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UNITED STATES OF AMERICAS’ CYBER SPACE FAR SIGHT
Via German-foreign-policy.com
New reports are confirming the close
cooperation of the GERMAN Federal Intelligence Service (BND) with the National
Security Agency (NSA). According to these reports, BND agents have repeatedly
visited the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade to discuss technical issues. The NSA
has also furnished the BND instruments for analyzing intercepted data.
A former head of the AUSTRIAN
intelligence service has confirmed that it was a "common understanding
among all European intelligence services" to be "aware" of the
NSA Prism surveillance program. Already years ago, officials of the US military
have been quoted saying that the US military espionage center that is being
established in the Hessian capital Wiesbaden - and that will reportedly also be
used by the NSA - is destined to gather information "on the current
situation of friend and foe, and everything that can influence our
mission." The GERMAN government has also admitted that the Western block's
cooperation of the intelligence services - which includes abduction and torture
of suspects in the so-called war on terror - dates back to secret agreements
between the leading NATO powers during the post-WW II decades.
THE BND AT FORT MEADE
Recent reports have confirmed the
close cooperation between the GERMAN Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the
National Security Agency (NSA). The German TV magazine "Monitor"
presented a document reporting on a working visit by leading personnel of the
BND to NSA headquarters at Fort Meade in February 2010. For its cooperation
with foreign intelligence services, the NSA has established a "Foreign
Affairs Directorate" at its headquarters, to exchange intelligence
information and organize the delivery of relevant equipment. A former NSA
Technical Director confirmed to "Monitor" that he had witnessed
"joint meetings and conferences" with BND officials, where
"technical and other issues" were discussed.[1] According to a report
in the GERMAN weekly "Der Spiegel," NSA has also furnished the BND
the instruments for analyzing the cross-border telecommunication passing
through GERMAN lines. The BND is drawing on data passing through five internet
hubs with particular focus on the connections to the MIDDLE EAST. BND President
Gerhard Schindler has confirmed the cooperation with NSA.[2]
COMMON UNDERSTANDING
It has become increasingly difficult
for GERMAN authorities to deny knowledge of the incriminating NSA Prism
program. In its broadcast, "Monitor" quoted Gert-René Polli, the
former head of the AUSTRIAN "Federal Agency for State Protection and
Counter Terrorism" (BVT) saying, "We knew the repercussions of this
program. And this information and this knowledge were a common understanding
among all EUROPEAN intelligence services - the GERMAN included." Polli
assumes that the BND has also been a "cooperation partner in the
surveillance program" and that the GERMAN government will not be able to
claim "too much longer" not having been aware of Prism.[3] "Der
Spiegel" quotes US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who said that the NSA
"has been in bed with the GERMANS."[4] However, the NSA makes sure
that the cooperating countries "can protect their top politicians from a
backlash, in case it emerges how massively people's privacy is violated worldwide."
This is not restricted to intelligence service measures, but applies also to
other sensitive issues.
NERVE CENTER IN EUROPE
According to "Der
Spiegel," the NSA will also be able to use the "Consolidated
Intelligence Center," being established in the Hessian capital Wiesbaden
by the US Army. Reports on the upgrading of US military installations in
Wiesbaden had already attracted public attention, years ago.
(german-foreign-policy.com reported [5]). According to the US Armed Forces this
entire complex will constitute "the nerve center of the Army in
Europe."[6] The complex in Wiesbaden will include a so called
"Network Warfare Center" and intelligence units.
The "66th Military Intelligence
Group," for example, has been transferred to Wiesbaden from Darmstadt,
where it had been stationed only since 2004 - following its relocation from its
previous base in Bad Aibling, where it had been running a wiretapping
operation. Anti-war activists, making reference to the intelligence service
expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, report that the Darmstadt facilities are part of
"the US Echelon global espionage system, which taps all satellite-based
communication systems." "Computers analyze faxes, emails and
conversations." This facility will possibly now be installed in
Wiesbaden.[7] In the press, US military personnel have been quoted saying,
already back in 2008, that information is supposed to be gathered in Wiesbaden
"on the current situation of friend and foe and everything that can
influence our mission."[8]
CENTRAL COMMAND FOR ABDUCTIONS
Allegations that GERMANY is
sheltering principal US intelligence agencies on its territory and that these
are closely cooperating with their GERMAN counterparts is nothing new. In his
book published at the end of 2006, Erich Schmidt-Eenboom described another case
that became quite significant in the so-called war on terror. He wrote that the
CIA's Frankfurt station is home to "over two hundred intelligence
operatives" - "three times as many as in Bagdad," where
"the agency has its largest MIDDLE EAST residence." The intelligence
service expert reported that "when the last major team of CIA agents was
dissolved in 1989, it was learned that their network had been commanded from
Frankfurt." But, above all, the journalist Stephen Grey had proven that
the Frankfurt CIA station was "the world's most important commando
facility for abductions" of suspects by US intelligence services.
