http://www.german-foreign-policy.com en-en http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56202 (Own report) - The Bertelsmann Foundation presented a list of foreign policy demands to the new US administration. According to the Bertelsmann Foundation, the "Briefing Book," which was presented last week in Washington, is a "policy blueprint that proposes strategies" for the US president-elect and his team, "from a distinctly European perspective." The Briefing Book highlights the central issues of current world policy - from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the financial crisis - demanding that the US give more importance to Europe. Washington must "take the right approach and tone" in the future, is how the Bertelsmann Foundation describes the German-European demand for increased influence. A similar orientation is outlined in a paper that the EU foreign ministers addressed to the new US administration, focusing on Europe's demand for an increased share of power. To implement its demands, the EU is cooperating with Moscow. The EU's demand for a more significant role is leading toward an intensification of armed conflicts: The EU foreign ministers announced their increased readiness to participate in wars. The struggle, waged particularly by Berlin, to, in the future, play a role as a major power, is being overshadowed by a meltdown of the real economy. 2008/11/17 http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56201 (Own report) - In the midst of accusations of corruption, Berlin is using a German president's state visit to Nigeria to expand business relations with this West African nation. Germany is interested, above all, in the country's natural gas deposits, the seventh largest in the world. The German Eon Corp. seeks to profit from its exploitation and shipment to Europe, which is why it has now promised billions in investments. Within the framework of an energy agreement that is accompanying the natural gas deal, numerous German companies concluded contracts in Nigeria, among them the Siemens Corp. Siemens had been recently placed on the Abuja government's blacklist, for having paid millions in bribery to Nigerian government officials. During this current visit, the German President Horst Koehler insisted that decisive measures be undertaken to fight corruption. Human Rights organizations are demanding the same, but note that those Nigerians fighting corruption are receiving little support from Berlin - in their efforts to investigate German banks, accused of money laundering. Experts on West Africa say the corruption used by a major German construction company is "notorious." 2008/11/12 http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56200 (Own report) - Reaffirming their desire for a position of global leadership, Berlin and Brussels have put forward their first demands to the incoming US administration. After last week's informal EU summit, European leaders stated that the EU would like to be a trail-blazer in overcoming the world's financial crisis. Concrete proposals have been elaborated for next weekend's World Financial Summit, which could provoke a power struggle with the United States, because they are diametrically opposed to US priorities and are seeking to weaken the US position in the global financial system. The days of the dollar's uncontested predominance are over, and it is about time that the Euro's growing importance is reflected in the rules of the world's financial exchanges, French President Sarkozy declared in the name of the EU. German government advisors see a certain risk: if the EU surges ahead, it would likely end in failure. The German government is attempting to camouflage its German-European offensive for gaining influence as a transatlantic alliance "renewal" proposal, supplemented with proclamations of sympathy for President-elect Barack Obama. 2008/11/10 http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56199 (Own report) - The Federal College for Security Studies (Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik - BAKS) is organizing a conference on logistics to promote close cooperation between private industry and the organs of repression. The two day conference, ending today, is focussing on protecting global freight transport from violent attack. The government, business, the intelligence services and the military are represented as well as important logistics companies, including the Deutsche Post AG and a subsidiary of the Deutsche Bahn. These two former state monopolies are closely cooperating with the German military (Bundeswehr). This conference is a continuation of BAKS' earlier initiatives, some of which have already begun to show signs of success. Under pressure from BAKS, for example, that German firms operating abroad have already begun designating individuals ("Single Point of Contact") to serve as "exclusive contacts" to German state organs. The growing foreign trade boom is an incitement for German businesses to cooperate with the repression/military complex. The prospect of lucrative profits, endangered by escalating global conflicts, is inducing business representatives to cooperate with intelligence services and the Bundeswehr. 2008/11/05 http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56198 (Own report) - According to the separatist "government" in Pristina, the German Government is paying millions in militarily equipment to transform the former UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army - KLA) terrorist group into a Kosovan army. German soldiers are providing "manned support" and the German Bundeswehr the military hardware. The new troops, operating under the name of the "Kosovo Security Force" (KSF), due to be operational by next June, are being recruited from the current "Kosovo Protection Corps" (KPC), the successor organization of the KLA. In the future, they can be deployed around the world within the framework of NATO interventions. Not only the future army of Kosovo, but even the secessionist government's new "minister of defense" Fehmi Mujota have their roots in KLA tradition. The current "prime minister" was once the militia's political leader and other current top politicians in Pristina had also been active in the KLA. Charges of serious war and postwar crimes raised against them have remain unsettled. Berlin is broadening its cooperation with these former militiamen and beginning to arm them - in strict accordance with NATO standards. 