U.S. Spying on Allies

Last UPDATE: October 30 (II)

Ozapft Is ! - It's Tapped !

German adage used in the introduction of the Munich Oktoberfest
(Munich beer festival) when the very first beer barrel is broached.
The German expression "anzapfen", applied here in the Bavarian
dialect, has the meaning of, both, "broaching" and "tapping".

The Alliance of Domestic Servants

These days, there is shame and scandal in the Western family because of leaked information on America's domestic spy agency NSA allegedly tapping the phones of prominent foreign leaders like German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and French president François Hollande. According to a German press information, the Merkel handy tapping should have started as early as 2002.


An outraged Mrs. Merkel.

Actually, that spy scandal should be no surprise at all, as security administrations within the Western alliance are known to exchange information and data on an informal basis already for a considerable time. Such procedure was originally intended to help fighting espionage on behalf of the former Soviet Union and its satellites. Nowadays and since September 11, fighting terrorism has become the main goal.

However, misuse of such multilateral cooperation was already suspected during the times that followed the decay of the Soviet empire. A U.S. facility for radio intelligence for instance, situated near the German town of Bad Aibling, was not immediately closed after surveillance of radiotelephony in Eastern Europe lost its importance. Instead, it remained in operation until 2002 when its equipment and staff were transferred to a similar station in Britain. In the meantime, the South-German facility was rumoured to monitor telephone calls in neighbouring regions like France and Switzerland. Some local newspaper even implied they were tapping phone calls related to banking and finance services. For more information, refer to a comprehensive German source including some English text.

Adding to unilateral misuse, illegal cooperation between U.S. intelligence specialists and their foreign homologues might have been as well at the very beginning of the actual spy scandal.

One especially mysterious story is covering the fact that, in 1990, lots of most important documents vanished from the archives of the East-German Ministry of State Security ("Stasi") just before the entitled committee of citizens could get their hands on them. These documents, enabling the identification of Stasi spies at home and abroad, suddenly appeared in the U.S.A. and were not returned before 2003, i.e. after the German reunification. They became known as the so-called Rosenholz documents. As the Ministry of State Security found itself under siege during the last days of the German Democratic Republic under Communist rule, such thing could only happen with the knowledge and aid of certain (East-/West-)German or Russian insiders. The U.S. side did not officially comment on this. However, it was rumoured the CIA office in Berlin was acting on direct order of president Bush jr.

Similar cases are known from the military sphere were guys of different nationality but equal thinking come to a cooperation that is exceeding their competences.
Only to remember that, in 2007, a high-ranking German officer, stationed on the ISAF airbase of Mazar-e Sharif in Afghanistan and which had been considered for long as a tiny airfield at the end of the world, told German journalists there were no U.S. troops in the immediate neighbourhood for any possible cooperation. This, however, was a vital item at that time because suspicion was already raised against the war policy of former U.S. president Bush jr., and there were fears of an automatic German involvement in some combat activity that would have required an additional mandate from Germany's parliament ("Bundestag").
In a certain way, the officer's description was correct as the next U.S. contingent seemed to be about 3 km away: German troops at one end and U.S. troops at the other end of a comparatively long runway that could have served the biggest U.S. troop carriers as a landing place. The runway's military use, however, was far more advanced than the ISAF Afghanistan mission might let imagine. It was fitting into the strategic plannings of a possible incursion into Iran targeting its capital Tehran and which could not be reached such easily from the Persian Gulf. But that's just another story already told before.
After the interview, a well-known German magazine published a friendly article on those brave German peacekeepers at the end of the world and showed a picture of the tiny airfield tower, dating back to the times of the Taliban like the original runway that was no longer in use. There was no hint that German and U.S. airmen were jointly operating the airbase, even though later information (source: DVIDS report in 2010) confirmed continued U.S. interest in the airlift capacities of Mazar-e Sharif.

Same goes with a German colonel who required U.S. air support when petrol was diverted from a stolen truck by some poor Afghan devils. The air raid in September 2009 killed about 140 civilians and brought that colonel into the headlines of German papers. The investigation of that incident, conducted by a parliamentary commission in Germany, lasted two years and brought about much criticism for the devastating German-U.S. cooperation.
Now, in 2013, legal proceedings against the German Federal Republic are under way, initiated by relatives of the Afghan victims and who are demanding a compensation amounting to more than three million Euro (source: Die Zeit online, December 28, 2012).

Same questionable cooperation could have been at the root of the actual spy scandal, including an inoffical data swapping between allied administrations of different countries. I could imagine that U.S. President Obama originally didn't know about NSA running out of control. At some moment in the past, however, it must have come to his attention, and all he could hope then was that it never came to light.

By the way, an informal cooperation between intelligence agencies is known to exist between the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is known under the name of "Five-Eyes-Club" and has attracted the interest of French and German intelligence officials as well who allegedly asked to participate, though without success up to now (source: Tagesschau, German TV news, 1st national channel, on October 29, 2013).




