Free Republic

The case of a suspected spy at the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) is more explosive than previously known. According to SPIEGEL information, the Russian secret service FSB tried last fall to use BND employee Carsten L., who has since been arrested, to obtain position data on the Ukrainian army's artillery and air defense positions. According to the investigation, the FSB instructed the BND agent, through the intermediary Arthur E., to siphon off and hand over GPS data from the US-supplied Himars multiple rocket launcher and the Iris-T air defense system supplied by Berlin to the BND and hand it over...

The Ukrainian army is losing a three-digit number of soldiers every day, the BND intelligence service told a group of Bundestag lawmakers who focus on security at a secret meeting this week, Spiegel said, citing information it had received. The BND warned that the capture of Bakhmut by Russian forces would have significant consequences, as it would allow Russia to make further advances.

British intelligence may have been leaked to Russia by an alleged German double-agent, an expert on Berlin’s spy services said. British spy chiefs are reportedly furious about the affair, which saw a senior figure inside Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) arrested shortly before Christmas. In one of the most spectacular double-agent scandals in decades, Carsten L, head of a division inside the BND’s signal intelligence wing, was arrested on charges of high treason in December. Germany believes that he was responsible for passing on highly sensitive battlefield information from the Ukraine war to the Russians. The case will likely have...

The Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, is Germany’s key foreign intelligence agency. It is tasked with collecting, collating and evaluating information and with providing the government with an early warning system on critical developments in the fields of foreign and security policy. The BND’s image has been seriously tarnished, both at home and abroad, by its failure to alert the German government of the impending disaster in Afghanistan. This has in turn put the government itself under massive pressure to explain how such a fiasco was possible. After all, as recently as June, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the German...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping asked World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to suppress news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the German intelligence agency BND found, according to a report by German magazine Der Spiegel. During a conversation on Jan. 21, Xi reportedly asked Tedros not to announce that the virus could be transmitted between humans and to delay any declaration of a coronavirus pandemic. It took until the end of January before the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak needed to receive international attention. Because of China’s delay, the world wasted four to six weeks it could have...

Germany’s spy agency can monitor major internet hubs if Berlin deems it necessary for strategic security interests, a federal court has ruled. In a ruling late on Wednesday, the Federal Administrative Court threw out a challenge by the world’s largest internet hub, the De-Cix exchange, against the tapping of its data flows by the BND foreign intelligence service. The operator had argued the agency was breaking the law by capturing German domestic communications along with international data. However, the court in the eastern city of Leipzig ruled that internet hubs “can be required by the federal interior ministry to assist...

It was quiet in eastern Ukraine last Wednesday. Indeed, it was another quiet day in an extended stretch of relative calm. The battles between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian separatists had largely stopped and heavy weaponry was being withdrawn. The Minsk cease-fire wasn't holding perfectly, but it was holding. On that same day, General Philip Breedlove, the top NATO commander in Europe, stepped before the press in Washington. Putin, the 59-year-old said, had once again "upped the ante" in eastern Ukraine -- with "well over a thousand combat vehicles, Russian combat forces, some of their most sophisticated air defense,...

The German government has allocated €400 million ($465 million) to fund the construction of up to three spy satellites for the country’s foreign intelligence service, the BND. This has been reported by a consortium of newspapers and is part of a general trend within Germany of increasing surveillance and surveillance capabilities. It is expected that the system, which has been nicknamed “Georg,” could be launched into space by the early 2020s. A confidential sub-committee within the budget committee of the German parliament reportedly approved the money for the project, away from public scrutiny, this June. The newspapers cited a document...

Germany's foreign intelligence service long spied on numerous official and business targets in the United States, including the White House, Spiegel weekly reported Thursday. The magazine said it had seen documents showing that the intelligence service, the BND, had a list of some 4,000 so-called selector keywords for surveillance between 1998 and 2006. These included telephone or fax numbers, as well as email addresses at the White House as well as the US finance and foreign ministries. Other monitoring targets ranged from military institutions including the US Air Force or the Marine Corps, space agency NASA to civic group Human...

