Still in the Dark
2013/08/05
Bad Aibling and Afghanistan
The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) admits having forwarded so-called metadata to the US military's NSA intelligence service. These approx. 500 million sets of data, which, according to whistleblower Edward Snowden, were transferred to the USA in the month of December 2012, alone, could have been material originating from BND eavesdropping stations in Bad Aibling "and the telecommunications surveillance in Afghanistan," explained the BND. The BND claims that the metadata, "preceding the transfer" had each time been reliably purged "in a multi-stage processing, of possible personal data of Germans."[1] According to BND President Gerhard Schindler, the "telecommunications surveillance in Afghanistan" is spying on the Afghan government - at the instigation of the German chancellery.[2] A German journalist's emails, in the past, also had gotten picked up in the net.[3] The BND admits that in Bad Aibling, it is cooperating with the NSA, on the basis of an agreement signed in 2002. However, details of this cooperation were not made available. According to whistleblower Edward Snowden's documents, the US military intelligence maintains "its own switchboard and a direct electronic line to the NSA's data network" in Bad Aibling.
Behavior Detection
According to a recently published article in the German weekly, "Der Spiegel," technical cooperation between the secret services of Germany and the USA, are "tighter than previously known." German domestic intelligence (the "Office of the Protection of the Constitution") was recently obliged to admit having access to the XKeyscore surveillance program, which experts claim opens possibilities for a nearly "total surveillance."[4] However, the service claims that it is merely "testing" the software. "Der Spiegel" now declares it has material from Snowden at its disposal, which indicates that NSA specialists have trained not only operatives of Germany's domestic intelligence, but also from its foreign intelligence in how to use the program. This training had included "behavior detection." The report also explains that BND technology has greatly interested the NSA for years, particularly "its Mira4 and Veras systems." The BND gave a "positive response to the NSA's request for a copy of Mira4 and Veras."[5] Worth noting, is the NSA's assessment of the BND's surveillance technology: "in some respects, these tools have capabilities that surpass those of the US' Sigint (signal intelligence)."
Supplementary Agreement to the NATO Status of Forces Agreement
While the intensity of German-US espionage cooperation is becoming more conspicuous, the German government's attempts to play it down have proved unsuccessful. Last Friday, Germany's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the German government has "completed the nullification of the 1968/69 administrative agreement with the USA and Great Britain in connection with the G10 Law," thereby "abrogating the administrative agreement with the USA and Great Britain."[6] Negotiations with France remain inconclusive, but in preparation, according to the statement. The historian Josef Foschepoth, discovered the existence of the administrative agreement. According to Foschepoth, the agreement obligates the German government "to carry out postal and telecommunications surveillance on behalf of the victorious powers or to allow them to carry them out themselves."[7] Foschepoth now points out that the legal basis for this surveillance cooperation remains intact, in spite of the abrogation of the administrative agreement. The basis formally resides in an "accord on implementation regulations," "whose legal point of reference is Art. 3, Para. 2 of the August 3, 1959, Supplementary Agreement to the NATO Status of Forces Agreement," which "naturally remains in effect."[8]
Secret Accords
According to Foschepoth, due to technological advances, the administrative agreement - which describes concrete methods - was already outdated. He "parts from the premise that also today - as always - there are other accords between the allies," which cover "the new situation, also for surveillance of the Internet etc.," but "which remain unknown to us." "In any case, the experience" of the 60 years of the Federal Republic of Germany, indicates "this has never been carried out without a legal basis." Therefore, one cannot take it for granted that, for example, when the German Chancellor declares, "German laws reign here," that "these German laws will prohibit Germans from being bugged." The laws, in fact, permit surveillance. If ending surveillance was really the intention, "Art. 3, Para. 2 of the Supplementary Agreement to the NATO Status of Forces Agreement must be dealt with, because it contains the obligation that all information must strictly be kept secret." A "note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dated May 27, 1968, emphatically permits the allies" - "in cases of pending danger to their armed forces, independently of NATO laws, of the Supplementary Agreement to the NATO Status or even of a state of emergency in West Germany," to undertake all "appropriate protective measures." This is the typical formulation for espionage activities.[9]
Free Hand for the Services
The role of the October 4, 2001 top secret NATO agreement is also still completely in the dark. The Swiss Liberal and Council of Europe Special Rapporteur, Dick Marty, has repeatedly pointed out that, immediately following the proclamation of the Mutual Defense Clause, the war alliance called a secret meeting, in which the espionage services were given virtually a free hand in the "War on Terror" under CIA leadership - allegedly including the abduction of suspects. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[10]) The Bundestag has recently confirmed that the Mutual Defense Clause is still in effect.[11] In any case, on October 4, 2001, measures were undertaken by Washington, which are being widely discussed today. On that day, US President George W. Bush gave the NSA the green light for domestic espionage. "Edward Snowden's disclosures that the NSA collects the metadata of all calls made on the Verizone mobile phone company's network, is a direct consequence," according to a recent press report: "The same applies to the Prism program, enabling the NSA access to the servers of nine leading US American internet companies."[12] What NATO agreed to on that day remains in the dark.
Other articles on this theme can be found here: Allied Services (I), Allied Services (II), Friend and Foe and The Case of NATO's Mutual Defense.
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