The damage caused by the NSA spy initiative, however, has immediately created a climate of mistrust between long-standing partners and allies and might lead to the postponement of free trade negociations as has been demanded by some high-ranking German politicians.

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美“情报器”失控威胁全球 奥巴马或成牺牲品

America's "intelligence organ" out of control and a global threat.
- Obama might become [its] victim. -



Oct. 26: America counted one thousand protesters in Washington
and who were opposing the plannings of a large-scale monitoring.
[Protesters praising the whistleblower who made it all known.]

[Source: People's Network - Global Times 人民网—全球时报 on October 28, 2013]

Related news on October 29:
Amid controversy over NSA programs, Congress mulls changes " Amid growing questions about the United States' international surveillance programs, the House Intelligence Committee is turning its attention back to the question of whether to amend the laws about metadata collection by the National Security Agency. " => Read more!
[Source: CBS News on October 29, 2013]


U.S. worse than the Chinese ..... or simply less professional ?






评论：美国如何因一起爆炸案而走向“监控帝国”

Discussion:
How can America proceed on its way to a "supervizing and controlling empire" in the light of all those explosive cases ?

The article is referring to a U.S. website named "Foreign Policy" that begins with a historic suicide attack directed against U.S. troops to explain the course of development which transferred North-America into a "supervizing and controlling empire". The following two headlines are preceding the main text:

情报工作不给力

Intelligence work doesn't give power.

搭上两百条人命

Affecting 200 human lives.

The following text is the reminder of an attack against U.S. marines in Beirut on October 23, 1983. In the early hours of the day, 241 soldiers lost their lives while sleeping, when a truck loaded with explosives turned their four-storey building into a hell of fire. The Chinese text then mentions some 100 similar attacks, U.S. intelligence was unable to prevent.

从“共享资源”到“监控帝国”

From "mutual sharing of resources" to a "supervizing and controlling empire".

[Source: China News 中新网 on October 30, 2013]

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That's how the registration of a visit from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is looking. I detected it in my visitor statistics for September 2013. The digits neighbouring their web address are telling us how many bytes were sent to them:



A visit to "blueprint news" from FBI Criminal Justice Information Systems has been detected on September 10, 2013. It comes from Clarksburg, West Virginia, where the FBI is using an extended area for the installation of its state-of-the-art high-tech information system:



Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me
There lie they, and here lie we
Under the spreading chestnut tree

Mysterious tune related to a scene from George Orwell's "1984",
a dark perception of some totalitarian state exerting total control
over its citizens, its adage being: "Big Brother is watching you!"

The reminder of a curious event, copied from another blogspot of mine.
It's about NSA probably hiding behind the U.S. Department of Justice:



Here comes one of my most reliable visitors who usually appears only minutes after I posted my latest blogspot. I presume that Lockheed Information Technology Company is providing services for other interested parties whoever they might be, as I could not image that aircraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin might have such strong interest in each and every subject of "blueprint news". They are using a Rippers browser ideal for "information mining", an expression introduced by some Israeli software provider many years ago and who tried to sell a related software product:

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Choice of visitors to "blueprint news" in October 2013 and who could be located by a country tag in their webaddress:

Turkey - Aspects of Foreign Policy

Last UPDATE: October 23

After criticizing the deposition of Egypt's elected president Mohammad Morsy in the first place, Turkey's prime minister Erdogan now finds a softer stance towards Cairo while his policy towards Palestine is shifting in favour of the Ramallah administration and which is dominated by the "Fatah" movement. As a consequence, the Ghaza administration, dominated by supporters of the radical Islamic "Hamas" movement, is losing influence in Ankara as Hamas leader Hanya now has to realize.


Hanya (left) meeting with Erdogan.

أردوغان يمنع هنية من الاعتذار لمصر و المصالحة مع فتح

Erdogan opposes Hanya with an excuse for Egypt and a reconciliation with Fatah.

القاهرة (مصر) - القدس - كشفت مصادر فلسطينية النقاب عن أن رئيس الوزراء التركى رجب طيب أردوغان منع إسماعيل هنية رئيس حكومة "حماس" في غزة من تقديم مبادرات محددة الملامح لتحقيق المصالحة مع حركة "فتح" و تحسين العلاقات مع مصر.ـ

Cairo (Egypt) - Al Quds - Palestinian sources revealed that Turkish prime minister ... Erdogan opposed Ismail Hanya, leader of the "Hamas" government in Ghaza, with the [introduction] of definite initiatives [regarding all] aspects of realizing a reconciliation with the "Fatah" movement and an amelioration of relations with Egypt.

ونقلت صحيفة "الأهرام" على موقعها الإلكترونى عن المصادر, التى لم تسمها, أن أردوغان نصح حماس بالتريث و عدم تقديم تنازلات بحجة أن الأوضاع الحالية فى مصر و المنطقة لم تستقر بعد وأن هناك إمكانية لتغيير النظام المصرى الحالى من خلال الضغوط المتواصلة اتى تمارسها تركيا و قطر و التنظيم الدولى للإخوان المسلمين.ـ

The journal "Al-Ahram", while referring to [reliable] sources, reported on its website that Erdogan recommended Hamas to exercise restraint and [not to act] on the pretext of situations occurring at present in [both] Egypt and the [whole] region which are not yet stabilized. And [Erdogan said] there was a possibility of transforming the temporary regime in Egypt on the basis of continuous pressure exerted by Turkey, Qatar and the [national] organization for Muslim brotherhood.

