BERLIN, April 17, 2007 (UPI) — Concerns are rising about the growing number of terror threats against Germany, formerly a country spared from Islamist violence. Ever since the abduction of two Germans in Baghdad, the Islamists have stepped up the rhetorical warfare against Berlin.
* Obviously, it won’t stop there.
In a video message to the German TV show “Spiegel TV,” the Global Islamic Media Front, or GIMF — a German language Web site that has in the past posted Islamist videos — said that more Germans will be abducted in the future. The GIMF said it was relaying the message in the name of the kidnappers of the two German hostages in Iraq.
The kidnappers wanted to tell Berlin that “even if the two Germans are killed, Germans will always be targets for kidnappings all over the world until the German government pulls its troops out (of Afghanistan),” German news magazine Der Spiegel quoted from the message.
It remains unclear whether the Web site hosts are really in contact with the kidnappers; they have in the past posted and edited the kidnappers’ video messages to the government.
Berlin-born Hannelore Kraus, 61, and her son were snatched in early February by armed men who entered their home in Baghdad, where the woman has lived since she had married an Iraqi professor. A crisis team has been set up in the German Foreign Ministry to get the pair released. Already, two ultimatums threatening their lives have run out.
I guess the Germans just aren’t submissive enough. Bismarck would know how to handle this rabble.