In the wake of the recent attack in which a truckload of migrants were gunned down in the streets of Berlin, the police have yet to find the driver of the truck, who is believed to be a Tunisian national who came to Germany as a refugee in the summer of 2015.
00:00:08.600Good. Well, were you in Berlin during the recent attack?
00:00:13.280Yes, I was. And, well, it was quite interesting that eventually happened what every normal person who has his senses together expected, but neither the government nor the mainstream media admitted that it will happen one day.
00:00:38.800Right. It's predictable. The how and the when is unpredictable.
00:00:43.280But the what is predictable. And that is that someone who apparently, again, I think the manhunt for him is still ongoing as we record this.
00:00:55.280But the man they are searching for is from Tunisia, I believe. And he did come to Germany during the summer of 2015.
00:01:05.680So this is a consequence of the refugee crisis and Germany's, you know, taking sovereign responsibility and in Angela Merkel's words to for the refugees.
00:01:19.280Yes, it is. But this whole case became now quite chaotic.
00:01:30.500Well, because, first of all, they arrested a Pakistani guy who came also as a refugee who crossed the German border in December last year, 31st of December 2015 at Passau.
00:01:48.140There he was registered and he was interrogated by the police for several hours or the whole night.
00:01:55.460And it was said that he was quite known by the police, of course, a very questionable status like for, I would think, the most so-called refugees who are in reality illegal migrants coming to Germany.
00:02:14.720I don't also know if he really was fleeing from a war or he was really fleeing from violence or, I mean, the whole case is very questionable.
00:02:24.660Then they had to release him because it was said that he had, first of all, a sort of alibi and they didn't find any traces of the crime.
00:02:39.320And now they are looking for this Tunisian guy, what is quite interesting, because it was said that they found his ID, his refugee ID in the cabin of the truck.
00:02:52.860So, of course, this reminds us also a little bit with 9-11, but still just to end this.
00:02:59.680So, now he's on the run and the police, the police is somehow looking for him.
00:03:04.780And we all asked ourselves, why were they not looking for the person where they found coincidentally an ID in the cabin of the truck before?
00:03:16.640And I hope you are sitting because otherwise you will fall because of laughing.
00:03:20.940The police said they couldn't start the search in that way they should because there were orthographic mistakes in the papers for the search.
00:04:08.580We hear sometimes helicopters over our heads.
00:04:11.680We have politicians who say that we shouldn't fear and we have journalists who say that the biggest danger of this terrorist attack is, of course, not terrorism, but it is the rise of the far right.
00:04:25.940So, we live in, as I said, in a crime thriller or in a comedy or in both of them.
00:05:24.000It is not excluded that someone leaves his ID at the crime scene.
00:05:30.100This is, you know, we have idiots everywhere and maybe every culture and every people and every religion has its idiots.
00:05:38.600Who knows better than we do in our countries?
00:05:41.600But, of course, of course, it rises many, many questions, and I don't want to be now a coffee cup reader, but for me, the whole thing sounds a little bit like when they find him, there will be a shooting and the guy will be dead or he will commit suicide.
00:06:06.100Hopefully, hopefully, I'm wrong, and hopefully we will witness then a real trial.
00:06:12.020But just saying, I have sometimes, and this is maybe now a little bit tinfoil like what I say, but when we see how our state is dealing with terrorism within the last years, and I'm not just speaking about Islamist terrorism, I'm also speaking about the NSU case.
00:06:31.000I think you heard in the US as well, this is the so-called neo-Nazi terrorist group, which was arrested some years ago, and the trial is still going on.
00:06:44.080There are so many things unclear, and there are, and I'm not, this is not conspiracy theory.
00:06:49.880You know, they see that on the mobile phone, there was called many, many times an intel officer, for example, and this is all evidence.
00:07:00.120There is no tinfoil conspiracy theory behind it.
00:07:03.780I think in many, many cases, our state officials don't have a big interest in a very clear investigation, which makes the results public.
00:07:13.240Yes, and that is true about if the alleged perpetrator of this terrible crime is just shot at the scene, trying to escape or commit suicide, then that does give some closure, as people like to say, to the case.
00:07:27.580But it also means that further investigations wouldn't take place, like who was the person exactly, whom was he in contact with, and so on.
