Germany: Stockup food for attack as refugees invade

[Anthea]

How attacks are forcing Germany to examine civil freedoms

"Germany remains a safe country with a strong police force, with well organised security agencies… We are good [at security] but we want to be better."

Germany's interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, has recently unveiled a long list of anti-terror measures: thousands of new police officers, billions of euros for the security services, better cyber intelligence and faster deportation of foreign criminals.

This was, of course, in one sense about reassuring the German public. It is not the first time the government has announced anti-terror measures. But it is also the response to what are thought to have been the first terror attacks on German soil inspired by so-called Islamic State (IS).

Last month, in the town of Ansbach, a Syrian man wounded 15 people when he blew himself up at a music festival. A few days earlier, a teenager attacked passengers on a train with an axe.

But Germany has not experienced a major co-ordinated terror attack on the scale of those perpetrated on Paris or Brussels - yet. Security sources fear it may be a matter of time.

The deputy head of the Bavarian intelligence agency, Manfred Hauser, says "the risk is abstract but very high that we have hit squads and sleeper cells in Germany... We have clear signs that an IS command structure exists. There may be someone within it who is responsible for planning attacks in Germany."

Mr Hauser says his agents are investigating a substantial number of reports that suggest IS has exploited the migrant crisis, sending in teams of people - the "hit squads" - disguised as refugees to prepare attacks.

IS is also believed to be targeting young asylum seekers whose experiences may have left them traumatised and vulnerable to radicalisation.

"One reason it's hard to be certain is we don't know exactly who's come into the country as a refugee," says Mr Hauser. "Many of the refugees weren't registered. That makes it very difficult for the intelligence services to determine which dangerous individuals have come into the country."

And, he adds, there's another group of people which worries the authorities - "people who have returned from Syria or Iraq who have had weapons training there, were trained in terrorism and have been brutalised by taking part in armed fighting. This is a very dangerous group of people."

It's estimated that more than 800 Germans may have fought in Syria or Iraq. Around a third are thought to have returned to Germany. Those with dual nationality will be stripped of their German citizenship, the interior minister said on Thursday.

Recent polls suggest around three quarters of Germans are worried by the threat of terror. The co-author of one study, Prof Manfred Schmidt from Heidelberg University, was quoted as saying: "People used to worry about money, health and the environment. This has been replaced by terrorism and extremism."

The perceived link between that terror threat and the arrival of more than a million people seeking asylum in the country (both of last month's attackers entered the country as asylum seekers) is problematic for Germany's politicians.

Two questions - how to keep Germany safe and how to integrate the new arrivals - already dominate what is, in effect, unofficial campaigning for next year's general election.

Bear in mind the mainstream parties here have lost votes to the populist, right-wing Alternative fuer Deutschland. And the fierce political, and public, debate around the terror threat now goes well beyond the question of domestic security.

Mr de Maiziere, for example, is under pressure from some of his fellow conservatives to impose a ban on the burka and to outlaw dual citizenship.

Arguably, Germany is at a crossroads, facing profound questions about what kind of society it wants to be.

Take the country's defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, who wants to call in the military to work alongside the police in the event of terrorist attacks.

Armed German soldiers haven't deployed on German soil since World War Two. With this call, she has raised a sensitive - and for many, taboo - subject.

Prof Michael Wolfssohn, a German historian, believes there is a fundamental shift in German thinking. In Europe, he says, "we are going through an historic change. As long as we had no real terrorist threat in Germany but rather a theoretical one, this discussion remained theoretical.

"But we have a new reality and that's why ordinary citizens, not right-wingers but ordinary citizens, are afraid and therefore it will become ever more easy for politicians to persuade the public... that they will have to react."

Equally unnerving for many are the debates around privacy. There are calls for more video surveillance and for the use of facial recognition software in public places.

The government wants to begin talks with doctors about how and when it's appropriate to share information with the authorities about a patient who may pose a risk to public safety.

These are highly-charged debates for Germany, a country which values privacy and where many still remember life under a regime which routinely spied on its own citizens.

