Eine Munitionsaffäre bei der sächsischen Polizei hat Politikern und Beamten den Job gekostet. Jetzt stellt sich heraus: Die Dimension des Skandals ist um ein Vielfaches größer. Nach acht Monaten ist immer noch unklar, was mit 180.000 Schuss Munition passiert ist. Die geheimen Schattenmänner im Dienst des Freistaats Sachsen griffen ins Volle. 7000 Schuss Munition für Kurz- und Langwaffen schleppten die Beamten des Mobilen Einsatzkommandos (MEK) heimlich aus der Waffenkammer des Dresdner Landeskriminalamts (LKA) in ihre Zivilautos mit getarnten Nummernschildern. Ziel der illegalen Kommandoaktion, so die Staatsanwaltschaft später, war eine Schießanlage in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Der Platzbetreiber, der zeitweise vom Verfassungsschutz der rechtsradikalen paramilitärischen Gruppe „Nordkreuz“ zugeordnet wurde, nahm laut Ermittlungen das schwere Munitionspaket als rein private Bezahlung für die Nutzung der gesamten Trainingsanlage in Empfang. Anschließend konnten die MEK-Spezialisten aus Pistolen, Maschinenpistolen und Sturmgewehren alle Restbestände verfeuern, die sie in den vergangenen Wochen offiziell von ihrer Dienststelle erhalten hatten. Der Diebstahl von 7000 Schuss Munition, begangen durch 17 Beamte der Spezialeinheit, blieb unbemerkt. (…) Bei der sächsischen Polizei, insbesondere im Bereich der Polizeihochschule in Rothenburg, ist nach Informationen von FOCUS online womöglich die gigantische Menge von 180.000 Schuss Munition verschwunden. Innenminister Armin Schuster (CDU), der früher als Präsident des Bundesamts für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenschutz wegen des Hochwassers an der Ahr teils scharf kritisiert wurde, soll entsetzt sein. Einen Skandal um Munitionsverluste kannte er bislang nur aus der Amtszeit seines Vorgängers Roland Wöller. Ihn hatte Ministerpräsident Michael Kretschmer (CDU) vor Ablauf der Untersuchungen und auf enormen Druck der Polizeigewerkschaften gefeuert. Die Menge der vermissten Munition wiegt nach Berechnung eines von FOCUS online beauftragten Waffenexperten zirka 2,34 Tonnen und kostet im Einkauf rund 41.000 Euro. Vermisst wird offenbar Munition für Pistolen (6 und 9 mm), für Maschinenpistolen und Sturmgewehre.
Federal agents found one of the largest stockpiles of homemade explosives they have ever seized when they arrested a Virginia man on a firearms charge last month, according to a court filing by federal prosecutors. Investigators seized more than 150 pipe bombs and other homemade devices when they searched the home of Brad Spafford northwest of Norfolk in December, the prosecutors said in a motion filed Monday. The prosecutors wrote that this is believed to be “the largest seizure by number of finished explosive devices in FBI history.” Most of the bombs were found in a detached garage at the home in Isle of Wight County, along with tools and bomb-making materials including fuses and pieces of plastic pipe, according to court documents. The prosecutors also wrote: “Several additional apparent pipe bombs were found in a backpack in the home’s bedroom, completely unsecured,” in the home he shares with his wife and two young children. Spafford, 36, was charged with possession of a firearm in violation of the National Firearms Act. Law enforcement officers allege he owned an unregistered short barrel rifle. Prosecutors said that he faces “numerous additional potential charges” related to the explosives. Defense attorneys argued in a motion Tuesday that authorities haven’t produced evidence that he was planning violence, also noting that he has no criminal record. Further, they question whether the explosive devices were usable because “professionally trained explosive technicians had to rig the devices to explode them.” (…) The investigation began in 2023 when an informant told authorities that Spafford was stockpiling weapons and ammunition, according to court documents. The informant, a friend, told authorities Spafford had disfigured his hand in 2021 while working on homemade explosives. Prosecutors said he only has two fingers on his right hand. The informant told authorities that Spafford was using pictures of the president, an apparent reference to President Joe Biden, for target practice and that “he believed political assassinations should be brought back,” prosecutors wrote.