Schmidt-Eenboom concluded that it is
"evident that GERMANY had not only served, like other EUROPEAN countries,
as a hub for abduction flights and transport of interrogation teams, but also,
that Frankfurt was housing the planning staff and the central command for
illegal abductions."[9]
SECRET AGREEMENT
New press reports have confirmed
that the exceedingly close cooperation of the GERMAN-US intelligence services
dates also back to a 1968 administrative agreement. (German-foreign-policy.com's
report.[10]) This agreement stipulates that "the intelligence agencies of
western allies can call upon the BND and the Federal Office of the Protection
of the Constitution for help in intelligence matters," (...) "the GERMAN
agencies must provide raw data." The GERMAN government now admits that
this administrative agreement - stamped "secret" up until last year -
is still in force, but claims it "has not been invoked since 1990" -
because now there are several other - all classified "top secret" -
"declarations of principles" that regulate "cooperation between
the US intelligence services and the BND." Besides, "earlier GERMAN governments
have guaranteed the AMERICANS the right, 'in the case of pending danger' to
their armed forces" to take "'appropriate protective
measures'."[11] This includes "the right for them to gather their own
intelligence on GERMAN territory." Berlin is profiting from this, because
the BND regularly receives data in an exchange with the US services - data, by
the way, that it is not allowed to collect inside its own country.
[1]
Grenzenlose Überwachung durch US-Geheimdienste: Was wusste die Bundesregierung?
Monitor Nr. 649 vom 04.07.2013
[2] NSA liefert BND Werkzeuge für Lauschangriff; www.spiegel.de 07.07.2013
[3] Grenzenlose Überwachung durch US-Geheimdienste: Was wusste die Bundesregierung? Monitor Nr. 649 vom 04.07.2013
[4] NSA liefert BND Werkzeuge für Lauschangriff; www.spiegel.de 07.07.2013
[5] see also Nervenzentrum
[6] Wiesbaden community sees building boom; Stars and Stripes European edition 02.03.2008
[7] Rüstungsatlas Hessen; www.ruestungsatlas2011.linksfraktion-hessen.de
[8] Die Spione kommen; Frankfurter Rundschau 12.02.2008
[9] Erich Schmidt-Eenboom: BND. Der deutsche Geheimdienst im Nahen Osten. Geheime Hintergründe und Fakten, München 2007. See also Steinmeier and his Accomplices
[10] see also Allied Services (I)
[11] Amerika darf Deutsche abhören; Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung 07.07.2013
[2] NSA liefert BND Werkzeuge für Lauschangriff; www.spiegel.de 07.07.2013
[3] Grenzenlose Überwachung durch US-Geheimdienste: Was wusste die Bundesregierung? Monitor Nr. 649 vom 04.07.2013
[4] NSA liefert BND Werkzeuge für Lauschangriff; www.spiegel.de 07.07.2013
[5] see also Nervenzentrum
[6] Wiesbaden community sees building boom; Stars and Stripes European edition 02.03.2008
[7] Rüstungsatlas Hessen; www.ruestungsatlas2011.linksfraktion-hessen.de
[8] Die Spione kommen; Frankfurter Rundschau 12.02.2008
[9] Erich Schmidt-Eenboom: BND. Der deutsche Geheimdienst im Nahen Osten. Geheime Hintergründe und Fakten, München 2007. See also Steinmeier and his Accomplices
[10] see also Allied Services (I)
[11] Amerika darf Deutsche abhören; Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung 07.07.2013
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