Crimea's Tartars condemn annexation,seek autonomy

March 24,2014
Source: Mail.com

BAKCHYSARAI, Crimea (AP) — Leaders of Crimea's Tatar minority gathered Saturday to condemn Russia's annexation of the peninsula and appealed to international bodies for recognition as an autonomous group.

Tatars, an ethnically Turkic and mainly Muslim group that was subjected to mass deportation from their native Crimea by Soviet leader Josef Stalin in 1944, gathered to forge a collective response to Russia's absorption of their native region.

Decisions on whether to accept Russian citizenship and possible participation in a Moscow-loyal government were deferred as the community further contemplates its options. But the forum of about 250 delegates underscored difficulties Russia will face in integrating a community that resisted annexation and largely boycotted the March 16 referendum to join Russia.

According to the most recent Ukrainian national census, carried out in 2001, the 245,000-strong Tatar community accounted for 12 percent of Crimea's population. But anecdotal evidence of higher birth rates and a continued return of Tatars from exile in Central Asia suggest those figures may have grown markedly since then.

The Kremlin decision to annex this strategic Black Sea region, which has a large Russian majority, was backed by rhetoric of national self-determination, as Moscow argued that pro-Russian Crimeans had the right to break away from Ukraine.

"Recently, all decisions (by Russia) have been based on the presupposed right of every nation to self-determination," said Refat Chubarov, the leader of the Crimean Tatar governing body. "One must now conclude that the Crimean Tatar people also have that right."

Chubarov also appealed to the international community to recognize the Crimean Tatars as a "national territorial autonomy," but fell short of demanding a referendum on independence or allegiance to Ukraine.
Yet the vociferous tone of the delegates who spoke demonstrated the lingering rage within the Tatar community. "Russia turned us out three times," Aishe Setmetova, an elderly woman in a knit sweater, bellowed from the stage. "They think of us as worthless objects. I do not believe in Russia."

Crimea's Tatars began to return to their native peninsula in the late 1980s with the breakup of the Soviet Union. The population is growing fast compared to the ageing Russian population and presents the Kremlin with a long-term problem of integration.

Russia and the local Crimean government have assured Tatars that their rights will be fully respected on the peninsula. Tatar is to be elevated to one of the three state languages and the community has been given loose assurances it will be guaranteed a prominent political status.

But Tatars, who ruled the peninsula from the 15th century until the Russian Empire took it over in the 18th century, remain deeply skeptical of Moscow's intentions. "We, as the native people of this land, shouldn't collaborate with an occupying power," congress delegate Ilver Ametov said.

"Ukraine, too, wasn't our home, but at least it was a democracy," he said. "There's a story we have about the dog who ran to Moscow because things were better over there, but ran back to Ukraine because at least here he's allowed to bark."

WW II - The REAL Reason !

Source:  the fuhrerbunker.com
Massacre of Volksdeuterhers (ethnic Germans) by Polish military and civilians.

Most real scholars of World War Two are aware of the reasons that Adolf Hitler sent the Wehrmacht into Poland.  When we look back on what we now know, it was easy to understand why England and France threatened Hitler not to invade Poland.  They all knew it was inevitable and they all knew why.  Most governments knew of it; but the well-spun propaganda and controlled press made it appear that a power-crazed Adolf Hitler only wanted to kill Jews and rule the world.  Even today, this same false propaganda is taught in schools.

Simply put - not only was Germany herself under attack from the World Jewish community (the call to boycott all German made goods in the early 1930's) but worse yet, the Polish authorities were engaged is mass murder, rape and robbery of Volksdeutscher (ethnic Germans) living in Poland.  It reached such massive proportions that Hitler, as leader of the German people, could not ignore it.  He had to send in the Wehrmacht.

             DEPORTATION ORDERS

Deportation orders did not begin, as we are told to believe, with Germans deporting Jews.  In fact, the Deportation Orders began in Poland, deporting and/or arresting ethnic Germans.  There were three types of orders - the yellow form was merely deportation to central or eastern Poland; the pink form meant internment and the red form meant outright arrest.  In reality, each form meant deportation to one degree or another and ultimate death for most.

You will now read FIRST-PERSON accounts of that time, and they all justify the incursion into Poland.  In fact, they demanded intervention.

EUGEN HOFMANN - On 2 September 1939 this Bromberg merchant was arrested on orders of the commander of the air raid district, Isador Berger, a Polish Jew and was taken to the women's prison in Bromberg.  On 4 September, he and all Germans held in this prison were given a certificate of release and were indeed released.  However, this 'release certificate' also ordered any police officer to kill the bearer!  All but Hofmann were murdered the same day.  He escaped to tell his story by hiding with relatives.

  ROBERT KUNDE - Monday, 4 September 1939, four Polish soldiers entered the home of Kunde at Wierbathstraße 23 in Bromberg and searched for weapons.  Finding none, they wrote comments in the passports of Kunde and his son Wilhelm, that stated the bearer was "suspect" and on other pages, made the note that the bearer should be shot.  These soldiers arrested the male members of the Kunde family and handed them over, along with other Germans, to Polish soldiers who took them into the nearby woods.  Kunde and another German, a man named Grüning, managed to escape - all the others were shot dead.  Kunde later learned that his father had also been murdered.

 VERA GANNOTT - The home where she and her parents lived was invaded by Polish authorities on Sunday, 3 September.  Here is the translation of her sworn statement, taken on 14 September, 1939:
"I am 19, Protestant, without occupation.
          When it became known in town that the German troops were coming in, the civilian population and Polish soldiers began to commit acts of violence.  At about 2 o'clock on Sunday, Polish soldiers and civilians came toward our house at Thorner Straße 125, two and a half miles from town.  The Polish civilians said; "Germans live here!"  The soldiers immediately began to fire.  We fled into a shed.  I believe the Polish soldiers also threw hand grenades.  My father was the first taken from the shed.  The Poles asked him where he had the machine gun.  My father did not understand the question as he did not know Polish.  Thereupon I came out of the shed, for I knew Polish and wanted to help my father.  I asked the Poles what we had done to them and interceded for my father.  But the Poles shouted; "Down with you German swine!"  My father was repeatedly struck on the face and body with rifle butts, then stabbed with a bayonet.  Thereupon my father fell to the ground and as he lay, he was shot six times before dying.  The mob then left, after telling civilians they could loot the house else they (the soldiers) would burn it down.  Now my mother also came out of her hiding place.  She and I wanted to wash my father, who was completely covered with blood.  Just as we started, there appeared another Polish mob armed with pickets and clubs.  My mother and my aunt were beaten with the clubs.  I was slapped again and again.  Then they left.  After a while there came another mob of Polish soldiers and civilians.  As they approached, I ran into the River Brahe, which flows past the rear of our house.  I was dragged out by the hair.  Between ten and fifteen civilians dragged me into the house.  They said they were going to show me that the Poles weren't so bad after all; they would allow me to change my wet clothes.  No one left the room so I refused to change.  The Poles thereupon tore my clothes off and laid me on the ground naked.  About ten men held me down by the head, hands and feet while one of them raped me.  He completed the act and I suffered injuries.  I had considerable pain during the first days, but not any more.  The other Poles did not attack me.  During this time my mother was taken to a room on the upper floor and held at the point of a rifle.
          Polish soldiers robbed money, a bag, watches and rings from my father and myself.  Our home was completely destroyed - the furniture hacked to pieces with axes.  Our china and the linens were stolen.
          We did not have any arms in our house.  We had previously surrendered them to the police because of a general order."

