Comment: Now and then a story is planted in the media which pretty much - between the lines, and lies - spells it all out...
Comment: Everyone missed it until after the fact. Except, perhaps, Turkey, which had terror alerts while Tarrant was in that country. Turkey, you'll notice, is not in this prestigious 'club'...
Europe's informal intelligence-sharing forum, Club de Berne, has withheld information from Austria's BVT (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz und Terrorismusbekämpfung) for the better part of a year now, BVT Director Peter Gridling revealed during a court appearance on Monday.
Comment: You don't hear about it much because the 'Club de Berne' is a para-legal deep state network that leans on European govts from the shadows and is thus not required to record its meetings. But it's emerging from the Swamp here and now to 'let the govt of Austria know' that it's too friendly with Russia...
While the BVT initially withdrew from the information-sharing club following a February 2018 police raid on its offices, other members of Club de Berne continued to withhold information from Vienna even after relations were restored.
Comment: Interesting. So this 'informal club' is powerful enough to reach into Austria and get the Austrian police to raid Austrian intelligence in order to pressure the Austrian PM to 'play ball' over prospective trade deals with Russia.
According to the Vienna-based Der Standard, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands have lobbied to keep BVT in the dark because the domestic security agency is overseen by politicians from the Freedom Party (FPO), the junior partner in Chancellor Sebastian Kurtz's ruling coalition.
Comment: Meddling, much? Could we say it's in Frisians'/Saxons' blood?! Nah, that'd be racist...
While the Germans are primarily concerned with Interior Minister Herbert Kickl's 2016 speech to an Identitarian Movement conference, the British and the Dutch believe the FPO cannot be trusted because of its "Kremlin ties."
Comment: Interesting. The 'alt-right' doesn't concern them one whit because they know they can easily influence and redirect that. But all economic, security and ideological issues concerning Russia keep them up at night (meddling in others' affairs).
In 2016, the FPO signed a "friendship treaty" with United Russia party of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In August last year, Putin was a special guest at the wedding of Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, another FPO official. Austria also refused to jump on the UK bandwagon and expel Russian diplomats during the 2018 Skripal affair.
Comment: Friendship? Non-compliance with unspoken rules on uniformity of action targeting Russia? WEDDINGS?? Something must be done about this Russian Trojan Horse move to subvert the heart of Europe...
According to the liberal-leaning newspaper, BVT's isolation may explain why Austrian police were ignorant of the visit by Brandon Tarrant, an Australian citizen who is charged with killing 50 people and injuring 49 in the attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand last month. Four days after the attacks, Austria's Interior Ministry said it had "no clue" about Tarrant's stay in Austria; just hours later, Der Standard published several of the alleged terrorist's photos from his trip.
Comment: They got him into Austria, got photos of him tooling around the country, and rounded off the paper trail with him making payments to 'fellow white nationalists' there.
Here's what has actually just happened: the para-legal 'Club de Berne' - Europe's 'intelligence community gods' by the looks of things - planted that story in Der Standard, thereby sending a message to Vienna's overt government that 'we could do a Christchurch to you too if you don't do as we want regarding containing Russia'.
Italy's intelligence services are not treated the same way because they are controlled by PM Giuseppe Conte rather than the "Russia-tied" Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, while US spies are "too important" to shut out and are considered autonomous from President Donald Trump, Der Standard made sure to note. Someone clearly did not get the Mueller memo about Russiagate being a conspiracy theory.
Comment: Did you get all that? They have compromised Conte (which isn't surprising given that he was explicitly named as a compromise leader when the 'Club' threw a fit at Italy's election result last year) and they're operating against Trump's wishes (which we already know because they sicced the Russiagate witch-hunt on him). And they have free use of the biggest media outlets in their target country through which to issue terror threats and foreign policy ultimatums against that country's government.
Western democrazi, aint it great?!
In any case, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is now reportedly moving to put the Austrian intelligence services under his direct control. It is unclear whether this will bring the BVT into the Berne loop, however, given Kurz's recent refusal to ditch Russian natural gas for the far more expensive US alternative.
The Club de Berne includes spy chiefs of all EU countries, plus Norway - which is a member of NATO but not the EU - and neutral Switzerland
Comment: Neutral Switzerland!
As working men in London say, yore 'avin' a larf!
It's not called 'Club de BERNE' (which is a city in SWITZERLAND) for no reason.