National Security
Secret of a decade
The Efladian Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Defence have all been playing a double game with Eflads nuclear arsenal.
Anton Weier
16.11.2022, 21:42
We support and demand that all nuclear arsenals be disarmed. They represent a danger which no one should ever have to experience. Eflad has the goal to sign and ratify the TPNW.
â Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Frank TĂŠren, 28th June 2022
On October 20th the Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister announced that the Defense Readines Level was raised due to developments in the Ryccio-Doge Landian war. This was the first time in decades that the DEFREL was raised. After the press conference, the PM retreated with her colleague into the halls of the Old House.
What was not seen, was that a couple of hours later, the PM and Minister of Defense were on the ground of Base âKampauâ. Officially, only to see the progress of air defense exercises. Unofficialy, to discuss the protocol of launching nuclear ICBMs.
Base âKampauâ
The Government has been avid in supporting the disarmenment of nuclear arsenal. The Efladian Minister of Defense said that since the 1990âs, Eflad had only 20 warheads and since 2010, none at all.
This was a lie. Die Lupe has gained access to classified documents from within the government, that not only has the nuclear arsenal been preserved, but expanded. The highest figures, responsible for serving the public, have been lying to us.
The Government developed a protocol to âprotect the public from the nuclear danger.â Falling into this category was also the number and status of nuclear warheads located in Eflad and in Eflads direct property.
Devised in 1966 and revised in 1986, Protocol 3203-75 laid the groundwork for nuclear weapons in Eflad. The then Minister of Defence commissioned several nuclear warheads from abroad. The launcher was built by todayâs famous plane engine developer: Riuk Planes. Together with Juto i Rank, which was established with the help of a senior member of the Defence Ministry, they built the âGelenkâ rocket.
After several years, in the 2010âs, further warheads were commissioned by the government in secret deals, expanding Eflads nuclear arsenal by at least 15 rockets.
To be ready for any incoming attack, Eflad imported and refurbished an air defense system, making nuclear rockets an important part of it. Under Conservative Leader Wolfgang Roter, multiple bases were built under the codename âLeise Mausâ.
One of these is âKampauâ. Refurbished in 2004, the base, now also consisting of an Air Force squadron, hosts multiple âEORâ rockets. Secretly.
National Security
When fear takes over
How fear can take controll of people, when they are faced by the public, angry for being lied to.
Max Huber
Die Lupe Nr. 47/2022, 20.11.2022
We were protecting the public from the dangers of nuclear weapons. Its as simple as that. We will do what we have to do to ensure the security of our country.
â Minister of Defence, Kasala Gri 19.11.2022
It was the early morning of the 18th. We were all powered by several cups of coffee working on the newest issue, when the PA system rang a bell. It wasnât long after that we were all standing outside the building, whilst our offices were being turned upside down. Women and men in police uniforms checked every single piece of paper. Even our shopping list for our New Yearâs Eve festival was checked for materials â(potentially) dangerous for the national security.â
Although there were around 50 police officers, every important paper went through the hands of one person: GSA Huber. He is the central figure in this fiasco of an investigation. His right-hand-man, the minister of defence, who still thinks that it was right to lie to the public, is keen on holding on to power, at all costs. He is even ready to attack the highest right of the press: the freedom of the press.
In the last couple of days, the political establishment has tried to silence us, it has tried to muzzle us. They have failed. After practically everything was confiscated, our wonderful employees were ready to work from home and to pursue their stories independently. We have managed to print a new issue regardless of the search.
But why was the search conducted?
A couple of days ago, our article about the government lying to the public for decades caused an uproar in the political arena. Panic took over. Fearing the reaction of the public, the state tried to stop the information flow about nuclear weapons. They failed. Then, fear took over. They went after us, those who revealed the truth. This is what happens when fear takes over. They go after those who reveal the truth.
We journalists have a codex. The most important one is: âTruthfulness and respect for human dignity.â We have committed ourselves to reporting the truth. The state is currently trying to suppress us.
We will fight against it, because the right to say the truth is one we are not ready to give up.
National Security
The man in the office
The Freedom Front created an unprecedented shock and fear which spread through Eflad. Why did the state take so long to capture them and allowed one of the members to escape to Gianatla?
Max Huber
Die Lupe Nr. 2/2023, 08.01.2023
The group âFreedom Frontâ could possibly be dangerous. Several members have the legal capacity of acquiring a weapon. The group should be observed further.
