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Berlin's Spies Reportedly Helped US
By Charles Hawley in Berlin
01/12/06 "Der
Spiegel" -- -- German intelligence agents reportedly
helped US forces target Saddam Hussein in an April 2003 Baghdad
bombing raid that killed at least 12 people, contravening former
chancellor Gerhard Schröder's insistence that Germany was not
involved in the war in Iraq.
The message from ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder immediately prior to
the United States invasion of Iraq was hard to misunderstand.
Germany, he said on Aug. 5, 2002, "will not make itself available
for any adventures under my leadership." Indeed, his anti-war stance
resonated so strongly with German voters that it even helped get him
re-elected in September 2002.
In January 2003, he emphasized that Germany -- then one of the
rotating members of the United Nations Security Council -- would
also not vote in favor of a resolution to go to war with Iraq.
But according to new revelations about the activities of Germany's
intelligence service Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the country was
not nearly so removed from the US-led war efforts as Schröder liked
to claim. German intelligence agents, according to reports in both
the Süddeutsche Zeitung and in German public television, were active
in Iraq during the entire war and even helped the United States
choose bombing targets. BND spooks may even have delivered targeting
assistance for the early April 2003 bombing in the wealthy Mansour
district of Baghdad -- a strike which was meant to vaporize Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein along with several top members of his
regime. The attack left between 12 and 19 people dead -- but not
Saddam.
"Despite the troubles in the relationship between Berlin and
Washington, the political decision was made to continue the close
relationship of the intelligence services," an unidentified source
from the BND told the public television station ARD.
German help "very important" to the US
That close relationship apparently involved German intelligence
agents remaining in Baghdad during the entire Iraq war at the same
time Schröder, his Social Democratic Party, and his junior coalition
partner the Greens -- led by then-foreign minister Joschka Fischer
-- were officially maintaining strong opposition to the war in Iraq.
Germany evacuated its own embassy on March 17, 2003 -- just three
days before the start of the invasion -- but at least two BND
employees remained in Baghdad, lodged in a safe house. The BND
agents allegedly helped the Americans by identifying "non-targets"
-- such buildings as embassies, schools and hospitals that should
not be bombed. Schröder's chancellery allegedly knew all about the
cooperation.
On Thursday, an intelligence official told the Reuters news agency
that the practice of identifying "non-targets" is a lesson learned
from the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the
Kosovo War in 1999.
But the Germans' assistance may have gone even further. ARD quotes
an American source, identified as a "former Pentagon employee," as
saying that the German help was "very important" for the American
offensive. The source went on to say that the BND provided "direct
assistance in choosing targets."
The most dramatic example of such direct assistance may well have
been the April 7, 2003 attempt on Saddam. According to ARD's
Pentagon source, US intelligence received a tip that morning of a
column of black Mercedes limousines near a restaurant often
frequented by Saddam and other government leaders. It was thought
that Saddam might be among the passengers. But how to verify the
report? According to the Pentagon source, US officials called up
German intelligence and asked them to have their agents do a
drive-by of the restaurant. The German agents in Baghdad confirmed
the existence of a convoy of armored vehicles outside the
restaurant. Not long afterwards, four satellite-guided bombs
obliterated the site.
The Bundesnachrichtendienst denies helping the Americans with
targeting. It confirms that two BND agents were in Baghdad during
the war, but said its agents "provided neither of the warring
parties with targets or coordinates for bombing. The BND collected,
analyzed and communicated information to the German government
within the framework of its legal obligations," a BND spokesman said
on Wednesday.
A political firestorm in Berlin
The revelations come as Chancellor Angela Merkel flies to the United
States on Thursday for talks with US President George W. Bush.
Germany, along with many European countries, has expressed concern
over recent allegations of CIA flights carrying terror suspects to
third countries for interrogation -- part of a program known as
extraordinary rendition. Alleged secret CIA prisons in eastern
Europe have also raised hackles, and last weekend, Merkel said the
US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba " in its present form cannot and
must not exist in the long term." She's expected to mention the case
of Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen who was born and raised in
Germany and is currently incarcerated at Guantanamo, in her talks
with Bush.
Opposition politicians in Germany are demanding an investigation
into the lastest reports of BND activities during the war. The
broadly pro-American Free Democrats have said that if the story is
true, "it would be a proper scandal that would urgently require a
complete clarification." The less Washington-friendly socialist Left
Party has demanded a special investigation into the allegations.
Much attention, however, is focusing on the Green Party --
Schröder's coalition partners during the war in Iraq. Former foreign
minister Fischer said on Thursday that he had no problem with an
investigation. "I have nothing to hide," he said. Other members of
the Green Party, though, said that Fischer was outraged by the news
and, although he knew about the BND agents who were in Baghdad
during the war, he claims not to have known about any assistance
offered by them to the Americans. Green Party leader Claudia Roth
said "the parliament and the German public has the right to see the
allegations cleared up with no ifs or buts."
Similar voices are to be heard in Schröder's party. SPD
parliamentarians spoke on Thursday of the "dark side of foreign
policy" and of "BND's separate foreign policy." One can't escape the
feeling, said one SPD politician, that Schröder's Iraq policy seems
"more and more dishonest."
© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2006
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