Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves tweeted this morning that an Estonian counterintelligence officer was abducted at gunpoint and taken across the border into Russia.President Ilves goes on to tweet that people should not jump to conclusions that the abductors are the Russian state.
The officer was part of the Internal Security Service (ISS), the national agency in Estonia for counterintelligence and corruption investigations. The officer was leaving a security checkpoint after investigating an incident on the Estonian side of the Luhamaa border checkpoint with Russia when he was taken on the morning of September 5th. DEVELOPING: Estonian Counterintelligence Officer Abducted to Russia at Gunpoint, Foreign Ministry Summons Russian Amb http://t.co/zg447LklnA
— toomas hendrik ilves (@IlvesToomas) September 5, 2014
According to ERR Estonian Public Broadcasting, communications on the Estonian side of the border were jammed and smoke grenades were used during the abduction.
Arnold Sinisalu, director general of the ISS, said there were signs of a violent struggle....MORE
That doesn't stop yours truly from drawing comparisons to the Venlo Affair of 1939.
From Sage:
From Mythos Elser:
Von Bob de Graaff, Historiker
Even dictators need excuses. Thus Hitler was in want of one, after in early October 1939 he had decided to invade the neutral countries of Holland and Belgium. The excuse was needed not so much because Hitler shrank from the international conscience, but because he had to overcome the opposition of his own generals. Two incidents, the bomb outrage in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich and the so-called Venlo incident in early November, gave Hitler the excuses he needed. [Hitlers ursprünglich für November 1939 geplante Westoffensive ]
After the successful conclusion of the Polish campaign Hitler had turned his attention rapidly towards the west. On 9 October he informed his Supreme Command that if Britain and France were not willing to abandon their war declaration before long, he would start an offensive in the west.
Hitler's directives worried some of his generals into a new opposition only a year after the Führer had allayed their grievances at the time or the Munich conference. The army commanders were worried by their experiences during the Polish campaign. They had been terrified by the SS cruelties which had followed in the wake of the Wehrmacht. As order-loving generals they feared that their own soldiers would be contaminated by what they considered to be 'indiscipline'. Besides, the morale among the troops Hitler intended to use for the western campaign was low according to the generals. An attack in the west could better wait until the Spring of 1940, when weather conditions would be more suitable....MUCH MORE
