Nuclear nonproliferation efforts are ending. A new arms race has begun.
Since the United States and the Soviet Union backed away from the precipice of nuclear war in the 1980s, the world’s stocks of nuclear weapons have declined from an estimated 60,000 to an estimated 10,000.
According to a 2014 study by science journal Earth’s Future, however, it would take just 100 nuclear detonations to create a worldwide climate catastrophe causing massive famine and death. Continue reading
U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the White House on April 27. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
The editor in chief of Europe’s largest newsmagazine has written America’s obituary—quite literally. The title of Klaus Brinkbäumer’s new book is An Obituary for America: The End of a Friendship and the Future of the West.
In it, the Der Spiegel editor in chief reaches two surprising conclusions: America is dead, and Germany should be happy about it.
Spiegel Online published an article adapted from Brinkbäumer’s book under the title “Thank You, Donald! What Trump Means for Germany’s Future.”
The U.S., writes Brinkbäumer, is no longer a reliable partner. Therefore “we must emancipate ourselves.” Continue reading
Caption: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the 2017 Munich Security Conference on February 18 (Johannes Simon/Getty Images)
Bundeswehr officials expect a more active and a more lethal role for Germany in the Middle East.
German military leaders are preparing to take on a more active role in the fight against the Islamic State in the Middle East. This news emerges following the February 17–19 Munich Security Conference. Spiegel Online reported on February 20 that German diplomats and military officers left the conference feeling that some major challenges ahead of them go far beyond merely increasing the nation’s military budget. The feeling was that Germany must get ready to fire shots.
German generals expect future missions to include air strikes against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and possibly an increased deployment of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan. Spiegel Online quoted a German military general who attended the conference as saying, “[United States President Donald] Trump doesn’t only want more money from us but he also wants us to finally fire shots” (Trumpet translation throughout). Although former President Barack Obama had previously insisted on a more active NATO involvement, the quoted general believes that the tone is sharper now and that Germany must prepare to pull the trigger. Continue reading
Caption: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
If America unleashes a trade war starting with BMW, Germany is prepared to fight back.
Senior German politicians have threatened to unleash a trade war on the United States if President Donald Trump follows through his threats to German industry.
President Donald Trump famously threatened to put a 35 percent tax on the German car manufacturer BMW in an interview published by the Times of London and Bild on January 15. German politicians were quick to respond. The next day, German public broadcaster ZDF asked German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble if the world is entering a time of more protectionism. Schäuble said he hoped not but also pointed out one way Germany could hit back.
“I also want to point out that currently American companies don’t have to tax their gains which they make outside of the U.S.,” he said. “That means that hundreds of billions of untaxed gains, of great American companies, rest in a tax oasis” (Trumpet translation throughout). Continue reading
German police in riot gear, accompanied by armored vehicles and water cannons, charge into a street battle between Kurds and radical Islamists in Hamburg, Oct. 8, 2014. (Image source: N24 video screenshot)
Spiraling levels of violent crime perpetrated by immigrants from the Middle East and the Balkans are turning parts of Duisburg, a key German industrial city, into “areas of lawlessness” — areas that are becoming de facto “no-go” zones for police, according to a confidential police report that was leaked to the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel.
The report, produced by the police headquarters of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany (and also the state with the largest Muslim population in Germany), warns that the government is losing control over problem neighborhoods and that the ability of police to maintain public order “cannot be guaranteed over the long term.” Continue reading
(NaturalNews) U.S. Navy sailors exposed to radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster have been falling ill, even as the Defense Department insists that they were not exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Many of the sailors have now joined in a class action lawsuit against Fukushima operators and builders Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), Toshiba, Hitachi, Ebasco and General Electric.
Even if they wanted to — which many do not — the sailors would be unable to sue the Navy. According to a Supreme Court ruling from the 1950s known as the Feres Doctrine, soldiers cannot sue the government for injuries resulting directly from their military service. Continue reading
For more on SCADAs, please see the following previous posts:
Exclusive: Cyberattack leaves natural gas pipelines vulnerable to sabotage
UPDATE 3: U.S. probes cyber attack on water system
Security backdoor found in China-made US military chip
The NSA’s TAO hacking unit is considered to be the intelligence agency’s top secret weapon. It maintains its own covert network, infiltrates computers around the world and even intercepts shipping deliveries to plant back doors in electronics ordered by those it is targeting.