 LORENZ BREITINGER was part of a group that was force-marched across Poland.  His sworn testimony reads:
"From Konin, our march could not be continued towards Kutno so we suddenly turned north.  About seven kilometers beyond Konin, our guards left us, only one remaining being a weak minded policeman.  We were now ill-treated with long clubs and stones by soldiers of the Polish reserves.  Military policemen rescued us.  We were allowed to stop for three days on a farm near Maliniec because our policeman first had to go and get orders as to what was to be done with us.
          Beyond Slesin we passed through many Polish positions and were placed on a farm which was completely overrun with Polish soldiers.  Here a young Polish lieutenant threatened us with  death, cursing us all the time.  On the next morning we were called as early as 2 o'clock to continue our march.  The carts with the cripples and children remained behind.  I heard later that they were shot.  They were the entire Schmolke family and another war invalid who had only one leg.  A forced march under the thunder of cannon, took us to Babiak.  We continued in the afternoon after having been subdivided into three groups and a number of soldiers having been added to our guard.  On a forest path, we were forced to hand over our watches and other jewelry, our money and, many of us even our wedding rings, to the soldiers.  When we were forced to continue on Monday morning, some of us were unable to stand on our feet.  Five who were ill and quite incapable of going on - a women school teacher from Posen among them - remained behind.  Three able bodied men stayed behind to protect them.  We learned later that the guards had shot them and beaten them to death with stones in a bestial manner.
          After days of aimless marching - the war front drawing nearer to us all the time - we were freed by German troops on 17 September 1939.  The German Army brought us home via Breslau."

 SISTER SCHMIDT and the CHILDREN'S HOME - "Bloody Sunday"
"The Deutsches Kinderheim (German Children's Home) on Thorner Straße in Bromberg, was searched five times in all on 'Bloody Sunday'.  About seven AM, two Polish soldiers demanded admittance.  They searched the house for arms and left after having convinced themselves that their mission was futile.  The soldiers were polite.
          The second search, by six Polish soldiers, occurred at about 9:30 AM.  They beat against the door with their rifle butts and demanded admittance.  One of them put his pistol to the temple of Sister Olga, head of the Kinderheim.  Insisting that a machine gun was hidden in the house and that shots from it had just been fired, they demanded surrender of the arms.  Sister Olga replied that there were no weapons, and bade them search.  The soldiers searched the house thoroughly, breaking into drawers and cupboards that could not be easily opened.  Finding no weapons, the searchers left.
          In the late forenoon, as the children were about to lunch, a third search was undertaken by four or five Polish soldiers accompanied by as many civilians.  Some of these soldiers had taken part on the previous search.  The soldiers again insisted that shots had been fired from the house and demanded to see the 'machine gun'.  One of them threatened the Sister with his bayonet.  The Sister repeated that she had no weapons.  One of the soldiers - the Sister believed that he was an officer - thereupon said; "But we have been told that shots were just fired from here."  The soldiers who had taken part in the previous search confirmed that there was really nothing upstairs.  However, a Pole named Maximilian Gackowski, the only civilian who had followed the soldiers to the staircase, kept shouting; "Shots have been fired from here.  I saw it myself!"  Turning to Sister Schmidt he yelled; "You old hag!  You old shrew - you and your brats should have been driven away long ago!  If I could have done what I wanted, you would have been dead long ago.  I would have killed you all myself!"  He brandished a weapon, believed to have been steel rod, in the Sister's face.  However, Gackowski could not convince the soldiers and the search ended.
          The next search by about five soldiers and five civilians, took place at about 3 PM.  Gackowski was again present.  The leader of the group ordered all inmates including three Sisters and eighteen children ranging from two to eighteen years, to gather and raise their hands.  Gackowski ranted as before, insisting time and again, that shots had been fired from the house and asked for the 'machine gun'.  He brought a 'witness' who, he claimed, was ready to swear that shots had been fired.  While the soldiers searched the house, one of them remained standing before Sister Olga with his Bayonet.  Gackowski took part in this search of the house.  After this group had found nothing, Gackowski declared, "They work in the daytime, but evenings they have men upstairs, they smoke cigarettes.  I have seen it myself, and nights they shoot."
          The raiders left the Kinderheim just as a man accused of having fired shots was being brought from the direction of the Schützenhaus.  Gackowski was the first to turn against this man.  After the fourth search, the Sisters discovered that smaller valuables, among them Sister Olga's watch, were missing.  The last search was made about 5:30PM.  It was again made by soldiers and civilians.  The head of the group approached Sister Olga with his rifle and threatened to shoot her.  At this moment, one of the Sisters who had been ordered to help in the cleaning up of the railroad station returned amid a mob of soldiers and civilians.  The Sister, having compelled to clean the railroad tracks, was very dirty.  At the instigation of Gackowski, who was again present, a railway man charged that the lubrication oil on the hands and the dress of the Sister was from a machine gun.  As before, Gackowski sought to entice the soldiers by declaring that shots had been fired.  However, it was proved that there were no arms in the Kinderheim and that no shots were fired from the house."

      

WILHELM STARKE testifies about the horticulturist Herr BERNDT
"An SS cap was reputedly found at the establishment of horticulturalist Bernd of Lissa.  Berndt was thereupon arrested.  Neither he not his brothers had ever had the SS cap in their house.  It was later discovered that the cap had been found by the Polish attackers of the village of Geiersdorf.  There were ten SS men in the village who had to leave without their outfits.  It was ascertained that the cap belonged to an SS man, Ernst Wiedermann, of Vienna."

