“They seem a little starved for high-quality English theatre”

Al-Qaida warned Germans on Friday to change their government in the September 27 election, saying they will face a "bad awakening" if they do not, according to two intelligence monitoring services.

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Germany was also told to withdraw its 4,200 troops from Afghanistan or face being attacked at home, the US-based groups said.

In video footage a man identified as Abu Talha the German, and speaking in German, says that if Chancellor Angela Merkel is re-elected, "bitter times await the Germans," according to IntelCenter and the SITE Intelligence Group.

He asks: "Mrs Merkel, what is the logical outcome reaped by the British and Spanish conservatives by their support for the Iraq war?" in an apparent reference to attacks in Madrid and London in 2004 and 2005.

He appears to suggest that if German voters do not heed his warnings, Al-Qaida will act within a fortnight.

Germany's interior ministry said on Friday there was an increased risk of attacks on German soil ahead of the elections, and said security at airports and train stations had been boosted.

Addressing German Muslims Abu Talha says: "Al-Qaeda asks you to stay away from all that is not necessary in the two weeks that follow the elections, if the German people does not decide to withdraw its soldiers from Afghanistan. Keep your children near you in this period."

Abu Talha, whose real name is said to be Bekkay Harrach, stands in front of a red backdrop, wearing a jacket and tie.

He is said by the German authorities to be a native of Morocco, and in his early 30s, who has lived intermittently in Bonn and is now thought to be in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area.

In the footage he asks Muslim youths in Germany to let Al-Qaida act first if the jihad were to begin in Germany, and says they will be told if action is required afterwards.

He also said the city of Kiel "will remain a peaceful city, no matter how long the conflict."

Abu Talha says that if Germany withdraws from Afghanistan, Al-Qaida will no longer target it.

"If the Germans are inclined now towards peace, then the mujahideen will be inclined towards peace, as well. With the departure of the last German soldier from Afghanistan, the last mujahid in Germany will be withdrawn.

"It is time for Germany to know that Afghanistan is not the seventeenth province of Germany and that it is not the 'beer tent' where to hold the 'Oktoberfest' throughout the year," he added.

The authenticity of the nearly 26-minute video cannot be independently verified.

Abu Talha first appeared in a video entitled "Germany's Rescue Plan" from Al-Qaida's media arm, As-Sahab, on January 17.

In that video, he also threatened reprisals if Germany did not withdraw from Afghanistan.

He said Germans were "gullible and naive" if they thought they "were going to get off without injury when they are the third (largest) occupying force in Afghanistan" after the Americans and the British.

He later dictated an audio message that was released on February 26 and was entitled "Islam and the Financial Crisis."

Conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel appears to be on track for re-election, although an opinion poll published on Friday showed her lead to be shrinking.

Your comments about this article:

#68

14:42 September 21, 2009 by perdido

If you need a bible or a quran or whatever to teach you right from wrong then that is just sad. Parents should teach you that. I am not a christian but it seems to me my lifestyle adheres to the ten commandments more that christians do. Aw screw it. Kate and derrickbs name made me hop on here....grr to you two. ha ha

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#69

14:45 September 21, 2009 by Binaural

Right so an atheist has never done an evil thing? Yup ok.

Way to show your incomprehension. How on earth do you infer that?

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#70

14:47 September 21, 2009 by trollydolly

I hit post before I'd finished read it again.

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#71

14:56 September 21, 2009 by medic82

@ Timmeh, actually they are an organization that was set up and financially supported by the US govt as a way to fight against the Russians, during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. at that time it served the US Govt to support creat and support AQ, after the cold war ended AQ had a mind of it's own and turned their backs against the US.

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#72

14:58 September 21, 2009 by Oblomov

...The city of Kiel will be safe for the "whole time of the conflict" (why that, nobody understands).

If the Germans won't el…

Perhaps they are keen on sailing or handball? Is there even a party that has unequivocally declared to pull out German troops from Afghanistan?

Anyway, I wonder about the "hardships" that have been suffered by the Muslim community in Germany after 9/11. Obviously those attacks weren´t very positive for the image of Islam in the public perception and there were all sorts of clandestine controls of bank accounts etc., yet what did amount to real hardships?

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#73

14:59 September 21, 2009 by Timmeh

@medic82, I know how they came into being, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a religious group

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#74

15:00 September 21, 2009 by Element2082

Tell me what you will be doing differently in the coming weeks and how you will be more "aware", what are you going to be more aware about? …

The fact that the motion of the man you described prays in the same fashion as a Hasidic Jew, with probably the same manner of dress escapes conventional logic that a person should be on the lookout for....as you described him....Islamic loonies.