In January 2010, numerous homeowners in San Antonio, Texas, stood baffled in front of their closed garage doors. They wanted to drive to work or head off to do their grocery shopping, but their garage door openers had gone dead, leaving them stranded. No matter how many times they pressed the buttons, the doors didn’t budge. The problem primarily affected residents in the western part of the city, around Military Drive and the interstate highway known as Loop 410. Continue reading
America abandoned central Europe to try and make friends with Russia—and got nothing in return.
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The Iskander-M is no Soviet relic. It is a thoroughly modern missile, designed to evade and confuse anti-missile systems. Probably battle-tested during Russia’s invasion of Georgia, Russia considers it “the most effective and deadly nonstrategic (and even perhaps strategic) ballistic missile in existence”—according to Stratfor emails revealed by Wikileaks last year. “Its high velocity allows the missile to penetrate antimissile defenses,” states the email. “It can fly low and make evasive maneuvers in order to prevent interception by surface air missiles.” The missiles are capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, but Russia has not admitted to developing one.
How did these missiles end up on Europe’s boarders? Continue reading
Like other countries within the region that are yet to go into full-blown crisis, Greece failed from the beginning, and what’s more is that it was known. A second supporting link can be found here, from Spiegel Online.
The latest setback for Greece: booted the euro-zone member from its index of developed countries.
The decision, announced late Tuesday, is the first time the index provider demoted a country from its “developed” to its “emerging-market” category since the launch of its flagship emerging-markets index in 1987.
It affirms what investors have believed for years. Multiple bailouts by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, a sharp contraction in gross domestic product and a still-large debt burden mean Greece now has more in common with Hungary than France. Continue reading
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande want to install a government for the Eurozone. This could change the EU’s structure, according to the press in both countries, but only if the leaders’ understanding is sustainable.
Angela Merkel and François Hollande have made up. The “Franco-German contribution,” announced on May 30, shows that the German Chancellor now supports the French President’s proposals concerning the governance of the Eurozone. French financial daily Les Echos notes that: Continue reading
First comes the merging of states via political and social solidarity. Then, next is the “European Army” member nations have been calling for. Sometime later, and through an upcoming “United States of Europe” lead and dominated by Germany, meet your new king of the northern hemisphere and next world superpower. Some who say China would be the next might be in for a huge surprise.
A document obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE indicates the German government is preparing to procure armed drones for foreign combat. Opposition politicians are outraged by the development and note that the use of weapons-equipped unmanned aircraft is legally dubious and possibly unethical.
Bowing to pressure from the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, the federal government in Berlin is preparing to deploy armed, unmanned drones in foreign conflicts. In an answer to an official query made by the far-left Left Party, which has been obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE, the German government wrote that its experience in foreign combat operations has made it clear that reconnaissance vehicles must be armed “in order to provide protection against sudden and serious changes in the situation.” Continue reading
The conservative Die Welt writes:
“US President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy is in ruins. Like no president before him, he tried to win over the Arab world. After some initial hesitation, he came out clearly on the side of the democratic revolutions. … In this context, he must accept the fact that he has snubbed old close allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Egyptian military. And now parts of the freed societies are turning against the country which helped bring them into being. Anti-Americanism in the Arab world has even increased to levels greater than in the Bush era. It’s a bitter outcome for Obama.”
“Obama was naive to believe that one only needed to adopt a new tone and show more respect in order to dispel deep-seated reservations about the free world. In practice, the policies of the Obama administration in the region were not as naive as they may have seemed at times, and the Americans have always been much more involved in the Middle East than the passive Europeans. But Washington has provided the image of a distracted superpower in the process of decline to the societies there. This image of weakness is being exploited by Salafists and al-Qaida, who are active in North Africa from Somalia to Mali.”
