25.10.2013
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Guests: 

Jeremy Scahill: National Security correspondent of "The Nation", author of "Dirty Wars. The World Is a Battlefield" and "Blackwater. The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army"

Germany plays a central role in US military operations since 9/11 and is a major enabler of the US assassination program, says Jeremy Scahill. Many of the operations of the Joint Special Operation Command, the covert US elite forces, are being planned at the US Africa Command “AFRICOM” in Stuttgart/Germany. More than 70 countries in the world have access to weaponized drone technology. Germany is also trying to acquire them. It is only a matter of time that they will be used. Furthermore the US military has donated its equipment to  police agencies. The same will happen in Germany and Europe where drones also will be used for surveillance purposes. Law enforcement is going to become more and more an issue of paramilitary operations.

Death squads, CIA weapon deliveries to rebels, covert operations with a licence to kill: The covert warfare of the United States with the involvement of European countries has disastrous consequences, says Jeremy Scahill. In Somalia the US has created death squads consisting of warlords, destroyed the Islamic Courts Union and enabled the rise of the terror group al-Shabaab that recently attacked a shopping mall in Nairobi. In Syria the CIA delivers weapons to rebels, among them elements of al-Qaida with the usual risk of a blow-back. Afghanistan is a failed and unjustified war for Scahill which has made Afghan life even more miserable. The US is going to keep special forces there even after the official end of the occupation next year – European countries assisting them. The killing of Bunjamin E. from Germany in Pakistan by a US drone is raising questions about the role of the German government in the US assassination program.
 

The National Security Agency (NSA) plays an „absolut essential role in the world-wide assassination programs”, says Scahill. He is working on an aricle about the connection between the covert operations and the NSA with Glenn Greenwald who published the story of the NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The NSA is not a group of nerds but works with very “sophisticated hunters” to track people in the internet clouds. The CIA and the US special forced couldn’t execute their assassination without the NSA. In a time when Obama criminalizes whistleblowers in record numbers independent media are crucial, says Scahill. The new media venture with Greenwald an Laura Poitras funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar presents a great chance. “We kind of hit the jackpot”. Since governments in Europe are complicit with the US and work “hand in gloves” with the NSA, CIA and US military “European Edward Snowdens” are needed. “Don’t believe for a second that you can’t make a difference”.