Udo Ulfkotte

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Udo Ulfkotte, as a journalist, appearing on television

Udo Ulfkotte is a former journalist and a former member of Stop Islamisation of Europe and founder of Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa.[1]

He is also a supporter of the PEGIDA movement in Germany and spoke at a rally for its Bonn variant, known as BOGIDA.

Journalism career

In 1991, Ulfkotte reported in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that large quantities of uranium were on sale in the Mozambican capital Maputo. The Mozambican ambassador denied the claim saying Ulfkotte had damaged Mozambique's image internationally "at a time when democracy has already become a reality."[2]

In 1994, Ulfkotte claimed in an interview with CNN to have witnessed four Iraqi republican guard divisions moving towards Kuwait.[3]Ulffkotte's was the first eyewitness account of the troop movements, which led to a US build-up in response, and which coincided with UN speech attacking sanctions by Tariq Aziz, and with reports of a failed uprising by the Iraqi military. Iraq's UN ambassador said they were moving their troops within their own territory and not posing a threat ot anyone.[4]

In 1995, Ulfkotte reported that proximity talks organised by Germany between Iran and Israel were close to securing the release of captured Israeli airman Ron Arad. Israeli analyst Zeev Schiff suggested that Israel was not directly involved in the talks, and that they had been leaked by Germany to divert US pressure over its economic relations with Iran.[5]Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who initially denied the whole thing, confirmed later that German-Iranian negotiations had been held, but denied any "current" Israeli-Iranian talks and Ulfkotte's claim that Arad would soon be released.[6]

In the Jerusalem Post, Israeli political scientist Susan Hattis Rolef wrote that "It's difficult to avoid the feeling that the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Germany's foreign minister are making a lot of empty fuss over the Ron Arad affair.

What exactly has journalist Udo Ulfkotte revealed, other than that his foreign ministry has been one of hundred of channels used to determine the navigator's fate? In one article, he wrote that Arad was being held in an Iranian prison; then in another, he spoke of Arad being held captive by a group of Iranian fanatics unconnected with the government.[7]

Rolef noted that Ulfkotte's story emerged as German Foreign Minister Kluas Kinkel was facing questions over $102 million trade insurance being extended to German businessman trading with Iran.

She concluded that "With all due respect to Ulfkotte and his serious reputation, he has probably done more harm than good in this instance. And if the German channel might have yielded anything of value, it is now clogged."[8]

Ulfkotte was reportedly given unprecedented access to the files of Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) spy agency for a 1997 book on the service. Chancellor Helmut Kohl and the BND were reportedly unhappy with the results. Among Ulfkotte's claims was that Boris Yeltsin was offered German medical help in order to monitor his condition.[9]

During his research for the book, Ulfkotte claimed to have uncovered US Secret Service documents which showed that 1940s bandleader Glen Miller died not, as previously thought, in a plane crash, but in a Paris brothel.[10]Miller's former pilot disputed the claim, suggesting it would have been impossible for him to reach Paris at the time suggested.[11]A subsequent report suggested Miller's plane was downed by friendly fire and noted: "The main function of the Secret Service is to protect the life of the president and his family. Its only other job is to protect the integrity of the U.S. currency (counterfeiting)."[12]

Anti-Islam activism

<youtube size="medium" align="right" caption="Ulfkotte's arguments in favour of PEGIDA activism">--0Ik0Pr25o</youtube>

Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa

Ulfkotte was one of the organisers of an anti-Islam demonstration in Brussels on 11 September 2007, which was banned by the city's mayor. Ulfkotte reportedly attempted to cancel the event because he "was not happy with the fact that the far-Right was increasingly usurping the demonstration." However, British and Danish co-organisers said they intended to go ahead.[13]

The demonstration was organised by Ulfkotte's group Bürgerbewegung Pax Europa (BPE) and he initially collaborated with Stop Islamisation of Europe and the Belgian Vlaams Belang but subsequently pulled out, leading to an acrimonious dispute with his former allies and him leaving BPE.[14]

Sixteen arguments for PEGIDA

On 22 December 2014 2014 Ulfkotte delivered a speech in which he listed sixteen arguments in favour of the anti-Islam movement PEGIDA taking to the streets, at a demonstration by the movement's Bonn variant called BODIGA. These reasons, according to an English translation of his speech posted on Youtube by a supporter and a version by the same person, using the name Rembrandt Clancy, on the counterjihad blog Gates of Vienna, are listed below. They predictably include 'Islamisation', 'political correctness' and 'loss of national identity', but also taxes, pensions, and 'the mad cult of homosexuals' amongst other reasons.