â Document VII/9/2 from the Amt fĂŒr Staatssicherheit (AfS, Office for State Security)
The building No. 7 on the AnnastraĂe in MĂŒnnen, which goes west to east, was built in the 1970s during the expansion politics of the techno-red coalition. It is an ordinary building in MĂŒnnen. Nothing special, it doesnât seem to be out of the ordinary. The whole block was built in the same style. It has the same wooden staircase and the same windows the buildings Nr. 6 and Nr. 8 have. It is extra-ordinary for only one thing: The second-floor apartment was the headquarters of the Freedom Front. This is the place they not only discussed when but how to kill. They moved into the apartment as a group of friends, living together to cut costs. The landlord never suspected anything. He describes them as an open-minded, friendly group of friends with a nice sense of humor. The group around the ringleader* moved to MĂŒnnen in January to prepare their first attack on - at that time - Tehnograd Intâl Airport (now MĂŒnnen Intâl Airport). To carry out this attack, two of the six took a job at the airport to survey the area. One of the others left took a job in a chemistry factory, allowing him to have access to chemicals necessary to create a bomb. Another one worked as an apprentice in a local shop for electric appliances and repairs. This way, they all could get hands on necessary materials and tools to build their bombs. In the course of several months, they snuck several fake bombs through the security ports in different airports on flights to MĂŒnnen, to simulate and practice the attack. On June 5th they booked a flight to from RerĂŠ to MĂŒnnen, snuck the parts to the real bomb in, assembled it, placed it and set the time. The carrier exited the plane, with his companions waiting for him, and never returned. The bomb he placed took 167 lives. Amongst them, 26 children. 42 lives were taken by a fire in a mall in Selpe. The explosion at CrĂŠfoi took 288 lives. Dr. Weral ItalÄ« was the last victim of the FF. In total 498 lives were lost in the Efladian Summer.
To investigate how these attacks couldnât be prevented and what took so long to find and arrest the members of FF parliament launched an investigation committee, whose first findings have been put under state secrecy. What is it, they want to hide? The taskforce âSchattenâ (Shadow) worked relentlessly to find and report the truth. This article is the fruit of our research.
*Die Lupe refrains from using the names of members of the Freedom Front. We donât want to give them a platform to achieve media celebrity status.
We have evaluated over twelve hundred pages of documents originating both from the committee and from the AfS itself.
The group was observed by the federal agency (AfS), but at first deemed as not dangerous. The first hints came from a close friend of the group. The AfS launched an observation operation codenamed âFreundesgruppeâ (friend group) and enlisted a close friend as an Informationsmann (I-Mann, Information person). He then delivered information for two months. In May, one month before the attacks, he had an urgent call with the operations officer. The call lasted for two and a half minutes, from 02:34 to 02:36 in the morning. He described the last several days in which they had bought the materials for the bombs, saying that an attack may be imminent. However, the operation officer said that they have information that an attack is not to be expected. Nine days after this call, the operations officer had an âofficial meetingâ in a local restaurant. The guests: two members of the FF. He was not the only one from the AfS who met with the FF members. Several others were either directly or indirectly meeting with members of the FF, either by official meetings or by middlemen transporting information. This stems from several reports from the AfS and the committee, which are available to the Die Lupe.
Director of the AfS, Marko Zermann
The I-Mann met with the operations officer on May 31st, just several days before the attacks, saying that the group had been traveling by plane a lot and that he had seen something which might resemble a bomb. The operations officer replied that they have the situation under control and have been monitoring the group. An arrest operation was apparently imminent. On the 5th of June, the group left MĂŒnnen for Selpe and boarded a plane to Tehnograd. At the same time they boarded the plane, a SEPOK (Spezialeinsatz Polizei Kommando) unit was getting ready to raid their apartment. When they arrived and opened the doors, they found only one member; he was apparently ill. It was clear what happened. They were too late. He was the bait. They wrote a manifesto and he willfully sacrificed himself to lead the police on a false track. And they jumped right on it, announcing they had the man responsible for the attack. Almost every attack had the same pattern. I-men had warned the AfS, but the SEPOK always came just too late. This was not only due to the operations officer who was replaced after the mall attack, but due to the disorganisation and systematic errors in the units themselves. They were always at the right place, but at the wrong time.
The only occasions on which the police captured any of the members was a raid near RerĂŠ and after the assassination of the former minister of home affairs, Dr. ItalÄ«, where they didnât manage to apprehend one last member. The documents from the AfS indicate that the police and the state security agency knew at what beach the member would escape and therefore didnât arrive in high numbers. However, they missed the place by just a couple hundred meters and the last figurehead managed to escape to Gianatla, where they were later captured.
This whole âgameâ led by the AfS, the police and the SEPOK shows not only fundamental problems in the system, but gross incompetence, negligence and blindness in the right eye as well.