[Source: Al-Quds القدس, Palestinian daily quoting Egypt's daily Al-Ahram on October 21, 2013]

Along with yesterday's Al-Quds article, I found another related text, published on August 20, 2013, by the Jerusalem Post: Erdogan blames Israel for Morsi’s downfall, Egypt unrest.

As to Turkey's application for membership in the European Union EU, here are the latest news published by Al-Jazeera TV on October 23, 2013:

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Visitors from Athens (Greece) and Izmir (Turkey) at the border between Europe and Asia:



A visitor from Malta, living at the border between Europe and Africa. On the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, lots of migrant people from Africa get stranded on their way to a better future in Europe. On Lampedusa they are held in camps before being sent back to their homelands:

China - New Pipeline for Imported Gas

Last UPDATE: October 21


[Source: China Central TV]

中缅天然气管线今贯通 沿线省份气价有望大幅下降

Headline:
China's pipeline for [foreign] natural gas now links up provinces along its line [while] gas prices are expected to drop on a large scale.

央广网北京10月20日消息（记者张棉棉）历时三年建设的中缅天然气管线，今天（20日）即将全线贯通。中缅天然气管线起点位于缅甸西部皎漂港，终点位于我国广西贵港，输气能力为每年120亿立方米。投产后的中缅天然气管线将结束滇、黔、桂地区没有管道天然气的历史，并提高当地居民生活质量，改变当地原有能源结构，预计明年年底广西工业用电量将达到目前的100倍。

News from the Central Network Beijing on October 20 (by Zhang Mian Mian):
Today, [October] 20, the three-year-lasting construction of China's pipeline for [foreign] natural gas is about to join up the whole line. ..... The terminal point is located in Guigang, Guangxi province, and the gas transporting capacity should be 12 billion cubic metre each year. ..... Till the end of next year, electricity needed for industrial use of Guangxi province is being estimated to rise 100 times the present value.

[Source: People's Network 人民网 on October 10, 2013]




中缅天然气管线贯通后将可避免货船绕行马六甲海峡

After the joining up, China's pipeline for [imported] natural
gas will make cargo ships avoid the straits of Malaysia.
[above picture is referring to a parallel running oil pipeline]

[Source: SINA Mil. News 新浪军事 on October 10, 2013]

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Radioactive Poisoning of Former Palestinian Leader ?

Last Update on a Scientific Approach: October 20

An examination which began in 2012 has raised suspicion that former Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat might have been poisoned using Polonium 210, a radioactive isotope with a half-life of 138 days. Due to that rather short half-life, it should be difficult to detect traces of the isotope so many years after its application in rather small doses. On the other hand, any poisoning using Polonium 210 would imply the help of specialists in a nuclear facility and, most probably, of government authorities as such isotope needs to be freshly produced in an environment that is usually under the strict control of national authorities.

Only to remember that the case of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko and who had obviously been poisoned with Polonium 210 in his British exile, necessarily culminated in accusations of the Russian leadership under Vladimir Putin. In the case of Arafat it might be the Israeli government this time that would pass as the most plausible culprit, even though Arafat had made himself many enemies, including those in his own ranks.

俄专家:不足以断定阿拉法特被放射性钋毒死

Headline:
Russian expert: Not enough to conclude that Arafat died from poisoning by radioactive Polonium.

资料图：当地时间11月27日，约旦河西岸城市拉姆安拉的阿拉法特墓，巴勒斯坦已故领导人亚西尔·阿拉法特的灵柩被打开并提取了尸骨样品。

The data scheme:
On November 27 [2012] local time at the Arafat mausoleum in Ramallah, situated on the westbank of river Jordan, the coffin of Palestine's former leader Yassir Arafat was opened and samples from the skeleton were taken.

中新网10月14日电据俄罗斯媒体14日报道，俄罗斯核与辐射安全领域知名专家认为，2004年死亡的巴勒斯坦前领导人阿拉法特的遗体和遗物上 发现放射性同位素钋210的可能性非常小。

A telegram by China News Network on October 14 [2013] and which is referring to a Russian media report [from the same day] says a Russian expert, well-known in the field of nuclear radiation, considers the probability as very low to discover the radioactive isotope Polonium 210 on, both, corpse and [other] remainings of former Palestinian leader Arafat who had died in 2004.

英国杂志《柳叶刀》刊登了瑞士医学家的研究结果，证明阿拉法特可能是被放射性钋210毒死。

The British journal "Lancet" [had] published the research results of a Swiss doctor proving that Arafat probably died from poisoning by radioactive Polonium 210.





