General Discussion

mainer

(12,022 posts) Sat Aug 18, 2018, 01:44 PM Aug 2018

Austria's far-right government ordered a raid on its own intelligence service

Trump is following Putin's playbook. And we're going to be shut out of our allies' intelligence networks, too.

On the morning of Feb. 28, police stormed offices of Austria’s main domestic intelligence agency and carted off some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets in open crates and plastic bags. Top spy service officials working from home that day were greeted by officers threatening to break down their doors.

The extraordinary decision to target the agency responsible for defending the country from a multitude of threats, including right-wing extremism, had been made by the service’s new bosses: members of the far-right Freedom Party.

The reason? Defending the totalitarian North Korean regime from an Austrian espionage operation, among others cited in the search warrant. Critics saw absurd pretext for a politically motivated stab at an independent institution that could threaten the party’s agenda.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/austrias-far-right-government-ordered-a-raid-on-its-own-intelligence-service-now-allies-are-freezing-the-country-out/2018/08/17/d20090fc-9985-11e8-b55e-5002300ef004_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.58ec6c6193ae

6 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

Austria's far-right government ordered a raid on its own intelligence service (Original Post) mainer Aug 2018 OP

Is he orange too? world wide wally Aug 2018 #1

Ugly. These palookas are the republican scumbags of Austria Achilleaze Aug 2018 #2

Trump has fellow travelers. kwassa Aug 2018 #3

Cover for hiding Russian election interference and coordination of far-right groups? suffragette Aug 2018 #4

Steve Bannon was just in Europe spending time there.... magicarpet Aug 2018 #5

All countries need to set up protections against Russia and far right regimes. When we get Maraya1969 Aug 2018 #6

world wide wally

(21,748 posts)

1. Is he orange too?

Reply to mainer (Original post)

Sat Aug 18, 2018, 01:54 PM

Aug 2018

Achilleaze

(15,543 posts)

2. Ugly. These palookas are the republican scumbags of Austria

Reply to mainer (Original post)

Sat Aug 18, 2018, 02:04 PM

Aug 2018

fugly

kwassa

(23,340 posts)

3. Trump has fellow travelers.

Reply to mainer (Original post)

Sat Aug 18, 2018, 02:25 PM

Aug 2018

Austria, Hungary, Turkey, Italy, Poland, in a backlash of fear about change, much of it about immigration. They have elected far-right populist governments.

suffragette

(12,232 posts)

4. Cover for hiding Russian election interference and coordination of far-right groups?

Reply to mainer (Original post)

Sat Aug 18, 2018, 03:17 PM

Aug 2018

I wonder if the official reason is cover for what they were really after, given some of the dominant areas of investigation noted in the article and the strong links to Putin the (so-called) Freedom Party has.

I added the bold.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/austrias-far-right-government-ordered-a-raid-on-its-own-intelligence-service-now-allies-are-freezing-the-country-out/2018/08/17/d20090fc-9985-11e8-b55e-5002300ef004_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4867b1d3b3f0

The Freedom Party came to power in Austria at the end of last year as the junior partner in a coalition with the center-right. The party was founded by former SS officers in the 1950s, and has ridden anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric to new heights of popularity in recent years. Some of its members have been revealed to share a nostalgia for Hitler’s Third Reich.

The party has a formal cooperation agreement with President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party, and the close ties show. Austria was a notable holdout when European Union nations banded together in March to expel Russian diplomats to protest the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal. Top Austrian officials, meanwhile, have spoken out against the E.U.’s Russian sanctions. On Saturday, Putin is expected to be a guest of honor when Austria’s foreign minister, the Freedom Party-allied Karin Kneissl, gets married.

The Freedom Party had been in government before, in the early 2000s. But this is the first time it has been given control of the highly coveted Interior Ministry, which is responsible for law and order in Austria and is home to the country’s main domestic intelligence agency, known as the BVT.

Among the BVT’s work in recent years has been sniffing out Russian influence, notably attempts at election interference. The agency also has tracked Islamist extremists and investigated the activities of violent far-right groups, including Islamophobic and anti-Semitic hate crimes. Much of that work requires cross-border cooperation, especially with European allies.

magicarpet

(14,157 posts)

5. Steve Bannon was just in Europe spending time there....

Reply to mainer (Original post)

Sat Aug 18, 2018, 03:27 PM

Aug 2018

.... meddling in their politics with the intent to give extreme Right Wing political groups support and attract more Nazis into the fold.

The end goal of Bannon and his Fascist groups is to seize more control over European political systems while working to marginalizing more socially progressive groups and stripping them of political power.

Nationalism, anti-immigrant, extreme conservative social policies, and extreme conservative religious policies on a global scale are were the Fascist Right Wingers end goal/destination lies.

Steve Bannon is a Fascist poison that gleefully infects society on a global scale.

Maraya1969

(22,486 posts)

6. All countries need to set up protections against Russia and far right regimes. When we get

Reply to mainer (Original post)

Sat Aug 18, 2018, 03:53 PM

Aug 2018

our country back I hope our country leads the way in helping other countries protect themselves against this evil scourge.

Reply to this discussion