Politics
The party constant
The Socialist Party of Eflad (SPE) is on the brink of its own collapse. The young, reformist âModerate Left/Pragmatic Leftâ is winning the general left voters with ease. A young bird flying away from its nest. This interview with Oliver HĂŒgel, the socialist party leader, is the first one on this subject.
Max Huber
Die Lupe Nr. 15/2023, 09.04.2023
The Zeitgeist is knocking on the door. I donât blame the youth of our party, it is their right to walk their own way and it is ours to convince them otherwise.
â Dr. Lennard Schubert, former party leader from 1991-2008
After several years of inner turbulence, the time had apparently finally come for those disagreeing with the âestablishmentâ of the party, to spread their wings and fly away. It was a story in the making during the last couple of years. They had everything, from personnel changes to programme changes, the sole goal being keeping the party together.
Die Lupe: Mr. HĂŒgel, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Letâs dive right into the matter: is this the end of the Socialist Party?
Oliver HĂŒgel: No, I wouldnât say so. First of all, I would like to congratulate Mikela and the whole of the Social democratic Party, welcome to the political stage. Second of all, we still enjoy high legitimacy and respect in our society. The group around Mikela has my highest respect, they are standing for their beliefs. Of course, I would rather have them fighting with us than against us. [Chuckles]
Die Lupe: So you think that the goals of the social democrats are the same of the socialist? In other words, do we now have two socialist parties?
HĂŒgel: No, I donât think so. On one hand you have a traditional left party, us, whose goal is to overcome capitalism to achieve democratic socialism, leaving no one behind. On the other hand you have the social democrats who, in my understanding of their basic programme (ed. note: Grundsatzprogramm), see socialism as an unreachable utopian goal, which means that the only reachable goal is a quasi-socialism, the social market economy. So, you have us and our goal is the actual implementation of socialism, rather than trying to save capitalism.
Lupe: In the MĂŒnnener programme, the basic programme, the party has said that to achieve a fair market, the state must own the industries.
HĂŒgel: Yes, thatâs correct. The butterfingers of capitalism canât and donât want to make the market fairer because the goal isnât the fairness of market, itâs the accumulation of capital. Because inequality is what brings money, not equality. One alman poet once said: âRich man and poor man stood there and looked at each other. And the poor man said pale, if I werenât poor, you wouldnât be rich.â (Original in Alman: âReicher Mann und armer Mann standen da und sahân sich an. Und der arme sagte bleich, wĂ€r ich nicht arm, wĂ€rst du nicht reich.â)
Lupe: However, the privatisation commission found that over 70% of state owned companies were in the red.
HĂŒgel: Yes, that is true, but that doesnât mean those companies were in a bad state. Their main objective wasnât making profit, it was producing what the public needed. Jobs over profit. But I will concede, this economic direction wasnât very profitable.
Lupe: So you are saying that the companies in Eflad didnât have profit as their goal?
HĂŒgel: Correct. The goal was producing what society needed and providing jobs. Thatâs it.
Lupe: Is that also why Eflads companies could never compete on the world stage?
HĂŒgel: Partly yes, but partly also because they werenât really allowed until recent years. Since then, Eflad has been one hell of a world player.
Lupe: Isnât that exactly what your party criticises? Uncontrolled globalism?
HĂŒgel: Not directly, no. We criticise what globalisation has been misused for. To battle global problems like climate change, exploitation of natural resources, exploitation of workers etc. we need globalisation, we can only solve these challenges together and only then can society really flourish, when we work together for each other. (Original: Miteinander fĂŒreinander) You know, that would also be a good slogan.
Lupe: So what would this society look like?
HĂŒgel: It would be one based on personal and communal development. It would be a society whose main idea is to create a better world, no matter what you look like, what your name is, we are all human and we are all in a much broader sense brothers and sisters. You know, it would be a society where we would love each other, love our earth and every evening we could go to sleep and think: âeven if I donât wake up in the morning, it doesnât matter, the other oneâs will and they will love each other on.â
Lupe: Shifting the subject: The socialist party has undergone some pretty harsh inner battles. Some would say that the party is destroying itself from within. Whatâs your opinion on this?
HĂŒgel: Well, it would be hard to negate those things. We have indeed had fights within our party, but every party has had those. Thatâs what parties live off of. Discussions, difference of opinion and debates. Weâve had quite a few and yes it has stirred some personal differences, but I would rather have a party which is turbulent than one dead from inside. The fact that we have won the last election shouldnât be overseen.
Lupe: It is hard to understand, if the party is flourishing due to its debates, why are people leaving? Why is there an alternative forming?
HĂŒgel: People have always had different ideas and the social democrats now believe that those no longer align with ours and thatâs it. Thatâs why they made their own party.