“One thing is clear: If jihadists believe they can attack American installations and kill an ambassador on the anniversary of Sept. 11, then America’s deterrent power has declined considerably. For a superpower, it is not enough just to want to be loved. You have to scare the bad guys to keep them in check.”
Full article: ‘Obama’s Middle East Policy Is in Ruins’ (Spiegel Online)
To put it bluntly, this is the result of decades and generations of Communist rule over East Germany. This was no accident. The Soviet Union had preserved, provided a safe haven for and has used Third Reich era Germans to further their own goals of combating the West. East Germans influenced by a society that never transitioned under Soviet conditions were also used against the US in the Vietnam war as well, for example. Purposefully or not, as time has since passed on, this has paved the way for such groups as the Neo Nazis to be born.
This is not to say that all of East Germany is in sync with what is portrayed in this article. However, a large portion of influence still remains.
The unification might’ve taken place, but there is a hugely stark contrast in the cultural mindset. For example, as in the West, there are many churches in the former Soviet east. Where the difference remains is that these churches in the East remain mostly empty on Sundays. Another difference is that through a breakdown of the education system under Soviet influence generations ago, the East is now playing catch-up, resulting in less high paying jobs and skilled professions.
West Germany in general has been more prosperous due to the Western powers rebuilding through such efforts as the Marshall Plan, for example. Whereas the Soviets at the time made no effort to revitalize before and while leaving occupied territories .
There’s a Jewish restaurant called Schalom in Chemnitz, in the eastern German state of Saxony.
Uwe Dziuballa, the man who runs it, has had hundreds of abusive calls since he opened in 2000. “They say things like ‘you Jew pig,'”, he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “Around April 20th (Adolf Hitler’s birthday) we get people calling saying they want to reserve 88 places (a Nazi symbol for “Heil Hitler”).
Swastikas are regularly daubed at the entrance to the restaurant or carved into doors in the toilet. Once, a severed pig’s head with the word “Jude” written on it was left in front. People urinate in the letter box. The outside lamps are frequently smashed.
Dziuballa has stopped reporting incidents to the police because it’s not worth the trouble. They didn’t even bother to investigate the pig’s head, even though it offered a pretty good clue in the form of a ready-made handwriting sample, and the number of people with access to a pig and the equipment to decapitate it is presumably limited.
“If nothing happens when you report things you think should be probed, you no longer go there with every little thing,” says Dziuballa, who is moving his establishment to smaller premises in the city. “I can’t say I’m satisfied with the lack of results.”
Dziuballa has sometimes thought about giving up, but then he rallies himself. “I’m not going to let arseholes drive me out.”
The worst aspect about Dziuballa’s story is that one can’t help thinking: What did he expect? Surely, opening a kosher restaurant in eastern Germany is asking for trouble. The police even told him as much.
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In the more depopulated rural areas such as in the northeast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany has given up the fight altogether.
The National Democratic Party (NPD), which glorifies the Third Reich, is represented in village and town councils, neo-Nazis man the voluntary fire departments, organize sports festivals and summer fetes and run youth clubs — because too few others bother anymore.
They’re even trying to influence the running of kindergartens — a further dampener to hopes that the wave of extremism that engulfed the east in the 1990s might have just been a temporary phenomenon caused by the economic upheaval that followed unification.
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Police Blindness
The case showed how blind Germany’s prodigious security apparatus had been to the threat posed by a new generation of people who had radicalized themselves by playing with guns, listening to old Nazis wallow in past glories and generally whipping themselves up into a frenzy of hatred of minorities.
Even if a number of communities have taken decisive action against neo-Nazis, in far too many places, a culture of tolerating right-wing extremism, simply looking away or playing down the threat persists among the authorities. Investigators probing the string of murders against foreigners perpetrated by the NSU neglected to pursue the possibility of a far-right motive behind the killings, instead suspecting the nine immigrant victims — a flower seller, a tailor, two grocers, a kebab shop owner, a man who was helping out in a kebab shop, a keycutter, a kiosk owner, and an Internet café manager — of having had gambling debts or links with organized crime.