2008/10/31 http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56197 (Own report) - In spite of the escalating war in the Congo, Berlin is intensifying its support for one of the warring parties. For several weeks already, militias have been launching bloody attacks all over eastern Congo, causing hundreds of thousands to flee the region. The militia's leader, a notorious war criminal, is a partisan of Rwanda's government and the Rwandan army is poised to intervene on his behalf. After having negotiated military aid to Rwanda last April, the German government is stepping up its cooperation with the Kigali government. New finances have recently been allocated - only a few days after Rwanda's partisan in the Congo announced a putsch. These rebellions are prolonging a war that, on a world scale, has been the bloodiest in the past decades, with Germany having abetted the same party from the very beginning: its former colony Rwanda. Rwanda has been seeking control over the resource rich eastern Congo. This must be seen in the context of the strategic premises of the German-US Africa policy, envisaging close cooperation with Kigali. 2008/10/28 http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56196 (Own report) - With his visit to the Middle East, the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is hoping to avert the bankruptcy of the state of Pakistan. Pakistan, where he arrives on Monday, is one of Germany's most important military allies in Asia. After months of serious economic difficulties, the country is facing bankruptcy in this global financial crisis. An economic collapse would push Pakistan to the brink of political disintegration with dire consequences for the West, which is dependant on its contribution to the occupation of Afghanistan. Subsequent to his visit to Islamabad, the German foreign minister will pressure two Persian Gulf oil producing nations to support standby credits for Pakistan. But his visit to Islamabad will begin with talks on military cooperation in the region bordering Afghanistan, where the US has been carrying out regular air raids - leaving numerous civilian casualties. A group of German parliamentarians is presently holding talks with officials in Islamabad on the continuation of so-called German development aid, adding a civilian component to Western intervention in Pakistan. 2008/10/27 http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56195 (Own report) - Serious accusations are being raised in Afghanistan against the police that Germany had been responsible for establishing. According to a recent investigation by the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), children and juveniles are being tortured in Afghan police custody, to the extent that only one in five juveniles reported not having been ill-treated while in custody. For more than six years, Germany has been the "leading nation" in the domain of setting up the Afghan police and has declared its intentions to rectify the irregularities. In fact the German authorities involved are not only cooperating with the notorious warlords, but are focusing the police training on counter-insurgency. The result is a barbarization of the forces of repression. Already back in the 1960s and '70s, serious accusations were raised against the Afghan police. Also at that time, it was West Germany that was taking care of training the Afghan police. 2008/10/21 http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56194 (Own report) - The Southern Sudanese secessionist regime is arming its militia with heavy weapons in plain sight of German military observers. This was confirmed in recent reports on the supply of combat weapons to Southern Sudan, following news of tanks destined for Juba on a freight ship, hijacked off the coast of Somalia. This arms buildup is tolerated by the United Nations' military observers, even though this is in violation of the cease-fire agreement. The staff of observers includes numerous Germans. This must be seen in the context of the secession referendum scheduled for 2011, whose predicted outcome will be Southern Sudan, with its riches in resources, seceding from the rest of the nation. Berlin is already supporting the establishment of state structures in Juba, using so-called development organizations, police advisors and jurists. For years, Berlin has been aiding Southern Sudan's secession, to which the current arms procurement is a military prerequisite. Together with the USA, the German government seeks to roll back Islamic influence at the Horn of Africa and therefore crush the power of the Islamic spectrum in Somalia and the Sudanese government. 2008/10/20 http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56193 (Own report) - The German Ministry of Development is continuing to pursue its controversial measures of gaining influence in Bolivia. A few days ago, Berlin accorded La Paz a loan of 48 million Euros, earmarked for various waterworks projects in the country. In the past Germans have used this means to demand the privatization of the businesses involved with water, this basic element of survival - and were confronted with massive protests from social movements, which successfully drove profit-seeking investors out of the Bolivian waterworks branch - in spite of German interventions. The recent loan of German development funds takes place in a very tense situation in La Paz. The central government is being threatened by the autonomy movements of the richest provinces in the east of the country, who rely on contacts to several western industrial nations. The milieu of the autonomists, who have their contacts all the way to Germany, includes people who are violence prone, fascists and putschists. 2008/10/14