GERMAN NEO-NAZIS CHARGED WITH PLANS TO NAIL-BOMB REFUGEE SHELTERS, KILL CLERICS?
Four German members of a hardcore neo-Nazi terror cell have
been charged with planning to bomb refugee shelters and assassinate Salafi
clerics, media report. It comes alongside warnings by German politicians
far-right violence against refugees is on the rise.
Federal prosecutor Peter Frank filed criminal charges
against four suspects of a neo-Nazi terror cell called “Oldschool Society” on
Wednesday, according to German media.
The four, including one woman, were referred to as Andreas
H., 57, Markus W., 40, Denise Vanessa G., 23, and Olaf O., 47, in the media
reports.
Together, they allegedly formed the inner core of the neo-Nazi terror group. The four extremists began meeting in November 2014, well before the influx of refugees reached current record levels, and launched a Facebook group to propagate their ideas and recruit affiliates.
Their Facebook cover at the time was an infamous photo of an entrance to Auschwitz concentration camp reading “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work will make you free”), Spiegel reports. They also posted a YouTube recruitment advertisement saying, “We need every man, every woman to fight together for our homeland.”The "Oldschool Society" also used WhatsApp and Telegram messengers for communication, and set up a clandestine HQ dubbed “Privy council.”By May 2015, the neo-Nazi group was reportedly ready to carry out “a couple of actions” against refugee shelters, including one in the German town of Borna. It ordered its members to wear “black, casual clothes,” according to wiretapped phone conversations cited by Der Spiegel.At the same time, the Oldschool Society allegedly sent Markus W. and Denise Vanessa G. to the Czech Republic, where they were tasked with buying large amount of explosive materials, while another suspect, Andreas H., worked on how to increase the power of their nail bombs.The terror group members were detained in May 2015 following an operation by dozens of GSG 9 elite counterterrorist operatives, who simultaneously raided the homes of 10 neo-Nazis, including those of Andreas H., Markus W., Denise Vanessa G. and Olaf O. Explosive devices labeled “Cobra” and “Viper” as well as baseball bats were found in the suspects’ locations.
“That was quite a dangerous group,” an unnamed investigator
told journalists. “It could quickly grow up and turn into a terrorist
community.”
As refugees from war-torn and underdeveloped countries
continue to arrive in Germany, far-right violence against them is growing.
Source: Agency
GERMAN ANTI-MUSLIM PROTESTERS RALLY IN SEVERAL CITIES
Protesters marched in several German cities on Monday
against higher levels of immigration and what they see as the growing influence
of Islam, in defiance of an appeal from Chancellor Angela Merkel to spurn
rallies she views as racist.The rallies, organized by a new grassroots movement known as PEGIDA, or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West, have become an almost weekly event in the east German city of Dresden in recent months.
Some 18,000 people, the biggest number so far, turned out in
Dresden on Monday but similar rallies in Berlin and the western city of Cologne
were heavily outnumbered by counter-protesters who accuse PEGIDA of fanning
racism and intolerance.The PEGIDA protesters waved Germany's black, red and gold flag and brandished posters bearing slogans such as "Against religious fanaticism and every kind of radicalism".
- One poster in Cologne called for "potatoes rather than doner kebabs", a swipe at ethnic Turks who at around three million represent Germany's largest immigrant community.
Germany has some of the world's most liberal asylum rules,
partly due to its Nazi past. The number of asylum seekers arriving in Germany,
many from the Middle East, jumped to around 200,000 last year -- four times as
many as in 2012.In her New Year address, Merkel urged Germans to shun the anti-Muslim protesters, saying their hearts were full of hatred.
Source: Reuters...More...
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