German far-right influencer requests US asylum, German far-left icon steps down as head of her eponymous party and a neo-Nazi arrested over darkweb assassination calls

This Thursday marked a solemn anniversary, ten years since the attacks on the Bataclan and outdoor cafés in Paris as well as the Stade de France in nearby Saint Denis while French and German heads of state were inside. In the years since, the narrative has not flipped on these events but rather the Middle East conflict and the attack on the Nova rave in the Negev desert in particular has challenged the narrative of who is innocent and who is the hero.

Once again jihadis are chic. How did we get here? Was not the war on terror declared over? Is it a sort of collective, historical amnesia? Or has mainstream politics become so polarized the extremes are no longer so extreme?

Ahead of this week's grim ten-year anniversary, Le Monde ran a story noting France faces "younger, less experienced and more unpredictable" threats from would-be jihadis. A staggering 70% of terrorism arrests involve suspects under 21 years old. Two-thirds of those in custody since 2020 were previously unknown to authorities. And since Hamas' mass attacks against Israel on October 7, 2023 (resulting in ten times the number of casualties as the events of November 13, 2015 in Paris), over half of the plots foiled "have been linked to the war in Gaza."

In some senses, this is a strange victory. The larger global jihadi movement as it has found its tentacles in the West has diminished or is at least putting forth far less competent foot soldiers. On the other hand, the brain worms of extremism are no longer confined to a resurgent religious death cult under the exclusive banner of Salafists. Fragmentation can lead to reorganization through restructuring. 

This week alone there are several stories in the monitor about youth radicalization. The vacuum of power at the highest levels of the global jihadi movement since the deaths of numerous leaders over the last two decades has given rise to young upstarts. But more critically, everything that is old is new again to a generation that never experienced the first round or rounds. 

As some of today's young Europeans who find a certain kind of armed struggle to be chic might look to Karl Marx (and close their eyes to the disastrous history of communism on the European continent), perhaps its best to turn to him as he warned, "History repeats, first as tragedy, second as farce." One significant problem, though, namely we will get to tragedy again soon enough the longer this goes on.

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WASHINGTON, DC – Far-right German influencer reportedly applying for asylum in the US

• The Washington Post reports Sunday that German pro-AfD far-right social media influencer Naomi Seibt is applying for asylum in the US by alleging persecution in her home country for her political views.
• Seibt, 25, is "citing fears for her safety" while taking advantage of the Trump administration's "plans to prioritize protections for White refugees and Europeans who claim they are being targeted for their populist views." Further, Seibt alleges "she is being persecuted" as "the target of intelligence surveillance" and "state media defamation" as well as "death threats from antifa". Seibt showed The Washington Post "a letter from German domestic intelligence documenting its tracking of her activities".
• She is currently in Washington "where she is living while her asylum application is processed." Seibt's effort comes at a time of "increasingly close ties" between the MAGA movement in the US and Trump administration figures and the German far-right AfD. She is also "in regular contact" with Elon Musk and has nearly half a million followers on his X platform as well as over 100,000 on YouTube. On October 30, she met with MAGA-aligned Rep. Anna Paulina Luna who also recently received flowers from Kremlin emissary Kirill Dimitriev. This is not exactly the picture of a traditional asylum seeker from undemocratic, war-torn and impoverished countries.

BERLIN, GERMANY – Far-left political icon steps down from eponymous political party

• Politico reports "Germany's hard-left icon" Sahra Wagenknecht stepped down Monday as leader of the eponymous party she founded, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, "only last year."
• Wagenknecht "started out in politics as a member of East Germany's communist party," and has "vowed to stay a key figure in the party" and "support the party with great commitment".
• As beloved as she is for her hard-left stances and for as frequent a guest as she is on German political talkshows, her party "lost momentum"  and her former party, Die Linke, did far better in the snap elections in February while the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance failed to meet the five percent threshold of the vote to enter the parliament.

DORTMUND, GERMANY – Neo-Nazi arrested over darkweb political assassination calls

• The Guardian reports a 49-year-old man identified as Martin S., in accordance with strict German privacy law, "with alleged neo-Nazi ties" was arrested in the western German city of Dortmund late Monday for using his platform Assassination Politics on the darkweb to solicit bounties for 20 "potential targets, including former chancellors Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz as well as judges and ex-government ministers".
• The dual Polish-German national "published personal data of prominent people as well as 'charge sheets' and 'death sentences'." He now faces charges of financing terrorism, inciting serious acts of violence that threaten the state and the "dangerous dissemination of personal data."
• The federal prosecutor's office said in a statement that Martin S. had solicited donations of cryptocurrency "which are then offered as 'bounties' for the killing of targeted individuals." Assassination Politics also featured content "described as rightwing extremist, racist and espousing conspiracy theories." The man first came to the attention of authorities "for actions held by an extreme fringe of the anti-Covid restrictions movement" and for his association with the "rightwing extremist party Die Heimat (The Homeland)."