siehe auch: 2-fingered man caught with largest cache of homemade pipe bombs in FBI history. Federal prosecutors on Monday fought to keep a man behind bars after investigators made the “largest seizure of homemade explosives in FBI history” at his home earlier this month, court documents show. (…) On Dec. 17, federal agents arrested Spafford for possession of an unregistered short barrel rifle and reportedly “located not only the rifle but a stockpile of more than 150 homemade improvised explosive devices, assessed as pipe bombs,” the complaint noted. Most of the explosives, according to prosecutors, were found organized by color in Spafford’s detached garage, with some labeled “lethal” and others “preloaded into an apparent wearable vest.” Additional pipe bombs were found unsecured in a backpack labeled “#nolivesmatter” in the defendant’s room. Federal investigators also recovered tools and materials used to manufacture explosives, a homemade mortar and riot gear, the complaint detailed. Inside Spafford’s freezer, bomb technicians located HMTD, “an explosive material so unstable it can be exploded merely as a result of friction of temperature changes,” which was marked with the words “Do Not Touch” and “Dangerous.” A notebook recovered during the search allegedly contained an extensive list of explosive recipes, including how to make materials like HMTD, the military grade explosive C-4 and other lethal devices like grenades. Federal attorneys, who noted that Spafford had expressed anti-government views and used a picture of President Biden for target practice at a local shooting range, said the defendant “poses an extreme danger to the community.”; FBI finds largest explosive cache on a Virginia farm. The FBI says it has discovered more than 150 bombs during a raid on a farm in Virginia – thought to be the largest such cache seized by the law-enforcement agency in its history. Brad Spafford was arrested on 17 December in Isle of Wight County, 180 miles (290km) south of Washington DC, after a tip-off that he was stockpiling weapons and homemade ammunition on the property he shares with his wife and two young children. Investigators say some of the devices were found in a bedroom in an unsecured backpack labelled “#nolivesmatter” – an apparent reference to a far-right, anti-government movement. A lawyer for Mr Spafford denied he is a danger to the community and is seeking his client’s release from pre-trial detention.
FBI finds 150 assembled explosive devices on the property of a Virginia right-winger whose bomb-stuffed backpack bore a “No Lives Matter” patch.via @nytimes.com // www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/u…
The war in Ukraine has given new prominence to Russia’s neo-Nazis, as official media echo their xenophobic claims. No longer afraid of repression, such groups circulate videos of spectacular street violence among hundreds of thousands of followers. The neo-Nazi subculture first emerged in Russia in the mid-1990s but remained marginal until the early 2000s. At the time, more traditional forms of neo-Nazi organization had gained greater popularity, mimicking the structures of fascist movements from the first half of the twentieth century: political parties with hierarchical structures and paramilitary units. The most successful among them was Russian National Unity (RNU). At its peak in the mid-1990s, the organization had up to 15,000 active members, with chapters operating in major cities. In some areas, fascists managed to establish connections with local authorities. However, due to internal splits, conflicts with official structures, and changes in Russia’s political system, the organization disintegrated by the early 2000s. The decline of organized fascist movements coincided with the rise of the neo-Nazi skinhead subculture. Like most youth subcultures in the post-Soviet space, Russian neo-Nazi skinheads imitated the style and ideology of Western neo-Nazi skins, obtaining information about them from foreign media. The use of Nazi symbols and terminology from German Nazism provoked outrage among ordinary Russians, as almost every family had lost relatives during the Great Patriotic War, as World War II is known in Russia. (…) Currently, the number of attacks has stabilized at around seventy to eighty per month. Despite the alarming increase in the frequency and brutality of videos in the spring of 2024, an unexpected decline occurred over the summer. Unfortunately, it’s unclear whether this was due to police efforts, as several prolific contributors were apprehended, or if neo-Nazis became more cautious and stopped posting every video online. Shortly before this publication, in late October 2024, the administrator of Project Mayhem, the second-largest Telegram channel regularly sharing attack videos, was arrested (the administrator of third-largest “Archive of good deeds” was arrested in summer). During its operation, the channel posted 157 videos documenting 241 attacks, and its audience had grown to nearly 20,000 followers.
