Kategorie: English

No ammo? It’s rotting in storage.

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As there seems to be some international interest in the story on German army ammunition degraded in storage, here’s a quick summary in English: Today, the German Bundesrechnungshof – an equivalent to the U.S. General Accoutability Office – published its annual report, called Remarks of the Bundesrechungshof. Now there was a lot on the Euro situation and other fiscal stuff in it, but with regard to defense one of these remarks got a lot of attention: For about 40 years,

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German Troops to fight the LRA? Don’t hold your breath.

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As this seemed to have the potential for a scoop (and, as it turns out now, it isn’t), this blog post has to be in English: No, Germany is not intending to send troops to Uganda to fight the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Nor is the European Union. The Uganda daily New Vision broke the story today, (echoed by other online news sites) with a lead that sounded alarm bells in Berlin: EU ready to join the hunt for

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NATO, please be a bit more careful

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Dear NATO, we all are prone to mistakes, of course. However, when you announced today that the press briefing on NATO’s Libya operations would be streamed live on your internet channel, I tuned in – luckily, at the same time I had the BBC on my TV. And guess what? What BBC (and CNN) transmitted live was a completely different presser. Maybe you should have checked whether the same spokeswoman was doing the briefing  live – and in your recording.

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For NATO (and others), it’s gloves off against Somali pirates

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The incidents were published step by step. In the beginning of April, according to NATO’s counter piracy operation Ocean Shield, marines from the Dutch frigate Tromp boarded a pirate mothership off the Somali coast, killing two pirates when returning fire. Also around that time, the Danish Naval Command – but not NATO – informed last week, the Danish warship Esbern Snare had intercepted a pirate mothership off the Somali coast, wounding three pirates when returning fire. You could have assumed

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What’s all this about the „Gorch Fock“?

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Today, the BBC World Service asked me if I could explain what’s behind these reports on the German tallship Gorch Fock. I would have loved to, but they cancelled the interview due to editorial reasons. So, I did the explaning myself, for those English speaking people who are wondering what the fuss is all about. (If you have an iPhone or iPad, you won’t see flash, so here’s the direct link: http://audioboo.fm/boos/260000-gorch-fock)

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Intel fusion, homemade: ISAF RC North, Somali Pirates

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As two of the key areas of interest in this blog (among others) are ISAF’s Regional Command North in Afghanistan and piracy off Somalia, I’ve been wondering for some time how to structure information on incidents in RC N and on the piracy situation. In both cases, information is open source, but it comes from a variety of sources and lacks a comprehensive database, or just a list which allows to keep a tab on events, follow the timeline and,

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NATO Secretary General Rasmussen in Berlin (English version)

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I’m afraid I won’t have the time to do a full fledged story in English on NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen attending a conference of the Green party in Berlin today. But for you non-German speakers, here’s an excerpt from his speech – and the full speech, in English, to listen to… First, the execerpt, which I think remarkable – NATO as a global (!) consultation body for security issues… I believe that NATO should become a forum for

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Reporting back for duty

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Augen geradeaus!, the title of this blog, in German has a second meaning: It’s the military command Eyes front! as well as the advice look ahead. So, I choose Augen geradeaus! for my blog which I ran for Focus magazine from January 2007 through January 2010, using it as a journalist’s tool for reporting on military and defense related matters. After six months interruption, Augen geradeaus! is back. As I’m an independent journalist now, it’s still a journalist’s tool, but

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