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| Europe |
| Germany worried al-Qaeda a model for neo-Nazis |
| 2004-04-17 |
| "For five years we have been running this snack bar and there's never been any trouble," the 38-year-old Vietnamese immigrant says as she wraps a veal doner kebab in foil and hands it to a customer with what she hopes passes for a smile. "But I'm terrified now, after what happened to my husband the other evening." It was right here, at the Euro Imbiss snack bar at the corner of Rudower and Glienicker streets in Berlin, that her 40-year-old husband was attacked by neo-Nazi thugs. "He was closing up the stand," she recalls tearfully. "And I was closing up the flower stand I run to help make ends meet. And that was when they ..." but she cannot finish the sentence. Three young men in hobnail boots, jeans and bomber jackets drunkenly approached the stand, demanding he give them beer - free of charge. When the vendor politely refused, the trio hauled him out from behind his stand and cracked his skull with a baseball bat. Twice. As he lay on the pavement, the three neo-Nazis repeatedly kicked him while his wife wailed and screamed for help. The Vietnamese snack vendor is in hospital with numerous fractures and a concussion, lucky to be alive. The story was consigned to Page 19 of one of the local newspapers, sharing space with a colour story about an influx of wild rabbits in the city's Tiergarten park. Not big news in Berlin. "Neo-Nazi street violence has been on the increase since the start of the year," says Kathrin Kalauch, a social worker in the district. "An Asian schoolboy was stabbed in this neighbourhood just two weeks ago." And yet the isolated incidents attract little notice because neo-Nazis in Germany appear to be changing their tactics, according to federal investigators. Aside from the random attacks, generally by inebriated youths, there is a growing awareness in the radical right-wing element that there are lessons to be learned from the radical left - and from Islamic terrorists. "Instead of a rigid top-down leadership hierarchy, they are increasingly adopting the principal of leaderless resistance," says neo-Nazi expert Thomas Grumke. It is the sort of "leaderless resistance" that is the hallmark of the al-Qaeda network of loosely connected terrorist cells. It is a variation of a tactic propagated a decade ago by American neo-Nazi Louis Beam. For German neo-Nazis, with their traditional fixation on a "Fuehrer" who tells his underlings what to do, it marks a radical departure. As unlikely as such an organisation might seem, the "success" of al-Qaeda terrorists has prompted German neo-Nazis to review their strategy, says Grumke, who has written books on the neo-Nazi movements in Europe and America and who sees alarming parallels in Germany. "In a way, German neo-Nazis are rediscovering a concept they discarded years ago as unviable, the Werewolf Concept right after the war," notes Grumke, who has lectured at the Freie University in the Kennedy Institute in Berlin. "But the difference is that the underground Werewolf Cadres were under orders from a Werewolf Command Staff, the leaderless resistance concept envisions autonomous cadres operating independently." Federal investigators in Germany are taking this new concept seriously, according to a report in Berliner Zeitung newspaper. It cites BKA Federal Criminal Investigation Office sources as saying it is increasingly difficult to infiltrate neo-Nazi groups. "Structurally organised terrorism is simply much easier to combat because one is able to infiltrate the upper echelons," a source was quoted as saying. "But it is almost impossible to go up against the activities of fanatic individuals or autonomous cells which may have a completely clean vest until they launch their big attack." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #14 Leave Nancy alone! She sad she consulted an astrologer after RR was shot, because she was so freaked out about his "future" and wanted to know he'd be OK. It's a very understandable, but silly thing to have done. Nancy was a lovely First Lady and she's an exemplary wife to one of our greatest Presidents as he lies dying with Alzheimer's. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-04-18 2:47:40 AM |
| #13 Come on, NMM, say it! Reagan = Hitler, right? |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-04-18 2:06:45 AM |
| #12 yep--the fascination with the occult has a parallel with Nancy Reagan and her astrologist |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2004-04-18 2:03:28 AM |
