Germany (catch all, incl. terrorism)

[davidbfpo]

As the article states this has been going a while, it woulld be interesting to see the estimated numbers of Europeans going to these camps from France, England, Netherlands, etc.

Also of interest would be how many are seriously pursuing jihad versus going to a summer adventure camp? Based on the number of attacks, etc. is clear not all those attending are serious jihadis. Just a thought.

Bill,

I know of no open source / published estimate of traffic to the camps from the UK and I'd be surprised if the French were open to this.

Valid point about

summer adventure camp

and IIRC Guido Steinberg referred to that in an article I've linked here before. I've read a few papers on foreign fighters and only rarely is leaving the process of radicalisation / training mentioned. Try this for more:http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/p...cyFocus101.pdf

[davidbfpo]

A fascinating article and summarised as:

Austrian authorities have detained an alleged Islamist extremist from Berlin as he was traveling back from Afghanistan, where he had undergone terror training. The 26-year-old had boasted about attacking "infidels," but it is unclear whether he was embarking on a terror plot or simply heading home after becoming disillusioned with his cause.

Link:http://www.spiegel.de/international/...769405,00.html

Curious the potential / actual role of Austria, a small country at the "crossroads of Europe" and IIRC with little experience of terrorist attacks for a long time (OPEC ministers seized way back in the 1970's).

[Old Eagle]

Yeah, Carlos did his thing, but there were later attacks by the RAF and a guest appearance by PFLP-GC (as I recall) at the El Al counter at the aprt. In fact, last time I lived there, the Austrian police ended up killing a RAF alumnus and wounding another. The former terror pair tried to knock over a store or bank and ended up in a shoot out.

Been following this issue in various Austrian sources. It is absolutely unclear exactly what is going on. Guess we'll have to let it play itself out a little further.

[davidbfpo]

An update on the attack at Frankfurt airport, March 2010:

A Kosovo man has told a German court he shot dead two American servicemen at Frankfurt airport but said he did not understand why he had acted as he did....

"What I did was wrong, but I cannot undo what I did," Uka told the court in Frankfurt at the opening of his trial. Uka said he carried out the attack after watching a video purporting to show US servicemen raping a Muslim girl in Iraq.

In fact, the video was a scene from Brian De Palma's anti-war film, Redacted.

"I thought what I saw in that video, these people would do in Afghanistan," Uka said.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14727975

A strange case of a 'Lone Wolf' attacker, although maybe not so unexpected given all the propaganda in the public domain.

[Bill Moore]

Perception is reality in the mind.