00:07:35.460I want to just to give one sentence before it really sounds like tinfoil.
00:07:49.760Imagine if it would come out as we had it in Europe in many cases of terrorism also, or especially when it came to Islamist terrorism.
00:07:58.500When it comes out that this person was maybe in touch with our intel or with another European intel or with your glorious US-American intel as an informant, that when it comes out that that person was cooperating or maybe our intel thought he was cooperating with them for a long time.
00:08:18.920And this is, by the way, something what we had as well in the London metro attack, what we had in Madrid at the terror attack.
00:08:30.360So at least here we know also already that the guy was known by the police.
00:08:36.800And when I see what crimes are connected with these people, also, by the way, with the Pakistani guy they were having first, I ask myself, why are these people still in my country?
00:08:48.340You know, one should ask, how can it be that this person is there?
00:08:52.760And they do, as these are all just minor criminal cases and so on.
00:08:56.820But then all of a sudden they speak about harassment.
00:09:00.100They speak, well, about a real criminal career.
00:09:05.260So the question is very legit to ask, why are these people in this country, why they were not deported already many months ago?
00:09:13.880Why were they not not accepted at the registration?
00:09:18.420Now, this is these are all legit questions connected to these cases.
00:09:22.360Oh, let me just say two more things before we move on from these questions, because I do want to talk more about the symbolism of the act.
00:09:30.140And I want to talk a little about Turkey, but just two quick two things real quick.
00:09:33.320First off, this person in the reports that I've read has weapons training, which he received from ISIS.
00:09:41.760So I would be interesting to learn if he received that training from U.S. officials or U.S. funded people in the in the Syrian conflict and other conflicts in the United States in the in the Middle East.
00:09:55.560That's a that's a that's an interesting question.
00:09:57.260The other thing from a report that I read is that he was actually denied asylum, but he was allowed to remain on some, you know, aptly termed tolerance.
00:10:12.460This is what I'm speaking about. Exactly that. Exactly.
00:10:19.660Right. So, again, it just I think what did Angela Merkel say in her statement?
00:10:24.760You know, we know how painful this would be if we discover that, you know, he's he was seeking asylum and how painful it would be to all those good asylum seekers who are trying to be Germans or something like that.
00:10:37.340It's very similar to in the United States.
00:10:40.360There was a a general named George Casey, who after one of these it was the Fort Hood shooting where a Muslim man who was actually employed by the U.S. Army, you know, shot dozens of people.
00:10:55.820This was back in 2009, I believe is a terrible incident.
00:11:00.380And General Casey said, well, you know, if if diversity is the casualty of the shooting, that that would be much worse than the mass murder that just took place.
00:11:10.000So if we should work for the German government, he's perfect.
00:11:14.120So apparently losing our faith in diversity is worse than mass murder.
00:11:20.120And this, Richard, may never happen to you and me.
00:13:54.360You live in a in a in a movie comedy or in a very sarcastic Franz Kafka esque tragedy.
00:14:06.740This is really I mean, but it's reality around us.
00:14:09.420It's also reality around us, how politicians are reacting on that.
00:14:13.740And when it comes to the symbolism, of course, the Christmas market, even in Berlin, it is still called Christmas market.
00:14:21.060Although we have ironically in many German communities the debate if it should be renamed in the winter market, not to bother those who are not Christians.
00:14:31.540And by the way, this has to be said in this context.
00:14:35.020Those ideas never come from the Muslim community, the Muslim community.
00:14:40.900If you go to Berlin and you look where the Muslim community is living, especially in Kreuzberg and in Neukölln, you will never find anywhere else so much Christmas lights and all this bling bling.
00:14:51.620And, you know, where maybe again, Angela Merkel might get epileptic shock when she sees all these colors and Christmas trees.
00:15:02.400So I would say these guys even love somehow this whole Christmas thing with all the lights.
00:15:08.320It's a very small, radical minority of them who are somehow totally against it.
00:15:14.780But the real problem are our own liberals.
00:15:19.800These are the people who are attacking all these traditions.
00:15:24.180So they say we cannot call it Christmas market not to hurt the feelings of those who are not Christians among us and so on.
