Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

German Newspaper claims DEBKA is a "usually very well informed source"
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Online) ^ | 2 April 2004 | Rainer Hermann und Katja Gelinsky

Posted on 04/02/2004 4:23:16 AM PST by An.American.Expatriate

Here two original parapraphs:

Für die israelische Webseite "debka.com", die dem Geheimdienst Mossad nahestehen soll, steht fest, daß die Ereignisse in Falludscha eine Botschaft an die Amerikaner war: Al Qaida wollte mit dem Anschlag die Amerikaner an ihr Debakel von Mogadischu im Jahr 1993 erinnern. Die Anschläge von Al Qaida erhalten immer häufiger eine politische Botschaft. In Madrid sollte drei Tage vor der Wahl ein politischer Stimmungsumschwung herbeigeführt werden.

In Falludscha wollten die Attentäter offenbar die Amerikaner beeindrucken. Nicht nur das spricht für Al Qaida als Drahtzieher. Die meist sehr gut informierte israelische Webseite zieht auch die Bewegungen eines Psychiaters aus Marokko nach, der Abu Hafiza heißt und zum inneren Zirkel von Al Qaida um Bin Ladin und Zawahiri zählen soll.

The highlighted test translates as:

The isreali web site "Debka.com", which reportedly has close ties to the Mossad ......

... the usually very well informed isreali web site ...

(Excerpt) Read more at faz.net ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Germany; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: debka; faz
This is from a repected publication in Germany, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The article itself concerns the murder and mutilations in Falludja and is actually pretty "fair" in the reporting.

Posted as I find it odd, that such a "renowned" paper would claim that Debka was "well informed" (implying also reliability). I can only hope that they aren't relying on Debka as a source . . .

1 posted on 04/02/2004 4:23:17 AM PST by An.American.Expatriate
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: All
Rank Location Receipts Donors/Avg Freepers/Avg Monthlies
Idaho




35.00
1

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

2 posted on 04/02/2004 4:25:11 AM PST by Support Free Republic (Don't be a nuancy boy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: longjack; Michael81Dus
Ping for a laugh
3 posted on 04/02/2004 4:27:31 AM PST by An.American.Expatriate (A vote for JF'nK is a vote for Peace in our Time!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: An.American.Expatriate
Sure.

Wasn't it DEBKA that told us in the Afgan war that there were 200,000 Chinese on the border ready to rush in and repel the invading US forces?

Or was it that Putin moved his theater nukes to the border of Iraq to use againt the US marinies in case we actually attacked Iraq?
4 posted on 04/02/2004 4:35:55 AM PST by 11th Earl of Mar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 11th Earl of Mar
And lot's more on top of that!!!
5 posted on 04/02/2004 4:42:02 AM PST by An.American.Expatriate (A vote for JF'nK is a vote for Peace in our Time!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: An.American.Expatriate
Debka is great many times. You have to use your head when you read it. Or see if Freepers give a thumbs up or down on a Debka article.
6 posted on 04/02/2004 4:44:41 AM PST by dennisw (“We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way.” - Toby Keith)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: An.American.Expatriate
German ping.

longjack
7 posted on 04/02/2004 4:54:26 AM PST by longjack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: An.American.Expatriate
I have found Debka to be pretty accurate. But I believe that they put out "dis-information" too. As someone else said, you've gotta use discernment with their info.
8 posted on 04/02/2004 4:56:50 AM PST by Reborn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: An.American.Expatriate
Mein Deutsch ist nicht so gut anymore!
9 posted on 04/02/2004 5:20:27 AM PST by Maria S (Assigned parking only...all violators will be towed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 11th Earl of Mar
Debka (aka "Mossad Network News") also said right after September 11th that the Saudi royal family was in the process of going into exile.

This isn't quite the Chinese news agency using The Onion as a source, but its close.

-Eric

10 posted on 04/02/2004 5:26:23 AM PST by E Rocc (Democrats are to the economy what Round-up is to grass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: An.American.Expatriate
THIS IS AN AMERICAN WEBSITE! EVERYTHING SHOULD BE POSTED IN SPANISH.
11 posted on 04/02/2004 6:43:51 AM PST by bayourod (We can depend on Scary Kerry's imaginary foreign leaders to protect us from terrorists.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: An.American.Expatriate
Well informed...yes.