[Source: China News 中新网 on October 14, 2013]

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Some more information on the above mentioned Swiss research can be found in the following excerpt taken from a French source:

Après avoir analysé les effets personnels d'Arafat, les scientifiques de l'Institut de radiophysique (IRA) de Lausanne ont en effet relevé que "plusieurs échantillons contenant des traces de fluides corporels (sang et urine) contenaient une radioactivité plus élevée et inexpliquée au polonium 210". C'est cette substance hautement toxique qui avait tué en 2006 Alexandre Litvinenko, l'ex-agent du KGB devenu opposant à Poutine.

After having analyzed the personal remainings of Arafat, the scientists from the Institute of Radiophysics (IRA) in Lausanne in deed discovered that "some specimen containing traces of body fluids (i.e. blood and urine) showed an increased and inexplicable radioactivity related to Polonium 210". It was this highly toxic substance that killed in 2006 Alexander Litvinenko, the ex-KGB agent who had become an opponent of Putin.


Arafat poisoned ? Experts confirm it's "possible".
[Photo showing Arafat's mausoleum in Ramallah.]

[Source: Metronews - France on October 14, 2013]

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Editor's Note: Scientific Approach

Po 210 is an alpha emitter that has a half-life of 138.4 days. It decays directly to its stable daughter isotope, Pb 206 which is simple lead. During that decay, one milligram of Po 210 emits about as many alpha particles per second as 5 grams of Radium Ra 226. It can therefore be considered as extremely hazardous to human tissue, if Polonium has been incorporated. An external contact with Polonium, however, would provide no danger at all, because dead cell material on the outside of human skin would serve as a shield against further intrusion of alpha particles into healthy tissue.

A detection of very small amounts of lead (Pb), the final product of Polonium decay, is generally possible with modern multi-channel x-ray spectroscopy but would not deliver any clue hinting at its origin. Any elevated amount of lead could therefore be related to environmental influence or, let's say, to the use of leaded fuel in some old-fashioned Palestinian cars. However, things could be different, if it was possible to detect different isotopes of one single element. This would require a high-end equipment available in any institute for radiophysics.

This is just showing the sophisticated aspect of a Polonium poisoning leaving no bloody dagger on the scene of crime.

Here now the Russian expert speaking as quoted by China News:

［专家］说：“如果阿尔法粒子衰变，形成新原子核，在低频环境下能够发现原子核数量和衰变链。这种情况不可能查明，哪一种同位素导致衰变。很可能是钋210 ”。他指出， 目前有关研究数据公开的信息不多，不足以做出单一的结论。

[The expert] said: " In case of an alpha particle decay, a new atomic nucleus is formed. In a low frequency environment [*] its quantity and chain of decay can be found. That state [of development] cannot be verified by investigation as the isotope [of origin] is subject to decay. Most probably it is Polonium 210. " He pointed out that, at present, there is not much information made public on related research data, being not enough to [release] one single conclusion.

* = This could be a frequency environment comprising the distinct x-ray frequencies emitted from such newly formed atomic nucleus. It then comes to x-ray analysis using a high-end multi-channel analyzer that would allow to detect different atomic species. Such instruments are being used in radioactivity research where a maximum resolution is needed.

The determination of different isotopes belonging to the same atomic species, however, should require another technique. Now, it is known that nuclear magnetic resonance NMR and mass spectrometry MS are usually applied for isotopic determination. A rather small amount of human tissue and the very low concentration of lead to be expected in such specimen, should then require some additional refining of preparation and measurement techniques.

As similar problems have already occured before, there is a good chance to find an appropriate technique while searching scientific publications. That's how I found a publication on " a reliable procedure for picogram-quantity Pb isotopic determination (Pb-204, Pb-206, Pb-207, and Pb-208) on a multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer ". The technique described here was used to determine lead isotopes in coral skeleton, a problem which resembles much the determination of lead isotopes in human skeleton:

While it is generally accepted that Polonium Po-210 is subject to an alpha decay, it only needs to detect an obviously elevated amount of the stable lead isotope Pb-206 in human tissue in order to conclude that a Polonium poisoning might have happened. Naturally occuring lead usually contains some 24% of Pb-206 which doesn't enter into the human blood circuit except in very rare cases when humans come close to lead metal or its by-products. At least, Arafat was not working at a gazoline pump serving leaded fuel ...

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Recent visitors to "blueprint news":

Nobel Prize 2013 for "God Particle" Theory

Yesterday, October 8, Peter Higgs and his predecessor François Englert were named as the new laureates of the Nobel Prize in physics 2013. Their [ "God Particle" Theory ] has already inspired many scientists in their understanding of elementary processes related to the creation of the universe.


CNN evening news on October 8, 2013.


Peter Higgs - Finally Trapped By Cell Phone
Peter Higgs - Enfin Attrapé Par Le Cellulaire

The French magazine LEXPRESS describes Peter Higgs as a modest guy in his eighties and who hates modern accessories like cell phones. However, finally he has been trapped by global cell phone news.

