War on Whistleblowers: Berlin Gets Serious in the Search for Moles

Written on December 3rd, 2014 in politics Comments Off

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Nikolaus Blome, Matthias Gebauer, Hubert Gude, Frank Hornig, Gordon Repinski and Marcel Rosenbach, Dec 1, 2014 (Photo Gallery).

The German government has had enough of reading about state secrets in the media. SPIEGEL has learned that officials are now preparing to file a criminal complaint against unknown persons and has undertaken other efforts to identify moles as well.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s intelligence coordinator, Klaus-Dieter Fritsche, was visibly troubled as he arrived in room 2400 of Germany’s parliament building. It’s the last straw, Fritsche told the gathered lawmakers with a steely voice and dark expression. Because of the ongoing betrayal of official secrets, Fritsche said, the German government will be filing a criminal complaint. The situation in which classified information has repeatedly found its way into the public domain cannot be allowed to continue, he added.

The parliamentarians, members of a confidential panel which supervises the financing of Germany’s intelligence agencies, reacted with concern. Several weeks previous, Merkel’s chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, had uttered a similar threat to Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, after internal papers from the NSA investigative committee found their way into the media. “Should it happen again,” Merkel’s top aide said, the government would resort to recourse in criminal law. The NSA committee is currently investigating US spying activities on German soil … //

… On the Prowl: … //
… NATO Cooperation in Danger: … //

Redacted Documents:

  • But the government’s broadening demands for secrecy have become most evident when it comes to the NSA parliamentary investigation. Important witness testimony, for example, has not been cleared for the public, limiting what journalists may write. In one of the most recent committee sessions, the testimony of one witness, a BND agent, was even classified as top secret. As a result, parliamentarians on the committee had to turn in their notes following the session and the final report may not cite the agent’s testimony. In other instances, government representatives present at the hearings stopped testimony that they believed was too sensitive.
  • Preparation has also been made difficult for lawmakers on the NSA committee. It has become clear that BND witnesses have been able to study files that were either not made available to committee members or were only made available shortly before the session in which they were discussed. Furthermore, many of those documents that are made available have been redacted to the point that they can no longer be understood. Even the itinerary put together for the wife of an NSA director during his visit to Berlin was heavily redacted.
  • Finally, the government has also prevented important issues from even being examined in the first place because they allegedly had nothing to do with the investigative committee’s work. Opposition lawmakers on the committee have even filed a complaint with Germany’s high court due to concerns that they are unable to fulfill their control function in the absence of testimony from Edward Snowden — testimony that has thus far been prevented.

Mishaps and Legal Violations:

  • Even parliamentarians on the investigative committee belonging to parties in Merkel’s governing coalition (made up of her conservatives paired with center-left Social Democrats) have come to believe that the secrecy is excessive. The government, for example, considered pressing charges for the betrayal of state secrets against Christian Flisek, the senior Social Democrat on the committee. The government is of the opinion that he went too far during a media interview.
  • There has always, of course, been a tension between journalistic freedoms and the state’s need for confidentiality. Governments, such as that of Angela Merkel’s, are fond of pointing out “core areas of executive responsibility” that need to remain classified. As a practical matter, however, it is the executive itself which decides how broad such areas are.
  • And that is the fundamental problem. Few would dispute the need for some state activities to remain secret in a parliamentary democracy. It remains justified, however, to ask how big such areas should or must be. In the past, “national security” has all too often been used as an excuse to cover up mishaps and legal violations perpetrated by government officials.
  • It is clear that media disclosures often serve to undermine the public’s faith in state institutions. And that viewpoint has become widespread in the higher echelons of Germany’s security apparatus. They are, however, the same agencies that were unaware of the secret American surveillance performed on Angela Merkel’s mobile phone. Until SPIEGEL reported on it.

(full text).

Links:

9yo Australian girl forced into MidEast wedding – report, on Russia Today RT, Dec 2, 2014; (see also: Australian lawmaker proposes 1 yr in jail, $68,000 fine for forcing kids to wear burqas, on Russia Today RT, Oct 28, 2014);

Some Mainstream Italian Parties Now Advocating Euro Exit, on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, Dece 2, 2014: Watching the Eurozone limp along has proven to be an instructive exercise in how long political and financial legerdemain can keep a fundamentally untenable situation going beyond its sell-by date …;

The New Oil Price War: Market and Macro Impacts, on naked capitalism, by Yves Smith, Dec 2, 2014;

Manolis Glezos in Luxembourg, on transform, by Murray Smith, Dec 2, 2014: … A public meeting was organized jointly by déi Lénk and by the Luxembourg sections of Syriza, Izquierda Unida, the Communist Party of Spain and Rifondazione communista. A hundred and fifty people packed out the hall, many more than could be seated. Unsurprisingly the biggest contingent was from the Greek community in Luxembourg …;
Manolis Glezos: on en.wikipedia is a Greek left wing politician and writer …;
auf de,wikipedia ist ein linksgerichteter griechischer Politiker und Autor … // … Er ist das älteste Mitglied des Europaparlaments …;

Lebanese Army detains a wife and a son of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, on Russia Today RT, Dec 2, 2014;

Revenu moyen en hausse ne veut pas dire les Belges sont plus riches, dans RTBF.be, le 2 décembre 2014;

U.S. ECONOMY: Basic Costs Squeeze Families – Health Care, Cellphones Eat Up Income, Leaving Less for Things Like Movies, Clothes, on WSJ, by RYAN KNUTSON and THEO FRANCIS, Dec. 1, 2014;

A Tribute to Yoland Bresson (1942-2014), on Basic Income Earth Network BIEN, by Stanislas Jourdan, Dec 1, 2014: one of the prominent advocate for basic income in France passed away during the summer …;

Réforme du régime d’assurance vieillesse de base des professionnels libéraux, dans le Monde du Droit, 1er décembre 2014;

Gazprom to build new 63 bcm Black Sea pipeline to Turkey instead of S. Stream, on Russia Today RT, Dec 1, 2014;

Greece: Can Greece change the EU? on transform, by Marica Frangakis, Nov 27, 2014; What has been happening in Greece since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2007/2008 and of the eurocrisis in 2009/2010 is not unique to this country. Greece is not an exceptional case …;

Greece: The Cause of SYRIZA Is Our Cause, on transform, Nov 21, 2014; The possible win of SYRIZA in the next Greek elections is a matter which should be at the centre of interest of social movements, trade unions and political forces in all European countries, since it can be the first step for a fundamental social and political change in our continent …;

… and this:

… und noch dies:

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