Btw:

The difference is usually the length of the robe. By the hadith, men are supposed to keep the robe above their ankles, in order to be able to run from danger. So if you ever do see a man in a train with a Arabic dress on thats what you want to look for...in terms of adherence to the texts rather than beards and ahem "Ninja" clothes. Not all the bombers were wearing any particular type of robe but nice try.

Anyways here's wishing everyone a safe month and a half. If Timmeh's comments are anything to go by he can do your shopping, pay your bills and mail your post during this time period, don't be shy to use his services....or if you just want him to run around the city in trains on the day....lol....Popeye on Spinach overload

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#75

15:07 September 21, 2009 by trollydolly

Not all the bombers were wearing any particular type of robe.

Didn't the 11th of September bombers spend they day before getting pissed and watching strippers? I don't think we need to look for someone religious just someone who claims to be.

That doesn't help identify them does it. We are screwed!

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#76

15:10 September 21, 2009 by Timmeh

The fact that the motion of the man you described prays in the same fashion as a Hasidic Jew, with probably the same manner of dress escapes conventio…

You've lost me. The point is there are ten squillion religio-whack nuts in this town, how can one be more aware, and what good will it do anyone to be more aware of these people, short of noticing a dynamite jacket?

The difference is usually the length of the robe. By the hadith, men are supposed to keep the robe above their ankles, in order to be able to run from…

Really, what good is noticing how long their ninja clothes are, or what style, or anything like that?

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#77

15:12 September 21, 2009 by Element2082

Haha Timmeh. For a man who couldn't care less about it.....you certainly seem to care a lot about it.....more than most people lol.

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#78

15:16 September 21, 2009 by toko

[quote name='Oblomov' date='21.Sep.2009, 2:58pm' timestamp='1253537898' post='1772435']Perhaps they are keen on sailing or handball? Is there even a party that has unequivocally declared to pull out German troops from Afghanistan?

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#79

15:35 September 21, 2009 by Oblomov

A friend and another guy i know had their phones tapped for almost a year a while back (around 2003/04). Both iranian, both students. After they start…

There probably are and it is rather unpleasant for them, yet does it really amount to "hardship"?

Die Linke.

Didn´t Die Linke start to prevaricate in that issue? http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,649705,00.html

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#80

15:42 September 21, 2009 by sparkling

Btw:

The difference is usually the length of the robe. By the hadith, men are supposed to keep the robe above their ankles, in order to be…

very interesting...

I flew to Istanbul last month, and on the plane there was a young guy with full beard, long robe at the ankle length and running shoes. He seemed to be athletic. I remember looking at him several times and I was somehow worried. Usually guys who wear a robe and grow beard used to be older guys who decided to find religion/God after a certain point in their lives.

I looked at him so many times until I noticed that he was scratching his crotch very often. Disgusting!

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#81

15:46 September 21, 2009 by Element2082

I looked at him so many times until I noticed that he was scratching his crotch very often. Disgusting!

Haha, some people have the effect of making other people sneeze when they look/talk at/about them, you make them scratch their crotch.....well done sir!!!

Kidding. on the subject of youngbeards: My roomate in college went through all those changes. One day decided to grow his beard, take down all his posters off the wall (among many other things)and take down pictures of him and family. All because he thought he saw evil in everday life and wanted to become more religious. Then he got a girlfriend and forgot about all that lol.

( a year later the beard was back as she had dumped him)

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#82

15:54 September 21, 2009 by HerrDinksbumps

AQ and Islamic terrorism are very much about religion. One, Islam is not just a religion - it's a culture.. Entire countries are led by it - to a far more radical and literal degree than so-called Christian countries.. During the Inquisition we did all kinds of terrible things to heretics. We stopped that. Saudi Arabia has not.

Second, it's WAY too easy to just label AQ as "a handful of terrorists" who don't represent the "true" Islam.. ( ) Islam as an entity around the world has done next to NOTHING to try to contain this. They got FAR more active and pro-active over some dumbass Danish cartoons.. THAT got them out onto the streets - to wave around Danish flags.., etc..(and oh yeah, the celebrating after 9/11..) But what have they done to try to excise the cancer of terrorism? Occasional lip service, followed immediately by excuse-making and segueing into talking about Israel and Palestine.. Yes, the IRA were terrorists, ostensibly (though the IRA campaign ranks maybe a 2 out of 10 on the religious scale, compared to a good 9 for Islamic terrorism - one point taken away maybe for the injustices in Palestine..) with a religious background.. But that again is a completely different can of worms.. Same with American Indians. Same with Israel. We're talking here about Islamic terrorists - lunatic fanatics who brag about their willingness to strap a bomb onto themselves and blow up children and old ladies.. Yes yes.. the IRA and Israel have done that too - but NOT indiscriminantly.. My history of IRA terrorism is not that great, but I don't think they blew up buses full of random people, but rather targeted their campaign a good bit moreso than AQ does. In any event, it's apples and oranges IMO. This time it's us against "them" - East vs. West.. Ha ha.. Let the lecturing about the "demonization of the other" begin...

