More neofascist terrorism in Europe

[Cain]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,816734,00.html#ref=rss

As Germany prepares to commemorate the 10 victims of the killing spree committed by the NSU neo-Nazi group, a former extremist has warned that more potential terrorists are lurking in the far-right scene, which he claims is well-organized and ready to resort to bombing attacks in its goal of creating a "Fourth Reich".

Gabriel Landgraf, 34, a former neo-Nazi from Berlin, says the German far-right scene has long contained potential terrorists with the same militant goals as the so-called Zwickau cell, the trio discovered by chance last November after murdering 10 people since 2000.

"These networks and structures have existed since the 1980s and 1990s. There are theories and strategies going around in the scene for how to go into terrorism," Landgraf, a former senior member of militant far-right groups, told foreign journalists in Berlin.

"People I knew were talking about using pipe bombs and other methods," said Landgraf, a well-spoken, slender man who quit the scene in 2006 and who doesn't want to be photographed. "They were saying that if the Day X, when society and the state collapse and the Fourth Reich can be built on the rubble, doesn't arrive quickly enough, we will have to find other ways and means to make it happen, and that terrorism is an option."

Meanwhile

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,815242,00.html

The leaders of Germany's far-right NPD seek to project the party as mainstream and reasonable. In truth, however, the party is a melting pot for racists, Hitler worshippers and enemies of democracy. There are plenty of reasons to ban the party. But would it make the NPD more dangerous than ever?

The interior ministers of Germany's federal and state governments are in the process of re-examining whether they can -- and should -- ban the NPD. Since authorities uncovered the Zwickau terrorist cell and its supporters, who were apparently organized in a group calling itself the "National Socialist Underground" (NSU), the ministers have been asking themselves the kinds of questions that are critical to a possible attempt to ban the party. How much potential for violence does the NPD hold? Does it intend to violently abolish the democratic system? Can it be proved to be similar in nature to National Socialism? And, perhaps most importantly, would the party be more dangerous if it were banned?

The answers to these questions depends on the statements made by the NPD and how they are interpreted, as well as the actions of the NPD and how much weight they are given. In other words, the answers ultimately depend on the details.

First, however, a fundamental principle needs to be considered, namely, that a party should not be banned merely because it is deeply critical of the prevailing form of government. This is the historic lesson Germany learned from the years of the Nazi reign of terror, when Hitler united society under the swastika and had parties like the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party banned.

The German constitution's response to this despotism is a guaranteed tolerance, which also applies in the political combat zone. Bans should be democracy's last line of defense, nothing less and nothing more. In the case of a political party, another determining factor in considering a ban is whether the party can be accused of having an "actively combative, aggressive posture against the prevailing system." These are the words of the Federal Constitutional Court in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe, the only body in Germany that can impose a ban, and that only with a two-thirds majority.

Paradoxically, the NPD's neo-Nazis are now the main beneficiaries of this anti-Nazi clause in the German constitution. That's why the process of examining a possible ban raises questions that extend beyond the current discussion, such as: How much freedom against the enemies of freedom can a democracy afford, and how much does it want to afford? And, 67 years after the end of World War II, is it an expression of the weakness or strength of German democracy if it takes the case to the Federal Constitutional Court, at the risk of failing there and thus making the right-wing extremists even stronger?

The Ugly Face of the NPD

These questions will accompany the interior ministers when they present their summary of the facts, presumably in March. They are searching for evidence that the NPD wants to overthrow the government, using violence, if necessary, or that it is too closely tied to neo-Nazis who will stop at nothing. There are many indications that those seeking to protect the constitution will not find the information they need at the Dresden offices of NPD members of the state parliament, where the party shows its tame face but, rather, in places like the Thinghaus in Grevesmühlen.

In the spring of 2010, shortly after the building had opened its doors, a party member enthusiastically referred to it as a "national free space" (a phrase used by neo-Nazis to describe what they see as their territory) on a website registered to the Thinghaus address. The domain owner is David Petereit, an NPD member of the state parliament and a former member of a neo-Nazi group called the Mecklenburgische Aktionsfront, which was banned in 2009.

Neo-Nazi rock bands like Stahlgewitter, known to the authorities for its album "Auftrag Deutsches Reich" (German Reich Mission), perform at the Thinghaus on weekends. An appearance by a former Ku Klux Klan leader was only cancelled because German authorities put the American agitator on a plane back to the United States the day before.

The Nazi fortress in Grevesmühlen belongs to Sven Krüger, a right-wing extremist who is currently serving a four-year prison term for dealing in stolen goods and possession of a weapon without a permit. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany's domestic intelligence agency, believes that Krüger is the local head of the "Hammerskin Nation" in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, an American extremist group that is prepared to use violence and believes in the ultimate victory of the Nordic master race.

And one of the tenants here, in this bunker-like building surrounded by a tall fence, is Udo Pastörs, the second-in-command in the NPD national leadership and the party's leader in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament. The "citizens' office" that Pastörs shares with Stefan Köster, the NPD regional chairman for northeastern Germany, is located in the Thinghaus. Neither of the two politicians seems troubled by the links to the neo-Nazi and skinhead scene.

