Western European News Digest

Proposal Mandates Racial Profiling on British Campuses

In an example of "Big Sister" targetting universities, The British Department of Education has been circulating an 18-page document with proposals for university lecturers and staff to spy on "Asian-looking" students who could be suspected of involvement in Islamic extremism and supporting terrorist violence, the Guardian reported Oct. 16. The paper acknowledges that there will be "concerns about police targetting certain sections of the student population." The document has been circulating for the last month.

News of this document is causing outrage among students. Gemma Tumelty, president of the National Union of Students, said; "They are going to treat everyone Muslim with suspicion on the basis of their faith. It's bearing on the side of McCarthyism."

The document actually calls for teachers and staff to turn over information to the Special Branch of the police. Acknowledging there were "a number of concerns about working closely with Special Branch. Some common concerns are that institutions will be seen to be collaborating with the 'secret police.'" The document tries to reassure the department, saying that the "Special Branch are not the secret police and are accountable."

U.S. Gestapo Methods Provoke Outcry in Germany

For the first time, the case of Murat Kurnaz, who was kept a U.S. prisoner for almost five years in Afghanistan and then at Guantanamo, was presented to a broader audience in Germany, on the primetime television show "Beckmann" Oct. 16. Kurnaz, a German citizen from a Turkish family living in Bremen, was abducted and arrested during a visit to Pakistan, on Dec. 1, 2001, and released from Guantanamo on Aug. 24, 2006. Kurnaz told on the TV audience about the kinds of tortures he had suffered, from being hung by his feet, beaten, denied sleep, food and clothing, interrogated for days without interruption, being moved from one camp to another, and often worse, during his five years in U.S. imprisonment.

The case of Kurnaz brings disgrace not only to the Bush Administration: he said he was beaten and interrogated by two Germans, probably soldiers, in Afghanistan in December 2001; he was repeatedly interrogated by German anti-terrorism interviewers in Guantanamo as well; the Americans are even reported to have offered his release to Germany in November 2002, but the German government at that time refused, urging the Americans to transfer Kurnaz to Turkey instead. Kurnaz's reports have so far been denied as "absurd" by German officials. His case, however, will be on the agenda of a parliamentary investigation committee, which will also deal with the cases of Khaled el Masri (Lebanon-born German abducted by the CIA in Macedonia, in 2001, since released) and Mohamad Zamar (Syrian-born German, abducted by CIA, transferred to Syria, still kept prisoner in Damascus).

British Army Drugs-for-Guns Ring Busted in Germany

British military police have busted a drugs-for-guns ring operating within the British Army, the Daily Telegraph reported Oct. 13. Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, the Yorkshire Regiment, were arrested and charged with buying cocaine in Germany, and then selling it to soldiers serving in Iraq in return to arms such as AK-47s, Glock pistols, and ammunition. The latter are shipped in containers filled with military equipment which has been shipped out of Iraq and sold at very high prices to criminal gangs in Europe. The Glock pistols had been issued to British-trained Iraqi police. Over the past year, 120 police recruits have "lost" their pistols.

Similar rings are reportedly operating in Afghanistan and Kosovo, where British troops are also stationed. Similar gun-smuggling operations also have been uncovered in the U.S. Army.

Princess Diana Murder Investigation Reopened

The Royal Coroner, Lady Butler-Sloss, will start forensic hearings into the 1997 death in Paris of Princess Diana: a process that is expected to lead to several leaks harmful to the Queen, Prince Philip, and MI6. Meanwhile, Paris authorities reopened their investigation, that originally blamed the "accident" on drunken driving, following leads published years earlier by EIR.

It is not known at this time what else the Paris investigation is probing, but the British former Commissioner of Police, Lord Stevens, has had to postpone his report to the Royal Coroner due to many new leads pointing to a conspiracy to murder Princess Diana, who had become a leading adversary of the British royal family. As EIR noted at the time, the authorship of Diana's death could have been enemies of the British royal family, who hoped to embarrass it on the basis of cui bono.

Gorbachov: Western Geopoliticians Ruined Hope of 1989

In what comes as a late corroboration of what Helga Zepp-LaRouche wrote several years ago in her book, The Missed Chance of 1989, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachov, said in Berlin Oct. 13, that the big chance to make the world a better place, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, was missed. He said it was missed because Western politicians opted for geopolitics, and therefore, most of the big problems which the world is faced with, today, have to do with that missed chance.

Gorbachov, the Russian co-chairman of the Petersburg Dialogue today, is staying in Germany for a couple of more days of talks, after the Dresden Dialogue forum Oct. 8-11.

NeoCon Group Moves to Capture British Conservative Leader

In its website's lead editorial of Sept. 21, entitled, "David Cameron: 'Neo-con' or 'Lib-con'" the Cambridge, England-based Henry Jackson Society lays down the writ to "liberal-conservative," David Cameron: He must join with the "neo-conservatives" on a more "robust" and "value-based" foreign policy in such areas as Iran, Sudan, and North Korea. In particular, the Society slams Cameron for his soft spot for moderate "dictatorships" in the Middle East. "Mr. Cameron should find inspiration from Cold War history and the debates regarding Detente with the Soviet Union, advises the editorial. "The arguments he made above with reference to the Arab World are eerily similar to sentiments expressed in the 1970s by pro-Detente supporters."

McCain Addresses British Conservative Party

British Conservative Party leader David Cameron invited Sen. John McCain (R-Az) to address his party's conference in Bournemouth, England, on Oct. 4, and EIR is investigating leads from U.S. intelligence sources that the Synarchist International and its neo-con underlings want a McCain-Cameron-Sarkozy electoral victory by 2008. Sen. McCain's speech focussed on President Ronald Reagan's "big tent" and the Anglo-American "special relationship." He made numerous references to the historic role and "friendship" shared between post-war U.S. administrations with former Prime Ministers Lady Margaret Thatcher and Sir Winston Churchill.

Government Buy-in of EADS Increases State Control

Following talks with French President Jacques Chirac in Paris Oct. 12, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that her government is considering buying shares of Daimler-Chrysler—which will sell another 7.5% package soon. The Spanish government has increased its share from 5.4% to 5.6%, planning to increase it to 10%. And—something which comes as a big surprise to many—the Russian government has, through the state-owned Vneshtorgbank, quietly increased its share from 4.8% to almost 7%, as the French economic journal Les Echos reported Oct. 13.