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Choice of localized visitors to "blueprint news", detected during the first week of October 2013:



Another choice of localized visitors and who came during the last 30 hours:

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A Lecture on History:



The Khmer Rouge period (1975–1979) in Cambodia's history refers to the rule of Pol Pot ("Brother No.1") and the Khmer Rouge Communist party over Cambodia, which the Khmer Rouge renamed as Democratic Kampuchea.

The four-year period cost approximately 2 million lives through the combined result of political executions, disease, starvation, and forced labor. Due to the large number of deaths, the proceedings during the rule of the Khmer Rouge are commonly known as the Cambodian Holocaust or the Cambodian Genocide.

Democratic Kampuchea was a practically isolated state. Only the People's Republic of China had some diplomatic influence as can be seen from sporadic official visits by high-ranking Chinese delegations that, however, seemed to have no real impact on the proceedings in Cambodia. The Mao-Tse-Toung Boulevard in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh might be a reminder of that time, marked as well by the end of the Mao era in China.


Mao meeting with Pol Pot (center) and Ieng Sary,
foreign minister of the Khmer Rouge government.

After a Vietnamese invasion overthrew the Khmer Rouge in 1979, Vietnamese occupation authorities established the People's Republic of Kampuchea, installing Heng Samrin and other pro-Vietnamese Communist politicians as leaders of the new government. That invasion came because the Vietnamese minority in Cambodia was subject to a massacre like many other groups of Cambodia's society.

It was at the very beginning of the invasion that I happened to participate at a New Year's festival of the Vietnamese Students' Association in West-Berlin. On that evening, a member of the North-Vietnamese embassy in East-Berlin appeared with a film documentary of recent developments on the Vietnamese - Cambodian front and which showed the first Cambodian mass graves discovered by Vietnamese troops. Such, I happened to be among the first westeners to see pictures related to the genocide under the rule of Pol Pot. As far as I remember, it took a week or so that single pictures from that documentary were finally shown on TV.


Pol Pot under house arrest.

A modern documentary, broadcast by a German TV station only some years ago, proved that Cambodia still had problems at that time to sue those responsible for the Cambodian genocide. In an interview while being under house arrest, Pol Pot (1925-1998) was even telling a journalist he was " too old now and unwilling to remember all those things that happened in the old times and had no importance for him any longer ".

U.S. Strike Al-Qaeda in Libya and Somalia

Last Update: October 8

On Saturday October 5, the U.S. Army's Delta Force, which has responsibility for counterterrorism operations in North Africa, carried out attacks in Somalia and the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

The attacks struck Islamic extremists who played a role in the bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenya, on August 7, 1998, that killed more than 220 people.

In Tripoli, U.S special forces captured Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, known by his alias Anas al-Libi, in a raid. Al-Libi (photo below) is on the FBI's most-wanted list with a $5 million US bounty on his head.




The Pentagon's chief spokesman George Little said Saturday al-Libi "is currently lawfully detained by the U.S. military in a secure location outside of Libya." He did not disclose further details.

Libya said Sunday it has asked the United States for "clarifications" regarding the abduction in Tripoli of al-Qaeda leader al-Libi adding that Libyan nationals should be tried in their own country.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday defended the capture of al-Libi, saying complaints about the operation from Libya and others are unfounded. Kerry said the suspect was a "legal and appropriate target" for the U.S. military and will face justice in a court of law. Kerry added it was important not to "sympathize" with wanted terrorists.

Earlier, Kerry said the raids would send the message that terrorists "can run but they can't hide."

[Source: Associated Press AP on October 7, 2013]




美国特种部队海豹突击队5日在索马里南部港口城市巴拉韦实施突袭，对一处海边寓所实施空降打击。该目标据称是反政府武装索马里青年党据点，也是一名武装头目的藏身处。

On [October] 5, a U.S. special forces Navy Seals shock brigade carried out a surprise attack in the South-Somalian seaport of [Balawei => Barawe] and targeted some dwelling place on the sea in an airborne attack. It is said their target was a stronghold of the armed Somalian Youth Party which is opposing the government and was, as well, the hiding-place of an armed leader.

依照索马里青年党多名头目描述，突击队员由直升机空降至海滨寓所，意图谋杀一名青年党指挥官，但行动失败。

Relying on the description [given by] many leaders of the Somalian Youth Party, members of the shock brigade [moved] by helicopter to the seashore residence with the intention to murder a commander of the Youth Army. However, the operation failed.

[Sky News: Their target was Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, who claimed responsibility for last month's Nairobi shopping mall massacre that killed at least 67 people, according to a Somali intelligence official.]

索马里青年党发言人表示，“这次差劲的行动由白人实施，他们开了两艘船从海上过来……青年党一名卫兵死亡，增援赶到后把外国人赶跑。我们发现了许多血，也许打伤了他们中一些人。”

A spokesman for the Somalian Youth Party stated: "That disappointing operation was carried out by white people. They came over the sea on two ships ..... one guard of the Youth Party died. After reinforcement rushed in, the foreigners hurried to run away. We discovered much blood and wounded several among them."

