Students from Germany joined Al-Qaeda fighters in Iraq
This doesn't do much to improve people's perception of immigrants in Europe.
Germany's Spiegel (in German) reported today about a list of foreign Al-Qaida fighters discovered in Iraq which included four immigrants who were residents/students in Germany (for a similar problem in the UK, look here). At least one of them volunteered for a suicide mission.
Once again, how could this be? Germany hasn't been involved in the Iraq war. Like the Spanish Al-Qaeda arrests last week, I think this shows that the global jihad is fueling the War on Terror, not the West's response to it, as many in the anti-war crowd would have us believe.
Article translated into English below:Students from Lower Saxony fight in Iraq for Al-Qaida
American soldiers have given Spiegel information about an explosive list seized from a camp in Iraq. According to it, a group of young students from Lower Saxony are fighting on sides of the terrorist organization Al-Qaida against the US army.
Hamburg - in the lists with names of foreign recruits, US soldiers in the camp have confirmed details of four men from Lower Saxony who volunteered for Jihad, and were given to Spiegel. Two of the men, Radhuan Ibn Jussif N., 25, and Siad B., 30, suddenly disappeared in the spring of this past year from the Braunschweiger student dormitory "Affenfelsen" ("Ape rock").
The two Tunisians had studied at the technical university of Braunschweig and were considered unremarkable; B. lived for ten years in Germany, N. since 2003. The background is still unclear with the other two members of the jihad traveling group: In contrast with usual, another Tunisian named Nidal al-K claimed to be a doctor and put himself up for a suicide attack, according to the documents. It is uncertain whether he is still alive.
German investigators are now lookig at who contacted and recruited the four jihadists in Germany. The group declared that they had traveled through Turkey and Syria to the combat zone.
The Federal Criminal Investigation Office and Internal Security assume that since 2003 more than 80 volunteers from all across Germany traveled to Iraq, with about half of those actively fighting on the side of Al-Qaeda. In a further preliminary investigation, the investigators currently are following up on a possible connection with an Islamic cell in Barcelona and German contacts: This past Saturday Spanish police had arrested twelve Pakistanis and two Indians, who are suspected of planning an attack in Barcelona.
More in the new issue of Spiegel.
Did you notice the age of those guys? 25 and 30 years old and they were supposed to be "students" in Germany??
UPDATE :
One clarification - what got me what not so much being students at their age (not uncommon to find graduate students that age in America) but that they were still living in a student dormitory (the word can Studentenheim can also refer to a hostel). 30 is kind of old for that... 
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4 comments:
Hello John,
It seems that you are misinformed about the average age of Students in Germany. Most are in their middle to late twenties when they graduate. I am not sure why that is, but the fact remains. Guys have their mandatory military service/civil service after school for about a year before they can even start university and alot of young people opt for a "Social year" - basically civil service - before they start to study. And it used to be at least that people were over 18 when they finished school. I was 20 when I graduated the Gymnasium. 13 years of regular school plus one year as an exchange student and I started school when I was 7. A regular university education takes about 5-6 years, if youre a man add a year for said reason, then youre up to 6-7 years or 25-27 or older when graduating university. It is easy to be a student in that agegroup here, especially when you are persuing a Phd. No dissing of our system, German degrees are highly valued internationally because it is a very thorough scientific education. A 3 year Bachelor is just not the same even if you are done alot earlier. The qualification is alot lower.
Ruthie - thank your for that clarification, I made a little update above. What struck me as odd was not just their age, but that they were living in a "Studentenheim" (dormitory/hostel). Also, it's unlikely that these guys took time out to complete their military service with the Bundeswehr (looks like they are doing it with Al-Qaeda instead).
The dorms are cheap and anonymous and at least some have alot of international students that change all the time. It is a perfect place to not get noticed. Depending on the dorm, you usually have a small room for yourself with a key and a common room and kitchen per hallway. Sometimes people know each other well but if you want to stay the grey man it is made very easy in that place. There are dorms that are basically big shared apartments, but even in those you have a room with a key and can stay anonymous, since you always have the room to yourself. I haven't heard of roommates that share one room like it is common in the US dorms. If you want to come off as a nice unnoticable international student that's where I'd opt to stay. Hey you're the one with all the crimefighting/military intelligence background - where would you hide out if you were basically an enemy sleeper?
I have a question. Why aren't they releasing their names? They didn't give the full names of the first two guys and didn't tell us the names of the other two at all.
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