1. Mistrust of politicians
2. 'Media liars'
3. 'Islamisation' - he singled this out as the major raison d'etre for the PEGIDA movement
4. 'They boast, we pay' - financial issues, instability of the euro
5. New taxes
6. Pensions, anxiety about the future
7. Criminality and intenral security - 'the state can no longer protect its citizens'
8. External security - 'today we have an army for which family-friendly daycare seats, Muslim spiritual directors and consideration for the sensitivities of homosexuals take first priority over everything else'.
9. Energy
10. Decay of infrastructure
11. 'They vote with the moving van' - emigration of well-education citizens, 'replaced by a hundred thousand poorly qualified immigrants'
12. 'Loss of national identity' in Germany and across Europe
13. EU bureaucracy
14. 'The mad cult of homosexuals, gender and transvestites'
15. Speech bans and political correctness - 'Politicians and media impose an idiot-speak upon us...There is much about which we can no longer speak in this allegedly free country, in which democracy and a free press are only simulated.'
16. War mongering[15]

Bought Journalists: a book of conspiracy theories

Ulfkotte authored the bestselling 'Bought Journalists', which Der Spiegel called a 'book of conspiracy theories'. It articulates mistrust of the political establishment and mainstream media common in populist movements including the counterjihad movement.[16]

'Fecal matter jihad'

According to Der Spiegal, Ulfkotte has suggested online 'that Muslims could be deliberately contaminating European food products with their excrement and has claimed that 'the intelligence services have been warning us for years about fecal matter jihad'.[16]

Affiliations

Contact details

References

  1. ↑ Organizers of banned anti-Islam march to sue Brussels mayor, BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, 14 August 2007. Source: Text of report by Belgian newspaper De Standaard website on 14 August.
  2. ↑ MOZAMBIQUE: AMBASSADOR TO BONN REFUTES URANIUM-ON-SALE REPORT, Inter Press Service, 22 July 1991.
  3. ↑ Observer Reports Iraqi Troops Are Moving Toward Kuwait, CNN NEWS 4:29 pm ET, 7 October 1994.
  4. ↑ By Mona Ziade, Associated Press Worldstream, 8 October 1994.
  5. ↑ Israel: Denies Negotiating With Iran For Release Of Navigator, Associated Press Worldstream, 21 February 1995.
  6. ↑ "Israeli-Iranian talks on the future of South Lebanon", Mideast Mirror, 22 February 1995.
  7. ↑ Fig leaf, by Susan Hattis Rolef, Jerusalem Post, 6 March 1995.
  8. ↑ Fig leaf, by Susan Hattis Rolef, Jerusalem Post, 6 March 1995.
  9. ↑ Spy book reveals Bonn 'bunglers', The Ottawa Citizen, 15 July 1997.
  10. ↑ Glenn Miller 'died in Paris prostitute's bed', by Deborah Collcutt, The Times, 14 July 1997.
  11. ↑ Military Notes; Retired pilot disputes report on manner of Glen Miller's death, by Frank Perkins, Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas), 15 July 1997.
  12. ↑ Friendly fire probably downed Glenn Miller's plane, SUNDAY NEWS (LANCASTER, PA.), 20 July 1997.
  13. ↑ Danish, British organizers plan to defy Belgian ban on anti-Islamic 9/11 march, BBC Monitoring Europe - Political, 11 September 2007. Source: Text of report by Belgian newspaper De Standaard website on 8 September.
  14. ↑ Khaled Diab, Villains of the Pax, Comment is Free, guardian.co.uk, 11 September 2007.
  15. ↑ Sixteen Arguments in Favour of PEGIDA Taking to the Streets, Gates of Vienna, 1 January 2015, accessed 12 January 2015
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 The End of Tolerance? Anti-Muslim Movement Rattles Germany, Spiegel Online International, 21 December 2014, accessed 5 January 2015
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