                                        

Attack on the MATTHES FAMILY
"Late in the morning of 3 September 1939, the accused Kazimir Dybowski, Paul Kinczewski and Peter Pijarowski, accompanied by a considerable number of unidentified Polish civilians and by several Polish soldiers with fixed bayonets, marched along Albertstraße in Bromberg.  Dybowski had a knife in his hand; Kinczewski and Pijarowski had an axe and a hatchet.  When the mob arrived in front of Albertstraße 24, where witness Herbert Matthes, a member of the German minority (Volksdeutscher), carried on a large cabinet making trade.  They were incited by Kinczewski to raid the house.  Speaking to witness Biermann, who was responsible for the air raid protection of the house, Kinczewski insisted that Matthes had fired on Polish soldiers.  Biermann's repeated denials of the charge were to no avail and the mob broke through the courtyard to the drying room in which Matthes, his wife and two sons, and his 72 year old mother had hidden.  The door of the room was locked and when it was not opened at the ringleader's demand, Kinczewski simple smashed it in with his axe.  Thereupon, Mrs. Ella Matthes, her two sons and her mother-in-law appeared in the doorway; Herbert Matthes remaining in hiding at first.  Mrs. Matthes told the members of the mob and the soldiers that her husband was not at home and that she did not know where he had gone.  Kinczewski replied that in that case the two sons had would be taken as hostages.  However, Matthes stepped forward to save his children.  Kinczewski swung his axe at Matthes but Biermann caught the handle and deflected the blow.  Simultaneously Pijarowski with his axe, and Dybowski with his knife, headed toward 72 year old Selma Matthes, but failed to harm her.  Finally Matthes and his two sons were led away by Polish soldiers.  Matthes later succeeded in himself and his children by escaping while their Polish captors were quarreling over the division of the valuables taken from Matthes, thus relaxing their vigil."

      

'The SZWABY Must Be Shot!'  (Szwaby or Swabians was a derogatory Polish term for Germans)  Blood and Brains Spattered....
"My name is Johanna Giese, nee Keusch.  I am 51, Protestant, Volksdeutscher and live in Bromberg at Konopnickiej 9.
          On Sunday, 3 September 1939 between 11 and 12 o'clock, we were in the cellar of our residence.  Polish soldiers and civilians entered our yard and demanded that we come out of the cellar.  When we obeyed, a soldier asserted that shots had been fired from our home.  There were however, no weapons at all in our house.
          My son-in-law was the first to leave the cellar, and was greeted by a civilian's shout of 'The Szwaby must be shot!'  Without hesitation, the Poles fired at my son-in-law.  The first bullet pierces his jugular vein, while three others lodged in his chest and neck.  Nevertheless he was still alive when we were forced to flee that night.  We could not take him along, so we put him on a couch in our dwelling.
          When German troops entered Bromberg on Tuesday, a corporal accompanied me to our farmstead to see how things looked.  A horrible sight met out eyes.  The mob had taken my son-in-law from the couch and had dragged him into the kitchen.  His remains lay under the kitchen table.  His head was split, his skull cap was missing.  Brains and blood were spattered on the kitchen wall.
          My son, Reinhard Giese, 19 years old, had been in the cellar with us.  When he saw that my son-in-law was being shot, he dashed out and jumped over the fence to our neighbor's plot.  The Poles followed, caught my son and shot him.  In the evening, I managed to get the body into our laundry.  Reinhard was shot through the chest.
          Another son of mine, Friederich Geise, 25 years old, was reported shot in the mass murder of the family with which he had hidden in Hopfengarten."

              

'SLAY THE GERMANS!'                 Eyes Gouged out with Bayonets
"My name is Paul Sikorski.  I am 35, Catholic, a merchant.  I call myself Volksdeutscher and reside in Bromberg, Mühlenstraße 4.
          At about 6:00 am on Sunday, 3 September 1939, I went to the mill to put out the light and to stop the turbine.  On my way, I suddenly heard loud shouting from the direction of the railroad.  About a hundred meters away, a mob of railway men, civilians and soldiers with bayonets, rifle butts and clubs were attacking  seven people of ages varying from about 20 to 60.  The victims were surrounded.  As I approached the scene, I heard members of the mob call in Polish, 'Slay the Germans!'  I could see blood spurting.  It was then that I turned and fled for the mob was about to assail me.  I returned to the scene at nine o'clock and looked at the bodies.  The eyes of two corpses had been gouged out by bayonets.  The sockets were a mass of blood.  The skulls of three had been cracked open, and their spattered brains lay a meter away.  The other bodies were similarly slashed to pieces.  One belly was split wide open.  I recognized two of the murdered men; the butcher Leichnitz or Jägershof, and Mr. Schlicht.
          About three in the or four o'clock in the afternoon, a band of soldiers and railway men brought eighteen Germans to my mill. (the Peterson mill).  I could see from the garden that the Germans were tied in pairs.  All eighteen were shot, two at a time, then beaten as they lay on the ground.  Among them was a fourteen-year-old boy and a woman.  The murderers were obviously in a great hurry, for they all disappeared immediately after the slaughter.  I later had a thorough look at the bodies, which lay there for three days.
          At noon on Monday, when it was already rumored that the Polish troops had left, I saw two Polish soldiers march an elderly couple to the wall at the mill.  I ran up to the soldiers, knelt before them and begged them in Polish to spare the people, who were both about 65.  I was struck with a rifle butt and told, 'Let the damned Niemcys (Germans) die like dogs!'  Even before I could rise to my feet, the soldiers had shot down the two old people.  The bodies rolled into a ditch as the soldiers trotted away."

     

WILDEMANN MURDER     "They Should be Beaten to Death!"
Testimony of Frau Wildemann:

"On the morning of September 3rd, several raiding parties searched Frau Wildemann's house in Bromberg at Schwedenbergerstraße (Ugory) 56, but found no weapons.
          At about 3 p.m., a new mob, consisting of approximately thirty men all armed with clubs and similar weapons appeared.  Claiming that shots had been fired from the house and that it must therefore be searched for arms, the mob entered.  Several objects belonging to Wildemann family were stolen.  There were not arms in the house, and no shots had been fired from it.  When he saw the approaching mob, Herr Wildemann hid in the cellar.  Questioned as to her husband's whereabouts, Frau Wildemann said that he had gone to visit acquaintances in Kufawierstraße.  She was taken to the address.  When her husband could not be found there, Frau Wildemann was threatened.  Finally, after having been assured that nothing would happen to Herr Wildemann, she revealed his hiding place.  The mob returned to the couple's home, seized both the husband and wife, beating them on the way, dragged them into the garden.  They were stood up as if they were going t be shot.  When they embraced each other and began to pray, they were ridiculed.  Shouts were heard again & again,  'They should be beaten to death!'.  One of those who shouted was a barber names Alfons Lewandowski.  When Frau Wildemann asked him, 'Why should you kill me?  What have I done to you?' he slapped her in the face saying, 'German pig!  Damned Hitlerite!'  Herr Wildemann was then taken away by the soldiers who, on the whole, were less hostile than the rabble.  Several days later Wildemann's body was found nearby under a thin layer of sand.  So horribly mutilated was he that only by his clothing and the contents of his pocket could he be identified."