German lawmakers have approved a bill that allows the country’s foreign intelligence agency to spy on European Union institutions and fellow EU member states. The legislation passed Friday is part of a range of measures meant to improve oversight of espionage in the wake of the revelations by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. […] Critics say that instead of clamping down on questionable BND activity, the law will merely legalize them. …

The BND, Germany’s version of the CIA, has been accused of massive breaches of the constitution in a leaked report by the government’s representative for data protection. “The BND [Bundesnachrichtendienst] systematically lifted and used personal data without a legal basis to do so,” wrote Federal Data Protection Commissioner Andrea Voßhoff in a report seen by public broadcasters NDR and WDR. Voßhoff is responsible for ensuring that government agencies do not infringe on German citizens’ legal rights when using their personal data. …

Germany's intelligence agency eavesdropped on many of the country's closest European allies, including France, Sweden, Italy, Spain and Britain, according to new reports. Among the targets are several embassies in Germany, and international organizations such as the Red Cross, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. [...] Spiegel, without giving any sources, said Saturday that "the BND had systematically spied on 'allies' across the world, including on the interior ministries of the United States, Poland, Austria, Denmark and Croatia." ...

The German intelligence service has spied on European and American embassies in ways that may have been beyond its mandate, German media ARD and Spiegel Online reported on Wednesday (14 October). The Bundesnachtrichtendienst (BND) reportedly targeted French and US institutions and eavesdropped on them to acquire information about countries like Afghanistan. The news follows reports in April that the BND spied on France and the European Commission on behalf of the US’ National Security Agency (NSA). But according to the new reports, BND also spied on allies on its own initiative. …

Federal prosecutors have brought charges against a former worker at Germany’s foreign intelligence agency who is suspected of passing information to American spies. The 32-year-old former Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) worker is accused of treason, infringing official secrets and corruption after passing secrets to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in exchange for cash. […] The alleged spy joined the BND in 2007 and worked for the CIA from 2008, they said. He passed documents and confidential internal information about the work and personnel of the BND to his American handlers in exchange for payments totaling €95,000. A search of the accused’s computer...

A German federal court has ruled that the country’s spy agency is under no obligation to divulge to the media a list of names compiled from search terms provided to it by the U.S. National Security Agency. A newspaper publisher sought an injunction forcing the Germany agency, the BND, to disclose information about what German companies and citizens were on the list after the spy agency refused to answer questions. …

The German-American friendship no longer exists. It may still remain between citizens of both countries, but not between their governments. Perhaps it has always been an illusion; perhaps the United States pulled away over the course of time. But what binds these two nations today cannot be considered friendship. Openness and fairness are part of the essence of friendship, which is about mutual respect and trust. A quarter century after the United States helped the German people restore their national unity, little remains of this friendship. As new documents from WikiLeaks and reporting by Spiegel show, the NSA has been...

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office Thursday asked the US ambassador to discuss new allegations about NSA spying, a German government source said. “We confirm that US ambassador [John] Emerson was invited to the chancellery to talk,” the German government source told AFP, after the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily said Merkel’s chief of staff Peter Altmaier had asked for the meeting. On Wednesday Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that new documents released by WikiLeaks show that the United States did not just tap German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone but also eavesdropped on several ministers. …

President Barack Obama is aiming to show unity with Western allies on global challenges during an overnight trip to Germany, especially Chancellor Angela Merkel amid enduring anti-Americanism in her country over U.S. spying programs. Obama and Merkel plan to open his visit Sunday with a public display of friendliness, delivering remarks about the U.S.-German alliance before taking a walk through the picturesque alpine village of Kruen to sample the Bavarian food and sights. Then the two plan to meet privately at the nearby site of the two-day summit of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations to coordinate their agenda...

It was obvious from its construction speed just how important the new site in Bavaria was to the Americans. Only 4½ months after it was begun, the new surveillance-proof building at the Mangfall Kaserne in Bad Aibling was finished. The structure had a metal exterior and no windows, which led to its derogatory nickname among members of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German foreign intelligence agency: The “tin can.” The construction project was an expression of an especially close and trusting cooperation between the American National Security Agency (NSA) and the BND. Bad Aibling had formerly been a base for US...

British spies have warned the government they may cut off ties with their German counterparts over a parliamentary inquiry into spying by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). Focus magazine reported on Thursday that top spies at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) are concerned that the Bundestag’s (German parliament) inquiry into the NSA could uncover secrets about how they cooperate with their German allies. Gerhard Schindler, head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), reportedly told the leaders of the inquiry about the increased tension with his British colleagues on Wednesday evening. “Without information from British signals intelligence, we would...