MAGDEBURG, GERMANY – Trial of Saudi doctor in Christmas market car ramming begins

• The Guardian reports the trial began Monday of a Saudi psychiatrist, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, who was radicalized by far-right propaganda, before driving his car into a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg last December, murdering six people.
• The attack took place over two minutes between 7:02pm and 7:04pm on the evening of December 20, 2024, which resulted in the death of five people between the ages of 45 and 75 and a nine-year-old boy. An additional 338 people were injured, 31 "in a way prosecutors describe as life-changing."
• Abdulmohsen was a "critic of Islam" as well as "a supporter of far-right views and radical conspiracy theories" who was described as being motivated by "personal resentment" and "perceived injustice" following a legal dispute. He had a history of "extreme rhetoric" and "making violent threats, including on social media" in addition to voicing support for the far-right AfD. He came to Germany in 2006 as a refugee and was working a psychiatrist since 2020. He now faces the prospect of life in prison, "if convicted."

HAMBURG, GERMANY – Activists chain themselves to rail to protest arms for Israel

• Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reports approximately 40 demonstrators chained themselves to railway tracks at the port in the northern city of Hamburg to protest "the government's arms exports to Israel and draw attention to civilian suffering in Gaza."
• The rail line between the Eurogate and Burchardkai container terminals was blocked for the duration of the protest action, which last several hours. "Due to safety concerns," authorities shut down the 15,000-volt power lines above the tracks. Some port workers reportedly "showed support".
• Police ended the demonstration by carting the protesters off the tracks "one by one". A spokesperson for the group, Julie Fink, charged, "This is genocide", and said "the German government is complicit."

CELLE, GERMANY – Suspect in Madeleine McCann disappearance can leave country

• The AP reports "a man under investigation" in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in 2007, identified by media as Christian Brückner, is able to leave Germany after a court in Celle Monday overturned one of the conditions of his release on an unrelated rape case.
• Brückner was released in mid-September after being convicted of the 2019 rape of a 72-year-oöd American woman in Portugal. Upon his release, the court in Hildesheim imposed several conditions "for a five-year period" including wearing an electronic ankle monitor and reporting to a probation officer regularly as well as residence in Germany.
• A higher state court in Celle upheld the earlier conditions imposed on October 28 but "overturned the stipulation that he must reside in Germany", stating that doing so interfered with freedom of movement with the EU's 27-nation bloc. German prosecutors announced in June 2020 that he was being investigated in the McCann case.

PARIS, FRANCE – Former President Sarkozy exits jail days into five-year sentence

• Le Monde reports former French President Nicolas Sarkozy left jail Monday just days into his five-year sentence for accepting campaign funds from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi "under strict judicial supervision", which prohibits him from leaving France, making contact with co-defendents, eight Libyan officials or "any senior official with access to classified information."
• His release was ordered by a Paris appeals court. He left La Santé prison at 4pm in a vehicle with tinted windows escorted by two police officers on motorcycles.
• Sarkozy had described his brief detention as "a nightmare". Should he violate the terms of judicial supervision, he could be ordered to return to prison.

TOULOUSE, FRANCE – Macron pledges €4.2 billion for 'military activities in space'

• Le Monde reports Wednesday that French President Emmanuel Macron pledged €4.2 billion ($4.9 billion) "in new funds for military acitivities in space" while singling out Russia as "a principal threat in space-based tensions."
• In Toulouse, France's space and aviation hub, Macron said, "The war of today is already being fought in space, and the war of tomorrow will begin in space". He said space is not "a sanctuary" but "a battlefield." Additionally, the French President cited Russian monitoring of French satellites, mass GPS jamming and cyberattacks against infrastructure in space.
• France is also "accelerating" cooperation with Germany in the space domain.

VENDIN-LE-VIEIL, FRANCE – Three in custody over USB linked to surviving terrorist

• France 24 reports Saturday the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office has detained three people in connection with a USB stick that was "found in the possession of Salah Abdeslam," the lone surviving attacker of the Paris terror attacks on the Stade de France and Bataclan 10 years ago who isserving a sentence in a maximum security facility.
• Abdeslam was briefly questioned Tuesday about the USB stick. The prosecutor's office said it had "expanded" its investigation "to include the offence of terrorist conspiracy aimed at preparing a crime against individuals."
• Last week Tuesday, "Another person was taken into custody" who happens to be "Abdeslam's partner," identified by newspaper Le Parisien as Maeva B., 27. Her detention was expanded beyond 96 hours for an additional 24 hours. French law permits the extension of detention beyond 96 hours in the event the case presents "serious risk of the imminence of a terrorist action in France or abroad" or "if the necessities of international cooperation imperatively require it".

