WAKE UP: Berlin, NATO, Schäuble and Mogherini are gearing up to use force

Rather more than ‘revised civil defence’ plans are beginning to emerge in Germany. But they reflect broader moves among the EU and NATO communities to ensure that, whatever balloon goes up, they will be in a position to shoot it down. The Slog analyses the five things they think most likely to threaten their power.

I’d imagine most of you saw the rather odd piece at the Telegraph earlier this week, in which it became clear that detailed West German civil defence plans similar to those in use at the peak of the Cold War were to be reissued for the first time in over twenty years.

The Sunday editions of the Frankfürter Allgemeiner Zeitung (FAZ) were given exclusive leaks of the document’s more alarming proposals, which included the advice that all German citizens should have enough food and water at all times in case supplies break down.

The FAZ is Angela Mirakle’s favourite destination for things she wants leaked….the irony in this case being that the last time there was an active fear of invasion, she was of course working for the other side as an allegedly fanatical DDR hardliner.

But the document is explicit in ruling out the fear of invasion by Ostrogoths; it specifically says that ‘An attack on Germany which requires a conventional defence response is unlikely’. Is that really true? Since being told of the FAZ piece last Sunday night, I’ve been doing a little sniffing around.

It seems the idea is not Geli’s at all – although she is very supportive of it. It also looks highly likely that it is an idea that didn’t originate in Germany….but rather, Brussels-sur-Washington. And in the background – as always – are those two much sought-after suspects, Federica Mogherini and Wolfgang Schäuble. Finally, although the civil defence draft says it isn’t really about military defence against invasion, suitably hidden in other documentation is a revival of the need for obligatory conscription.

The truth behind these moves can be summed up as follows: The Eunatoed States of America (and their pointman Mogherini) are still pushing for more organised defence plans against ‘an attack upon EU borders’, but their ideas are kicking at an open door in Germany….for the Bundesrepublik government believes Emergency Powers may well be needed in order to tackle various problems on several levels.

The new German Civil Defence Concept is due to be discussed by the country’s Cabinet tomorrow. It is forecast to focus on fulfilling Germany’s obligations to defend NATO’s external border: but way down in the small print is a proposal to reintroduce conscription.

What’s going on?

The following are not presented in any known order of priority. But they have all been confirmed to me as events Berlin thinks worth guarding against:

1. Panic and confusion should there be a collapse of the European banking system, with specific reference to the state of affairs at Deutsche Bank. (There is an excellent piece to be found in the New Yorker on instability and criminality at Deutsche).
2. Agitation by Islamic immigrants and/or riots against such migrants among the indigenous German population.
3. The potential need to ‘put down insurrection’ in those EU States whose loyalty to the Union is at best uncertain. The countries specified were Poland, Hungary and Greece. (On this particular stick of dynamite, it is alleged that EU, NATO and German security officers are already convening to discuss how such an eventuality might be managed whether or not Russia decides to take advantage of the situation).
4. The need to respond to a full-scale Russian  attack should a period of isolationism be ushered into the United States.
5. The need to organise protection against fall-out should Islamists gain access to a portable nuclear or chemical weapon.

Looking at each of these scenarios in turn, their possible appearance as crises are based on known realities

1. At Deutsche Bank in terms of derivative exposure, and at Italian banks in terms of non-performing loans. Wolfgang Schäuble in particular is being vocal in private on this subject
2. The known inflammability of the EU’s migrant situation particularly in Germany
3. The election of eurosceptic governments in Poland and Hungary, and growing Greek resentment* of Troika carpet-bagging in Greece
4. The possibility that Donald Trump will get into the White House
5. Concerns being expressed about Islamist fanatics gaining access to US nuclear weapons on Turkish soil**.
   

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   *Sources in Greece are playing back accounts of property seizure there by Troikanauts on a massive scale.  **Just over a week ago, the prominent Stimson Center Think Tank in Washington observed that the US has an estimated 50 nuclear bombs at Incirlik in southern Turkey, about 65 miles from the Syrian border. It referred to them being kept there as “a roll of the dice”.

On this occasion, I am very confident that I am not being spun a line. The developments above may be nothing more than sensible forward planning. Unfotunately, they fit a jigsaw picture that has been emerging in Europe now since migration from Syria became a serious issue. George Soros (he’s always in there somewhere) made a fortune last month by shorting the Deutsche Bank share price. After a certain time, shorting any bank on that scale becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This week, Italy’s PM Renzi and Mutti Merkel have been bouncing about looking confident about the European outlook. It is not what they’re feeling inside – and more and more EU citizens are cottoning on to this.

None of which causes ‘President’ Jean-Claude Juncker to stop pressing hard for an end to national frontiers in Europe. At the weekend he called them “the worst invention in history”. Difficult to see how J-C could make that conclusion fly in the light of mass migrancy. Bu then, you have to make allowances for Juncker: he is, after all, usually anything from pissed out of his mind to fuzzy at the edges.