Modern Germany prides itself on its civil freedoms. The dilemma facing its leaders now is how to keep its citizens safe while safeguarding the values they cherish.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37059830

[Anthea]

Germans told to stockpile food and water for civil defence

For the first time since the Cold War the German government is advising citizens to stockpile food and water for use in a national emergency.

Some opposition MPs said the new civil defence concept, to go before ministers on Wednesday, was scaremongering.

Citizens are advised to store enough food to last them 10 days, because initially a disaster might put national emergency services beyond reach.

Five days' water - two litres (half a gallon) per person daily - is advised.

The German news website Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) said the new concept was set out in a 69-page German Interior Ministry document.

The document said "an attack on German territory, requiring conventional defence of the nation, is unlikely". But, it said, a major security threat to the nation in future could not be ruled out, so civil defence measures were necessary.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told a group of schoolchildren that Germany must be prepared to react if water or food reserves were poisoned, or if oil and gas supplies were interrupted.

The parliamentary head of the left-wing Die Linke party, Dietmar Bartsch, criticised the move, saying "you can completely unsettle people with yet another round of proposals, such as hoarding supplies".

The Greens' deputy parliamentary leader, Konstantin von Notz, said it was sensible to update civil defence advice which had not been touched since 1995.

But he warned against mixing up possible military or terrorist scenarios, saying "I can't see any attack scenario that merits a stockpiling of supplies by the population"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37155060

[Anthea]

Europe migrant crisis: Germany expects 'up to 300,000' this year

Germany expects up to 300,000 migrants to arrive in the country this year, the head of its Federal Office for Migration and Refugees said.

Frank-Juergen Weise told the Bild am Sonntag paper that his office would struggle if more people came.

But he said he was confident the number of new arrivals would remain within the estimate.

More than one million migrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa arrived in Germany last year.

The German interior ministry says more than 390,000 people applied for asylum in the first six months of this year, but it is not clear how many of these may have arrived in the country in 2015

Mr Weise said Germany would try to get as many of them on the job market as possible.

But he said the migrants' integration in German society "would take a long time and cost a lot".

A poll this month showed just over half of Germans thought Chancellor Angela Merkel's migrant policy was bad.

Support for anti-immigrant groups has risen.

On Saturday, members of a far-right movement scaled Berlin's Brandenburg Gate and unfurled a banner to protest against what they called the "Islamisation" of Germany.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37207800

[Anthea]

How attacks are forcing Germany to examine civil freedoms

"Germany remains a safe country with a strong police force, with well organised security agencies… We are good [at security] but we want to be better."

Germany's interior minister, Thomas de Maiziere, has recently unveiled a long list of anti-terror measures: thousands of new police officers, billions of euros for the security services, better cyber intelligence and faster deportation of foreign criminals.

This was, of course, in one sense about reassuring the German public. It is not the first time the government has announced anti-terror measures. But it is also the response to what are thought to have been the first terror attacks on German soil inspired by so-called Islamic State (IS).

Last month, in the town of Ansbach, a Syrian man wounded 15 people when he blew himself up at a music festival. A few days earlier, a teenager attacked passengers on a train with an axe.

But Germany has not experienced a major co-ordinated terror attack on the scale of those perpetrated on Paris or Brussels - yet. Security sources fear it may be a matter of time.

The deputy head of the Bavarian intelligence agency, Manfred Hauser, says "the risk is abstract but very high that we have hit squads and sleeper cells in Germany... We have clear signs that an IS command structure exists. There may be someone within it who is responsible for planning attacks in Germany."

Mr Hauser says his agents are investigating a substantial number of reports that suggest IS has exploited the migrant crisis, sending in teams of people - the "hit squads" - disguised as refugees to prepare attacks.

IS is also believed to be targeting young asylum seekers whose experiences may have left them traumatised and vulnerable to radicalisation.

"One reason it's hard to be certain is we don't know exactly who's come into the country as a refugee," says Mr Hauser. "Many of the refugees weren't registered. That makes it very difficult for the intelligence services to determine which dangerous individuals have come into the country."

And, he adds, there's another group of people which worries the authorities - "people who have returned from Syria or Iraq who have had weapons training there, were trained in terrorism and have been brutalised by taking part in armed fighting. This is a very dangerous group of people."

