German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and her Web of Lies
Here we go again…
…and I can assure you one thing: I quite dislike bringing this up yet again, but over the weekend new details emerged with respect to ‘embattled’ (alleged) law-breaker Nancy Faeser. If you haven’t read my last post, or in case you wish to refresh you memory, see here:
As per alt-media outlet NIUS, without much further ado; as always, translation and emphases mine, as are the bottom lines.
Secret Document Proves: Faeser Caught in her Web of Lies
NIUS, 10 Sept. 2023 [source]
Last week, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) did not have time to face the questions of the MPs in the German Bundestag—but she did face those of the Bild editorial team [Bild is Germany’s leading ‘tabloid’]. Perhaps because she suspected that more nasty follow-up questions would come in parliament and that what is said there is really what is said there—while she was able to double-check and defuse her interview answers before the quotes were released.
She wanted to control the messaging over the affair of Arne Schönbohm, the fired head of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)—but she is not succeeding. Now Focus Online shows an internal memo from the Interior Ministry that proves that Faeser quite obviously did not tell the truth in the Bild interview about the reasons for Schönbohm’s dismissal.
NIUS double-checked the decisive paragraphs. Bild asked [Ms. Faeser] on Friday, referring to the ultimately baseless but publicly voiced accusations by Jan Böhmermann that Schönbohm had contacts with the Russian secret service: ‘Did you dismiss Schönbohm because of accusations by a TV satirist?’ Faeser's answer: ‘No, it was about trust. Cybersecurity is so important that there must be no doubts here…The audit of my ministry was very thorough.’ [hi, again, Gen. Flynn]
Internal Document Refutes Faeser’s Statement
The Böhmermann broadcast aired on 7 Oct. 2022. Focus Online shows an internal document from 18 Oct. that cites the reasons for Schönbohm’s dismissal as BSI chief:
Due to the current accusations against you in your function as president of the Federal Office for Information Security, which were spread after the broadcast of the ZDF programme ‘Magazin Royale’ on 7 Oct., the public’s trust in your official conduct has been permanently damaged…Regardless of how valid these are and whether they prove to be true in the end, a loss of confidence has occurred in public opinion that makes further official conduct impossible and the fulfilment of tasks in the BSI impossible.
Does the minister no longer remember her own reasoning? Unlikely. Much more likely: Faeser knows that the Schönbohm case could cost her her office as interior minister and her candidacy as top candidate in the state of Hesse (election day is 8 Oct. 2023). That is why she avoids parliament and lies to the public.
Because: Schönbohm was removed from office less than two weeks after the Böhmermann broadcast. The ministry’s investigations were far from complete at the time; these so-called ‘pre-disciplinary investigations’ [orig. vordisziplinarische Untersuchungen, i.e., pre-crime policing of rumours or suspicions] usually take up to three months. In the Schönbohm case, Faeser took more time, although it is said to have been clear internally as early as January 2023 that there was nothing against Schönbohm.
Schönbohm Sues the Interior Ministry
Schönbohm is defending himself legally against his removal from office. He is taking legal action before the Administrative Court [Verwaltungsgerichtshof] and wants to prove that the Federal Ministry of the Interior violated its duty of care under civil service law.
The case also remains politically sensitive as an internal memo from the Interior Ministry shows that Faeser did not want to accept the non-results in the Schönbohm case and instructed her agency to dig deeper again—and also wanted to tap into information from the domestic intelligence service [hi, warrantless wire-tapping of opponents via domestic ‘law enforcement agencies’, such as the FBI]. In the meantime, Stasi historian Hubertus Knabe, among others, has filed a complaint against the minister for ‘the persecution of innocent people’.
Bottom Lines
I opened the top-linked posting stating the following:
As the Americanisation of Europe Progresses, What Passes For 'Politics' O'er, Ever More Here Resembles Hofstadter's 'Paranoid Style'.
In light of these new ‘revelations’ (surprise), I rest my case.
More to the point, though, we must have a conversation about the role of ‘the state’ vs. ‘the private’ vs. ‘the individual’. Now or never is the time to roll back some of the worst abuses of the intelligence community, covered out against the own population—sometimes in cahoots with its allies—and aided and abetted by a thoroughly corrupt political caste while those who claim to be ‘doing journalism’ rest on the more performative side of things.
Sunlight, open and transparent court proceedings, and heavy fines for those who abuse their positions, such as Ms. Faeser, are the one and only thing that, enumerated in plain language on a piece of paper (I’m talking about constitutional governance), limit the reach of government, deter public officials from abusing their temporary powers, and safeguard the rights and, more importantly, liberties of individuals.
Above all, these shenanigans are indicative of one thing: if ‘the people’ do not rise to the occasion, the only outcome is—more abuse, condescension, and, ultimately, tyranny.
Don’t hold your breath for substantial change, even though (former?) communist Sahra Wagenknecht announced the formation of a new political party whose prospects, believe it or not, has the potential to drastically reduced the Alternative für Deutschland’s—and all other parties, too—share of the vote.
Sure, Ms. Wagenknecht is a very intelligent person, but it remains to be seen if ‘the powers that be’ will permit this. I’m inclined to believe that this will be a disgusting campaign not unlike the one levelled at Bernie Sanders in 2015/16. Bild, of all outlets, on the day Ms. Wagenknecht announced her long-rumoured plans to the public, ran an attention-grabbing piece entitled ‘how this cute brat turned into Germany’s most dangerous politician’.
And so it goes: Ms. Faeser, like the entire gov’t led by her fellow SPD chancellor Olaf Scholz, is heavily under fire for a myriad of things, with esp. the ‘Green’ policies poised to doom Germany. Hence the rise of the ‘right-wing’ Alternative für Deutschland, much to the horror! The horror! of the juste milieux. There is literally no better thing to occur (sic) right now than this kind of shit-show, which will distract from, and gaslight even more, the people about the government’s ‘record’, such as it is.
Now, literally overnight, the right-wing AfD is no longer the biggest threat to the country; far from it, it is the (former?) communist Sahra Wagenknecht, which, incidentally, also reveals the proverbial ‘true colours’ to Germany’s ruling elites: alleged right-wingers? You’re dangerous, that is, until ‘the commies’ come around. The only thing worse than the latter is, of course, if ‘the commies’ would be also ‘Rooskies’.
And thus continues the perfectly explainable weirding of Germany. ‘Clown world’ is perhaps too weak a term, but maybe you’d prefer ‘Weimar Germany 2.0’?
Remember, Marx infamously pointed this out long ago in his Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon:
Hegel says somewhere that that great historic facts and personages recur twice. He forgot to add: ‘Once as tragedy, and again as farce.’
Talk about the lessons of history.
1) If you never lie, you don't have to expend energy remembering to who you told which lie.
2) An intelligent person never needs to lie.
3) Using words deftfully and with skill is an art and a skill needing to be practiced, not unlike fencing, wrestling or games of strategy.
4) If you can advance never having to practice and train while being challenged, you never develop neither skill nor intelligence.
5) Words shape thoughts; this enables you to put your thoughts into words, thoughtfully.
So if the above is taken as true, both in a "farmer's wisdom"-sense and as true in the logical sense, what does that say about politicians and constituents both as a majority?
Marx was a tragedy, and a farce.....