[KwasiOwusu]

Is this the self same Joschka Fischer who actively corroborated with the notorios Bader Mienhof terrorist group back in the 70's, and carried out plenty of terrorist acts himself?

As in :

" found previously unknown photographs in her mother's archive of
Mr. Fischer in action in the radical era. They portrayed an armed and
helmeted Fischer disarming, hitting and beating up one Rainer Marx, then a
German police officer who had been surrounded by radical leftists, who
threw him to the ground and kicked him repeatedly. Moreover, Fischer is
shown hitting Marx from behind---hardly the actions of a gentleman.


But there is more to the story. It turns out that another now-retired
police officer, Horst Breunig, alleges that Fischer also played a role in
the severe burning of one of his fellow officers, Jurgen Weber, during a
street demonstration in Frankfurt in May of 1976. Weber was injured by the
use of gasoline bombs - Molotov cocktails - used by the German New Left on
a regular basis back in 1975 and 1976. The bomb that injured Weber was
used one day after Meinhof's death, as street protests erupted and
authorities had banned violent demonstrations. A Molotov cocktail hit
Weber's police car, setting the officer on fire as he suffered severe
burns over sixty percent of his body. Breunig argues that, one day before
the incident, Fischer took part in a meeting planning the action, and
approved the use by his comrades of firebombs."

http://lists.village.virginia.edu/lists_archive/sixties-l/2747.html


No surprise Germany is now so screwed up.
This guy makes Hanoi John Kerry look like Mother Theresa.
With a foreign minister like that, Germany has nowhere to go but down.

[longjack]

I'm certaintly not a fan of Joschka Fischer, for preccisely the issues you mention.

However this incident isn't going to bring Fischer down, IMHO.

Some perspective for this opinion.

As a point of reference, let's say 1990, to obtain a visa for Germany you would have needed a German citizen to vouch for you and to assume all financial obligations should you incur medical expenses or legal expenses, especialy legal expenses incurred by your refusal to leave after your visa expired. You would have also needed to make a personal appearance at the German embassy in your native country.

Thw Kohl government instituted two procedural changes in the mid-90's. Firstly, the Reisebueroverfahren, which allowed visa applicants to undertake the process through travel agencies, and Secondly, the Reiseschutzpass which substituted an insurance policy underwritten through ADAC, at that time, for a German citizen as a Guarantor.

At some time after the Schroeder government took over 1n 1998, the German embassies were instructed to, regarding visa applications, to err on the side of leniency when awarding avisa in questionable cases. This was the Volmer-Edict (Volmer-Erlass).

Volmer, in defense of this, says that upon his taking office, he was so besieged with constituents complaining of unnecessary red tape in the visa process, that he promised to undertake counter-measures.

As as result, German embassies in some of the former Russian satellites saw major increases in visa applications. The Reiseschutzpass was sold on the black market to persons who couldn't afford it, and who had to re-pay the costs to the coyotes once they obtained work in the EU.

The predispostion of these policies to abuse is obvious. The German institution of lenient visa policies also affected the rest of the European signees of the Schengener Agreement.

The German Foreign Affairs Office suspended the Reisebueroverfahren in 2001, and the Reiseschutzpass in 2003.

The case came into public scrutiny late last year after testimony in a trial, I believe.

It can be said, IMHO, that the policy was dumb, and that Fischer, after dumping his underlings to the wolves, has consistently and impressively lied his rear-end off about what he knew and when he knew it.

Freedom of Dumbness and the ability to lie one's @ss off are quintessential tools of the German politician, however, and are probably included in the definition of Politician if you looked it up in Duden.

The entire scandal will be chalked up to a partisan witchhunt, and Fischer will receive a bump in his cult status popularity, given the proclivities of the German media in running interference for the German government.

That's my take on it.

I do hope I'm wrong on this one, though.

longjack