Lupe: So you donât blame the inner problems of your party, the fact that the lead demographic of both the voter body and the party itself is over 55 years old, the fact that Anna FuĂherr, who has sympathised with right-wing politicians, is still widely popular at the base of the party?
HĂŒgel: Like Iâve said, itâs purely the difference of ideas. Right now I would like to not comment further.
Lupe: Mr. HĂŒgel, thank you for your time.
Politics, Opinion
The dispute
Since last week, the differences between the parties in the coalition have shown. A crisis of medium range has set not only the people but the economy in dismay and anger.
Alexander SchĂŒtzi
Die Lupe Nr. 32/2023, 05.08.2023
They [the Greens] should stop being so dramatic and ideological. Instead they should try something called âpragmatismâ.
â Arno Kuhn, Liberal faction chief on 02.08.
»I have a feeling they stopped trying.«
This all started when the Liberal faction chief made the remark that they are looking forward to making nuclear power a bigger part of the Efladian energy mix. This got to the minister of energy the same day, just a couple of hours later. An person from the inner circle of the minister said that he was raging at the faction chief for going on the record with such a remark. Immediately after he called the Liberal chief and angrily explained that in the coalition agreement they agreed to the 25% clause and to consider nuclear only as bridge energy towards a completely green energy mix. He demanded that Kuhn (LfE faction chief) corrects the record ASAP. This did not sit well on Kuhn who apparently just hung up. This got leaked to the press and then Kuhn said the now famous words quoted above. If the call didnât escalate the situation, this certainly did. Minister Dref reportedly initiated a meeting between all of the green ministers and the party leadership. Why did Kuhn do that? To irritate the minister, the Greens? Who is actually this mysterious Kuhn, who almost never appeared on any headlines. Until now.
In a small place in rural Sweori sits a village where agriculture dominates the view. Tractors, cows, hay everywhere. In a school in the centre of the village, on the first floor there is a window in the back. The story goes that Kuhn, as a teenager, instigated a fight over the class president, as he felt the vote was rigged and threw the voting box out of the window, revealing that there were far more votes than classmates. At least thatâs the way Kuhn and his former teacher tell the story. Whether itâs true or not, we canât know. No one from his former class wanted to speak with me. Some of the called him a âself entitled prat!â After his primary education, Kuhn attended the Selpe university, studying economics and later management. His uncle worked at NuCorps, back then a state owned firm, and introduced him to the manager. Directly after his degree he started as a junior advisor to the manager, whose name later became famous in the privatisation fiasco: Goldberg. He famously pushed for privatisation of the company so that they could manage better prices. This turned out to be false as prices slowly rose year after year. The only ones profiting off of it were the managers. Goldberg had to step down as a result of the media coverage. One key person is forgotten in that story. Reading the texts from that time, several independent news agencies reported that the advisory committee had worked out the plan to lower prices, which led to privatisation. Itâs chairman: Kuhn. He was the next who rose to the manager seat, following Goldberg. After leaving NuCorps amidst his election as a member of the Senate, his connections to the leading figures havenât severed. On the contrary, he is reportedly still good friends with the current manager Schweizer, as they often go fishing together.
However, the Greens arenât in the clear. Minister Dref has his connections to NuCorps as well. He has been friends to the special advisor to the manager. The latest comment by Kuhn was hinting at a the latest employment of Anna Herber, his sisterâs husbandâs second niece, as a state secretary. Her sister works at Globus TV - a private TV network - and has already met Dref before, at an annual party of the network. Apart from working under the former minister for foreign affairs, Herber has no political experience at all. The ministry cited âperspicacity, intelligence and connections to the economyâ as some reasons why she was employed. All these ad hominem, however, are distracting from the real problem. The energy mix of Eflad and its renewability. Currently not even a half of the mix comes from renewable energy sources. At this pace, we will not be able to achieve our goal of 100% renewable until 2035. The governmentâs own environmental agency, the EfEA, has released a report criticising the coalition for the current standstill. After a year and four months âwe are still at the same place we wereâ concludes the report. The report is the cause which has escalated the discussion. The report lists nuclear power as a possibility to be a bridge towards other renewable technologies. A new law in making would differentiate between BrĂŒckentechnologie (Bridge Technology), Zukunftstechnologie (Technology of the future) and auslaufende Technologie (Phased out technology). After this plan, nuclear power would be set as a phased out technology. However, the Liberals see a different potential in its future, as a technology of the future. Several scientific advisors have said that it would be necessary to build more normal nuclear power plants and several mega-plants to have them produce enough power. Their future is uncertain.
The dispute nothing else but a portrayal of personal interest and politics.