Correct...nope.
12 posted on 04/02/2004 7:38:30 AM PST by sharktrager (Kerry is like that or so a crack sausage)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: E Rocc
"Debka (aka "Mossad Network News") also said right after September 11th that the Saudi royal family was in the process of going into exile. "

No, they mentioned some members going to Switzerland, and have reported heavily on the rift in the leadership to succeed King Fahd.

Sometimes Debka gets it wrong, but I've seen Freepers misrepresent Debka more often than Debka's been wrong.
13 posted on 04/02/2004 8:42:16 AM PST by adam_az (Call your state Republican party office and VOLUNTEER FOR A CAMPAIGN!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: 11th Earl of Mar
The story of the Chinese sounds totally credible to me, although they never were activated.

Afghanistan abuts China at a point where there is a large Muslim autonomous region (comprising about 15% of China's total landmass). For years, China has been trying to dilute them ethnically by forced relocation of Han Chinese.

Nevertheless, there are constant Muslim assassinations taking place in the autonomous region, which wants to secede from China and join the South Asian former Soviet republics and form East Turkistan. It seems entirely believable to me that China considered sending troops in if the situation were to spin out of control -- or, possibly, China kept its own troops on the border in order to keep the war from spreading into Chinese-controlled territory.
14 posted on 04/02/2004 8:50:09 AM PST by Piranha
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: adam_az
Sometimes Debka gets it wrong, but I've seen Freepers misrepresent Debka more often than Debka's been wrong.

That's pretty funny, considering that this freeper caught Debka with three bald-faced fabrications in one article a few years back, and almost all of Debka's more spectacular claims never are borne out by subsequent events or by other media sources.

15 posted on 04/02/2004 8:52:26 AM PST by dirtboy (Howard, we hardly knew ye. Not that we're complaining, mind you...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: dirtboy
THat STILL leaves Debka more reliable than CNN or say, ABC NEWS. ;)

For example, today

"Companies Add Jobs, but Unemployment Up"
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Business/ap20040402_614.html

Unemployement is only up because MORE PEOPLE DECIDED TO ENTER THE WORKFORCE.
16 posted on 04/02/2004 8:55:09 AM PST by adam_az (Call your state Republican party office and VOLUNTEER FOR A CAMPAIGN!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: adam_az
THat STILL leaves Debka more reliable than CNN or say, ABC NEWS. ;)

You do realize that you are damning with faint praise?

17 posted on 04/02/2004 8:56:55 AM PST by dirtboy (Howard, we hardly knew ye. Not that we're complaining, mind you...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: An.American.Expatriate
This is from a repected publication in Germany, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Respected?

Not anymore.

18 posted on 04/02/2004 8:57:41 AM PST by PBRSTREETGANG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Piranha
Here is information about the Uighurs in China (abutting Afghanistan). I think that they got the size of the region wrong (I think it is 16%, not 1/16), but I may be mistaken. The article is taken from http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/uighur.htm

The Uighur (WEE-grr, also Uyghur) are an ethnically Turkic group of Muslims in the formerly independent Republic of East Turkistan, which the Chinese call Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The large region makes up one-sixteenth of China's territory and borders three former Soviet central Asian Republics. The latest Chinese census gives the present population of the Uighurs as slightly over 6 million. There are also 500,000 Uighurs in Western Turkestan, known as Uzbekistan, Kazakistan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Almost 150,000 Uighurs have their homes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Western Europe and the United States. In order to transform Eastern Turkestan into a Chinese province millions of Chinese have been settled there. Before 1949 there were only 300 thousand Chinese settlers in Eastern Turkestan. Now there are more than 6 million.

Uighur militants in Xinjiang have been struggling for decades to establish an independent East Turkestan. In 1933 and 1944, the Uighurs were successful in setting up an independent Islamic Eastern Turkestan republic. But these independent Islamic Republics were overthrown by the military intervention of the Soviet Union. In 1949 the Nationalist Chinese were defeated by the Chinese communists and Eastern Turkestan fell under Chinese communist rule.