00:15:34.940But that was now just a little side comedy of the main comedy.
00:15:40.540And when it comes to the Christmas markets in Berlin, they are – I think you would be disappointed if you compare a Christmas market in Berlin with a Christmas market in Munich or in Vienna because it is a very secular thing.
00:15:53.760But still, it is, of course, a community thing.
00:15:56.740People go there with their families after work or with their colleagues.
00:16:00.480They love to drink then a Glühwein, which is, I think, an English, a malt wine.
00:16:10.860So it has, of course, this community spirit.
00:16:13.880You can even eat your döner at the Christmas market in Berlin because it is also sold there.
00:16:19.880So the religious aspect is, in my opinion, very, very small.
00:16:25.300There are some smaller Christmas markets which are organized by, for example, by the Catholic Church or the Protestant Church, which have, of course, more the religious aspect.
00:16:35.420But this Christmas market at the Breitscheidplatz where the terrorist attack happened is maybe not the master religious aspect.
00:16:47.080But, of course, it has the community aspect.
00:16:50.060It is one of the events where people love to go, where they go, where they spend time, and where they feel secure.
00:16:59.700Until now, the biggest danger of these markets were most probably the pickpockets coming from the Balkans.
00:17:08.320So these were maybe the guys you were watching out, but not so much terrorism, although everyone had already somehow a bad feeling about what will come upon us after the so-called refugee crisis started.
00:17:22.780And after ISIS said very clearly that they will send terrorists disguised as refugees to Germany and to whole Europe.
00:17:32.360And since we know, and I mean, I'm a journalist and we have our own sources in diverse refugee camps in Germany, that there are very open celebrations for terrorist groups as ISIS and Shabbat al-Nusra and that there are singing chants of beheading Christians.
00:17:51.600And all these things are happening under the eyes of our government and I would also say under the eyes of our mainstream media.
00:17:59.040But, of course, it is a little bit shameful and you don't report about it and you don't criticize it because diversity could be the biggest victim of that.
00:18:11.260So also here, diversity is more important than safety.
00:18:14.860So the symbolism, the symbolism is very, very clearly against that people feel safe in public squares.
00:18:23.680I think that is the main important aspect.
00:18:28.080The religious aspect is maybe not as big as it might seem outside, but maybe the terrorist had this religious aspect in his mind when he did that.
00:18:41.860That is the thing I think it's very likely because a Christmas market is still a Christmas market.
00:18:47.560And, of course, it might be in his religious ideology a thing which is totally halal and where it is totally justified to bring a truck there and to kill dozens of people if he is successful.
00:18:59.840Right. I mean, it's a cultural clash no matter how you think about it.
00:19:04.840And even if it were totally unconscious, the fact is that a Christmas market is a symbol of Europe, it is interesting how we've come this far.
00:19:16.040I mean, I can certainly remember the George W. Bush era where you had insurgents and terrorism and so on.
00:19:24.220And that could be seen as – and I'm not saying I necessarily agree with this.
00:19:29.840I do think there's a kernel of truth to this.
00:19:31.520But this could be seen as a response to the American empire as blowback, so-called, where people – they are attacking the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
00:19:43.380Where American soldiers are being maimed and killed in the Middle East by insurgents who are mad at them for perhaps justifiable reasons.
00:19:53.920But this is something different, what we see here.
00:19:58.180I mean, Germany is not directly related to any of these conflicts.
00:20:03.480It's kind of on the outskirts of, say, the Iraq War, the Syrian conflict, or all these kinds of things.
00:20:09.400Germany bent over backwards to welcome refugees.
00:20:14.480I mean, they went well beyond the call of duty in accepting these people.
00:20:20.640And yet there still is this inevitable clash.
00:20:27.060And also Germans did it in a different way than, say, Americans or even French.
00:20:34.460The French who have – we have these kind of proposition nation citizenship ideals, civilizational ideals.
00:20:42.440The German situation is very different because, you know, German consciousness after 1945 does seem to be this negative consciousness of – based on guilt.
00:20:53.480And, you know, in a way, we can never purge the guilt of Hitler that it's this – you know, a – yeah, and I – it's a sad thing.
00:21:03.040But even Germany are being attacked in this way.
