Jan, I had no idea that Germany had this sort of involvement in overseas or, more specifically, Middle Eastern endeavours. Coalitions have fallen in the Federal Republic before over unsavoury militaristic talk and Germans do indeed project an image of pacificism and a steadfast will to stay out of military action. I suppose this does not extend to the training of people to use arms. America will only accept Germany if they start spending the billions of euros on 'defence' that Britain does. At the same time it wants to distance itself from Middle Eastern problems -something Obama seems to think is Europe's issue (reading between the lines at times for this impression). One UK source has stated that as far as America is concerned - the middle east can self-destruct for all it cares - but the luxury of being able to turn their backs on these crises can only come when European powers such as Germany (especially Germany) commit themselves openly to sending troops and tooling up.
What's more - Saudi Arabia is stopping foreign powers sorting Syria out.

It seems like the way to retire for dictators is to suck as much wealth from their county as possible and sock them up in some Swiss bank or Cayman Island accounts. Amass a billion, step down and then seek shelter in a host country and retire there. Not a bad social security formula for these people. Survey shows that the average tenure for these dictators can be as long as 8 years while they are in power. Most are billionaires in secret or at least they are as rick as their countrys GDP.

Coalitions have fallen in the Federal Republic Tavares before over unsavory militaristic talk and Germans do indeed project an image of pacificism and a steadfast will to stay out of military action.

There are two sides to every coin and it's the same thing here. Fallen dictators are known to flee to various parts of the world, South America, Asia, now Saudi Arabia ... the countries that accept such people can have a number of reasons for doing so, some of them may be economic, some political, some may have to do with information, intelligence etc. But every time this happens it can be similar to a wedding rehearsal dinner invitation wording - if you send an invitation to somebody, you want them to be there. and it doesn't matter what is the reason, the bottom line is, you want them to come.

Welcome to sunny Saudi Arabia, land of fallen tyrants. German border police are now training the 30,000 Saudi border police - to use arms - which the German law does not allow to be used by its own German border police. EADS (the makers of Airbus) ware also building a "fence" around the entire national territory of Arabia Saudita... Who says: "The Germans are not helping ?" (They eve send their NATO General Klaus Naumann to Brazil to push for "expanis follow this There are two sides to every coin and it's the same thing here. Fallen dictators are known to flee to various parts of the world, South America, Asia, now Saudi Arabia ... the countries that accept such people can have a number of reasons for doing so, some of them may be economic, some political, some may have to do with information, intelligence etc. But every time this happens it can be similar

That's where the good Germans are already massively "present" with hundreds of their NGOs (Germans arouse less suspicion then the "Anglos"). U.S. Africom is conveniently located in Stuttgard/Germany readymadeinternetbusiness. (Gates told the Senate: It is cheaper to leave our Troops in Germany, because that's were they are closer to the mission areas. And the Germans are helping with the expenses). In South America, the Germans are omnipresent, with many agents as "independent journalists", as "environmentalists", in each of their party "Stiftungen" which have offices across Latin America.