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Racist attitudes, they say, are widespread among ordinary people, possibly because the communist-era education system didn’t instil a sense of collective responsibility for the crimes of the Third Reich.
Analysts such as Professor Hajo Funke of Berlin’s Free University say security services aren’t being reformed rigorously enough and that the file shredding at the domestic intelligence agency reveals a culture of secrecy and self-preservation that continues to undermine its credibility — and will therefore make a bid to outlaw the NPD even more unlikely.
Full article: Why Germany Isn’t Rooting Out its Neo-Nazis (Spiegel Online)
Relaxing arms trading rules, testing tanks in Saudi Arabia and an initiative to put the German Army “at the center of society” show the German military and arms manufacturers becoming increasingly important to the nation.
The German Army has launched efforts to put the army at the center of society, while Der Spiegel reports that the government is planning to make it easier for arms manufactures to export.
The Economy Ministry has drafted two papers that aim to “lift special German rules which disadvantage German exporters in comparison to their European competitors,” making it easier for Germany to export weapons, Der Spiegel reported July 15.
A spokesman from the ministry denied the report, saying that the new rules would not affect arms trade. However, Der Spiegel insists its reporting is accurate.
According to the magazine, the rules would mean that weapons sales within the European Union would no longer be considered exports, but transfers. This would mean that arms exporters could sell their weapons around the world by transferring them to other countries and then exporting them using the simpler EU rules. The changes will also make fines for those caught violating the rules less strict.
Germany is already the world’s third-largest exporter. On the same day as Der Spiegel’s exposé was published, Bild reported that Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems signed a €400 million deal with Algeria for two frigates, with helicopters. Included in the deal was extensive training of Algerian soldiers by the German military.
Earlier in the month, Spiegel Online reported that the German Army is already helping the manufacturers of the Leopard Tank test their tanks in Saudi Arabia. The sale of 270 “ultra-modern” Leopard 2 tanks to Saudi Arabia is unpopular and controversial. The fact that it has been pushed through and that the deal is being supported by the German Army shows the political will beside it. The German government continues to arm Saudi Arabia—one of Iran’s most steadfast enemies.
Indonesia is also reported to be interested in buying 100 Leopard 2 tanks.
German arms exports have grown rapidly in recent years, making arms sales increasingly important for German trade and foreign policy.
As Germany returns to its traditional role as an expert arms manufacturer, former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg’s decision to end conscription is changing the army’s relationship with society.
It now has to attract recruits just like any other employer, which means that for the first time since World War ii, the Defense Ministry is working hard to sell the army to the general public.
Current Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere recently outlined its efforts in a speech, titled “The Army in the Middle of Our Society,” to the Institute of Communication Science at the Dresden University of Technology. The army, he said, must increase its “social esteem,” so that it is viewed as a good and honorable profession.
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From the creation of a unified German state in 1871 until the end of World War ii, the army was at the center of society. Until the end of World War i, Germany was essentially a military state. Between the wars, the army was the real master of the nation, quietly preparing for another conflict.
Because of this history, many have striven to ensure the Germany Army is the servant of the state, not its master. It has been pushed away from government. But efforts to bring the army back into the center of society could revive a latent military tradition.
Watch for the Germany Army to be raised high in the esteem of Germans, as trust in politicians and the government plummets. And watch for the arms industry to become increasingly important for Germany’s economy and foreign policy.
These events are fundamentally changing society’s relationship with the army. This relationship is what you should watch most of all. The same military that planned two world wars will soon once again play a bigger role in German society.
Full article: German Military Returning to Its Role at the Center of Society (The Trumpet)
German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has become the first member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to come out in favor of Greece leaving the eurozone and returning to its former currency, the drachma.
“Greece’s chances of regenerating itself and becoming competitive would certainly be better than if it stays in the eurozone,” the Spiegel Online news website quoted Friedrich as saying.
“I’m not talking about kicking Greece out, but instead about creating incentives for it to leave, that it couldn’t refuse,” Friedrich added. The interior minister is a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.
Full article: German minister says Greece should leave the eurozone (Deutsche Welle)
Global Geopolitics 