       

GOLLNICK & KÖPERNICK MURDERS     "All Germans Must be Butchered!"
Testimony of witnesses Olga and Franz Tafelski of Bromberg

"The throng milling about Breite Straße arrounsed the soldiers against a German named Gollnick.  The soldiers beat Gollnick down with their rifle butts and left him lying in the street badly injured.
          Toward evening, Franz Tafelski noticed that the victim's left leg and left hand were still twitching.  Gollnick had fallen on his face but the mob had turned him over and tore open the front of his trousers, exposing the whole lower part of his torso.  A civilian and two soldiers appeared and ran a bayonet into Gollnick's belly.  Following this, a final shot was fired into the body.
          Throughout the afternoon, a mob had milled up and down Breite Straße right by the dying man.  They shouted that the Germans had shot from their homes.  Sofie Bednarczyk, an unemployed woman, was in the mob.  She flirted with the soldiers and, according to Olga Tafelski, behaved 'like a mad woman'.  Franz Tafelski saw her, arms forled, leading the mob.  Her manner revealed a morbid lust for power.  Olga Tafelski heard her shout 'Give me the rifle; all Germans must be butchered!  The damned Hitlerites!'
        Franz Tafelski heard her shout, 'All Germans must be slain!'.  All the time she was laughing and flirting with the soldiers.  She stopped at the corner of No. 5 Breite Straße, where Gollnick lay with his trousers torn open.  Witness Bartkowski heard her shout, 'This Hitlerite ought to have his testicles cut off!'  About half an hour later, Köpernick, a Volksdeutscher, was dragged past the same house and murdered."

        

GOLLNICK MURDER     "The Swine is Still Alive!"
Testimony of Christa Gollnick of Kujawierstraße 101 in Bromberg

"We operated a flour and feed store.  As the first Polish troops were leaving, I noticed a Polish neighbor talking to a Polish major and pointing at our house.  Thereupon Polish soldiers broke open the door and rushed into our store.  Thinking that a skirmish was in progress and that the soldiers wanted to entrench themselves in our house, we ran toward the shelter which we had been ordered to build.  We did not reach the shelter because the Polish soldiers fired at us.  My husband was shot in the shoulder and hit in the face with a rifle butt.  He reeled but still tried to escape.  He started to climb the fence, but was held back by a civilian.  A Polish soldier gave him another rifle butt blow which knocked him out.
          A Polish lieutenant led me and the children back into the house.  From an attic window, I could see my prostrate husband.  He lingered on for a long time.  I saw him draw his legs up and stretch them.  Oncein a while he would life his hand.  However, it was impossible for us to go to him, for he was surrounded by Polish soldiers and civilians.  A Polish policeman stood guard at the fence.  Polish women shouted, 'The swine is still alive!'  Towards evening, my husband was shot three more times by Polish soldiers.  He had also been stabbed through the stomach with a bayonet.  Time and again he tried to open his trousers, finally succeeding.  The woman next door told me that he was still breathing the next day.  My husband was tall and strong and only 38 years.  Probably that is why he had such a hard time dying.  He lay about eighteen hours before he was released from his agony."




       

BETTIN MURDER     "We'll Butcher You!  Here's Some Young Hitler Blood for You!"
Testimony from Frau Bettin of Bromberg:

"About noon on 3 September 1939, the so-called 'Bromberg Bloody Sunday' a horde of Polish bandits overran the Bettin property at Frankenstraße 76.  The Bettins, hearing their windows being smashed in, decided to investigate.  They were seized and forced to raise their arms and kneel.  A Swastika, which Fraulein Bettin was wearing on her dress, fell to the ground.  Seeing the emblem led the mob to insult the girl outrageously.  Some of the Poles bore revolvers and pitchforks; one had an axe.  They shouted such things as:
     'Hitler Blood!'
     'Hitler Pigs!'
     'We'll Butcher You!'

Fraulein Bettin was taken away by two Poles, one of whom was a railroad employee named Bruski.  The captive was treated roughly and practically hurled from the farmstead.  She was dragged on by the arm and threatened with a club.  At the corner of Bölitzer Straße, she was turned over to two other Poles, a postal employee disguised as a policeman and a railway man.  Bruski told them, 'Here's some young Hitler blood for you!'  Between 4 and 5 p.m., she was freed by a young Polish officer.  When she got home she found that only her mother and sister-in-law were still there.  Her father and brother had been dragged away by the Polish mob.  Her brother's body was found some time later.  Her father is still missing and probably also murdered."

                          

THIEDE and MITTELSTÄDT MURDERS     "Hold Him so that I can Kill Him!"
Testimony of Gerda Thiede and Otto Papke, both of Schulitz:

"Waclaw Pasterski, a chauffer, owned property opposite the Thieses in Schulitz.  The Thiedes, a mother and two children Gerda and Werner, were Germans and had lived here for many years.  Waclaw Pasterski was a Pole and came to Schulitz about seven years ago.
          On Sunday, 3 September 1939, Polish soldiers drove stray cattle belonging to Poles who had fled, into the Thiede's best fields.  Accompanied by Emil Mittlestädt, who owned property nearby, the Thiedes went out to see how much damage had been done.  While they were there, a troop of Polish soldiers came from the direction of the woods and called, 'Germans or Poles?'  Werner Thiede answered, 'German.'  Mittlestädt replied 'Pole.'  Werner Thiede was searched and found unarmed.  The Thiedes were then compelled to walk with raised hands towards the woods.  The soldiers followed them, allowing Mittlestädt to remain in the meadow.
          Meanwhile, Waclaw Pasterski, armed with an axe and a knife, came out of the woods.  Seeing Werner Thiede, he shouted to the soldiers, 'Hold the little fellow so that I can kill him!'  At this threat, Werner turned and ran in another direction.  The soldiers pursued him, firing as they went.  Gerda Thiede now looked back, although the soldiers had forbidden it, and saw Mittlestädt, his side slashed open, lying in the meadow.  Since the soldiers had left the meadow in order to follow Werner, and Mittlestädt and Pasterski were left alone, Gerda attributed the wound to an axe blow by Pasterski.  No one else could have struck the blow.  Gerda furthermore had heard Pasterski insist that Mittlestädt was German.  Otto Papke who saw Mittlestädt lying in the meadow was certain that the would was caused by the blow of an axe.  Mittlestädt was in agony until he died some time during the night.  Werner Thiede's body was later found and buried by Kriewald, another neighbor.  Gerda Thiede had stated that according to information from Kriewald, her brother had been shot in the back and had his head slashed.
          Werner Thiede was 20, Mittlestädt in his early thirties.  The latter was a widower and is survived by a young child."