00:21:08.980I don't know – what would you say about the psyche of an average German?
00:21:15.280I mean, is there a sense – you know, is there a sense that there's nothing you can do,
00:21:21.240that there really are these fault lines and divisions between peoples and cultures,
00:21:26.980and that it doesn't matter if you let them in and sing songs about diversity and hold everyone's hand and welcome them at the airports?
00:21:36.100At the end of the day, it doesn't matter.
00:21:39.060Do you think this realization is hitting some of these people?
00:21:43.520I mean, I think it is a little bit more complex.
00:21:47.980And I know that this is a very famous liberal phrase when it comes to these topics, but I say it now anyway.
00:23:22.980And especially the Germans didn't want to see German soldiers somewhere on battlefields.
00:23:26.640But since our reunification, the things changed a bit.
00:23:31.980And what is clear, what is very, very clear is that the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, war in Iraq was without German participation, at least with German military participation.
00:23:45.500But the war in Iraq was, of course, also with German military participation.
00:23:49.180But these wars wouldn't have been possible if Germany wouldn't host huge American military compounds.
00:23:59.500So, we are the United States' biggest aircraft carrier.
00:24:03.060We have the United States' biggest military hospital.
00:24:08.700So, we are somehow the most important island for the United States and Europe from where they can conduct their geopolitical actions or adventures or how we want to say it.
00:24:38.080So, this is why I say this doesn't have an influence.
00:24:41.620But when it comes now to Syria and we have to see the refugee crisis, and we were writing this since many, many, many years,
00:24:49.320that we said this could open the bottle, the Syria crisis.
00:24:53.540And if Germany allows, if Germany allows that terrorists are taking over that country, that terrorists, also what we had in Libya,
00:25:03.300if Germany is not resisting, not just because of a humanitarian reason and not just because of save the people in Libya or save the people in Syria,
00:25:13.500no, but because of save the people in Europe and save Germany and act in German interest.
00:25:18.560If Germany is not doing this, we will be the first ones who will be hit by the consequences.
00:25:25.220And we wrote very, very early, one of the consequences will be a refugee wave, a migration wave,
00:25:31.540which would be bigger, faster, and have a much bigger impact on us than all what we saw in the decades before.
00:25:39.680We will all laugh about these migration movements coming from Turkey, coming from Balkans, coming from other countries.
00:25:47.300If we compare it, what will happen if Syria is destabilized?
00:27:00.820So Angela Merkel is the one who was supporting, actively supporting terrorism in Syria
00:27:07.500and who was turning, by support of this terrorism, ordinary Syrian citizens into refugees.
00:27:14.940So it is also German taxpayers' money.
00:27:18.620By the way, it goes really down, it is totally contradicting.
00:27:22.220It was German taxpayers' money, for example, which was donated or which was invested in a renewal of the Aleppo water system in the old city
00:27:33.200just two or three years before the war came upon Syria.
00:27:37.580And then we financed those who were destroying the old city.
00:27:41.220So German money was fighting German money.
00:27:43.340German taxpayers' money was fighting German taxpayers' money.
00:27:45.800So what I want to say, on the one side, we have the politicians actively supporting terrorism in other countries.
00:33:26.500And Syria has a very big public sector.
00:33:29.520So it was introduced to bring chaos to the country and to cut income from the state.
00:33:36.460And when you see Syria didn't have so much oil exports.
00:33:40.120And when I talk to my Syrian friends, they say, thank God we didn't have, because otherwise we would have a military intervention on the ground with boots on the ground already.
00:33:48.940But alone, Germany and Italy were buying two thirds of the oil from Syria or of the resources from Syria.
00:33:57.400And they stopped in 2012, if I'm not wrong, with doing that.
00:34:01.980And that is what brings to Syria the real crisis, not so much the people.
00:34:11.800I mean, Aleppo is a case which is very radical.
00:34:15.540But if you go, for example, to the coastline, Latakia, Tartus, these are very intact cities.
00:34:21.240And even Damascus is a functioning city.
00:34:23.340But the people are without perspective.
00:34:26.800And this lack of perspective is caused mainly by sanctions and embargoes.
00:35:05.820Let's shift over to Ankara and Turkey.