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#83

15:57 September 21, 2009 by grampus

You've never heard of Omagh, I take it...

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#84

16:03 September 21, 2009 by Element2082

They got FAR more active and pro-active over some dumbass Danish cartoons.. THAT got them out onto the streets - to wave around Danish flags.., etc..(…

Have to agree about the Danish flag reference.

The Saudi's have tried a rehab program they say is working better than most. The documentary stated that once they have a wife and kids they are much less likely to do any of this (commentator said: especially a nagging wife lol). The programme is homegrown but I think its partly to protect the ruling royal family as well as more humble goals of giving these people a new lease on life.

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#85

17:31 September 21, 2009 by Ginjikun

Saw 3 heavily armed police officers in front of the Jewish museum. Irony

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#86

19:49 September 21, 2009 by HerrDinksbumps

You've never heard of Omagh, I take it...

I have heard of Omagh.. I didn't realize so many children had been killed.. I thought it was in a disco or something aimed at soldiers..

Nevertheless, it doesn't change anything. You'll laugh, but I think Omagh is an exception in the big IRA or ETA terrorist-type attacks.. These splinter radical groups are (or were..) primarily political - not fanatically religious.. No IRA bombing was ever specifically aimed at young teenagers the way the suicide/homicide bombing in Israel was several years ago (killing a bunch of Russian children...) Islamic fanaticism is psychotic, unhinged, hateful, and ultimately nihilistic. It crosses lines beyond which there can be no more rationalizing as far as I'm concerned. Nothing that ever happened in Palastine can ever justify the gut-wrenching horrors of 9/11 - not only in terms of cold hard facts like dead and dismembered people - kids and old folks in airplanes flying into buildings and people having to jump to certain death from a quarter mile above the streets of New Yorkj - but also symbolically. Yes, Israeli soldiers have killed Palastinian children - but I don't think you can argue that it has ever been the policy of the Israeli army to indiscriminantly and intentionally kill ANY and AS MANY AS POSSIBLE Palastinian civilians - kids, old ladies, etc.. But that precisely is the case with AQ. And THAT is a fundamental difference.

Furthermore, we "tolerate" cultural figures like Theo van Gogh being murdered and practically beheaded for making a film critical of Islam's treatment of women - HERE, in Amsterdam, in the West.. Can you imagine if some western psycho had similarly murdered some Saudi-film maker critical of the West on the streets of Ryadh??

So again, comparing AQ to the IRA or ETA is apples and oranges, and ultimately just daft. This is a difference of kind, not of degree.

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#87

20:12 September 21, 2009 by Druid67

I must say, I'm fascinated as to why Kiel is like Mecca for Islamic terrorists... Quote; "Kiel will remain a peaceful city!!" Is Kiel twinned with Kabul/Mecca?? Does Kiel stand for Kill. Infidels. Even. Lil Kim?? Does Al-Qaeda pass the time by playing handball against their cave dwelling walls and thus a great admirer of the illustrious Kiel handball team?? Does Kiel have the most virgins in Germany?? Possibly, it's close to Hamburg.. Yes, all plausible of course, but I did a bit of Hercules Poiroting around, and discovered that the real reason Kiel is off the Al-Qaeda list is in fact; because the actress Judith Maliana, who played the Grandma in the Addams Family was born in Kiel.. And it is well known amongst MI circles, that the Addams family movie is used to indoctrinate vulnerable new Al-Qaeda recruits by planting in their feeble minds, that this is a typical American family, and terrifying them that this is what awaits them when the great evil ones come to a village near them.. Pretty convincing really when your knowledge of entertainment is when your dad brings home the new TV which is really a cardboard box with the side cut-out and placed over the head of a goat.....!!!

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#88

20:51 September 21, 2009 by sparkling

Focus people, focus! We're not discussing east vs. west, we're also not discussing how horrible the Muslims are. We're discussing the Al-Qaeda and their threat to Germany, to all of us who live here.

Does anybody here know the size of Al-Qaeda, their sponsors, how they obtain weapons, their leaders?