2023 ist der künftige US-Präsident wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs der US-Autorin Caroll zu einer Millionenentschädigung verurteilt worden. Trump ging in Berufung – doch ein US-Bundesgericht hat das Urteil nun bestätigt. Ein US-Bundesgericht hat ein Zivilurteil gegen den künftigen US-Präsidenten Donald Trump wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs bestätigt. Das geht aus einem veröffentlichten Gerichtsdokument hervor.Eine New Yorker Geschworenenjury hatte es vergangenes Jahr als erwiesen angesehen, dass Trump die US-Autorin E. Jean Carroll 1996 in einem New Yorker Nobelkaufhaus angegriffen, sexuell missbraucht und später verleumdet hatte. Er wurde zu einer Entschädigung in Höhe von fünf Millionen Dollar verurteilt. Trump reichte daraufhin einen Berufungsantrag ein. (…) Das Bundesgericht in New York wies den Berufungsantrag Trumps, der am 20. Januar seine zweite Amtszeit als US-Präsident antritt, nun zurück. Zur Begründung hieß es, dass der 78-Jährige nicht habe beweisen können, dass das Bezirksgericht bei der Urteilsfindung einen Fehler gemacht habe. Auch seien seine Rechte nicht so beeinträchtigt worden, dass ein neues Verfahren gerechtfertigt wäre.Das Gericht wertete auch den Einsatz von Zeugenaussagen von Frauen, die Trump ebenfalls sexuelle Übergriffe vorwarfen, in dem Zivilverfahren als gerechtfertigt – ebenso wie die Nutzung einer alten Tonaufnahme, in der sich Trump anzüglich und herabwürdigend über Frauen äußerte und darüber, dass man Frauen auch an ihren Genitalien anfassen könne, wenn man es wolle und ein Star sei wie er. All das belege ein Muster seines Verhaltens.
siehe auch: Trump Loses Appeal of Carroll’s $5 Million Award in Sex-Abuse Case The president-elect had asked a court to overturn the defamation judgment against him in the case, which centered on E. Jean Carroll’s account of a sexual attack in a dressing room. President-elect Donald J. Trump on Monday failed to overturn a $5 million judgment that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued to a federal appeals panel that a lower court in Manhattan had erred by allowing two women to testify in the Carroll trial that he had also sexually assaulted them. The lawyers also argued that the court should not have allowed Ms. Carroll’s lawyers to play the recording of the “Access Hollywood” conversation in which Mr. Trump bragged in vulgar terms about grabbing women by the genitals. The appeals court rejected Mr. Trump’s request for a new trial in the case, which produced the smaller of two defamation judgments against him. “Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings,” the opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said
A three-judge panel has upheld the ruling that awarded E. Jean Carroll $5 million from President-elect Donald Trump. Two days prior, Trump shared a meme saying she should go to jail.
In Grünsfeld kam es zu einer “mutmaßlichen Amokfahrt”, so die Polizei. Ein Mann hat mit einem Bagger Menschen verletzt und Fahrzeuge beschädigt. In Grünsfeld (Main-Tauber-Kreis) hat ein Mann am Dienstag gegen 13 Uhr auf dem Gelände einer Baufirma einen Bagger bestiegen und ist nach Tauberbischofsheim gefahren. Auf seiner Fahrt hat er laut Polizei drei Polizisten leicht verletzt. Der Fahrer sei am Ende durch eine Schussabgabe gestoppt worden. Er sei reanimiert worden, aber noch vor Ort gestorben. Das bestätigte eine Polizeisprecherin der “Deutschen Presse-Agentur”. Die Polizisten seien lediglich leicht verletzt worden, teilte die Polizei mit. Zuvor hatte eine Sprecherin von einer schwer verletzten Beamtin berichtet. Die Beamtin sei bei dem Vorfall eingeklemmt worden und sei nun dienstunfähig. Sie habe aber zwischenzeitlich das Krankenhaus verlassen können. (…) Bei dem Mann handelt es sich um einen 38-jährigen Deutschen. Das teilte die Polizei am Dienstagabend mit. Die Polizei schrieb auf X kurz nach der Tat von einer “mutmaßlichen Amokfahrt”.
