Peace on Earth, But Not Just Yet

I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing like the sight of police in tactical gear carrying automatic weapons to put me in the Christmas spirit.

Many thanks to Gary Fouse for translating this article from the Austrian daily Heute:

The danger is so high

State Security chief: Christmas markets “potential target”

This year, the police have significantly increased their presence at Christmas markets. These are naturally a target, but the DSN [State Security and Intelligence] chief has no worries

by Sabine Hertl
December 9, 2023

Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, chief of the State Security and Intelligence Service (DSN), makes people sit up and take notice with a statement in an interview with the Kleinen Zeitung. Though we currently live (we are in the second-highest alert threat level) “in a time of threats”, he nevertheless has no uneasy feelings anywhere. There is no need to impose limits on yourself.

But, “obviously, Christmas markets are a potential target, especially in the extremist scene. There have been repeated plans or attacks here in recent years.” For this reason, the sensitivity is set very high, and, in concert with the police, covert and non-covert protective measures are put in place. “So our population doesn’t need to fear when they enter a Christmas market,” he reassures.

Heightened security at Christmas markets

At Austria’s Christmas markets, security is heightened compared to last year, the Interior Ministry tells Kleinen Zeitung. There will be more patrols, and civilian officers will be on-site and in regular contact with stand operators. In Styria, for example, additional barriers will be installed.

Such attacks have already been planned in Germany, but the authorities have been able to prevent them in advance. In Austria, however, the DSN chief sees gaps. “We have a good overview in the area of extremism and terrorism, but we cannot say what will be communicated by encryption within these networks. There our hands are tied.”

6 thoughts on “Peace on Earth, But Not Just Yet

  1. We do not have that is Hungary, Poland, Romania
    But guess what?
    Germany want to send her parasites to Romania
    Of course they do not know that if those irks do something ad like violate a woman or go and vandalize cities… will be hell to pay
    Muslims will be killed and they will never settle in Eastern Europe ever
    Because there are man there, real men.
    Unlike the west

  2. we were just now at the second advent Christmas market in a beautiful small French town where I counted eight soldiers with machine guns walking through the crowds. They did indeed add to the spirit of the occasion for me, with earlier times having a lack of deadly force passing by the heads of the children. Perhaps the soldiers were deployed more discretely while the children gathered around Sankt Nikolaus as only armed police were obvious there.

    Speaking of Sankt Nikolaus there is currently an advert on German youtube that sells nothing other than propaganda that is attributed to nobody. Sankt Nikolaus takes off his beard and the revealed Turkish man says surprise (you stupid, racist, islamaphobic potatoes who must pay money for this insult*), Sankt Nikolaus was Turkish (*very subtly implied). Clearly the authorities know that very few have got through their schooling with any awareness that Sankt Nikolaus was what is now Greek Orthodox Christian (the Christian element to Christmas should provide a clue) prior to Islamic conquest of the Byzantine.

    It is all getting too much for Harbeck (finance minister and author of children’s books celebrating the opportunities provided by power blackouts) who in a recent interview complained that he was besieged by reality. Presumably he is looking forward to a time when reality once again recedes back into fantasy.

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