FINGER MURDER          "For God's Sake.....Now We'll Die"
Testimony of Käthe Finger

"My name is Käthe Finger, nee Böhkle.  I am 48, the widow of a bank attorney.  I reside in Bromberg.  I am in no way related to the accused.
         On 'Bloody Sunday', several Volksdeutscher and a Polish woman whom we had summoned for our protection, were gathered in my home. About 11 a.m. a mob came down our street.  The brothers Weyna, who live in the Raddatz house opposite us, and the accused Owczaczak were in the crowd.  One of the Weyna brothers was armed.
          I heard my husband in the next room telling our girl, Göde, that Owczaczak was pointing at our residence.  My husband then came to me and said, 'For God's sake, the mob is coming in.  Now we'll die!'  He added that we should perish together.  At that moment the mob broke into our apartment.  There was a soldier among them who demanded that my husband and I lie down on the carpet.  We obeyed.  The soldier fired and my husband was killed instantly.  I expected a second shot and since it failed to come, I raised myself a little.  My hands were red with my husband's blood.  I cried, 'My God!' and I was yanked to my feet by the soldier.  Then I was pushed through the door and led away with the others who had sought refuge in our house.  On the way we were insulted, beaten and kicked by the members of the mob.  As we passed the canal gates, a Polish civilian shouted, 'Psia krew Hitlerowa!' (Damned Hitlerite women!) and pulled me toward the canal.  I managed to tear myself loose.  I was then brought to the police station where I was kicked so viciously that the force hurled me against a wooden fence.  We were then all forced to lie down in the courtyard of the police station, amid shouts of, 'Lie here like cattle, you German bloodhounds!'.  Now victims, beaten, bleeding and groaning in pain - more were arriving continuously.  My 12-year-old son was lying beside me.  We were under constant fire from the neighboring houses and from the direction of the canal gates.  Many Germans were struck.  These were taken away.  How many were dead, I do not know.  My son and I lay there about seven hours before a Polish policeman effected our release.
          A machine gun had been trained on us in the police courtyard, while we received orders to shout, 'Hoch Rydz-Smigly!'.  We were then asked whether we enjoyed living in Poland and when one woman replied negatively, the machine gun was aimed at her.
          There was great confusion in the courtyard.  I cannot enumerate the hardships inflicted on us.
          I swear that this testimony is true, and reaffirm the oath I have already taken in connection with this matter before the Bromberg Special Tribunal on 11 September 1939."


Link: http://www.thefuhrerbunker.com/WWII.htm.

UAE holds talks with Norway, Denmark, Hungary

Dec 14, 2011
By Indo Asian News Service | IANS
Source;Yahoo News Maktoob

Abu Dhabi, Dec 14 (IANS/WAM) Officials of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have met representatives from Norway, Denmark and Hungary and discussed ways to expand trade and investment.

Minister of Economy Sultan Al Mansouri met Ase Elin Bjerke, the ambassador of Norway, and Poul Hoiness, the ambassador of Denmark.

Al Mansouri reiterated his country's interest in expanding trade, technological and investment cooperation with the Scandinavian countries, and to tap their expertise in the telecommunications, education, technology and energy sectors.

There are over 100 Danish as well as Norwegian companies operating in the UAE.

Meanwhile, the director for Europe at the ministry of foreign affairs, Mohammed Saif Hilal Al-Shehhi, met Hungarian ambassador Janos Gonci and discussed bilateral relations.

--IANS/WAM

Special Report: The maverick behind Merkel

Dec 14, 2011
By Noah Barkin and Erik Kirschbaum
Source:Reuters

(Reuters) - It was approaching midnight at a yacht club on the French Riviera, down the road from a G20 summit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was telling reporters about her decision to block a loan to Greece, when suddenly her finance minister interrupted to set the record straight.

Wolfgang Schaeuble told the journalists that it had been his idea to stop the flow of aid to Athens. That move had helped convince Athens to drop its controversial plans for a referendum on new austerity steps, calming financial markets. Schaeuble had personally delivered the news in a phone call to his Greek counterpart Evangelos Venizelos, in hospital at the time with stomach pains.

"Yes, indeed it was the finance minister who stopped the payment," a somewhat startled Merkel acknowledged. "He was the one who reacted first."

Reporters glanced at each other in surprise. Here was Europe's most powerful leader being called out in public by one of her ministers. Instead of rebuking Schaeuble, Merkel had deferred to him, admitting he was right.

The unusual exchange in early November gives a glimpse into the complex relationship between Merkel and Schaeuble. Once his deputy, Merkel is now Schaeuble's boss. Their bond has survived two decades of slights and reversals -- and it is now central to the euro-zone debt crisis.

Germany is Europe's pre-eminent power, and France is No. 2. For months, markets and the media have focused on the link between Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy as the key to saving the common currency from a breakup. The media have dubbed the pair "Merkozy."

But an examination of the relationship between the German leader and her outspoken minister -- whose contrasting views on Europe mirror tensions in the broader electorate -- suggests their give-and-take may be just as crucial to the continent's future.

"The chancellor can count on my loyalty," Schaeuble said in an interview with Reuters. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to keep quiet, that I'm going to be easy. I have the freedom to do what I think is right."

Schaeuble, a 69-year old political veteran, has been confined to a wheelchair since being shot by a deranged man a week after German reunification. Long committed to the cause of European unity, he has heavily influenced Berlin's response to the crisis. Some European insiders say he is perhaps the only politician capable of pushing Merkel, a risk-averse politician from ex-communist East Germany, to adopt the policies which may be needed to save the currency bloc.

"I think Schaeuble will be one of the key architects of a solution for the euro zone crisis in the coming weeks," said Klaus Tschuetscher, the prime minister and finance minister of Liechtenstein. "He is renowned and respected for tossing out ideas without worrying what the political reaction might be. I don't think the value of that should be underestimated."

IDEA FACTORY

Since the euro zone's troubles erupted just over two years ago, Schaeuble's finance ministry has been a veritable factory of ideas. His fingerprints are on many of the big decisions taken by the broader bloc.