00:35:10.980I mean, it was remarkable that these two events happened on the same day, just as we were approaching solstice.
00:35:17.760We had these two major geopolitical events.
00:35:21.220They were also very different, whereas the Berlin event did strike me as a typical, you know, terror, spectacular event, similar to Nice and similar to Paris and other things like that.
00:35:36.640But the event in Ankara struck me as almost like something out of a James Bond movie or a John le Carré movie or book.
00:36:32.320And that's what I was getting at in that kind of espionage movie aspect to it.
00:36:36.900It's this very complex web of things where he might have been a – or there's reason to believe that he was a ghoulinist, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, which is – again, this is something that I have been learning about in the last few hours.
00:36:50.340An Islamist group that has actually been condemned by the state, but which has some backing in the military from what I understand.
00:37:01.960So – and then obviously there's this – all of these layers of geopolitics where you're engaging in a targeted assassination of a diplomat in an art gallery.
00:37:14.940But it also seems to be directly addressed at Russia's support of Assad and Syria, where he's saying, you know, we die in Aleppo, you die here.
00:37:26.320It seemed to try to be breaking – obviously a murder of a diplomat.
00:37:46.340I'm not sure I quite know what to make of it yet.
00:37:49.160Well, first of all, although it was everywhere in the social networks and on Twitter, but I don't believe at all that that was something comparable to Sarajevo 1914 or so.
00:38:04.800You know, they were immediately bringing these examples.
00:38:06.640So I don't think this was the overture of a World War III or whatever.
00:38:23.320Well, I mean, look, the comparisons are – I don't go for Hugo Boss.
00:38:29.060I – a little too – yeah, a little too Berlin for me.
00:38:34.180I like more tweed and stuff like that, but putting that aside, it did seem to be a strange – one of these small events like an assassination that has geopolitical implications.
00:38:45.440To make you now my friend again, we know that the assassinator of Sarajevo was in contact or maybe even controlled by the Royal British Secret Service.
00:38:58.400So, of course, I'm convinced that what happened in Ankara was not the lonesome or the lonely decision of this bodyguard guy all of a sudden to shoot the Russian ambassador in his back.
00:39:15.140And, of course, this has a deeper sense, but – and this should we always take into account – I mean, I have to admit that I am not a specialist on Turkey.
00:39:27.060I'm not – I'm not – I don't understand Turkey to the death, but what I know and what I see is that in Turkey, it's very close to be a sort of total state, to say it like this.
00:39:41.760And that in a total state are rivalries of different groups and they might agree when it comes to their nationalism or chauvinism, they might agree, but not, for example, when it comes with who they will realize it.
00:39:59.960And, of course, the move, for many people, surprising move of Turkey towards Russia might have made upset those circles which were, let me say, had more assets in the Turkish-American alliance.
00:40:20.240I personally think that Erdogan is playing a game and I think that also the Russians know that.
00:40:44.460I think they have one of the hugest armies in the region and they need – they definitely need the support coming from U.S. but also from Europe.
00:40:54.120And I deeply doubt that Russia is even willing to give a substitute for that support.
00:43:16.940So, when it comes – I'll just tell this as an example.
00:43:19.240I think that almost no one knew what Gulenists are and who Gulen is and just those who were maybe a little bit more deeper in Turkish culture or Turkish political landscape.
00:43:35.000They knew that Erdogan and Gulen were once very close allies, that Gulen was a sort of teacher for Erdogan.
00:43:41.860Then they had some type of difficulties and Gulen is now living in the US.
00:43:47.960So, they were not always the big enemies and I think that is also very – maybe a pattern when it comes to Turkey.
00:43:57.980The switch from you are my best friend to you are the deadliest enemy I could ever have.
00:44:04.740But we should never forget that it can switch again to the back.
00:44:09.520So, now the Gulenists are, of course, the bad guys and, of course, they are in the US and the CIA is helping them.
00:44:16.820But the CIA is also helping the Turkish government, by the way.
00:44:19.900So, there is not – but it is just – I think we shouldn't step into the trap to believe too much the PR about these things.
00:44:27.300I think there is the possibility that Gulen might be the big friend of Erdogan maybe already next year.