a
day earlier in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia,
before being loaded onto a plane bound for Germany.
The laptop bag contained batteries, wires, a
detonator and a clock -- in other words, all the
ingredients you need for a potential airborne
catastrophe.
It sounded as if another terror plot had been
foiled. Had there been a plan to blow up Air Berlin
Flight 7377 en route to Munich? And had the
authorities, yet again, discovered an explosive
device at the last minute? In the end, all the worry
was unfounded. As it turned out, the piece of
luggage was a test device built by a company that
designs "real test" suitcases to be used to test
security measures. It remains unclear who checked
the bag in. But the fact that the BKA was so quick
to go into alarm mode -- and publicly so -- has been
a communications debacle.
Of course, these days, nobody wants to be the one
that wasn't sufficiently circumspect, the one who
took too long to speak up. No one wants a replay of
situations like the one from the beginning of
November, when de Maiziere didn't know for hours
whether the package that had arrived at the
Chancellery contained actual explosives or was just
a false alarm. Now, the threshold for sounding the
alarm is already much lower.
Bonded by Fear
Of course, you can never be too sure. Over the last
12 months, a series of attacks concocted in the
Afghan-Pakistani border region have been foiled in
the West. For example, in May, a car bomb set in New
York's Times Square by a man with ties to the
Pakistani Taliban failed to properly detonate. In
Copenhagen, al-Qaida had made plans to storm the
offices of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper as revenge
for its 2005 publishing of caricatures of the
Prophet Muhammad. In October 2009, David Headley, an
American citizen with Pakistani roots, was arrested
after having already visited the newspaper's offices
in order to scout them out before the planned
attack. Other targets reportedly included the subway
systems of New York City and Washington.
On the other hand, absolute security is a pipe
dream. For example, British authorities had even
conducted rehearsals for how to respond to possible
attacks. But, even so, when attacks claiming 56
lives (including those of four attackers) did strike
London, on July 7, 2005, they were unable to prevent
them. Likewise, US intelligence services had warned
India a number of times that terrorists were
planning attacks in Mumbai.
The new situation in Germany has at least had one
positive side effect: For the time being, the
traditionally quarrelsome interior ministers from
both the state and the federal levels have refrained
from their usual bickering. Following informal talks
held last Thursday in Hamburg, Minister Bruch of
Rhineland-Palatinate noted that he had "never
experienced such harmony within this group" that has
apparently been bonded together by their shared
fear.
Translated from the German by Josh Ward
--
Sean Noonan
Tactical Analyst
Office: +1 512-279-9479
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com
--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Marko Papic
Geopol Analyst - Eurasia
STRATFOR
700 Lavaca Street - 900
Austin, Texas
78701 USA
P: + 1-512-744-4094
marko.papic@stratfor.com
--
Sean Noonan
Tactical Analyst
Office: +1 512-279-9479
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com
--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Marko Papic
Geopol Analyst - Eurasia
STRATFOR
700 Lavaca Street - 900
Austin, Texas
78701 USA
P: + 1-512-744-4094
marko.papic@stratfor.com
--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Marko Papic
Geopol Analyst - Eurasia
STRATFOR
700 Lavaca Street - 900
Austin, Texas
78701 USA
P: + 1-512-744-4094
marko.papic@stratfor.com
--
Sean Noonan
Tactical Analyst
Office: +1 512-279-9479
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com
--
Ben West
Tactical Analyst
STRATFOR
Austin, TX
--
Sean Noonan
Tactical Analyst
Office: +1 512-279-9479
Mobile: +1 512-758-5967
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
www.stratfor.com
--
Ben West
Tactical Analyst
STRATFOR
Austin, TX
--
Ben West
Tactical Analyst
STRATFOR
Austin, TX