At the heart of the crisis are huge debts racked up by euro-zone governments and a spreading belief that investors in those countries' bonds won't get paid back in full. In the early stages of the crisis, Schaeuble proposed creating a "European Monetary Fund" to shore up weakened members. At the time, the idea sounded radical. Merkel quickly overruled it, insisting the Washington-based International Monetary Fund should be involved in any euro-zone rescues.

But a year and a half later, the bloc has created a permanent rescue facility -- the European Stability Mechanism -- that in the end looks likely to closely resemble Schaeuble's monetary fund. Funded by euro-zone governments, the European Stability Mechanism will provide loans to members in financial trouble.

In June, Schaeuble made waves by writing to his euro-zone colleagues to demand that private holders of Greek bonds make a substantial contribution to a debt relief package. He suggested this could be achieved by a bond swap that would reduce the amount of debt the Greek government had to pay back. Many dismissed the idea as unrealistic, but the debt-swap idea has now been adopted by the euro zone.

Although Merkel was warned ahead of time that Schaeuble was sending the letter, she did not see it beforehand, her aides say -- a sign of just how much freedom the finance minister has, especially compared with other ministers.

"Merkel knew from the beginning that if she made him finance minister, her control over him would be limited, that he would have his own ideas and speak out on them," one of Merkel's top advisers said. "He is an anomaly in the cabinet."

To politicians and investors outside Germany, Schaeuble's proposals have sometimes been a source of confusion: It's not always clear whether they have the backing of the Chancellery.

In March, for example, the finance minister struck a deal with his euro-zone counterparts on funding for the European Stability Mechanism, only for Merkel to veto it and re-open negotiations days later.

But Schaeuble's freedom also works to Merkel's advantage. He can float ideas while she gauges how euro-zone partners and markets react before committing to them. It's also part of the "bottom-up" structure of the German government, where ministries are encouraged to come up with proposals for the cabinet to consider.

"Everyone in the government has a role," said Schaeuble in his spartan office in the finance ministry, a Nazi-era structure that housed Hermann Goering's aviation ministry during World War Two. "I've been in politics for a long time, I'm relatively old, and that gives me a certain amount of independence."

KOHL'S HEIR APPARENT

In some ways Schaeuble's freedom is made starker by his obvious physical limitations. The assassination attempt nearly succeeded. A little over a year ago, complications from two decades in a wheelchair were forcing him into hospital on a regular basis, and his doctors told him to slow down. In September 2010, after missing crucial summit meetings, he told Merkel he may need to quit because of his health. The chancellor told him to take a month off but urged him to stay.

Now he says he feels better. He has gained weight and resumed two-to-three hour handbike workouts in Grunewald Forest in western Berlin to stay fit.

"I was sicker in parts of 2010 than I wanted to believe," Schaeuble said. "She said she wanted me to keep on doing the job if that was possible. She told me to get better and stay in my post."

Merkel and Schaeuble first met in the months after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. A lawyer by profession, he was heir apparent to West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and considered by many to be the greatest political talent of his generation. She was a shy 35-year-old from the other side of the Wall, working as a press spokeswoman for Lothar de Maiziere, East Germany's caretaker leader in the run-up to reunification.

Within half a year of their first encounter, Schaeuble's world was turned upside down.

It was October 1990 and the newly united Germany was in a buoyant mood. West Germany had just won the soccer World Cup. The country was months away from the first pan-German election in more than half a century. As the 20th century entered its final decade, a nation that had been weighed down by two world wars, hyper-inflation, a murderous Nazi dictatorship and decades of Cold War division could finally look forward with optimism.

Schaeuble, then interior minister, was leaving a campaign stop at a tavern in the town of Oppenau, near the French border, when a 37-year-old man pulled a gun and fired three shots, hitting Schaeuble in the face and spine.

"I can't feel my legs anymore," he is reported to have said before losing consciousness.

He was flown to a university medical centre in his birthplace of Freiburg, where doctors worked through the night to save his life. Kohl visited his right-hand man in the intensive care unit. At an impromptu news conference a few hours later, the burly chancellor choked back tears.

Schaeuble not only survived but he returned to his job in Bonn a few months later, despite appeals from his family that he quit politics. He looked frail, but Kohl kept faith in his loyal ally. To Germans who questioned whether a paraplegic could run the country, Kohl would often reply that Franklin Roosevelt had led the United States from a wheelchair through the Great Depression and World War Two.

His trust paid off. After Kohl scraped into office again in 1994, it was Schaeuble who worked behind the scenes to keep his narrow centre-right majority intact.

"He kept the coalition majority together," recalls Peter Hausmann, Kohl's spokesman in the 1990s and now editor of a newspaper in Bavaria. "It was a slim majority but he kept the discipline up and everyone in line."

FROM SCANDAL TO POWER

If Kohl had stepped down before the 1998 election and allowed Schaeuble to run against Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder, the feisty lawyer from Freiburg might have become chancellor. But Kohl was intent on leading the country into the single currency, an ambitious project that he had pushed over the objections of many compatriots, and ran for an unprecedented fifth term.

Kohl lost to Schroeder, and Schaeuble took his place as head of the conservative Christian Democratic Union. Schaeuble named the up-and-coming Angela Merkel as his deputy.

It was a pairing that would last less than a year and a half. By December 1999, Kohl was caught up in a campaign finance scandal. Merkel penned an article for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper which hit German politics like a tsunami. In it, she urged the party to move on "without its old war horse" Kohl.

The godfather of the Christian Democrats could not believe the cautious young protégée he had plucked from obscurity could have written the article without the approval of her boss, Schaeuble.

Kohl launched a withering behind-the-scenes campaign to undermine the man he had once anointed his successor. Less than two months later, after discrepancies emerged in Schaeuble's story about a party donation, he was forced to resign.

Merkel was left standing. Hailed as the "clean face" of the Christian Democrats, she was catapulted into the party leadership.

"It was an extremely difficult situation for Schaeuble," said a former minister in Kohl's government who witnessed the drama at first hand and knows both Schaeuble and Merkel well. "At the time there was a strong yearning in the CDU for something new, for someone who wasn't in the Kohl orbit like Schaeuble. She profited from the Kohl scandal."

In "My Way," a 2004 book of interviews with Merkel, she confirms that Schaeuble did not know about the article before it was published. One reason for writing it, she says, was to give him the freedom to run a party over which Kohl still cast a long shadow.

Schaeuble said he does not believe Merkel set out to topple him when she wrote the piece. He describes their working relationship as good, while making clear the two are not friends. He played down the significance of other slights over the years, such as Merkel's refusal to back him for the German presidency in 2004.