LYON, FRANCE – Three women remanded to custody over alleged 'jihadist plot'

• Radio France International (RFI) reports Saturday the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office placed three 20-year-old women "under investigation and remanded to custody in October," over an alleged foiled terror plot "this autumn," the "first attempted violent action involving women in some time."
• One suspect had attracted nearly 20,000 followers on TikTok with "pro-jihadist content." The trio are accused "of discussing violent actions online, reportedly mentioning firearms and a suicide belt," while discussing potential targets such as bars or a concert venue in Paris.
• Two of the women were arrested in the Rhône region while the third was taken into custody in the Cher department. A series of "in-person meetings in Lyon" raised authorities' suspicions.

PARIS, FRANCE – Four arrested for disrupting, lighting flares during Israeli philharmonic

• The New York Times reports last Friday that four people were arrested the night before for disrupting a performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris, including by lighting flares in the concert venue.
• The orchestra was playing at the Philharmonie de Paris with 2,400 seats when the disruptions occurred, including twice with flares. Audience members intervened to take down those individuals who did so "and clashes ensued". The disruptions began five minutes into the performance when a woman shouted and threw flyers but she was peacefully escorted away. Concert goers described a comparatively lax security environment before the performance, with bags being checked only.
• Officials in France "denounced" the threat to public safety which came after "other acts of protest against the orchestra". France's Culture Minister Rachida Dati said, "No violence, no antisemitic acts, no attacks on artists can be tolerated in our theaters and concert halls" and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez added, "There is nothing that justifies endangering the lives of spectators".

PARIS, FRANCE –Shein to continue to operate after offending items removed from site

• Reuters reports France's Finance Ministry permitted online e-tailer Shein to continue to operate last Friday after the company was engulfed in a week of scandal over the sale of child sex dolls on the site once "all illicit products" were removed "from its platforms."
• On Wednesday, France began the procedure to block Shein in the country "after it found childlike sex dolls and weapons for sale on its site," the same day that the e-tailer opened its first bricks and mortar store in Paris.
• The country's consumer watchdog "observed" on Friday "that all the illegal products, including medicines" had been removed from Shein, the Finance Ministry said. Prime Minister Sebastién Lecornu said that the company would remain "under close observation" while customs maintains control over seized goods from the site. The interior ministry opened a case against the company while four investigations have been opened by a prosecutor.

BOLOGNA, ITALY – Nord Stream2 suspect accuses Italian authorities of pressure to confess

• The BBC reports Monday former Ukrainian military officer Serhiy Kuznetsov, who is being held in a "high-security" Italian jail on a German arrest warrant and is currently on the tenth day of a hunger strike, has accused Italian authorities "of mistreating him to make him confess" to blowing up the Nord Stream2 pipeline under the Baltic Sea in September 2022.
• His lawyer showed the BBC a letter where Kuznetsov said he is being treated as "criminal no. 1" as he is held in a prison "alongside suspected members of so-called Islamic State (Is or Isis)." In what is described as "his first public comment since his arrest," Kuznetsov's handwritten letter alleges "the Italians have been cynically ignoring m dietary habits for the past two months" as he is a vegetarian. He said he believes this is being done to "make me confess my guilt" but adds "such efforts are futile."
• Over the summer, German authorities activated arrest warrants against two Ukrainian nationals suspected of involvement in the incident, Kuznetsov and Volodymyr Zhuravlyov, who was held and then released in Poland when the case was thrown out of court. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at that time that the court had made the right decision and that the construction of the pipeline in the first instance was the crime. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

MILAN, ITALY – Prosecutor opens probe into Bosnian War 'sniper safari' claims

• The BBC reports Wednesday the public prosecutor's office in Milan opened an investigation into claims made by journalist and novelist Enzo Gavazzeni that "Italian citizens traveled to Bosnia-Herzegovina on 'sniper safaris' during the war in the early 1990s."
• Italian and other nationals allegedly paid "large sums to shoot at civilians in the besieged city of Sarajevo", with various rates being charged to "kill men, women or children", with "at least a hundred" sniper tourists participating, including citizens of Italy, Russia and the US. British forces who served in the Balkans in the 1990s told the BBC they had their doubts about the claims given "the proliferation of checkpoints."
• "Similar allegations" have been made about such "sniper safaris" elsewhere "over the years" though "evidence gathered by Gavazzeni includes the testimony of a Bosnian military intelligence officer," is now in the hands of Alessandro Gobbis, an Italian counterterrorism prosecutor. The officer alleges that Bosnia found out in late 1993 about "the so-called safaris" and informed Italian military intelligence, known as Sismi, in early 1994, with Sismi replying a few months later that "tourists would fly from the northern Italian border city of Trieste and then travel to the hills above Sarajevo." Sismi allegedly claimed to have put a stop to it "Within two to three months".

