Article

2003-05-05 Europe

Official denies German FM labeled US a "police state"

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Posted by Fred Pruitt 2003-05-05 03:07 pm|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11133 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Fred, is there any reason that you often take IRNA articles to prove how bad Germany is? Fact is that the "German media" this article quotes don't mention anything like this. And they would if it had any relevance or importance.
IRNA would probably even quote my local grocer if he made a point Iran wants to hear.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-05-05 15:25:43|| 2003-05-05 15:25:43|| Front Page Top

#2 TGA. I won't fault German media for not mentioning this. (If it's even true) After all, the citizens of Germany are their customers-not Rantburgers. The fact remains that it doesn't need to be relevant or important to the German people for it to be of interest to Rantburgers. BTW, you may be putting too much faith in your media. I know I don't put a lot of faith in the media here.

Posted by Mike N. 2003-05-05 16:03:29|| 2003-05-05 16:03:29|| Front Page Top

#3 IRNA's a propaganda vent, and the U.S. either collapsing momentarily or turning into a police state keeps showing up in propaganda from a number of sources. This is part of that collection. My guess is that the report referenced did show up in something, somewhere - likely on the disreputable and probably small circulation end of the press - and IRNA jumped on it. The story's in the "have you stopped beating your wife" category.

I've been leaving in the IRNA identifier lately, so readers evaluate reliability without going to the site to check, kind of like DEBKA reports. There's no intent to single out Germany; I suspect IRNA's got a scrubber there, to dig out articles like this one.

Posted by Fred 2003-05-05 16:11:28|| 2003-05-05 16:11:28|| Front Page Top

#4 Mike, I shall be dammned if I put faith in what media report (German or U.S.). Btw IRNA seems to be the only paper carrying this.. and it's a denial actually.
Btw I know Mr Chrobog personally and a remark like this from him is rather unlikely.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-05-05 16:11:33|| 2003-05-05 16:11:33|| Front Page Top

#5 Thanks Fred for clarification. Might very well be that IRNA has hired a guy who sifts through the local German papers.
Also the word "police state" (Polizeistaat) has a special meaning in Germany. It was used in the 70s when the Schmidt government (social democrats btw) cracked down hard on the RAF terrorists and some measures were seen to be over the mark. The U.S. has adopted tougher measures. For even tougher times, though.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-05-05 16:17:49|| 2003-05-05 16:17:49|| Front Page Top

#6 It's probably something that happened back in March. Here's what I wrote on Mar-10: "Walter Kolbow, junior minister in the German Defense Ministry, denied accusing Bush of being a dictator. Instead, he claims what he really said on Sunday is that "The Americans look more and more like dictators with their unilateral decisions." No matter which variant he uttered, does Herr Kolbow believe that one is more acceptable than the other?" [link to ABC news article in the original]

I can see how Iranians would transform Kolbow into Chrobog, German sounds must be pretty foreign to their fatwa-trained ears... See this for a further reference to Kolbow's anti-American speech.

Posted by Kalle (kafir forever) 2003-05-05 16:19:37|| [radio.weblogs.com/0103811/categories/currentevents/] 2003-05-05 16:19:37|| Front Page Top

#7 Hey, TGA "police state" refers to Nazi Germany (e.g. Gestapo). You didn't think we'd have forgotten, did you?

Posted by Kalle (kafir forever) 2003-05-05 16:22:13|| [radio.weblogs.com/0103811/categories/currentevents/] 2003-05-05 16:22:13|| Front Page Top

#8 Kalle, I don't know about you. I certainly haven't forgotten. I still have a tattoo that reminds me of it.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-05-05 16:33:49|| 2003-05-05 16:33:49|| Front Page Top

#9 ...during an internal lecture to ex-German ambassadors...

So what nationality are they now? Croatian?

Posted by mojo 2003-05-05 16:37:00|| 2003-05-05 16:37:00|| Front Page Top

#10 retired probably

Posted by True German Ally 2003-05-05 16:39:46|| 2003-05-05 16:39:46|| Front Page Top

#11 TGA:

You're a survivor?

Posted by Mike 2003-05-05 17:23:56|| 2003-05-05 17:23:56|| Front Page Top

#12 Thanks to the 9th Armored Infantry Battalion of the 6th Armored Division, April 11th 1945, Buchenwald.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-05-05 18:14:34|| 2003-05-05 18:14:34|| Front Page Top

#13 Who knows? We might be. However, the Germans have cried wolf about the big bad Dubya one time too many to take seriously.

Posted by Hiryu 2003-05-05 19:07:58|| 2003-05-05 19:07:58|| Front Page Top

#14 TGA:

I salute you, sir, and I am glad my father's generation could be of service to you. Take care of yourself.

Posted by Mike 2003-05-05 19:21:50|| 2003-05-05 19:21:50|| Front Page Top

#15 TGA: You are truly a class act. Truly.

Posted by 11A5S 2003-05-05 19:22:17|| 2003-05-05 19:22:17|| Front Page Top

#16 Thank you folks!

"I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom."

General George S. Patton

Posted by Anonymous 2003-05-05 19:39:54|| 2003-05-05 19:39:54|| Front Page Top

#17 That was me of course

Posted by True German Ally 2003-05-05 19:40:41|| 2003-05-05 19:40:41|| Front Page Top

#18 TGA - I bow to someone with greater survival skills than I possess! My dad was in the 4th Armored - also a Patton unit. As for Germany, I haven't yet seen the local police station snipers on overpasses, looking for "a white Opel", like the Germans did right after Munich. I am glad I drove a tan VW, rather than a white Opel, though! I made friends with several of the German Landespolizei in Wiesbaden. Good people, and better trained and educated than many US police officers. I was always glad they were on "our" side!

Posted by Old Patriot 2003-05-05 20:15:11|| 2003-05-05 20:15:11|| Front Page Top

#19 They still are, Old Patriot!

As for Patton, I wished he would indeed have gone on... to Moscow. Would have spared me the sequel to that survival story: in Siberia.

Posted by True German Ally 2003-05-05 20:28:31|| 2003-05-05 20:28:31|| Front Page Top

#20 TGA - I'm reminded of the movie "The Monster Squad", specifically the scene where the young boys confront the elderly man (played by Leonardo Cimino)whom they believe to be a monster, only to find out he's just a kindly old man. As he escorts them out the door (after giving them milk and cookies), they still insist that there really ARE monsters in the world.

The man agrees, and as the door closes, you can see the tatoo on his arm.

Yeah. There are monsters in the world. And it's up to America and her allies to try to fight them without becoming monsters themselves.

Ed Becerra

Posted by Ed Becerra 2003-05-05 20:51:43|| 2003-05-05 20:51:43|| Front Page Top

#21 Uh, folks, it's not just IRNA (via Winds of Change).

Posted by someone 2003-05-05 23:11:32|| 2003-05-05 23:11:32|| Front Page Top

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