如果基本事实属实，那么这是4年来海豹突击队首次在索马里实施打击行动。2009年，海豹突击队在同一地区展开行动，击毙一名“基地”组织头目。

If the basic facts are real, this should be the first combat mission of a Navy Seals shock brigade in Somalia during the last four years. In 2009, a Navy Seals shock brigade launched an operation in the same region [where they] shot dead a leader of Al-Qaeda organization.

索马里政府高级官员说，行动前，索马里政府得到美方通知。 综合新华社电/专稿

A high-ranking official in the Somalian government said the Somalian government received notice from the U.S. side before the operation [took place].

- Summary of a telegram from Xin Hua agency / special manuscript -

[Source: mil.sohu 搜狐军事 quoting Xin Hua news agency 新华社 on October 7, 2013]



Al-Shabaab released photos of U.S. gear it says was left behind in the aborted raid.


Editor's Note:
The Chinese expression meaning "Youth Party 青年党" is used to indicate the Arabic name "Harakat Ash-Shabaab Al-Mujahidin حركة الشباب المجاهدين‎ " or "Movement of the Mujahideen Youth". From there, the abbreviation Al-Shabaab is usually taken to name the militant Islamist party in Somalia's civil war which is considered as the Somalian faction of Al-Qaeda.



Defiant Somalian rebels and African Union troops in 2012.

Until August 2011, Al-Shabaab, the Islamist party of Somalia, reached its maximum influence when it controlled half of the country's territory including parts of Somalia's capital Mogadishu. During 2012 that influence decreased, due to military intervention by the African Union. In September 2012, finally, Al-Shabaab was forced out of its most important strongholds and decided to wage a guerilla war that soon swapped into neighbouring Kenya where the bloody attack on a Nairobi shopping mall has just ended. The so-called White Widow, Samantha Lewthwaite, the widow of an Al-Shabaab terrorist of Irish origin, is now suspected of having participated in the Nairobi attack. As her whereabouts could not be detected up to now, she has landed on the wanted list of Interpol:

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The Lonely Wolves of Al-Qaeda

To complete my recent blogspot on Al-Qaeda activities, I decided to add another blogspot on this subject and which is based on an article published by the Spanish magazine CAMBIO 16. In their August 2013 edition, CAMBIO 16 published a feature on Ceuta, the tiny Spanish enclave in Morocco, now seen as a hotbed of jihadism. Here are some excerpts from that feature giving an idea how an isolated Muslimic community can serve as a point of formation for single acting jihadist warriors who are then named lonely wolves. From there, the Spanish article received its title ¡ Menos Lobos ! which can be translated in a rather free style as Need for Less Wolves.


Ceuta - A Factory for Jihadists ?

Hace unos días se llevó a cabo en Ceuta una nueva redada antiyihadista que se suma a la que en 2006 se hizo en el mismo barrio del Príncipe Alfonso y que terminó con la absolución en el Supremo de todos los detenidos.

Some days ago, Ceuta experienced a new anti-jihadist raid that added to another in 2006 and which took place in the same quarter of Prince Alfonso and ended with a "not guilty" verdict before the Supreme Court for all those arrested.

Un lobo solitario es un yihadista que ha combatido en Afganistán, Irak o más recientemente en Siria junto a sus hermanos musulmanes, siguiendo el plan de una organización que le ha llevado desde un punto distante en Europa o África hasta el lugar señalado para participar en los combates. Es un lobo solitario porque a su regreso al país de origen se ha convertido, segun señalan los expertos policiales, en un 'animal herido', sicológicamente hablando, capaz de qualqier acción terrorista individual, sin ningún protocolo organizativo.

A lonely wolf is a jihadist who has fought in Afghanistan, Iraq or more recently in Syria close to his Muslim brethren, such following the plan of an organization that brought him from a distant point in Europe or Africa to a definite place in order to participate in fightings. He is a lonely wolf because, at his return to his homeland, he has transformed into a 'wounded animal', from a psychological point of view, and who is capable of any individual terrorist action whatsoever without any organized guidance.

Para llegar a ser lobo solitario hay que haber combatido, sobrevivido y regresado. Para que haya lobos solitarios es preciso que existan yihadistas reclutados entre los musulmanes en puntos 'calientes' de la geografía política islámica, como por ejemplo los barrios Príncipe Alfonso o Príncipe Felipe, de Ceuta. Las mezquitas, los cafetines, los mercadillos, las calles de los barrios marginales son el lugar propicio para desarrollar estructuras de logística, adoctrinamiento y reclutamiento entre jóvenes dispuestos a dar su vida por el Corán. Y esa es, ahora, la gran preocupación del gobierno.

To become a lonely wolf it needs to have fought, survived and returned. For having lonely wolves is precisely why there exist recruited jihadists among Muslims in "hotspots" of the political geography of Islamic Ceuta, for instance in the quarters of Prince Alfonso and Prince Felipe. The mosques, the small cafés, the small markets, the streets of suburban quarters are perfect places for the development of structures for logistics, instruction and recruitment of youths decided to give their lives for the Coran. And that is now the government's great worry.



