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A Direct Connection of Al-Qaeda to Germany?
John Rosenthal's Transatlantic Intelligencer has some background information on three German women recruited to carry out suicide attacks in Irak and Pakistan.
Apparently a German web site is provided original material from al-Qaeda – before the same material is then passed on to al-Jazeera.
The story - while potentially of great importance for the fight against terrorism - hasn't created much interest in the German media.
I guess it lacks a convenient villain with U.S. citizenship...
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* "In much of Europe's public debate, the true meaning of human rights has degenerated into a tool that gives anti-Americanism an aura of legitimacy. The real, horrendous human-rights violations in the Middle East, North Korea, China, Cuba, etc., are largely ignored or relegated to news blurs on the back pages. For front-page coverage, you need an American angle." ---The Wall Street Journal
* "I discovered that European social democracy, too, was a kind of fundamentalism, rigid and doctrinaire, yielding what Swedish writer Johan Norberg calls "one-idea states"—nations where an echo chamber of insular elites calls the shots, where monochrome media daily reiterate statist mantras and shut out contrarian views, and where teachers and professors systematically misrepresent the U.S. (millions of Europeans believe that free public schools, unemployment insurance, and pensions are unknown in America). The more I saw of the European elites' chronic distrust of the public, and the public's habitual deference to those elites, the fonder I grew of the nasty, ridiculous rough-and-tumble of American democracy..." ---Bruce Bawer
Hmm never heard of that one.
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Spiegel's color scheme is red, black, and white. Now where have I seen that combo before? It was in Germany. It was during the 1,000 years between 1933 and 1945. Oh, yes, I remember.
Posted by: PacRimJim | May 03, 2006 at 07:30 AM
PRJ, will you ever learn to write a comment without making stupid misplaced allusions to the nazis?
Posted by: Klops1 | May 03, 2006 at 10:26 AM
That's funny... sending SPIEGEL a bill for "editorial services". The scary thing is, if SPIEGEL's accounts-payable is like that of a lot of companies, they will probably pay it...
Seriously, it is rather remarkable that corrections like this get made at all, when the pressure is coming solely from a handful of Web sites. Truth is a powerful motivator. Who besides Medienkritik has commented on this article? Just scanning around the handful of English-language sites that I know of, I haven't found anything about it anywhere else. It looks like Medienkritik is catching some eyes among German MSM types.
Posted by: Cousin Dave | May 03, 2006 at 03:19 PM
PacRimJim, that remark is absolutely uncalled for. P*** off.
I would like German readers here to educate me. Most American publications have what is called a corrections policy. They publish corrections to articles in a standard place so readers can see them. Some newspapers, e.g. the Washington Post and New York Times also have ombudsmen, who critique the paper's performance per readers' complaints/compliments.
Same in Germany? Or not?
I get the feeling that website wants me dead l0l.