It's estimated that more than 800 Germans may have fought in Syria or Iraq. Around a third are thought to have returned to Germany. Those with dual nationality will be stripped of their German citizenship, the interior minister said on Thursday.

Recent polls suggest around three quarters of Germans are worried by the threat of terror.

The co-author of one study, Prof Manfred Schmidt from Heidelberg University, was quoted as saying: "People used to worry about money, health and the environment. This has been replaced by terrorism and extremism."

The perceived link between that terror threat and the arrival of more than a million people seeking asylum in the country (both of last month's attackers entered the country as asylum seekers) is problematic for Germany's politicians.

Two questions - how to keep Germany safe and how to integrate the new arrivals - already dominate what is, in effect, unofficial campaigning for next year's general election.

Bear in mind the mainstream parties here have lost votes to the populist, right-wing Alternative fuer Deutschland. And the fierce political, and public, debate around the terror threat now goes well beyond the question of domestic security.

Mr de Maiziere, for example, is under pressure from some of his fellow conservatives to impose a ban on the burka and to outlaw dual citizenship.

Arguably, Germany is at a crossroads, facing profound questions about what kind of society it wants to be.

Take the country's defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, who wants to call in the military to work alongside the police in the event of terrorist attacks.

Armed German soldiers haven't deployed on German soil since World War Two. With this call, she has raised a sensitive - and for many, taboo - subject.

Prof Michael Wolfssohn, a German historian, believes there is a fundamental shift in German thinking. In Europe, he says, "we are going through an historic change. As long as we had no real terrorist threat in Germany but rather a theoretical one, this discussion remained theoretical.

"But we have a new reality and that's why ordinary citizens, not right-wingers but ordinary citizens, are afraid and therefore it will become ever more easy for politicians to persuade the public... that they will have to react."

Equally unnerving for many are the debates around privacy. There are calls for more video surveillance and for the use of facial recognition software in public places.

The government wants to begin talks with doctors about how and when it's appropriate to share information with the authorities about a patient who may pose a risk to public safety.

These are highly-charged debates for Germany, a country which values privacy and where many still remember life under a regime which routinely spied on its own citizens.

Modern Germany prides itself on its civil freedoms. The dilemma facing its leaders now is how to keep its citizens safe while safeguarding the values they cherish.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37059830

[Anthea]

How attacks are forcing Germany to examine civil freedoms

There has been a large number of attacks on German females by single male refugees

There ave also been a very large number of fights between the different groups of refugees

Germany: Stockpile water and food ready for ISIS attack

In affect Germans are being told that ISIS is expected to pollute the water or food chain - that idea must have come from some information Germany security services has unearthed

German government did not just wake up one day and say "What can we do to frighten the population?"

On Saturday, members of a far-right movement scaled Berlin's Brandenburg Gate and unfurled a banner to protest against what they called the "Islamisation" of Germany.

Why are frightened people who are being treated like dirt by their government be classed as right wing - the general main-stream politicians are supposed to represent the general public but fail to do so

[Anthea]

Woman with two small children is arrested after 'carrying bag with traces of EXPLOSIVES' at Frankfurt Airport

German police have evacuated two terminals at Frankfurt Airport
Passengers have been ordered to leave terminals A and A+ 'immediately'
Officials at the airport revealed that a person had breached the security
Fears a female suspect had an explosive device in her hand luggage

A woman with two small children has been arrested at Frankfurt Airport after she was suspected of carrying a bomb in her bag.

Police found traces of explosives in her bag after she was stopped for a security check at the terminal.

The incident caused the evacuation of a terminal, plunged passengers into panic and caused long delays for incoming and outgoing flights.

After she was arrested police reported no explosive device or material was found but that traces of explosives were discovered in her rucksack. She continues to be questioned.

Earlier reports said she fled through the checkpoint and got lost amid the thousands of people in the terminal. Now it appears she was immediately apprehended.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... uated.html

The obvious questions to ask are:
Where are the explosives?
Where had she come from?
Had she recently landed at the airport?