Al menos eso es lo que sostiene la política oficial de este gobierno y de las fuerzas de seguridad del Estado, Cuerpo Nacional de Policía y Guardia Civil, que en los últimos nueve años han desarrollado más de quince grandes operaciones contra el terrorismo islámico, con cobertura judicial. De esas operaciones - Nova, Saeta, Sello, Tigris, etc. - se deduce que España es un hervidero de criminalidad terrorista en sus distintas versiones: las que tienen a nuestro país como blanco, las que forman parte de una red internacional de organización de atentados y la que sirve como base para el ejercicio de acciones violentas en otras partes del mundo, como las zonas de conflicto antes señaladas.

This is, at least, what is being supported by official policy of that government and of state security forces, [both] national body of police and Guardia Civil, and who have carried out more than 15 great operations against Islamic terrorism with juridical cover during the last nine years. From these operations - [named] Nova, Saeta, Sello, Tigris etc. - can be derived that Spain is a whirlpool of terrorist crime in its different forms: Those [taking our country for an empty space (?)], those making part of an international network for the organization of assassinations and which is serving as a base for carrying out violent operations in other parts of the world, like the regions of conflict mentioned above.


Terrorist action is something else than the
expression of radical ideas as democracy
is safeguarding the freedom of expression.
[explanation given for a "not guilty" verdict]

In the past, Spanish judiciary seemed to have problems with sentencing terrorist suspects as the CAMBIO 16 article is telling us. One of those suspects who, for the time being, received a "not guilty" verdict and returned to his quarter of Prince Felipe in Ceuta city is now being described by Spanish police as follows:

Karim Abdeselam, alias Marquitos, ha sido acusado por la Policía como responsable máximo de la red que, según ellos, enviaba yihadistas a Siria para cometer atentados terroristas. Según fuentes policiales, Marquitos cumplía órdenes directas del actual número uno de Al-Qaeda, Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

Karim Abdeselam, alias Marquitos, had been accused by the police as the main responsible of that network which, they said, invited jihadists to Syria in order to commit terrorist assassinations. According to sources within the police, Marquitos acted under direct orders from the actual No. 1 of Al-Qaeda, Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

El ministro del Interior, Jorge Fernández, en una nueva y urgente rueda de prensa declaró que había "varias remesas" de yihadistas esperando a ser enviadas a Siria desde Marruecos y Ceuta y que la operación realizada había servido para "neutralizar" la amenaza de quienes regresan a sus países de origen para continuar con la 'yihad individual', es decir, convertirse en lobos solitarios.

The minister of the interior, Jorge Fernandéz, declared in another urgent press conference there were "different deliveries" of jihadists awaiting to be sent to Syria from Morocco and Ceuta, and the operation carried out [by security forces] served to "neutralize" the threat from those who returned to their countries of origin in order to continue with an 'individual jihad', which means to transform themselves into lonely wolves.

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Today's Google Logo: Reminding the German Reunification (National Holiday October 3).




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Deutschland - Sibirisches Erdgas und ölige Nebenprodukte

Ein Besucher vom russischen Erdgasfeld bei Urengoy an der Grenze zum Polarkreis.
Für die Zusammenhänge zwischen einer Versorgung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
mit sibirischem Erdgas und deutscher Politik lesen Sie das historische Kalenderblatt:

Thema:
Die neue Ostsee-Pipeline für Erdgas aus Sibirien unter der Aufsicht von Gazprom-Manager Gerhard Schröder.

Eine deutsche Episode:
Die Kontroverse um eine Bürgschaft der Bundesregierung für diese Pipeline unter Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder.

Im Juni 2005 trafen sich Deutsche-Bank-Vorstand Tessen von Heydebreck und der Vorstandschef von Gazprom Alexej Miller in der litauischen Hauptstadt Vilnius. Hier berieten sie über einen Kredit der Deutschen Bank und der Staatlichen KfW Bankengruppe in Höhe von einer Milliarde Euro – getragen zu gleichen Teilen von 500 Millionen Euro je Bank – für den Bau des Zubringer zwischen dem Gasfeld Juschno-Russkoje (Mehrheitsaktionär BASF-Tochter Wintershall) und der Hafenstadt Wyborg. Abgesichert werden sollte der Kredit durch eine Bürgschaft.

Anschließend beauftragten die beiden Banken die PricewaterhouseCoopers AG, die sich im Auftrag des Bundes um Bürgschaften für ausländische Unternehmen kümmert.

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Anmerkung:
Seit 2012 ist das deutsche Unternehmen BASF-Wintershall auch an der Erschließung des Gasfeldes im sibirischen Urengoy beteiligt, das als weltweit zweitgrößtes Erdgasvorkommen gewertet wird.


Vertragsabschluss zwischen dem BASF-Vertreter Bock und Gazprom-Chef
Miller über die Erschließung des Urengoy-Feldes am 14. November 2012.

