Ex-Guantanamo captive Kurnaz details abuses

The former Guantanamo-captive Kurnaz has testified in response to questions from the Defense committee of the Bundestag.  There the Turk-German (cf., in US English usage, Italian-American) delineated his residence in an Afghan US-prison camp, to which he was dragged (kidnapped) as a terror suspect in 2002.  He said he was hung from chains and had to hold out against being left naked in a tent in weather of minus 10 degrees (Celsius, i.e., 14 deg. F).  Multiple committee members showed themselves to be visibly shaken by the testimony.  Kurnaz emphasized also his reprovals (complaints) against the Bundeswehr (German armed forces).  He said he was also mishandled (abused) by German KSK soldiers while in Afghanistan.  (KSK = "Kommando Spezialkrafte" = Special Forces Commandos, roughly the equivalent of a mixture of US Special Forces and Rangers).  The Defense committee will further investigate, to verify the reprovals (complaints).  A CDU-member (a conservative) said it is presently too soon to determine whether to fully credit the testimony and its delineations.

Of Course the CDU will say that, if only because Angie Merkel is CDU.  The problem is, there have been repeated scandals of this nature - not nearly as bad as our Abu Ghraib, but still there - involving German troops in Afghanistan.  There was one a couple months ago, involving their having taken souvenir photos with skulls found on a roadside as a hood ornament on their jeep.  It turned out, they had not dug up Afghan graves for skulls but that it was more likely the skull was that of Soviet soldier from the last Afghan war.  FWIW, the Soviet Army was never much for graves registration or recovering their dead.  That's a byproduct of not having to listen to public opinion.  The US compares very favorably in the Grave Reg. department as the Executive (used to) have to listen to public opinion.  

The whole "skull" thing still sets off real sensitive nerves in Germany though, as one of the most "dirty" SS units in WWII was the "Totenkopf" (3 SS Panzer) division, formed of concentration camp guards (who used the skull and crossbones as their insignia) and turned loose on the Eastern Front.  After the end of WWII, very few of them survived the Soviet system.  Needless to say, given the history there, neither many Germans nor other Euros were too happy about this latest episode.  

But, the sort of abuse Kurnaz alleged against the KSK forces is endemic in Special Operations forces.  Those forces (in any army) are a place where seriously-capable soldiers with loads of machismo and frustrated by a combination of unattainable goals and elusive enemies combine to make a very volatile, dangerous combination.  Add to the mix a vague rule (thank you, Rummy, Deadeye, Prof. Yoo, the OLC, and The Unit, among others) on how far the interrogator can go, and it's inevitable very bad things will happen.  

Not might.  Will.

In the days of WWII and thereafter, people would wonder how it could be that the country of Goethe, Schiller, Bach, Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart could also produce Auschwitz, Belsen, Dachau, Himmler, Bormann and genocide.  In future days, I'm just as sure that people will ask the same of America:

 How could the land that produced Twain, Whitman, Basie, Ellington, baseball, the blues, jazz, and rock and roll  also produce Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and all the other atrocities we've seen from Vietnam onward.  

In both cases, the answer is the same.  These two countries had well-developed moral senses, legal principles, and comprehensive systems of checks and balances.  Yet, in each of them, a party using advanced methods (for the time) of advertising and propaganda seized on discontent and disturbance arising out of change to decree that that party (financed in large part by the rich, against the poor) and its leader (whose prior lives had each been undistinguished despite many gifts of skill) knew the difference between "good" and "evil", that that party and its leader were on the side of "good", and that those who opposed them, being "evil", were entitled to none of the protections of law or civilization.  Moreover, because the party and its leader were "good", there was no need to worry about checks and balances, because there's no need to check or balance "good".  

Out of fear - of whatever purported threat - the country was cowed into abandoning its principles.

Fear.  That's all.  

Germany had its Wilhelm Stueckart, a gifted lawyer of deep distinction and wider learning, who nonetheless helped draft and carry into effect the Nuremburg laws (everything they did, was strictly speaking "legal" - Germans could tolerate it no other way).  America has its John Yoo and Viet Dinh, who've done much the same with their so-called PATRIOT Act, signing statements (nothing if not a modern version of the Fuhrerprinzip), DTA and MCA.  

And, FWIW, if you put a few pounds on him and lose the thin moustache, it's amazing how much Himmler looks like Rover.

Then the second article discusses some outrageous "parliamentary" behavior by a member of the neo-Nazi NPD, in the state assembly of Saxony.      

Banning of NPD member lifted.

The State Assembly (Landtag) of Saxony has lifted the ban on entry into the Saxon Landtag building previously imposed on the Member, Klaus-Jurgen Menzel.  The Landtag stated this ban had been in effect through the conclusion of the investigation by the Government's attorneys. Hereafter, the unaffiliated* member is permitted access to and from the building only through one designated entrance, where he will have to go through security screening for weapons.  The member, previously affiliated with the NPD, had attempted in December to have a confidant smuggle a pistol into the Landtag.  

He had been under investigation for weapons offenses, a pistol being pretty hard to get and keep in Germany.

* For a party (fraktion) to be represented in a Landtag or the Bundestag, they have to have a certain percentage of seats, e.g. 5 percent in the Bundestag.  Otherwise, the member, while not giving up his party affiliation personally, is considered unaffiliated (fraktionlose).  Also, parties can disaffiliate from a particular member, where, as here, he gives them a reason.

I recall an incident here, where a state assemblyman had a gun accident in his legislative chambers, I think in Virginia.  But, if I recall correctly, that was just a Republican.  This German story has the added menace of involving an NPD member.  The NPD is very strong, as are skinheads, in the parts of the country which made up the former East Germany.  There was a report last week about the latest unemployment figures - 15% in one or two of those Laender - so the reader can get the drift of why they have such appeal, and power, in the streets.  

And, they specialize in outrageous behavior -stunts really - like going up to the edge of holocaust denial, staging counter rallies - with reactions sort of like that to Reagan going to the German war cemetery at Bitburg, though without the veneer of affable ignorance he used to get away with it - and so on.  But, they're neither frivolous, nor stupid.  

It's not fighting in the streets over there, but it's no less tricky than it is for the Dems here, trying to unravel the Bush legacy of torture, war, corruption and deceit without leaving themselves open to charges of "weakness" and "cowardice" (or whatever other crap the RWNM will dream up).

Accepting fear leads, inevitably though eventually, to that twitchy, scared, cowering place The Unit and Deadeye and all the rest would have us hide while they line their buddies' pockets.  And it leads, just as eventually, to the devastation, wrack and ruin that was Germany, circa 1946.

And, there's no need for it.  It's wholly avoidable, if one looks past the fear and continues on.