CIVITAVECCHIA, ITALY – Prosecutors send fraud case of self-styled mystic to trial

• The Guardian reports Wednesday that the fraud case of a self-styled mystic, Gisella Cardia, who alleged "a statue of the Virgin Mary wept tears of blood" in the lakeside town of Trevignano Romano near Rome, and her husband, Gianni Cardia,  will be sent to trial.
• The trial is expected to begin next April with the two accused of "staging fake apparitions" as well as "making false predictions of catastrophes", in scams that generated €365,000 ($424,000) in donations from people "who believed their money would go towards setting up a centre for sick children."
• Among Cardia's wild claims: "the devil was concocting disasters," such as a devastating earthquake "that would destroy Rome" and that communism would take over the Catholic Church. Cardia was declared "a fraud" by the Catholic church, which clamped down "on scams and hoaxes" in the aftermath of her claims.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – Two ex-Assad era Syrian officials charged with sexual assault, torture

• Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency reports Austrian prosecutors announced charges of sexual assault and torture against two former Syrian officials of the Assad regime Wednesday.
• The former intelligence service brigadier general and lieutenant colonel of the police in the city of Raqqa have been residing in Austria since 2015. The New York Times reports the Brigadier General has been in custody since December and names him as Khaled al-Halabi, 62, who allegedly worked as a double agent for Mossad and names the second suspect as Musab Abu Rukbah, 53. They stand accused of "serious crimes against civilians in detention, such as grevious bodily harm, sexual assault, and torture."
• Twenty-one victims have been identified to date. The brigadier general has been dubbed the "Torture General" by local Austrian media and was apparently smuggled into the country by the now dissolved Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT) and was granted asylum. The New York Times alleges Mossad helped facilitate his proceedings and funded his housing in Austria.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – Hamas-linked 'weapons cache' uncovered

• The AP reports late last week that a weapons cache "believed to be linked" to Hamas was uncovered in Vienna.
• A 39-year-old British national with alleged links to the weapons cache was arrested in London last Monday, the Austrian Interior Ministry said, adding "Israeli or Jewish institutions in Europe were likely to be the targets". Late last Thursday, Germany's federal prosecutor's office identified the suspect as Mohammed A. in keeping with strict German privacy laws.
• Mohammed A. allegedly met twice with a suspect in Germany arrested last month. The German prosecutor's statement alleged "Mohammed A. took over five handguns and ammunition" to Vienna, where they were kept "in a suitcase in a rented storage room in Vienna". Hamas "denied having any connection" to the suspect Germany arrested last month.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – Protest outside parliament over 'symposium' named for Nazi official

• Agence France Presse reports a protest consisting of "About 200 protesters" on Tuesday night was held outside the Austrian parliament after Walter Rosenkranz, the country's first far-right parliamentary speaker since the Nazi period, hosted an event named for Franz Dinghofer, the 1920s Vice-Chancellor who later became a member of the Nazi party.
• The far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) went ahead with the event, billed as a "symposium," despite "criticism from Austria's Jewish community and major political parties."
• Protesters, including Jewish students, decried the country's "historical amnesia" and despite the events taking place decried, "No place for antisemitism" and another counter-factual "shame" despite the utter shamelessness on display. In response, the FPÖ maintained its own commitment to counter-factuals by denying yet again that it is not a party of antisemites.

BERN, SWITZERLAND – Parliament recommends weapons can go to countries at conflict

• Swissinfo reports Wednesday that a parliamentary "recommended" that "Swiss defence companies should be permitted to supply wepons to countries involved in armed conflict," a break from existing policy which has prevented the transfer of weapons to countries like Ukraine which are involved in the defense of their soverignty.
• The House of Representatives' Security Policy Committee voted 16 to 9 to approve amendment to the War Material Act. Next up comes the Senate, likely over the winter session.
• One significant caveat: weapons sales should proceed except for in instances where "Switzerland's foreign or security policy interests do not require a refusal and there are no exceptional circumstances."

And finally…

KATHMANDU, NEPAL – Leopard breaks into Swiss Embassy compound

• Swissinfo reports Tuesday that Swiss diplomats in Kathmandu received a "surprise visit" from a four-year-old leopard which had to be rescued in "a joint operation" with Nepal's National Trust for Nature Conservation, police and forestry department.
• While it remains "unclear" how the leopard "ended up on Swiss soil", there is speculation that it came from the Nakku River corridor near the embassy.
• The Swiss Ambassador to Nepal Danielle Meuwly thanked the authorities responsible for animal control on X, writing that the "rescue operation was successfully carried out."

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