The big result of a drone attack is further evidence that foreigners are fighting for al-Qaeda in Waziristan
The Germans are neither the first nor the only Western nationals living in these parts.
Indeed, since 2008, an increasing number of Europeans and North American nationals are known to have travelled into Pakistan’s tribal regions.
The Europeans nationalities include Dutch, German, French and British.
It reminds me of a bartender in Hamburg several years ago who insisted that I am German because of my name.
“You are German” he said.
“No, I am American” I replied, trying to sound resolved.
“You are German” he said with the same look and tone, as if I had not heard him the first time. “You should take your land and be proud you are German”.
“Ok, fine, Kerem. You win I am German like you are Turkish” I said. “When will you claim your land in Turkey?”
“No, I am not Turkish. You are German” he said.
It also reminds me of a bartender in Paris who told me he was an Argentinian; he became a French citizen through service with the Foreign Legion under a declared identity. He was completely fluent in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and probably other languages. I couldn’t figure out why he was a bartender and I wondered if his declared identity is what made him Argentinian.
“I do it for fun, to pass the time” he said.
“Well, then what do you do for vacation?” I asked, perhaps naively.
“Next week I will camp in the mountains of Italy for a week, alone” he explained.
It did not sound like a camping trip. There was no mention of roads, landmarks, a hiking trail or a campsite, just vague references to a region in Italy very near the border of another country. Then he proceeded to tell me about one of his missions in Djibouti where he guarded a border by shooting heavy machine guns at anything that came within range, including school buses. The segue was odd, but not lost on me.
Later, when I assembled the parts of the stories he told me, I realized he most likely was one of the infamous mercenaries that were based in Paris and experts in esprit de corps. Maybe he trained and traded weapons; a consultant for whomever would pay his price. Maybe he ended up being listed as a “foreigner” in a news story like the latest drone strike.
A drone strike in North earlier in September killed a British national named Abdul Jabbar who had been living in Punjab province.
A British security source told the BBC’s Newsnight programme that Jabbar was being groomed to head an al-Qaeda offshoot in the UK.
Edited to add: The BBC also reports that the US has hired mercenaries linked to the Taliban to guard American bases.
A Senate report has found evidence that many Afghan security personnel paid with US taxpayers’ money to guard American bases are hand in glove with the Taliban insurgents hell-bent on killing coalition troops.
While you have Germans working for the Taliban in Afghanistan, it may be the Taliban are working for the US and may even be on bases.