Courcy’s Intelligence Brief

*** Support for German far right continuing to increase.  Germany’s Friedrich Ebert Foundation has been tracking anti-democratic attitudes in Germany since 2006 in its bi-annual surveys.  Since its last survey in 2010, support for right-wing extremist attitudes has grown from 8.2% to 9% according to its summer 2012 survey.  Xenophobic attitudes, however, are now admitted to by 25.1% of the population.

Far-right attitudes are most prevalent in the former East Germany, where support for such views has risen from 10.5% of the population to 15.8%.  Xenophobia is also most prevalent in the east, where 39% of the population hold such views.

According to the authors of the survey: “While in the past young people were considered to be less susceptible to these ideas, now it is exactly this group that stands out.”

*** Little let up in Japan-China dispute.  As of 13 November, Chinese maritime surveillance vessels had approached the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands (called Diaoyu by China) on 25 consecutive days.  On the 13th, four Chinese surveillance vessels were warned away by the Japanese coastguard.  One of the Chinese vessels responded by radio saying that the Senkaku/Diaoyu were Chinese territory.

A day earlier, China’s foreign ministry issued a fierce statement condemning the Dalai Lama for referring to the disputed islands by their Japanese name during a visit to the Japanese city of Yokohama.

The foreign ministry statement said: “The Dalai Lama...once again shows his true colours of betraying his motherland and engaging in activities to split China under the guise of religion...In order to achieve his goal of splitting China, the Dalai Lama would rather collude with Japanese right-wing forces.  His behaviours are despised by the Chinese people.”

*** Iran’s nuclear progress.  According to The Jerusalem Post, a new International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, to be published on Friday (16 November), will reveal that Iran has completed the installation of 2,700 centrifuges at its underground Fordow plant, thus enabling it to speed up production of uranium enriched to 20%.

In August the IAEA reported that approximately 700 of 2,000 centrifuges were in operation.