“The Dogs Are Listening Too”

Terrorists: Abu Mossab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian thought to be Al Qaida’s new terrorist planner, is actually a man with excellent German contacts. An analysis of the transcripts of bugged conversations permits only one conclusion to be drawn: while Germany played a central role in planning and logistics before the attacks of 11 September 2001, German supporters once again helped hundreds of Al Qaida fighters to escape from Afghanistan this spring with the help of illegal passports. Worse still: the faceless terrorist appears to have set about bringing the ‘holy war’ to Germany too.

“The Real Blow Is Still to Come”

Oil pollution: The oil disaster off the coast of Galicia could equally well have hit Germany. Masses of rusty Russian ships, brimful with oil, squeeze their way through the narrow waterways of the Baltic Sea. More tankers pass through the Øresund and Belt than through the Persian Gulf. A major disaster is simply a matter of time.

“Dangerous Boomerang Effect”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with future UN judge Bruno Simma about the inevitable extension of a state’s right to self-defence, a possible attack by the USA on Iraq – and his doubts about the usefulness of prosecuting dictators:

“A state can be charged before the International Court of Justice if it violates the Charter of the United Nations. That could also happen to the USA. However, the court can only rule on such a case if Iraq and the Americans accept the jurisdiction of the ICJ. … The limits of a nation’s right to self-defence have been fuzzy for some time now. September 11 made it clear once and for all that existential threats to a nation don’t have to fit the picture of an armed attack by one nation on another. … The Charter of the United Nations is aimed at defending the world community against threats to peace, but not at defending individual nations. So if one state simply launches an attack pre-emptively, the consensus no longer applies. … The question is, what will serve justice most. Political solutions are often simply better here than merely legal ones.”

“Bali Was Just the Beginning”

SPIEGEL interview with Al Qaida expert Rohan Gunaratna about the battle against the network in Southeast Asia and the mistakes made by the USA:

“President Megawati Sukarnoputri is incapable of routing out and destroying the terrorist cells in her country. Al Qaida exists and operates there in full force to this very day. … Indonesian security circles are very well informed about the presence of Al Qaida cells. They also know in great detail about the composition and activities of Jemaah Islamiah, and they know Abu Bakar Ba’asyir. He is the ideological, spiritual and political leader of Al Qaida in Southeast Asia. … The war has to be fought with ideological weapons too. And if a prisoner is cooperative, you mustn’t lock him up in a cage. The camp at Guantanamo Bay should have been divided into two a long time ago. Those who confess and are willing to cooperate, have to be given the chance of living with their families. They have to be used against the enemy organisation, but the Americans aren’t doing that.”

“Extremely Great Danger to Life”

German Armed Forces: From the pilots’ point of view, poor training, a lack of flying practice and sloppy supervision are to blame for the fact that the German airforce has lost 19 Tornados in the last 11 years. One of the accidents is now being investigated in a court of law – and the consequences for the German government could be unpleasant. Inevitably, the trial will reveal how the Luftwaffe’s once proud fleet of Tornados has declined over the years. Since 1981, the armed forces have purchased 396 Tornados for the equivalent of 20 billion euros. But in the meantime, important parts of their equipment are no longer up-to-date. Apparently, due to the strict austerity measures and the lack of opportunities for flying in Europe, many jet pilots no longer have the skills or tools to carry out difficult exercises.

“I’m Quitting Now”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview government advisor Peter Hartz, about the way in which his concept for reforming the labour market has been watered down in the course of its implementation, the promises made by the chancellor, and his experiences with the trade unions who retrospectively revoked the consensus again:

“Important parts of our concept are indeed missing from the draft bill. It hasn’t been implemented one to one, and it would require considerable further work to make up for this failing. As the plans stand at present, it will certainly not be possible to create new jobs for two million people. … Gerhard Schröder and the new Minister of Economic Affairs and Labour Wolfgang Clement have defended the concept valiantly. But if Mr. Müntefering has got to achieve a majority for the chancellor, then apparently it is necessary to show much greater consideration for the mood and interests of many different people than would be good for a genuine reform. … The principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’ is no longer a realistic hypothesis nowadays, just nostalgic wishful thinking. But the trade unions and their chairmen display varying degrees of modernity. There are some powerful branches which are conservatively defending their status quo. Unfortunately they managed to get their way in the issue of the pay for subcontracted workers.”

