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Alleged Olympic Terrorists Arrested In Brazil

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O Globo, July 22

Two weeks before the Summer Olympics begin in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is on high alert for risk of terrorist attacks aimed at the games. Friday's edition of Brazilian daily O Globois dominated by the articles and photographs of the dismantling of a group allegedly linked to the terror group Islamic State (ISIS), reported to be planning an attack on the Olympics.

On Thursday, ten people suspected of belonging to an organized group supporting ISIS were arrested, after discussing via social media acts of terrorism for the Rio Olympic Games, which start August 5, with more than 500,000 visitors expected. Police intervened after the alleged group tried to contact a black market weapons supplier near Paraguay to purchase a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

According to Brazilian authorities, the group's leader was based in the southern Brazilian city of Curitiba, with the other members spread in nine Brazilian states. Following the arrests, Interim President Michel Temer called an emergency cabinet meeting, the first under Brazil's new anti-terrorism law approved earlier this year.

On Tuesday, SITE Intelligence Group that monitors the Internet for terrorist activities, reported that a presumed Brazilian Islamist group pledged allegiance to ISIS. However, the relation between that group and those detained on Thursday is still unclear.

A week after the Nice attacks, fears of a possible terrorist act during the Olympics are growing. Brazil will deploy some 85,000 soldiers, police and other security personnel during the Games, more than twice as many in place for the London Olympics of 2012.

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Geopolitics

China Is Recruiting Former NATO Pilots — Is That OK?

A Parliamentary committee that oversees German intelligence services is questioning Beijing increasing recruitment activities of those who know Western weaponry best. This raises a fundamental strategic question as China-West tensions grow .

German air forces conducting exercises.

A Tornado fighter pilot of the air force squadron 33 from Büchel rolls after the landing on the air base of the tactical air force.

© Rainer Jensen via Zuma Press
Lennart Pfahler, Tim Röhn

BERLIN — The German Bundestag’s Parliamentary Supervisory Committee meets in private. It is rare for any details of the discussions between delegates, who oversee the activities of the German intelligence services, to leak to the outside world.

But in the past week, the Committee very deliberately broke its usual vow of silence. In a public statement, delegates called for stricter regulations for government employees whose jobs relate to matters of security, when they make the move to the private sector.

Above all, the committee said that engaging in work for a foreign power should “automatically qualify as a breach of the obligation to secrecy for civil servants with jobs related to matters of security."

One reason for the unusual announcement: growing concerns about Chinese efforts to recruit former German military and intelligence officers.

In security circles, the word is that the Beijing regime is showing a marked interest in operational and tactical information from the West. Beijing is looking to recruit NATO pilots, with the aim of honing fighting techniques against Western military planes and helicopters. This recruitment often happens via foreign flying schools.

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