Official warns anti-U.S. mood is growing
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| Thu, 11-20-2003 - 12:12pm |
Not suprised at all.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Germany%20Terrorism
Thursday, November 20, 2003 · Last updated 8:48 a.m. PT
Official warns anti-U.S. mood is growing
By TONY CZUCZKA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
PULLACH, Germany -- Anti-American and anti-Western sentiment is growing out of anger at the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Germany's foreign spy chief said Thursday.
August Hanning, head of the Federal Intelligence Service, said the U.S. occupation of Iraq has become a new rallying point for a resurgent al-Qaida.
"Successes on the military front alone will not lead to a solution," Hanning said in a speech to a conference on the Middle East in Pullach, near Munich, where his agency is based.
"We are in the process of losing the battle for people's minds."
Thursday's deadly bombings of the British consulate and the offices of a British-based bank in Istanbul, Turkey, bore the hallmarks of an al-Qaida attack, Hanning later told a news conference.
Al-Qaida has "regenerated" after being scattered and weakened by the war that drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan and the capture of key members, Hanning said.
"Now they are once again able to carry out attacks on a major scale," he said.
Bin Laden's day-to-day role in planning attacks by his terror network is hard to pin down, he said.
"But we believe he still plays an important role in the background," he said. "He communicates with his supporters through his messages. He tries to mobilize them, and of course he uses the situation in Iraq."
Iraq "risks becoming a crystallization point" for the radical Islamic cause, Hanning said. "Much depends on how things develop in Iraq."
But he warned the U.S.-led coalition against pulling out.
"That would be a victory for the Islamists," he said.
Hanning noted that intelligence officials believe Islamic activists eager to fight the occupying forces have been trickling from Europe to Iraq in recent months.
He refused to give details, saying only that the number was "relatively small."
Intelligence agencies also see a growing threat that parts of Southeast Asia - notably Indonesia - and East Africa are becoming terrorist bases, Hanning said.
But he expressed particular alarm about Turkey - a secular Muslim country, NATO member and ally of Israel - after Thursday's blasts and a pair of synagogue bombings in Istanbul last Saturday.
"These are clear signals that targets are being attacked that signal Turkey's cooperation with the West and with Israel," Hanning told the news conference.
Turkey's image of "relative stability" may have been deceptive because of its closeness to the Middle East and Chechnya, he said.
"In that sense, Turkey is strategically very exposed," Hanning said.
In his speech, he portrayed the Arab world as explosive because of its social inequalities and growing pool of alienated young people.
Western governments must promote social and economic progress along with democracy, Hanning said.
"Otherwise, the preachers of hate will surge into the void," he said.
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Miffy
Miffy
And yet millions of Americans remain willing to vote for this despicable fraud and fool. What on earth can they be thinking?
But DUMBya Bush, by his arrogant unilateralism, his administration's sneering at anyone who didn't totally obey their wishes, SQUANDERED all that good will. If you are wondering why Germany, etc, aren't helping so much, you have the US president to blame for it.
So, everyone who is ticked at Bush will just turn a "blind eye" on the Iraq situation, terrorism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
Miffy
It's going to become more & more
btw, for the record, the Krauts have troops in AFghanistan, as do the Canucks and other nations. But don't expect many nations to send forces to a certain doom in Iraq any time soon.
Miffy
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