“Death to the Executioners”

Ukraine: Nationalist soldiers who fought against Russia in the Second World War are to be placed on an equal footing with Red Army veterans – a denazification certificate for Hitler’s henchmen? The Kiev cabinet hesitated for a long time before deciding to help to bring about “historic justice”: now a law is to establish the activities of the rebel army as a battle for a Ukrainian nation. The initiative has triggered a war of faith in which nationally minded Ukrainians are crossing swords with Russians and Ukrainian Jews, as though history only held a single, absolute truth – their own.

“The Doctor Is Coming”

Chechnya: Putin want’s to tidy up the Caucasus with a militia consisting of Chechnyan collaborators. But the troop has been infiltrated by the enemy, the Islamists are attracting more and more followers. The secret helpers of the underground have long penetrated Chechen police units. They are in search of operational targets and sympathisers. But the Muscovites need their Caucasian comrades in arms – because these can still show their faces in places which Russians are careful to avoid.

“God Had to Come up with Me”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with British popstar Robbie Williams about entertainment in times of terrorism and fear of war, his complicated relationship with his new adopted home, the USA, and his recently released album “Escapology”:

“‘Escapology’ means something like ‘the art of breaking free’. … My plan was, in fact, to get rid of Robbie Williams. I was no longer able or willing to play that exhausting part any longer. … Maybe the pop and rock ballads on ‘Escapology’ are a kind of flight from responsibility. But maybe it’s also a way out of suicide, because otherwise you simply couldn’t bear your life and the current state of the world any longer. … In dark times like these you need humour to survive. The times are perfect for fun and show business, when people want to be entertained in order to forget how grey it is out there. … Of course the entertainer Robbie Williams thinks it would be a shame to deprive the Americans of something as wonderful as his art. But the private Robbie Williams would like to bring up his children in a place where his family will be left in peace because no one knows who he is. And in that respect America would be ideal, compared with the madness I would be exposed to in England.”

“The Young Villains”

Art: The up-and-coming generation of artists is painting more feverishly than it has for a long time. In their impudent realism, the new Picassos don’t miss out any opportunity for provocation. Be it portraits of Hitler or group sex – the main thing is that art looks hardcore. Never before has the symbiosis between entertainment and obsessive sordidness, between disgust and ecstasy been as pronounced in paintings as it is today. The days when every artist wanted to bestow his or her social utopia on humanity, are long over. Every gag, no matter how shallow, is allowed to share in the aura of art-historical immortality.

“Marriage of Giants”

Astronomy: Astrophysicists have for the first time located two black holes which are on the verge of merging – this discovery could help them to unravel the mystery of how galaxies are born. The gravitational waves which are sent out during the marriage of such giants cause space itself to quake. In recent years, there has been mounting evidence to suggest that black holes once actually served as midwives to galaxies. Scientists found that there is almost always a black hole lurking at the centre of large galaxies, weighing as much as millions or even billions of individual suns. And not just that: the heavier the cluster of stars, the heavier the black hole inside.

“Some of Them Feel No Pain”

SPIEGEL interview with Sven Ottke, world super middleweight champion, about his trouble finding appealing opponents, the future of the Klitschko brothers and supposed showbiz celebrities as boxers:

“There are lots of boxers who avoid having to fight against me because they can’t cope with my style. I’m fast, you can’t catch me, I don’t let myself in for a wild exchange of blows. Particularly boxers from the American school, who prefer to tear into each other in the ring, have problems with that. … In contrast to Vitaly Klitschko, whose origins in kick-boxing and Thai boxing you can see when you watch him in the ring, Vladimir really is strong. And I do think that a great future lies ahead of him: but only because the heavyweights are currently a dead league.”

“Cheerful Idlers”

The art of living: A Berlin initiative that calls itself the “Happy Unemployed” wants to rid joblessness of the whiff of despair that surrounds it. People are to be made to understand that “there is a life after work.” The underlying notion is quite simple, like all revolutionary ideas. There isn’t enough work to go round, and there is never again going to be full employment. In this situation, the “Happy Unemployed” regard it as their altruistic duty to do without that scarce commodity – a job – and, in return for an appropriate fee, leave the jobs that still exist to those who are absolutely set on working. The project itself means a lot of work, particularly for its masterminds. Thinking about joblessness is a full-time activity. Added to which there are invitations to congresses and seminars, and more and more inquiries by sociology students who want to study them – that’s how they create jobs.