The Committee for Eastern Turkistan, based in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, is probably the most radical national movement in Central Asia. The Committee has recently become more militant and has vowed to intensify their struggle in a bid to free Xinjiang from growing Chinese influence. It was originally formed by Uighur guerrillas who fought against the Chinese in the period of 1944-1949. In 1945 Muslim freedom-fighters took up arms and set up an independent Turkestan Republic in a mass-uprising supported by the Soviet Union. Their leader of the 1940s, Aysa Beg, fled to Turkey in 1949 after the Communists came to power.

The situation in Xinjiang for Muslims is extremely severe. Uighurs are being arbitrarily detained. Thousands of Uighur political prisoners are in jail and are being tortured. There have been very violent repressions of protest, mass closings of Koranic schools, a large number of death sentences for religious protesters.

In 1990, the Uighurs, Kirghiz and Kazakhs of Eastern Turkestan again rose up against Chinese rule. In April in the remote town of Akto, more than 1000 residents, furious at not being allowed to build a mosque, took to the streets. More than 60 people were killed in clashes with Chinese troops. In July 1990 the authorities in Xinjiang announced the arrest of 7,900 people in a crackdown on "criminal activities of ethnic splittists and other criminal offenders."

The "Strike Hard" anti-crime campaign launched in 1996 was announced as an initiative to answer citizens' legitimate concerns about rising crime through a high-intensity series of high-profile police actions. The "Strike Hard" campaign never officially came to an end, though it faded from the scene in most urban areas. In minority areas, however, it is a different story. Particularly in Xinjiang province, home to the Muslim Uighur nationality, the "Strike Hard" work appears to be going full-tilt, clearly a tool being used to justify harsh measures against political activists, including many well publicized executions of accused pro-independence activists.

On the eve of Ramadan on 05 February 1997 in Ghulja, believers were offended by the arrests of 30 prestigious religious leaders by the Chinese Government. Six hundred young people took to the streets, walking toward city government, demanding release of those religious figures. On their way, they were stopped by police and the paramilitary forces. Police violently dispersed crowds using electrical clubs, water cannon, and tear gas in the freezing day. The second day, an even bigger demonstration was held after Uighurs all over town heard about the incident. Chinese police and paramilitary forces were ordered to shoot to the crowd, and killed 167 people, and succeeded in suppressing the rally.

Afterwards, the Chinese policemen arrested over 5,000 demonstrators, including elder, young women and children in a single day on the charge of intending to split the motherland, conducting criminal activity, fundamental religious activity, and counter-revolutionary element.

The Chinese Government subsequently made the first open execution of seven Uighurs in order to 'kill the chicken to scare the monkeys.' Chinese military forces loaded them on to the open truck and drove slowly through the busy Uighur bazaar and neighborhoods through a crowd. When the mourners got too close to the trucks, the Chinese soldiers opened fire and killed nine more people.

Anwar Yusuf, president of the Eastern Turkistan National Freedom Center, was one of several independence leaders who gathered in Taiwan February 25 to 28, 1998, for public and private meetings and numerous press interviews. Invited by the World Federation of Taiwanese Association in the U.S., Yusuf was joined by prominent Eastern Turkistani activist Erkin Alptekin; Professor Thubtin Jigme Norbu, elder brother of His Holiness the Dalai Lama; Tashi Jamyangling, former Home Secretary of the Tibetan Government in Exile; and Johnar Bache, Vice Chairman of the Southern Mongolian People's Party. The independence leaders met with leading Taiwanese, in and out of government, including Liu Sung-pan, the president of Taiwan's Legislative Yuan; Shui-Bian Chen, Mayor of Taipei; and Frank C.T. Hsieh, Mayor of Kaosiung.

Following the death of the exile East Turkestan leader Isa Yusuf Alptekin, who advocated non-violence and was called the Turkic Dalai Lama, no-one has had the authority to prevent militant resistance against Chinese rule in Xinjiang. Branded as "Xinjiang's Hamas," the Home of East Turkestan Youth is a radical group committed to achieving the goal of independence through the use of armed force. It has some 2,000 members, some of whom have undergone training in using explosive device in Afghanistan and other Islamic countries.
19 posted on 04/02/2004 8:59:53 AM PST by Piranha
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson