German Police Pose with Pirate Flag in Afghanistan
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Germany on Sunday said a photograph showing some of its policemen in Afghanistan posing in front of a skull-and-crossbones flag denigrated the country's image.
The 2009 photograph showed five policemen charged with protecting the German ambassador posing before a Jolly Roger flag in front of the embassy in Kabul.
One of them had a yellow plastic duck perched on a shoulder and most of the men had their faces covered with scarves.
An interior ministry statement cited by Der Spiegel magazine, which printed the photograph in its Monday edition, said the snap "seriously damaged" the country's image and stressed it was a "breach of duty".
But federal police spokesman Alexander Geyer played down the controversy saying it "was a bit of ribbing between colleagues, one should not read too much into it".
Police said no investigations had been launched as most of the men were unidentifiable.
Der Spiegel said the photograph was a result of a "dare" between the elite police unit and a crack anti-terror unit, the GSG9.
In 2003, some German soldiers stationed in Afghanistan created a storm by posing for photographs in front of a skull.
01 July 2012, 19:48
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While the Germans have their anti-Semitism and the English have theirs, the French have never stooped to such indignities except in the interests of national security, as in the Dreyfus case. Otherwise, to a Frenchman, one Semite is much as another. I mean, a Semite is no worse, in the minds of a Frenchman, than, say, an African. It is the great nobility of Lebanon that France has never considered the Lebanese mere Semites. Of course, the Lebanese display many Semitic characteristics, such as an inability to reason in a normal manner, but this cannot be assigned to them as a personal failing, given that they are not Frenchmen. The new French government is hopeful for the rehabilitation of all Lebanese.
The concern in international circles is that the Americans are not sufficiently aware of Semite issues and culture to intervene effectively in Syria, while the Russians and Chinese seem entirely ignorant of such matters.