And why should they be? It is precisely their ties to neo-Nazis and other far-right groups that make the NPD as strong as it is.

Associated with Skinheads

It is arguably true that the ultra-extremists of the so-called Freie Kameradschaften ("free comradeships") -- small, loose-knit groups of right-wing extremists who are not officially organized as associations or political parties -- are more uninhibited in their expressions of hate and more prepared to use violence than the NPD. But, without the NPD, they would be nothing but local splinter groups. Only the NPD brings together the right-wing extremists, guaranteeing them nationwide notoriety and, at least in eastern Germany, a significant role as a regional party.

Conversely, the NPD wants to be associated with the street skinheads and with their visceral strength, which repeatedly manifests itself as raw violence. No one, least of all the leaders of the NPD, should be surprised that some of the presumed helpers of the Zwickau terrorist cell were, or still are, members of the party. After all, a hatred of the democratic German state is not just a characteristic of autonomous neo-Nazi groups, but also of the NPD. The desire to combat the state is the party's raison d'être. And the NPD's tactics involve pushing the boundaries of the legal as far as they can go -- even if the party has expressly distanced itself from the murders allegedly commited by the NSU.

So how far does the NPD actually go, and how deeply does it venture into the forbidden zone? Today, sources within the party portray it as a group that:

    agitates against foreigners and Jews;
    idolizes Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich;
    flirts with the idea -- even at the highest levels of its national leadership -- of carrying out political change in the country, using violence if necessary;
    uses its activities in regional parliaments as an opportunity to combat the state;
    conceals its worldview behind the image of a party that is concerned about the needs of voters, which has enabled it to penetrate deeply into middle-class society in eastern Germany.

In the end, there is only one goal for the NPD: to overthrow the system, democracy and pluralism. This conclusion supports the notion that the NPD could in fact be banned. But whether such a ban would be a good idea is another question altogether.

[Triple Zero]

(regarding the first bit, up to "The Ugly Face of the NPD") That sounds very reasonable, they're asking the right questions. I'm not sure what the right answers would be, myself (in context of official policy--personal answers are a different matter). And I wonder if they'll find them.

[Cain]

It's a hard one to call.  I can defintely understand the worries of the German government about letting the NPD run around and act as an umbrella-group for every skinhead with a chip on his shoulder.  With the recent revelations about the NUS group, I can see there being very little sympathy for them, especially from the SPD and Greens, who I would otherwise expect to say "we must let them exist as a party, but combat them at every turn and coordinate with antifascist groups to build a united front".

Then again, the rot extends much further than in the NPD, with the likes of Thilo Sarrazin penning popular diatribes against immigrants and Muslims in a manner very evocative of anti-Jewish propaganda by the Nazis.

[Cain]

The French police suspect the gunman behind the Jewish school shootings in Toulouse, and the killing of three French soldiers of North African descent may have a neofascist angle.

Police are also investigating, however, the possibility of an Islamist angle as well, which does make sense (all the North African kills were soldiers, so agents of the French state, and violent Islamists are as opposed to Jews as Nazis).  However, the former seems more plausible of the two, thus far.

It is known that the same gun and the same scooter were used in all of the shootings.  The police are also investigating eyewitness reports that say the gunman had a camera on his neck - meaning he might have filmed the whole shooting.

That these are shootings also make me lean a bit more towards it being a neofascist group, as it is an unusual tactic for an Islamist terrorist cell - but tactical analysis is not conclusive enough to make this a strong inference.  A gun is more accessible than a bomb, after all, even in France (especially in France) and if he is working on his own, he may lack the skill necessary to make a bomb.

[Cain]

Or not.  French police are currently in an armed standoff with a 24 year old Tolouse man with claimed Al-Qaeda connections.

We'll see if this amounts to more than reading Inspire magazine, and if he actually has any evidence linking him to the shootings.

[LMNO]

I saw that on the news; and it may be exposure to PD.com, but I'm suspicious about all "Lone Gunmen" these days.

[Cain]

In the case of "Al-Qaeda", I'm more likely to suspect a lone gunmen than a criminal conspiracy.  The real Al-Qaeda is probably under ISI house arrest, or else scrabbling around the NWFP with the Taliban.  Yemen are poseurs, AQ in the Mahgreb are just a pre-existing group under a new, higher profile name and Al-Qaeda in Europe is almost entirely fictional.

And we know it's not Ilyas Kashmiri, because the death toll isn't in the hundreds.

[P3nT4gR4m]

"Al-Qaeda" is no longer an organisation, it's punctuation with built in boogeyman. A prefix of "Suspected Al-Qaeda" has all but replaced triple exclamation marks and extra-bold typeface in the uk tabloids.

[Cain]

Back to Germany and the National Socialist Underground.

Was doing some reading on the trials.  You're not going to believe this...the German courts refused access to the trial for any Turkish media outlet.  8 Turks were killed by the NSU.

Fortunately, the German media are gentlemen and scholars, who gave up some of their seats so the Turkish press could be in attendance.  Also, the court dealing with the case of Beate Zschäpe has delayed the trial so it can reallocate press passes to include Turkish and Greek media.