Ernst Uhrlau - German Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND)

Ernst Uhrlau (born December 7, 1946) is the President of the German Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). He graduated from University of Hamburg with specialization in political science.

• In 1981, Uhrlau became an assistant to the Head of the Department for Protection of the Constitution of Hamburg, Christian Lochte, and in 1991 he took Lochte’s place.
• From 1996-98, Ernst Uhrlau was the Chief of Hamburg police.
• In 1998, Uhrlau was appointed a Coordinator of the Intelligence Community in the office of the Chancellor.
• On December 1, 2005, he was appointed to the post of the head of the BND.

The most outstanding of Uhrlau’s achievements in the post of Intelligence Community Coordinator was organizing the exchange between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah of the bodies of captured Israeli soldiers for captured militants in January 2004.

In the BND documents this operation received the name "The Blue-White Sky Action" ("Die Aktion Himmel blau-weiß"). During its realization Uhrlau had numerous contacts with representatives of both parties and repeated visits to Beirut, and he proved himself, above all, an outstanding diplomat.

It is believed Uhrlau is the current mediator between Hezbollah and Israel for the release of the two abducted Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose kidnapping triggered the 2006 Lebanon war.

Al Qaeda Linking North African Forces

David Sharrock in Algiers posted this today. It is Old news to readers of this site, but it is of interest becasue it aludes to the connecting of North African Jihadist Groups.

The Rebel groups are not being connected in the Western sense, but they are connected in the Al Qaeda way. First, offering sympathy, then giving publicity starved groups attention through their on-line sources, then weapons and explosive sources, then mentoring and advice, the suggestions, then training, then collaboration.

These independent muslim rebel groups really start out as locally focused, but are carefully vetted until al Qaeda can fund and influence many groups into decentralized campaigns.

In this way, they are active and can provide quasi-cooridination in the Horn of Africa (including Ehtiopia) of Course Sudan but they are already developing Chad, Niger, Mail, Cameroon, Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Mouritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Burkina Fasso, Benin and Togo.


In either case, here is David Sharrock's artile

-Shimron

It is a vast expanse of desert where conditions are so inhospitable at almost no one lives there. But for al-Qaeda – on the run in Iraq and under attack in Pakistan and Afghanistan – this stretch of the Algerian Sahara has proved fertile ground in its quest to open a new front on Europe’s southern doorstep.

Intelligence sources and Western diplomats have told The Times that a new force – an Algerian group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Land of Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – aims to create an arc of influence throughout North Africa by spreading Osama bin Laden’s “brand” through a fusion of disparate fundamentalist groupings.

Ernst Uhrlau, the head of the German foreign intelligence agency, said recently: “We are watching the activities of al-Qaeda in North Africa with great concern. A handful of groups have become ensconced there, largely unobserved, and are strengthening bin Laden’s terrorist network. What is evolving there brings a completely new quality to the jihad on our doorstep.”
In Tunisia this week the French President echoed this nervousness. “Who could believe that if tomorrow, or after tomorrow, a Taleban-type regime were established in one of your countries in North Africa, Europe and France could feel secure?” President Sarkozy asked.

The Rest @ Stripers Online