“German security authorities reported a substantial increase in crime and attacks on police in 2009 related to left-wing political groups and individuals,” said a new report (pdf) from the DNI Open Source Center. “According to Germany’s Interior Ministry, more extremist crimes and acts of violence occurred in 2009 than in any year since 2001. The ministry reported that in 2009, left-wing extremist crimes increased by almost 40% to 9,375,” the report said.
“The Berlin intelligence service chief called his city the ‘German stronghold of left-wing extremism,’ noting 2,200 resident radical individuals, 950 of whom are ‘autonomous’ leftist anarchists. According to the police, the number of leftist crimes in Berlin doubled to 1,300 in 2009…. This increase in left-wing crime represents an additional concern alongside Germany’s perceived problems with right-wing extremist and immigrant crime….Federal and local government officials have initiated measures to combat left-wing extremism,” the report said.
A copy of the unclassified report, marked For Official Use Only,” was obtained by Secrecy News. See “German Left-Wing Crime Increase Adds to Public Security Concerns,” Open Source Center, April 27, 2010.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.
Durable and legitimate climate action requires a government capable of clearly weighting, explaining, and managing cost tradeoffs to the widest away of audiences, which in turn requires strong technocratic competency.
FAS is launching the Center for Regulatory Ingenuity (CRI) to build a new, transpartisan vision of government that works – that has the capacity to achieve ambitious goals while adeptly responding to people’s basic needs.