Jennie points to this item...Germany outlawed another 16 organizations linked to a jailed Turkish militant Thursday, making use of anti-terror legislation passed after the Sept. 11 attacks to crush a network of Islamic groups the government considers a threat to domestic security and Germany's international relations.
The government said the groups, spread from Tuebingen in the south to Osnabrueck in the north, were part of the Caliphate State organization run by Muhammed Metin Kaplan. That group, along with 20 affiliates, was banned last December under legal powers granted after the nation confronted the fact that the Sept. 11 attacks were plotted by Islamic extremists living in Germany. To which Jennie replies...I will give them credit for this: the Germans were WAY ahead of the curve on this one. I wish our government would follow their lead instead of trying to pick these dirt bags up a few at time, so that morons like Katie Couric can comment thusly, "Aside from the fact that they were trained in Bin Laden's terror camps in Afghanistan, what proof do we have that they are terrorists?" (referring to the Buffalo Six who were just arraigned.) I think Kaplan's one of the preachers who hopped on the Islamist bandwagon, rather than a real driver. Certainly he's something of a loon, and he was a pain in the Germans' collective underwear, but he seems to have been in it for the money. The BBC piece on his arrest in December notes that "Kaplan is believed to have a fortune worth millions. Nonetheless, he claimed social benefits in Cologne for many years until 2m Deutschmarks ($1.2m) in cash was found in his flat." This gives him something in common, by the way, with Abu Qatada, the "al-Qaeda ambassador to Europe" in Britain, who did the same thing. They probably send e-mails claiming to be Nigerians, too... |