In his 2010 biography of Merkel, Gerd Langguth describes how Schaeuble waited in vain for weeks to speak with her about the presidential post he coveted, only to get the cold shoulder. During a joint trip to Turkey at the time, the book says, Merkel made sure she was never alone in a room with Schaeuble to discuss the matter.

A year later, Merkel unseated Schroeder to become the first woman chancellor in German history. She named Schaeuble interior minister, preferring to lock him into her government rather than

give him a role outside the cabinet, such as parliamentary floor leader, where he might have proven dangerous.

When she was re-elected chancellor in the autumn of 2009, just as the first wave of the global financial crisis receded, Schaeuble was Merkel's surprise choice to run the finance ministry. His mastery of financial details during coalition talks convinced her he was the right person for a post that had been expected to go to her coalition partner, the Free Democrats, or her close Christian Democratic ally, Thomas de Maiziere.

"IMPOSSIBLE BECOMES POSSIBLE"

Since then, Schaeuble has emerged as Merkel's most important minister and a respected shaper of policy in Europe at a time of unprecedented financial turmoil.

He is a French speaker who maintains excellent ties with France and knows President Nicolas Sarkozy from their days as interior ministers. At the Cannes summit, when Merkel could not make a crucial meeting of euro zone leaders because of a previously arranged meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Sarkozy pressed her to send Schaeuble in her place. She agreed.

It was Schaeuble who pushed hard for the Christian Democratic Union to demonstrate its commitment to Europe at a party congress held in Leipzig last month under the banner "For Europe, For Germany." In a crucial vote in parliament in late September, he also helped convince party allies to back enhancements to the euro zone's rescue fund, averting a government crisis for Merkel.

But the differences between Schaeuble and Merkel on Europe are sometimes hard to hide.

While Merkel seems focused on limiting the damage to Germany from the debt crisis, Schaeuble sees the crisis as an opportunity to complete the political integration of Europe that was missing when the euro was launched.

In public, he sticks to the party line on controversial crisis-fighting proposals. When asked last month whether he could envision common euro-zone bonds -- an idea Merkel staunchly opposes -- Schaeuble's initial reaction was: "Now I need to be careful to say the same thing as the chancellor." He then went on to say it was too early to consider such a step.

But people who know him say Schaeuble would probably be ready to back such ideas, if the alternative was a breakup of the currency bloc.

"He's for euro bonds," said the former Kohl cabinet minister who worked with both for years. "He can't come out and say that, but if you look carefully at what he's been saying he won't exclude euro bonds like some of the others. He's dropped some clear hints with his language."

EU leaders agreed at a summit meeting in Brussels last week to press ahead with forming the "fiscal union" Schaeuble has long favored, under which euro-zone members relinquish control over budget policy. They also freed up more funds for the IMF to help troubled euro states like Italy and Spain, and decided to bring forward the launch of their permanent rescue fund by a year.

But these steps may be insufficient to stop the rot. And pressure on Germany to take bolder action could rise in the coming weeks.

If a euro-zone breakup looms, Schaeuble will again have to decide whether to speak up and challenge Merkel, as he did light-heartedly in Cannes. Like Dick Cheney under U.S. President George W. Bush, he has nothing to lose, no higher post to shoot for, only his vision of what needs to be done.

"When things get really difficult ... suddenly solutions which seemed impossible become possible," Schaeuble said.

"Because of this, the crisis represents an opportunity. I'm not saying that I enjoy being in a crisis, but I'm not worried. Europe always moved forward in times of crisis. Sometimes you need a little pressure for certain decisions to be taken."

(Editing by Sara Ledwith and Simon Robinson)

Europe pushes banks to share Greek bail-out pain

Jun 22, 2011
By Gernot Heller and Lionel Laurent
Reuters
Source: Yahoo News

BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) - European governments summoned banks and insurers to urgent meetings on Wednesday, pressing them to share the cost of a second Greek bailout with taxpayers and avoid a market meltdown.

Germany invited private creditors to a meeting, a letter seen by Reuters showed, to discuss their voluntary support for the debt-struck country. Other euro zone countries, including France and the Netherlands, held similar discussions.

"Bondholders should play a substantial role in averting a Greek insolvency ... we're inviting you to a meeting to discuss all options of a concrete contribution," the letter sent from the German Finance Ministry said.

The rollover of a bond at the time it matures is one possibility banks could agree to, the letter said.

And France also began talks with representatives from the financial industry about the plan, a source familiar with the situation said, adding that efforts were being coordinated on a pan-European level.

Euro zone governments are discussing a second bailout package for Greece that would run from 2011 to 2014 and could amount to 120 billion euros ($172 billion), including up to 30 billion euros from the private sector.

There is rising pressure in countries like Germany, Finland and the Netherlands for aggressive steps to force banks to share the burden of a new aid package, after taxpayers coughed up all of the money in the previous round.

"The process will be voluntary, but it is clear that all the financial institutions have an interest in the stability of the euro zone and Greece," a French government source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The Dutch Ministry of Finance was talking on Wednesday with the country's banks, insurers and pension funds about the extension of debt to Greece, a source familiar with the matter said. The source declined to give further details.

But any suggestion that governments are forcing the banks to pay could be viewed by credit rating agencies as effectively a Greek default or restructuring. That could trigger further catastrophic debt downgrades.

German chancellor Angela Merkel last week softened her tough position on the banks in a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and the two agreed that any private sector support should be purely voluntary.

SHADES OF VOLUNTARY

In exchange for their support, German lenders have now demanded "additional incentives" in the form of state guarantees, and the talks will in all likelihood focus on the details of how to make this work.

"It's a matter of semantics. What the EU finance ministers want to avoid is a mandatory rollover because of the implications that might have for Greece's ratings," said Simon Adamson, a senior analyst at Creditsights.

"It has to be voluntary, but there are different shades of voluntary," he said, adding that banks in many countries were in a weak position to negotiate after receiving billions of euros in state support at the peak of the credit crisis.

Private investors are estimated to hold some two-thirds of Greece's approximately 270 billion euros of sovereign bonds. Roughly 90 billion euros of that is held by insurance companies, pension funds and investors such as hedge funds.

Banks in Germany themselves have quantified their exposure at between 10 and 20 billion euros, while insurers estimate their holdings at 6 billion euros, just a fraction of their total invested assets.

Even if Greece defaulted, the impairment charges for banks might not be devastating, some analysts say. However, a Greek default would send markets into a tailspin and spark fears countries such as Spain and Italy are next in line.

Companies including the Gulf's Dubai World, which rescheduled its $25 billion debt pile last year, forced outliers to comply through a deal that applied to all if a certain threshold of creditors agreed to it.