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Fortsetzung des Bürgschafts-Krimis:
Vier Tage nach der Bundestagswahl 2005, die für die SPD und ihren "Hartz IV-Kanzler" Gerhard Schröder verloren ging, stellten am 22. September desselben Jahres die Banken ihr Vorhaben dem interministeriellen Ausschuss zur Vergabe von Garantien vor. Das Gremium setzte sich unter der Leitung des Wirtschaftsministeriums aus den Finanz-, Außen- und Entwicklungshilfeministerien zusammen. Das Kanzleramt war dort nicht vertreten.

Am 24. Oktober, zwei Wochen nach der Ankündigung Schröders, sich aus der Politik zurückzuziehen, tagte das Gremium erneut und bewilligte die Bürgschaft unter den Konditionen, dass der Bund 900 Millionen Euro plus Zinsen im Falle eines Scheiterns übernehmen würde. Anders als sonst üblich gilt die Bürgschaft aber auch für „die Deckungszusage sowohl für das politische als auch das wirtschaftliche Risiko“.

Bei den Feierlichkeiten zum Baustart der Pipeline am 9. Dezember 2005 teilte Gazprom-Chef Alexej Miller mit, dass Gerhard Schröder Aufsichtsratsvorsitzender der Betreibergesellschaft Nord Stream werden soll. Dies führte zu Kritik von verschiedenen Seiten, insbesondere von Politikern der Oppositionsparteien, da Schröder das Projekt als Bundeskanzler selbst aktiv mitgestaltet und zusammen mit Russlands Präsident Wladimir Putin forciert hatte.

Bekannt wurde diese Bürgschaft erst am 31. März 2006 in einer Gerichtsverhandlung zwischen Gerhard Schröder und dem FDP-Politiker Guido Westerwelle. Westerwelle behauptete, dass Schröder den „Auftrag“ zum Bau der Pipeline gegeben hätte, doch dieser wollte wegen Rufschädigung gegen Westerwelle vorgehen. In der Verhandlung legte Westerwelles Verteidiger einen Vermerk des Finanzministeriums vor, der an den Haushaltsausschuss des Bundestags adressiert war. Aus dem Papier geht hervor, dass Putin und Schröder den Bau der Pipeline „vereinbart“ hätten, woraus die Verteidigung den „Auftrag“ ableitete. In diesem Papier war aber auch von der Bürgschaft und den Konditionen die Rede.

Schröder entgegnete den Vorwürfen der Verbindung zwischen der Bürgschaft des Bundes und seinem Sitz im Aufsichtsrat, dass das Bundeskanzleramt nicht im Gremium zum Beschluss der Bürgschaft beteiligt gewesen war. Auch unterstrichen er und Gazprom, dass es nie zu der Bürgschaft gekommen sei, weil Gazprom den Kredit zum Bau des Abschnittes letztendlich nicht nutzte.

Nach Angaben aus Regierungskreisen haben zwar der damalige Wirtschaftsminister Wolfgang Clement (SPD), Schröders Wirtschaftsberater im Kanzleramt Bernd Pfaffenbach und Staatssekretär im Finanzministerium Caio Koch-Weser von den Verhandlungen gewusst und die Bürgschaft genehmigt, der Kanzler selbst wurde aber „bewusst“ nicht informiert. Allerdings haben sogar Schröders Koalitionspartner – Bündnis 90/Die Grünen – erklärt, dass Schröder davon gewusst haben muss.

Im Juni 2007 kritisierte der Leiter des Auswärtigen Ausschusses des US-Kongresses, Tom Lantos, Schröder wegen dieser Angelegenheit scharf; die Bundesregierung wies die Äußerungen Lantos’ mit „Deutlichkeit und Entschiedenheit“ zurück.

Kommentar:

Von Gerhard Schröder haben wir zum letzten Mal gehört, als es um die Unterstützung für den regionalen Wahlkampf seiner Frau Doris ging. Er begnügt sich jetzt damit, Kaffee zu kochen und Brote zu streichen. Darüber hinaus weicht er bohrenden Fragen nach den Umweltschäden aus, die eine von ihm geleitete Gazprom-Tochter in Russland zu verantworten haben soll.

Wie dem auch sei, die Flurschäden, die Schröder in der SPD hinterlassen hat, sind unübersehbar. Immerhin steht der Partei selbst nach zwei Legislaturperioden noch immer keine qualifizierte Führungsmannschaft zur Verfügung, der man die Lösung komplizierter Probleme zutraut. Nach dem nüchtern-blassen und völlig uneinsichtigen Müntefering, den Schröder uns hinterließ, hat der (nach eigenen Angaben) doppelte Sitzenbleiber Steinbrück auch keine bessere Figur gemacht. Schön, wenn jemand so offen mit seiner Dummheit umgeh'n kann. Wir sind ja schon froh, wenn uns kein Kandidat mit einem getürkten Titel hinters Licht führt.

So ist es vielleicht kein Wunder, dass Gerhard Schröder zum ersten ehemaligen Spitzenpolitiker der Bundesrepublik wurde, von dem man hört, dass er Leibwächter beschäftigt, damit ihn niemand verhauen kann. In Russland oder, sagen wir, Kolumbien wäre so etwas normal.