Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Germany Dissolves Elite Army Unit Over Far-right Activity

Ezel Sahinkaya

   Germany's defense ministry officially disbanded a company of its
   Special Forces Command (KSK) on Saturday, following reports that it had
   been exposed to far-right and neo-Nazi ideology.

   The move showed how deeply rooted right-wing extremism could be within
   the German army, some experts said.

   "The announcement basically acknowledges for the first time that it is
   not just individual cases in which soldiers show up as right-wing
   extremists, but that there are right-wing extremist networks in the
   German Federal Armed Forces," said Fabian Virchow, a professor at the
   University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf and director of the Research
   Unit on Right Wing Extremism.

   "It shows that this danger has been systematically underestimated in
   the past by political and military leaders," Virchow told VOA.

   German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer made the initial
   announcement of disbanding the KSK's 2nd Company July 1 after an
   investigation into allegations of right-wing activity.

   Kramp-Karrenbauer said then that the investigation had revealed the KSK
   was building a "wall of secrecy" around itself with a "toxic leadership
   culture."

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