But such tactics to coerce bondholders into agreeing a deal normally used in a debt restructuring cannot now be used. Under the current plans, bondholders will be asked to agree to renew any paper they hold when it expires.

And the terms have yet to be decided.

"There is still no proposal. It's a very tough evaluation to make," Corrado Passera, chief executive of Italy's biggest retail bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, told reporters.

($1=.6971 Euro)

(Additional reporting by Douwe Miedema and Sarah White in London, Gilbert Kreijger in Amsterdam, Ian Simpson in Milan and Jean-Baptiste Vey and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris; Writing by Douwe Miedema; Editing by Louise Heavens, Alexander Smith and Jon Loades-Carter)

America conducts subversive activities in friendly territories

The United States found itself embroiled in a major spy scandal. As many as five countries caught the Americans illegally spying on their citizens.

Nobody would think it was strange if we were talking about the citizens of Russia, China, Iran, Syria and Venezuela. With these five countries, everything is clear: U.S. officials constantly refer to them as those presenting threats to the national security. But this time the U.S. was caught by quite friendly countries of Northern Europe - Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

The scandal erupted earlier this month. On November 3, Norwegian television channel TV2 released a report which stated that over ten years, a group of Americans have been doing surveillance on 15 to 20 Norwegian subjects - mostly participants of various kinds of rallies. Potential terrorists and other undesirable persons were photographed, and the information was sent to Washington.

The report stated that the purpose of the surveillance was supposedly to prevent terrorist attacks against U.S. embassies. Nordic Governments were not informed of such actions.

The spokesman of the U.S. State Department, Philip Crowley, on November 11 said that the Norwegian authorities have been notified about a covert operation. "We are implementing the program throughout the world and are vigilant against people who can keep track of our embassies, as we understand that our diplomatic missions are a potential target," he explained.

However, the Scandinavians were not satisfied with this comment. A representative of the American embassy was called to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry for an explanation, but no clear answers were provided. It turns out that the surveillance was conducted without the knowledge of the Norwegian authorities.

If it was limited to Norway, this episode could have been considered an isolated case. Yet, after the Norwegians, Denmark spoke about the surveillance of its citizens. Local newspaper Politiken wrote that all American embassies have groups of employees leading external surveillance of suspicious persons in order to address threats to the U.S. security. It has been suggested that Denmark was hardly an exception.

Former head of the Danish security service PET Jorgen Bonniksen said that he had never heard of such groups: "If this is true, then we have to deal with illegal intelligence operations in Denmark. On Danish territory such operations can be conducted by PET, and PET only," he stressed.

The current head of PET, Jakob Scharf, made it clear: if illegal activity is determined, "of course, we will take action." Justice Minister of Denmark Lars Barfoeda has been summoned for an explanation to the Folketing (parliament). The U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, as well as in Oslo, provided no clear comments.

Followed by Norwegians and Danes, Swedes brought up the illegal activities of American agents. According to the Minister of Justice of Sweden Beatrice Ask, people connected with the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm have been spying on people on the Swedish territory since 2000. The Minister stated that it "is not yet known whether in this case Swedish law was violated." She did not rule out that the objects of the surveillance actually might have been people who pose a threat to the U.S. security.

On his part, head of the local security police Anders Danielsson directly accused the U.S. of violating international norms. He said that the U.S. did not bother to inform the Swedish authorities of their intentions. "The Swedish security police (SÄPO) did not give the U.S. a permission to engage in activities that are contrary to Swedish law," he said.

Representatives of the U.S. embassy were quick to say that "they have nothing to hide" and that they have notified the Swedish authorities about their actions. However, Sweden is the third country which had been "made aware." Could the Scandinavian countries have entered into a conspiracy to defame the United States?

When we talk about three countries at once, it looks like a trend. Following its neighbors, Finland grew concerned as well. Local security police SUPO originally said it had not found anything illegal in the activities of the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki. However, they immediately proceeded to a more detailed verification. Apparently, the Finns also did not believe the assurances of the Americans.

Only the small Iceland with the population of 320 thousand with no army is lacking to complete the picture. On November 11 it was revealed that the islanders also have questions for the U.S. Local authorities immediately declared that they suspected members of the American Embassy in Reykjavik in espionage. The diplomatic mission is being verified.

This is a stunning picture. The U.S. did not even consider it necessary to inform its allies of its actions on their territory, as if they were colonies. In fact, Denmark, Iceland and Norway joined NATO and, consequently, they entered the circle of the closest allies of the U.S. Finland and Sweden are not members of the North Atlantic alliance, but are working with it very closely. That's how Americans value their allies.

However, Washington seems to have confused Scandinavians with Poland, Lithuania and Romania. These countries have repeatedly been suspected of placing secret CIA prisons on their territories. The authorities of these states have been blindly following in the footsteps of American politics in the past two decades. This is not true about rich countries of Northern Europe. Given the national pride of the Scandinavians, they are unlikely to forgive the Americans the dismissive attitude.

Denmark is the only country that followed the U.S. without asking questions. Sweden and Finland harshly condemned the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Norway was among the first to withdraw its troops from Iraq, as well as (unlike Americans) has signed an agreement with Russia on the delimitation of the Arctic shelf. Even little Iceland allowed itself to contradict the States when it refused to extradite the late chess player Robert Fisher, who was facing a jail term at home.

The explanation of the incident with the need to combat terrorism, of course, can be taken into account. Radical Islamists are making themselves visible in Denmark and Sweden, as well as Norway and Finland. Yet, the United States could have informed the local security forces of their suspicions as these countries also have qualified staff. And as for surveillance of Icelanders - it is simply ridiculous. They have fewer than a hundred of Muslims, let alone Islamists.

The author of numerous books on the work of intelligence Alexander Kolpakidi commented on the behavior of the U.S. agents in the Nordic countries for Pravda.ru.

"There is nothing surprising here. U.S. intelligence services have always behaved that way around the globe. Virtually all countries of the world, including the members of European Union and NATO, have secret CIA tracking stations. This is not the first scandal of this kind. For example, several years ago, the Greek police found one of these stations having mistaken it for a terrorist base. When the attack began, "terrorists" opened a furious fire, killing a police officer.

Why is America conducting subversive activities in foreign territories, including, apparently friendly countries? This is because in an era of the global crisis, the U.S. changed its strategy. If before it had adhered to the concept of the "golden billion" according to which the good life was allowed to a limited group of countries, mainly Western countries, but now it has changed the strategy to the "golden million," which implies that the good life is the exclusive privilege of the U.S. ".

Sergei Balmasov
Vadim Trukhachev
Pravda.Ru