Berlin File Says Germany's Spies Aided U.S. in Iraq

[cal04]

Starting in early 2003 and lasting through the American military invasion of Iraq, a German intelligence officer stationed in the office of Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the American commander of the invasion, passed on to the United States information being gathered in Baghdad by two German intelligence officers operating there, a classified German review has found. The German liaison officer made 25 reports to the Americans, answering 18 of 33 specific requests for information made by the United States during the first few months of the Iraq war in what was a systematic exchange between American intelligence officials and the Germans, according to the German report.

The decision to install the officer was planned and approved at the highest levels of the German government, including by Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the chief of staff for Gerhard Schröder, then the chancellor, and by the foreign minister at the time, Joschka Fischer. Mr. Steinmeier is now the foreign minister. This exchange of intelligence information is described in a classified report prepared by a committee of the German Parliament that held closed-door hearings on the role of German intelligence during the Iraq war over the past few weeks. The German government was a vocal critic of the Bush administration's decision to use military force to topple Saddam Hussein and has long insisted that it provided only limited help to the United States-led coalition.

But in recent months, news reports of greater German involvement prompted the parliamentary review, which indicates that German-American cooperation during the war was continuing, systematic and regular. A public version of the parliamentary committee's report was released but much was left out, including the existence of a German officer in General Franks's office. A copy of the secret version of the parliamentary report was made available for viewing by a journalist in Germany to a New York Times reporter who read the text into a tape recorder so it could be transcribed and translated. The cover page had the seal of the German Parliament.

The report found that the operation was closed down when the American invasion came to an end, at which point all three of the German intelligence officials — the two in Baghdad and the liaison officer with General Franks in Qatar — were given the American Meritorious Service Medals recognizing the "critical information to United States Central Command to support combat operations in Iraq." Reached by phone Wednesday, the deputy spokesman of the German government, Thomas Steg, said: "I don't know the classified version. I only know the public version, so I'm not able to give any comment."


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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/02/international/europe/02germany.html?hp&ex=1141275600&en=d38a38b761775b06&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Heewack]

1. I read this the other day in the Times.

The whole theme of the piece was about countries: Germany, Saudi Arabia, Eygpt, that were publically against, but privately for the war. Odd.

[Xeric]

2. empire

It doesn't really surprise me. We run an empire. These countries have no choice. Their politicians serve at our leisure. They may publicly claim opposition to our policies because their constituents oppose them but they will not go against our wishes. To do so would be personally and politically dangerous. The empire can retaliate in ways that cannot be dismissed. In the case of Saudi Arabia the despots there know they could be removed in a heartbeat and they don't mind being business partners with the same people they make the pretense of calling infidels. In Egypt, money talks. Their government is bought by us.
Blair in England, Balkenende in Holland, Merkel in Germany. They all must dance to our tune. They are beholden to the same global capitalists as our politicians are, and those global capitalists love the profits of war.

[elf]

3. BINGO!

..............and very welcome to DU

:toast:

[MrPrax]

4. Germans Seem To Differ...

The Spin is a bit different over there...

Government Denies Helping US Invasion (Again)
February 27, 2006

Last week, the German government convincingly denied reports that its intelligence agents assisted the US in locating bombing targets in Iraq. On Monday, a New York Times report says otherwise. The government is in denial.

The daily federal government press conference in Berlin began seven minutes late on Monday. That's how long journalists had to wait until the government's spokesman, Ulrich Wilhelm, who had just received a two-page fax from the president of Germany's foreign intelligence service (BND), could respond to allegations levied by an explosive New York Times report. If true, the report would indicate that the BND directly supported the US military with strategic information in the run-up to its invasion of Iraq.

The Times article sent ripples throughout the government quarter in Berlin on Monday. According to the report, one month prior to the invasion of Iraq, the German intelligence service provided US forces with Saddam Hussein's defense plan for Baghdad. The sketch shows circular lines of defense that Saddam allegedly wanted to use to keep the Americans out of the Iraqi capital.

....

On Monday, Berlin responded to the latest media report with utmost reserve. Wilhelm said that Chancellor Angela Merkel was aware of the article and that she had taken note of its contents. He also said he was not in a position to comment on suspicions by journalists that parties with a political agenda in the US could have opportunistically passed on the latest information to the newspaper in order to tarnish the image of Gerhard Schröder's former government.

The source for the explosive bit of information is, according to the New York Times report, a 2005 study undertaken by the United States Joint Forces Command. In the study, which was apparently leaked to Times journalist Michael R. Gordon as part of his research for a book about the Iraq war to be published in March, the strategy of the Iraqi military was described and illustrated with the sketch. Gordon could not be reached for comment by press time.

Spiegel Online