siehe auch: Nach Zerstörungsfahrt mit Bagger: Polizei erschießt Mann. Die Fahrt dauerte laut Polizeiangaben mehr als 50 Minuten – eine knappe Stunde, in der sich Szenen wie aus einem Actionfilm im Main-Tauber-Kreis abspielen. Ein Mann bringt am Silvesternachmittag einen Bagger in seine Gewalt, zerstört damit Gebäude und Fahrzeuge, liefert sich kilometerweit eine Verfolgungsjagd mit der Polizei. Drei Beamte werden dabei verletzt. Schließlich schießt die Polizei auf den Baggerfahrer. Der Mann stirbt noch vor Ort.
Ein Typ dreht am letzten Tag des Jahres im Main-Taunus-Kreis mit einem gestohlenen Bagger durch. www.t-online.de/nachrichten/…
Seth Bertrand, 21, was recorded speaking to an undercover RCMP officer. A Windsor man’s recorded conversations with RCMP about trying to join a neo-Nazi group will be used against him in his trial on a charge of terrorism. A Superior Court judge ruled on Monday that things Seth Bertrand said to an undercover officer, and things he said to an officer after his arrest, are admissible as evidence. “The circumstances by which the statement was (obtained) was not oppressive,” said Justice Maria Carroccia. Windsor man applied to terror group during class on school computer, court hears Lawyer in terror trial argues RCMP interview violated his client’s rights Bertrand, 21, is facing a terrorism charge in relation to what RCMP allege were attempts to connect with a far-right hate group called the Atomwaffen Division — also known as the National Socialist Resistance Front. Inspired by the writings of avowed U.S. neo-Nazi James Mason, the group promotes armed violence for white nationalist aims. Canada listed the Atomwaffen Division as a terrorist entity in 2021. RCMP allege that Bertrand submitted an online application in which he “offered his skills and commitment to do things” for the group.
Elon Musk is just the latest billionaire to exert tremendous influence over U.S. politics. When he says he supports Neo-Nazis, take him at his word. If there was any doubt about the power and influence of Elon Musk as we head into Trump’s second term, it was decisively erased this past week. The world’s richest man singlehandedly hijacked the negotiations for the spending bill that Congress passed last week in order to narrowly avoid a government shutdown. He used his wealth and his vast digital influence as a bludgeon against an entire political party and did so successfully. He threatened to use his immense wealth to fund primary challengers against anyone who voted to pass a bipartisan funding bill that wasn’t to his liking. In doing so, Musk successfully coerced them into removing a heap of important medical-related funding and other provisions. The version of the bill endorsed by Musk excised more than $190 million worth of funding for childhood cancer research, as well funding for research into premature labor, treatments for sickle cell anemia, and early detection of breast and cervical cancers. It also eliminated provisions allowing for low-income kids who receive funds through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to access complex care across state lines. Beyond that, Sam Stein of the Bulwark reports: “The initial compromise bill included language to ensure that providers of internet service to rural areas weren’t ripping off customers, to protect consumers from hidden hotel fees, to secure semiconductor supply chains, to restrict U.S. outbound investment in China, even to prohibit deepfake pornography. All those were all gone in the successor bill.” With a few tweets, many of which contained outright false information about what was in the bipartisan bill, Musk was able to bend America’s lawmakers to his will. By spending more than $250 million to help Donald Trump win the 2024 election, he had already managed to purchase for himself an advisory role in the incoming administration as a leader of the newly christened “Department of Government Efficiency” (aka DOGE). By virtue of Musk’s unprecedented ability and willingness to spend money to influence the political landscape, he is now arguably more powerful than any single person in government, potentially including the incoming president himself. With this in mind, we should probably talk about the fact that the most powerful man in the world is also an overt Nazi sympathizer. On Dec. 20, Musk posted that “Only the AfD can save Germany,” referencing the neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany party that has been inching upwards in the polls in recent months.
