Germany (catch all, incl. terrorism)

[Azor]

Allegedly 5 claims in total: 3 Islamist; 1 far-left; 1 far-right.

Important not to jump to *any* conclusions at this stage.

IS might surprise us yet.....but the wording of the IS claims was way way off.....

Yes, and the fact is that Germany does have a very anti-Muslim and very violent far-right fringe.

[OUTLAW 09]

BTW..traditionally a violent far right with deep ties to first KBG and now FSB...that dates back to the early 70s.....

Evidence pointing to right wing extremists responsible while trying to make it look like work of Islamic terrorism.

Explosives came from a recent well conducted theft on a German military base that had the explosives under solid physical control...

[davidbfpo]

From the BBC:

Police in Germany have charged a man suspected of being behind an attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus.Rather than having links to radical Islamism, he was a market trader hoping to make money if the price of shares in the team fell, prosecutors say.
(Later) ....the 28-year-old, who has German and Russian nationality, had been charged with attempted murder, setting off explosions and causing serious physical injury.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39664212

The investigation had some help by the suspect, he used the hotel's web connection to place a trade option and was in a room overlooking the scene.

Now was his motive really financial or was this a "false flag" action trying to implicate jihadists or others? No doubt one day local reporters will provide a more in-depth explanation.

[OUTLAW 09]

Originally posted on the SWJ thread on Gerasimov.....

NOTICE this Russian criminal tie in to the recent IED bombing of the BVb bus....and Russian spetsnaz and eastern Ukraine.

My sources are saying he definitely was Russian trained Spetnaz...experienced in eastern Ukraine having arrived in Germany in the last year and has a residence permit as do many Russian expats living in Germany....

German police on Friday arrested the suspected perpetrator of a bomb attack on Borussia Dortmund's team bus, the public prosecutor's office said, indicating his motive was financial and not terror-related.
Police commandos working on behalf of the federal prosecutor's office "have#arrested a 28-year-old German-Russian national, Sergej W.," a statement said.

It said the suspect was hoping to profit from a drop in the football team's#share price as a result of the attack.

REMEMBER if a Russian can prove even a 1/100th of an ounce of Jew heritage they get an automatic residence permit and that has led to a massive counterfeit program inside Russia cranking out such documents...which are actually very good and the Russia government has refused to assist German BKA to find the source...

NOTE while he might have been the potential firer of the three IEDs there is per sources of mine no indication he physically built the actual IEDs nor emplaced them...

So while he was obviously shorting the stock of BVB and potentially the individual that detonated the IEDS and the "fall man"....Germans are on the hunt for the bomb maker....who evidently thoroughly understood how to emplace the three IEDs in order to cover the entire length of the bus..meaning he has had experience in real IED emplacements... and understood how to judge distances of travelling buses....

[Azor]

The Economist: The German problem:Why Germany’s current-account surplus is bad for the world economy

Introduction:

THE battle-lines are drawn. When the world’s big trading nations convene this week at a G20 summit in Hamburg, the stage is set for a clash between a protectionist America and a free-trading Germany.

President Donald Trump has already pulled out of one trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and demanded the renegotiation of another, the North American Free-Trade Agreement. He is weighing whether to impose tariffs on steel imports into America, a move that would almost certainly provoke retaliation. The threat of a trade war has hung over the Trump presidency since January. In contrast, Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor and the summit’s host, will bang the drum for free trade. In a thinly veiled attack on Mr Trump, she delivered a speech on June 29th condemning the forces of protectionism and isolationism. An imminent free-trade deal between Japan and the European Union will add substance to her rhetoric (see article ).

There is no question who has the better of this argument. Mr Trump’s doctrine that trade must be balanced to be fair is economically illiterate. His belief that tariffs will level the playing field is naive and dangerous: they would shrink prosperity for all. But in one respect, at least, Mr Trump has grasped an inconvenient truth. He has admonished Germany for its trade surplus, which stood at almost $300bn last year, the world’s largest (China’s hoard was a mere $200bn). His threatened solution—to put a stop to sales of German cars—may be self-defeating, but the fact is that Germany saves too much and spends too little. And the size and persistence of Germany’s savings hoard makes it an awkward defender of free trade.

Washington Post: The United States and Europe are on a collision course over Iran

Introduction:

When the French energy giant Total signed a landmark gas deal with Iran this month, the company’s chief executive lauded the nearly $5 billion investment as a trailblazing initiative for peace.

“We’re here to build bridges, not walls,” Patrick Pouyanné said in an interview with Agence France-Presse at the signing ceremony in Tehran.

The venture, which includes China’s National Petroleum and the Iranian company Petropars, will develop the South Pars gas field under a 20-year contract. It is Iran’s first major energy contract with a European firm since a nuclear deal with world powers lifted sanctions on Iran last year.

“Economic development is also a way of building peace,” Pouyanné said.

Pouyanné’s remarks reflect a broader vision among European leaders for improving ties with Iran, in part by encouraging firms such as Total to invest now that major sanctions are gone. But his comments also highlight the growing rift between the United States and Europe over how to engage with Iran, which the Trump administration has identified as a global menace and singled out for sanctions and isolation.

Since President Trump took office, Europe and the United States have pursued increasingly different courses on Iran, casting doubt over the future of the nuclear accord, which limits Iranian nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief and other trade.

[davidbfpo]

The BBC report starts:

The man who killed one person and injured six in a supermarket knife attack in Hamburg was a "known Islamist", officials say."He was known as an Islamist but not a jihadist," Hamburg's Interior Minister Andy Grote said, noting the suspect also had "psychological" issues.
The man, a failed asylum seeker born in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), attacked customers at random on Friday.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40763369


Via Twitter citing a German press report in Bild:

Hamburg locals who cornered and overwhelmed Islamist knifeman on Friday: Afghan, Egyptian, German, Turkish

[davidbfpo]

Mistakes happen in many investigations, but it appears the Berlin terrorist attack with a hijacked lorry was far worse. Here is one passage:

The special investigator found that, although Berlin police considered Amri to be the most dangerous Islamist in the city, they only put him under surveillance for a few weeks. Even then, the monitoring stopped on weekends and on public holidays.

Link:https://www.thelocal.de/20171012/off...error-attacker