“That's Utter Nonsense”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt about the allegedly shattered relationship between the USA and Germany, the role of the Germans in the world – and the “old Europe” which should not allow itself to be instrumentalised into taking on world policing duties:

“The threatening scenario presented by the UN Security Council is certainly legitimate – the one constructed by the USA goes beyond this, and could potentially be extremely dangerous. … I don’t hold with this idle talk about “Germany’s role”. I remember very well that – at a time when the foreign minister was called Klaus Kinkel – it was considered appropriate to this role that Germany should become a permanent member of the Security Council. Now we are a nonpermanent member and already we are facing the question as to how we should behave. … The idea that France and Germany should be disqualified as a historical relic is one that no American minister can keep up in the long run. … One thing is certain: a good half century after the Second World War, after Auschwitz, Dresden and Stalingrad, the horror of war is still a bit stronger in Germany than in other European countries. The American nation, on the other hand, has never experienced a war on its own soil. … Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder are just beginning to realise… that in order to assert themselves these two nations depend on a European Union that is capable of acting, or perhaps only a core that is capable of taking action.”

“The Arab League”

Soccer rights: A shareholder from the Middle East is putting Günter Netzer and his sports rights company Infront, which also holds the television rights for the German soccer league and the 2006 World Cup, in a tight spot. Through his Rotterdam-based subsidiary Overlook Management B.V., Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel has taken over a 20 percent share in the newly set up dealer in sports rights Infront Sports & Media AG, based in the Swiss town of Zug – the company is currently being removed from the estate of the bankrupt Kirch empire and has until now traded under the name KirchSport AG. Others shareholders of the company include soccer critic Günter Netzer and the former head of Adidas, Robert Louis-Dreyfus. The sheikh, a respected and esteemed businessman in the Middle East, is the subject of an equally monstrous and grave suspicion: according to investigations carried out by the US State Department, the FBI and a French UN representative, Kamel is believed to have given financial support to terrorist groups and attacks, through his banks. All the sources unanimously agree that the links with Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organisation Al Qaida are particularly close, as are those with the radical Palestinian “liberation organisation” Hamas.

“The Puzzle Was On the Table”

Terrorism: The appearance in court of an agent of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency at the world’s first trial dealing with the attacks of September 11 has not produced much in the way of results – and yet it was a first. For the first time, the public authority responsible for defending the German constitution has had to admit publicly that it knew much more about the pilots of September 11 than it has admitted until now. Observers from the American ministry of justice closely watched every testimony given in front of the Hamburg High Court by witnesses from the German authorities. The Americans are only too keen to divert attention from their own intelligence blunders, which are currently the subject of a Congressional investigation, and to put at least some of the blame on the Germans. They were so close. The pieces of the puzzle making up the most spectacular terrorist attacks in history, whose preparations had begun in the spring of 1999, were all lying there on the table. The German intelligence authorities were unable to piece them together.

SPIEGEL cover story about the ruling Social Democratic Party, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and the “division” of Europe into Old and New, and Germany’s isolation.

“There Will Be a Widespread Conflagration”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan about cooperation with the UN inspectors, the preparations for an American attack, and the final battle over Baghdad:

“The Americans aren’t concerned about weapons of mass destruction, they want a change in the political system here in Iraq, they want our oil, they want to assume power in this region. Everything else is secondary. Back in 1991, they already accused us of manufacturing and using anthrax, until it was discovered that the spores were not produced by Iraq at all but were from American laboratories.… The Blix Report was disappointing, inaccurate and full of untenable allegations. We responded to it 24 hours later, point by point, in a report to him and to the Security Council. I swear, we have nothing to hide. Anyone can come to Iraq and look for this stuff. You Germans, even the CIA … We have no long-range missiles or bomber squadrons, but we will use thousands of suicide bombers, the Istishhadijun, the martyrs. They are our new weapons, and their use won’t be confined to Iraq. … But if this attack does take place, then hopefully Iraq will act as a trigger to liberate the world from the hegemony of the Americans. They want to rule the entire world, without paying any heed to the interests of the different peoples. What the USA is instigating against Iraq today, will be directed at other countries tomorrow.

“Either Them or Us”

Interview with the shooting star of the Israeli elections, head of the Shinui party Tommy Lapid, about his fight against the ultra-Orthodox, a dialogue with the Palestinians and his relationship with Ariel Sharon:

“We are not going to sit down at the Cabinet table with the extreme right or with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party. Sharon has to make up his mind: either them or us. … As long as there is terrorism and we don’t negotiate, we give the extremists the power of veto and weaken the moderate forces. A fresh start to negotiations with the Palestinians is one of the conditions we are making for joining a government. … I sometimes think the Europeans will only wake up and understand our fight against terrorism if say the Eiffel Tower or the Brandenburg Gate is blown up. To really have an influence, the Europeans must adopt a more neutral position in the conflict. But Sharon is exaggerating with his reaction. I think we shouldn’t give up Europe and we shouldn’t become too estranged. … I get on fine with Sharon, but I don’t think he has done a particularly good job as Prime Minister. … He’s torn between his desire for peace and his commitment to protecting the settlements.”

“The Post of Angur Ada”

Afghanistan: Every day, Taliban fighters attack US soldiers in the south-east of the country, quickly going back into hiding again in the Pakistani border regions. Local Pashtun tribes show little interest in America’s war against terrorism – and scarcely any sympathy.

“Intolerant People”

Russia: The writer Anatoly Pristavkin, Putin’s advisor for reprieves, settles up with the merciless judicial system. The writer’s entry into the uppermost echelons of power astonished friends and foes alike. By nature, Pristavkin is the opponent of any Kremlin official; among Russia’s patriots, obsessed with harmony, he is considered a dissident and a dangerous moralist. He qualified for the job as a result of being considered one of those most intimately familiar with the Russian judiciary and its deplorable disciplinary camps. The writer knows how to deal with people who have stumbled or been stranded in life – he was one of them himself. Pristavkin’s duties cover an enormous range: more than half of all convicts in Europe are Russians, about one million of his fellow countrymen are in prison. In the overcrowded prisons, psychiatric wards and labour camps, the author has found an explanation for this passion for locking people away. According to Pristavkin, the police resorts to “fascist-Stalinist methods of interrogation” producing arbitrary cases, injustices and miscarriages of justice.