There's been a lot of chatter amongst the jihadis about this,but Germany got a formal threat from al-Qaeda Friday, when an overt warning came from al-Qaeda leader Bekkay Harrach, alias Al Hafidh Abu Talha al Almani. (The 'al Almani' signifies that he is a German Muslim.)
The video, produced by al Qaeda's al Fajr Media Center and distributed via the major jihadi web outlets focused on Germany's upcoming elections and its NATO non-combatant involvement in Afghanistan.It warned that if Chancellor Angela Merkel is re-elected September 27, Germany will be the site of a major new attack.
The last video al Almani appeared in last January warning Germany came out just before a major car bomb attack on the German embassy in Kabul that left four Afghan civilians and an American soldier dead.
Al-Alamani said in the video: "In the democratic system, only the people can return the soldiers to their homeland. If the people insist on continuing the war (in Afghanistan), they sentence themselves to retaliation and clearly show the world that civilians in the democratic system are not innocent people."
"The parliamentary election is the people's only opportunity to shape the policy of the country."
He also cautioned Germany's Muslims 'to avoid anything not necessary for the next two weeks after the election' and said that with the withdrawal of the last German soldiers from Afghanistan, 'the last mujaheed also will be withdrawn from Germany.'
The two front runners in the upcoming elections are the current Chancellor Angela Merkel of the center-right Christian Democratic Union(CDU) and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier,from the leftist Social Democratic Party. At this point, the polls show Merkel with a decent lead.
While both of them say that they won’t set a deadline for withdrawing Germany's 4,500 troops, Steinmeier just this week claimed that he has a 10-point plan aimed at creating the conditions for an international troop withdrawal from Afghanistan within four years. Given that Barack Obama will probably have the US out of Afghanistan much quicker than that, that four years could end up being much shorter if Steinmeier gets elected.Especially if a terrorist strike in Germany has the same effect it did in Spain, which is undoubtedly what al-Qaeda is hoping for.
The issue of German troops in Afghanistan is a relatively minor one in Germany, although it's fairly unpopular. It could become a much larger blip on the radar if it leads to a large casualty terrorist strike in Germany...
I had heard of Al Qaeda's plans to attack Germany but frankly I dismissed them and honestly I'm still skeptical. While the US has received token support from Germany in th form of about 4,500 non combat troops in Afghanistan, the lion share of German resources has gone to support the Jihadists in their fight against America. As such, Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorists have few greater friends in the world than Germany or the German people. Why would Al Qaeda want to attack a government and a people that they and their allies largely control any way? To do so would be to introduce an unstable element into a situation where they are clearly winning.
ReplyDeleteRight now they are defeating America and whatever "allies" it may have soundly in every phase. To attack Germany now would introduce an unknown element into a relaively stable situation for Al Qaeda and their Jihadists allies. How will Germany respond if the Jihadists attack? I suspect they will do what Al Qaeda suspects. They will withdraw whatever token support America currently receives from them and will become active enemies. While this is the most likely response, it is not known for certain.
From Al Qaeda's perspective and the perspecive of all Islamic terrorists, why introduce this unstable element to a situation you control? I suspect it is because Al Qaeda and their allies are not interested in merely defeating America. They want to not only aniahalate us.
They want to humiliate us in the process. In other words mere defeat of America is not enough. When an enemy is full of such hatred as this enemy is, they will not think clearly. If our leadership was alert, we might be able to capitalize on the inevitable mistakes this enemy will no doubt make. Unfortunately our current leadership does not inspire any confidence.