| #11 Fascism was a fusion of socialism, nationalism to the point of racism (even in Italy; see Mussolini's vows to restore "the glory of Rome" followed by first invading Ethiopia...), and a thin gloss of "third way" rhetoric intended to differentiate it from the other brand of totalitarian politics of the day, communism. It's also critical to remember that many of the "unique" evils of Fascism were the "progressive" cause celebre of the era. Hell, if you're ever bored, do a compare-and-contrast with the Nazi blood-and-soil mythos and modern multiculturalism. Or with the infamous "occult" practices of some of the Nazi leaders and modern "New Age" spiritualism. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-04-17 7:40:13 PM |
| #10 @tipper #4: The article on "Werwolf" is quite rubbish. I stopped reading on the first page. "Werwolf" was almost completely a PR-myth to hold up the German spirit, like the "Wunderwaffen" or the "Volkssturm". Their only real major deed was the killing of the Aachener Mayor in March 1945 - which was exploited for PR-reasons by Goebbels still then. For "Werwolf", only a few hundred Hitler-youth and tired war-veterans were trained for a period of 10-14 days, but even that got never off the ground. It was mostly only a reason for a big scare amongst Allied troops at first, because no one knew how believable the propaganda was. And the mentioned myth on Bersarin was that the NKWD murdered him, not Werwolf, LOL. (NKWD = predecessor of the KGB). Bersarin was not without opponents for allegedly wanting a "communism with a friendly face". In reality, the known bike-crazy Bersarin crashed with his motorcycle into a Soviet truck. It might have been staged by NKWD, sure...but no evidence. |
| Posted by: da German 2004-04-17 6:47:39 PM |
| #9 Relatively fair article. Recently were arrests in Munich of a gang of Neo-Nazis preparing a bomb-attack on the to-be-built new Jewish Synagogue there. (almost 4 pounds of TNT were found) German Neo-Nazis also discovered Anti-Americanism since 9/11 and - since open Anti-Semitism is illegal here - a "solidarity for Palestinians", like wearing palestinian scarfs, usually a leftist symbol, to demonstrate covertly their anti-semitism. (and ironically, some of the leftist groups today are very pro-Israel - the old labels don't fit anymore). Though let's keep this in proportion - they are dangerous, but very small in numbers. The comment about "structual organized terrorism is easier to combat" is only for the gallery, it doesn't exist like this. Terror-groups are usually small here.....duh. RAF was also very small and law enforcement has still not figured out who the "third generation of RAF" was who had struck until about 1992 and then ceased to act. |
| Posted by: da German 2004-04-17 6:38:30 PM |
| #8 Anonymous> Even using the particular meaningless conventions of "left-wing" and "right-wing", left-winger isn't the same as "totalitarian". Using modern day conventions of "right-wing" and "left-wing", Nazis seem to be on the social far right-wing (social reactionaries instead of progressives), on the foreign-relationships far right-wing (extreme chauvinists and racists instead of internationalists) and having a wider range of opinion in the economical spectrum that would probably define them as centrists. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-04-17 4:47:24 PM |
| #7 There is nothing RIGHT-WING about a bloody neo-nazi. NAZIS are LEFT-WINGERS -- totalitarians. A German Nazi is an Italian Fascist who is a Russian Stalinist who is a German Marxist.... |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-04-17 4:17:25 PM |
| #6 Nazis and radical Muslims are simliar in certain ways, and even if it sounds illogical, I believe there is a relationship. No doubt, both will get a major can of American whoopass, like they have before! |
| Posted by: CobraCommander 2004-04-17 3:18:33 PM |
| #5 IIRC, something like this happened a couple of times in Wurzburg, until they picked on an Imbis favored by a bunch of black American soldiers stationed there. They fished a few German neoNazis out of the local rivers with every major bone in their bodies broken. Nobody ever figured out who did it, but Imbis owners had no more problems from ANYBODY. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-04-17 1:04:13 PM |
| #4 Looksmart has an interesting article on the Nazi Werewolves here Of interest, is how they were eventually supressed. |
| Posted by: tipper 2004-04-17 11:23:24 AM |
| #3 So now they're worried about the neo-Nazis, after tolerating them for years as long as they just bothered Jews. And let's not even mention the jihadis in Hamburg and elsewhere they ignored, as long as they just killed Americans. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. (My apologies to decent dogs everywhere.) |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-04-17 11:09:33 AM |
| #2 It's also harder for free-lance brownshirts to actually accomplish anything against the state. They relegate themselves to the level of being an irritation that can be scratched by good police work. |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-04-17 10:12:35 AM |
| #1 Is this like a Hunter/ Gatherer life model? Thinking grest thoughts. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-04-17 1:21:58 AM |