Germany (catch all, incl. terrorism)

[AdamG]

German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a major concession to Europe's populist movement this week when she admitted the existence of so-called “no-go zones” in Germany.
Conservatives and populists have long warned of the existence of such zones as the partial consequence of mass Muslim migration from the Middle East and Africa, particularly after Merkel opened Germany’s borders in 2015 as a response to the Syrian refugee crisis. Such areas are said to be dogged by high-levels of crime and are described as "no-go zones" because outsiders, including police and other authorities, are unable to enter.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/03...n-germany.html

By The Associated Press
BERLIN — Feb 28, 2018, 11:58 AM ET

In an interview Monday with German broadcaster n-tv, Merkel said she favors a zero tolerance policy on crime and that includes preventing no-go areas, "that's areas where nobody dares to go."
She added: "There are such areas and one has to call them by their name and do something about them."
Asked to name the areas, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters Wednesday that "the chancellor's words speak for themselves."

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/201...-go-areas.html

[davidbfpo]

With almost no reporting outside Germany a year long trial of the 'Freital Group' ended today, after lengthy legal arguments:

Eight people have been found guilty of numerous crimes including deliberate attacks on refugee shelters in Germany. After a yearlong trial, the legal points hinged on the very nature of the group's structure and intent.

Link:http://www.dw.com/en/freital-group-members-found-guilty-of-terror-related-crimes/a-42852954?

[AdamG]

BERLIN (AP) — Six people were detained in connection with what police and prosecutors allege was a plan to carry out an attack on Berlin's half-marathon Sunday, German authorities said. A police spokesman later said that no athletes or spectators had been in danger.

The German daily Die Welt first reported that police foiled a plot to attack race spectators and participants with knives.The main suspect allegedly knew Anis Amri, a Tunisian who killed 12 people and injured dozens more when he drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin in December 2016, Die Welt reported.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/german-me...145628100.html

Moderator adds: all six men were released without charge.

[davidbfpo]

Strange and I think his arrest was reported here. A German article that opens with:

One year ago, a right-wing extremist German army officer was arrested on suspicion of terrorism, then it was discovered he was also leading a double life as a Syrian refugee. The case is anything but closed.In early February 2017, Franco A., a career soldier in the German army, the Bundeswehr, was apprehended by Austrian authorities as he attempted to retrieve a French pistol and ammunition that he had hidden in a bathroom at the Vienna airport. After checking his fingerprints in a database, authorities discovered that the man, born the son of an Italian father and a German mother in the Hesse region of Germany, was actually registered as a Syrian refugee and living in Bavaria. Despite the fact that he spoke hardly any Arabic and was supposed to be serving full-time at a Bundeswehr base in Alsace, nobody had realized he was leading a double life.

Link:http://www.dw.com/en/a-german-right-...ife/a-43540639

[davidbfpo]

Back to the completed trial in July 2018 of XRW murderers, a wider commentary that concludes:

These findings, though, do not lead to the conclusion that we experience a rigorous criminal prosecution against radical right offenders in Germany. On the contrary, when it comes to neo-Nazi violence in general (such as arson attacks, assaults, or riots), law enforcement often works slowly and hesitantly....This observation reveals an ambiguity in dealing with radical right violence in Germany. A consistent and decisive handling of this challenge by the prosecuting authorities is far off.

The article is by a UK-based observer of the XRW, CARR; oddly this commentary is not on their website (link:https://www.radicalrightanalysis.com/) and is on a website not seen before.

Link:https://rantt.com/the-under-discusse...sm-in-germany/

[davidbfpo]

Hardly believable: a fax was sent last summer from a Frankfurt police station's fax to the lawyer representing some of the victims in the long running (NSU) Neo-Nazi murder spree trial. So the first link is to a commentary:https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-neo-na...ire/a-46794541

Second is an August 2018 report of a Neo-Nazi cell inside the German Army SOF:https://www.dw.com/en/cases-of-far-r...ary/a-43352572

[davidbfpo]

Alerted by Twitter to these arrests, but nothing readily found on the BBC. Then AM today a series of tweets from @andrewflood and summarised as and complete with links to various articles, some in German:

Truly shocking revelations from Germany this morning of a far-right cell mostly composed of cops connected to the recent murder of a politician which had used their access to police computers to draw up a death list with 25,000 targets on it & stole 10,000 bullets + machine gun.

Link:https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1...505151489.html

(Added) Or a UK newspaper, which is a summary only:https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...P=share_btn_tw

Oddly the first Google hit I did went to this Trotskyite website, which appears to have the same news and some commentary.
Link:https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/201.../meck-j24.html