I hope the German police and BKA are able to "focus" on Al-Qaeda and not lose themselves in a wishy washy "but our Europe/West/Germany is great, they/Muslims/East suck" type of debates.

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#89

11:51 September 22, 2009 by toko

They do focus. Security is stepped up as we speak, you'll notice.

Here's an article explaining why Bekkay Harrach is no Joke. Only in German though.

die zeit

roughly: If nothing happened Al Qaeda would lose their credibility, since they never made such a detailed threat to a country.

They even set a time span. They would not do it without actually preparing. Earlier threats have always been vague

This one isn't. And Harrach has known contcts to local jihadists and is believed to be mid tier Al Qaeda, but some say he's only a foot soldier, only important because he's German and speaks German.

The tone of the article is: It is serious and unnerving, because they never made such a clear statement.

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#90

12:25 September 22, 2009 by Punchbear

Does anybody here know the size of Al-Qaeda, their sponsors...?

About 11 men, Emirates.

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#91

12:57 September 22, 2009 by katekatekoala

Fly Emirates?

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#92

16:12 September 22, 2009 by toko

Al-Qaeda oprates as a franchise system. You can open your own cell whereever, whenever you want.

The contacts are easy to get.

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#93

18:35 September 24, 2009 by toko

Now it seems the warnings boil down to Düsseldorf and/or Frankfurt.

source

AWESOME...

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#94

10:35 September 25, 2009 by jeremy

I think those living in those cities should really take care the next few days. The threat we face is real not imagined.

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#95

11:03 September 25, 2009 by Steven192

The big question though is if you do let this affect the way you act then are the terrorists achieveing their aims?

This is the only response we should be making

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#96

11:03 September 25, 2009 by Chrisimo

I think those living in those cities should really take care the next few days. The threat we face is real not imagined.

Unfortunately the threat is like the threat of an undetected asteroid crashing into a city. There's nothing we can really do about it.

@Steven

True. It would be best (but of course also hard) to ignore those guys (at least in public).

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#97

15:18 September 25, 2009 by toko

I think those living in those cities should really take care the next few days. The threat we face is real not imagined.

The monday after the election i'm taking part in a mass event near Flughafen Düsseldorf.

mass event... airport... 2. Bundesliga (ca. 30.000 people) Do i feel safe? I don't know, but i want to see the game.

You can be cautious, but you can't change much about it.

But i still believe that something will happen in one wy or another.

Never before have they made more specific threats. Not in Madrid, not in London.

They would lose credibility if they didn't act at all. And we all know there enough islamists roaming free in Germany.

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#98

15:21 September 25, 2009 by Small Town Boy

Who's "they"? I haven't been following this story overly-closely, but clearly any nutjob can make a video threatening the end of civilisation. That's certainly a lot easier than carrying out said threat.

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#99

15:22 September 25, 2009 by Timmeh

I think "they" are our towel-headed friends from some -box country. I'm not sure if that makes it any clearer or not.

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#100

15:36 September 25, 2009 by toko

Who's "they"? I haven't been following this story overly-closely, but clearly any nutjob can make a video threatening the end of civ…

The nutjob Bekkay Harrach is a known figure. Raised in Germany, GErman citizen, born in Morocco. Islamist. They even know who "hired" him for Al Qaeda. The Sauerland Zelle also had contact to him. Germany bailed him out of a Syrian (or Jordanian) prison once and helped organising treatment for a gunshot wound in hebron, if they only knew.

This is not a random nutjob. Still a nutjob. His wife is a German convert, they're believed to be in Pakistan now.

For me the videos seem very 'real'. And if you see the armed personell carriers with MG42 ontop at Düsseldorf airport you see he's taken for real.

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#101

19:38 September 29, 2009 by sparkling

Now it seems the warnings boil down to Düsseldorf and/or Frankfurt.

I'm not liking this. Frankfurt is a more likely target, wouldn't you think? Financial center, large airport, international residents making it…[/quote]Yes there is. I lived in Istanbul during the times of PKK and before that the Asala threat. It is naive to think that we should take it easy and not give the terrorists the pleasure to see our fear. We should fear and take actions. I admit that it's not easy. Not all Kurds supported PKK, not all Armenians supported Asala, and not all Muslims support Al Qaide. That's what makes the fight against terrorism very difficult.

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#102

11:15 September 30, 2009 by Lorelei

Abu Talha, whose real name is said to be Bekkay Harrach, stands in front of a red backdrop, wearing a jacket and tie.

This must be their new look. Long hair and a central parting. Scary!

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