Russian version
On Friday, December 9, a solemn ceremony of welding of the first section of the North European Gas Pipeline (NEG) took place in Russia. The majority of the German and Russian officials, who took part in it, had no idea that the Foreign Intelligence Service of Germany (Bundesnachrichtendienst - BND) is engaged in securing the project from the German side...
Inglorious Past
BND was established in April 1956, on the basis of so-called "Organization Gehlen" (OG), created after WWII by the former Wehrmacht intelligence officer Reinhard
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| Reinhard Gehlen, 1971 |
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Gehlen under the American patronage. Similarly to the other intelligence organizations of the Western bloc, BND traditionally put an emphasis on the radio-electronic intelligence (SIGINT), and achieved impressive results in this area.
At the same time, in everything that concerned the usage of agents (HUMINT), the West-German service was loosing to its East-German opponents - Stasi. A weak agent’s work affected the activity of the whole service. Although, in the spring of 1968, shortly before his resignation, Gehlen warned of a possible Soviet armies’ invasion to Czechoslovakia, in the long-term prospect one can say that the service he founded could not predict the majority of important international events of the second half of the XX Century. Among the unpredicted remained the Berlin crisis, and the erection of the Berlin Wall (1961), removal of the Soviet leader Khrushchev from power (1964), placing of the Soviet SS-20 ballistic missiles of average range in Europe (1974), the overthrow of the Shah in Iran (1979), the Soviet intervention to Afghanistan (1979), Germany’s reunion and the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991).
The End of the XX Century: Drang Nach Osten (Onslaught on the East)
Before the official reunification of Germany in 1991, about 40% of the efforts of the West-German Foreign Intelligence was directed on gathering of the information about the Eastern part of the country. After the terrible Eastern opponent’s disappearance, and disbandment of its Stasi special service, the resources of the BND were redirected on gaining positions in Eastern Europe. This process occurred in parallel to the process of the economical and political expansion of Germany to the East, and was called to provide its success.
First of all, after 1991, BND was actively engaged in recruitment of agents, and gathering information among the soldiers and officers of the Russian military contingent, which remained in Germany up to 1994. In parallel, from the end of the 1980s, BND was busy with interrogating the streams of immigrants, who rushed to Germany from the post-Soviet space. Thus, the German intelligence managed to collect extensive political, economical, and military information on Russia.
In parallel, owing to the efforts of the German Intelligence Community Coordinator
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Bernd Schmidbauer |
(Geheimdienstkoordinator), Bernd Schmidbauer, the official representatives of BND appeared in many Eastern-European capitals, and even in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. As to the end of the 1990s, the BND employees operated officially and under the diplomatic cover in more than 80 spots in the world. Especially it is necessary to note their success in the Middle East, where they have come into close contacts with the ruling elites and the heads of the secret services of Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and other countries. Besides, the BND developed traditionally good relations with the Israeli special services. And after 1993, the organization took an active part in preparation of the security bodies of the Palestinian autonomy. It also came into contact with the leaders of the Lebanese Hezbollah.
Thus, by the end of the XX Century’s last decade, the German Foreign Intelligence considerably improved its professional level. Despite the scandals that shook it from time to time, during this period it was already rightfully considered one of the most powerful and efficient intelligence services of North-Atlantic Alliance. Over 6000 professional agents served in its ranks; its annual budget made near 400 million euro.
New Tasks of a New Century
For the last years the BND tasks have a global character that corresponds to the rising of the Germany’s international status, and also to the globalization of the threats to its security.
According to the information from 1997, among the priorities of this organization the first place was occupied by gathering of information about Russia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, the states of the former Yugoslavia, and Albania. Among the objectives of the secondary importance were such countries as China, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Angola, Southern Africa, Saudi Arabia, Israel, India, Pakistan, and Tajikistan. The third group of counties of BND's interest included the Baltic States, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Afghanistan, Congo, and Zimbabwe. And, at last, the group of the minimal interest for the German Foreign Intelligence included the entire EU region.
Today’s priorities of the organization are a bit different. The events of the September 11, 2001 and the wave of terrorism all over the world, which followed, including in Europe, brought the struggle against the international terrorism to the first place in the list of priorities. It is a question of revealing terrorist infrastructures and their financial channels, and also of searching and rescuing of the German citizens, who have become hostages of terrorists everywhere on the globe. There is much to be done in this area and, first of all, to adjust normal mutual relations with the American colleagues, which suffered a setback under Schroeder’s rule, and due to his Chief of Staff Steinmeier. Developing of the common antiterrorist strategy at the level of NATO and the EU, and also establishing of concrete methods of interaction are necessary. Significant work in this area is already done, however, according to the data available to the author, the American party still have a lot of complaints towards its German colleagues.
Besides the fight against terror, the fight against international organized crime also became of higher importance in the last years. Germany was literally overflowed by a wave of illegal immigration, human, drug, weapon traffic, and also counterfeit and illegally acquired money, which "were washed" through the German financial structures. Especially dangerous type of the organized crime activity is the trade in unconventional arms (radioactive materials, chemical and poisonous substances, etc.)
In parallel with the "thematic" reorientation, BND’s “attitude” towards certain countries also has changed. Simultaneously, preserving high interest to such countries as Iran, China, and Russia, on the first place appeared Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo, Bahrain, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, where the German military contingents are stationed (in 2004, the number of the German troops in these countries was more than 7.000). Besides, the interest to the Eastern neighbors of Germany in the European Union, first of all to Poland, and also to the Czech Republic and the Baltics increased. The Poles with their anti-German moods station the American military bases in their country, object the construction of the North European Gas Pipeline (NEG), and also unite the countries of Eastern and Central Europe around them, creating an alternative geopolitical bloc on the continent. The Baltic countries interest Germany, first of all, as an unstable region on the Eastern boundaries of the EU, bordering Russia. Berlin fears that the ethno-political processes occurring there will start to develop unpredictably.
On the Russian Track
Despite the general reorientation of the BND’s activity towards fight against international terrorism and organized crime, the Russian track remains as one of the major ones for this organization. Russia is considered by the German leadership simultaneously as a stable source of energy carriers, a favorable investment spot for the German capital, and as a source of various threats like export of the organized crime, illegal capitals, drugs, etc. The prompt growth of dependence of the German economy from the deliveries of oil and gas from Russia transforms gathering of information on its internal political, economic, and social processes into a strategically important task. This task is assigned to the BND. Today, among other things, the organization is engaged also in monitoring of the situation around the large economic projects like the North-European gas pipeline.
In the period of the President Yeltsin’s rule, the German Foreign Intelligence had its agents among the German doctors, who consulted him. In 1994, a contract was signed with the Russian colleagues on joint struggle against proliferation of unconventional weapons and technologies of its manufacturing. During the last 15 years the heads of the BND repeatedly visited the Russian capital. The trip of August Hanning to the
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August Hanning |
Chechen Republic in April, 2000, had a strong resonance in Germany. The German press, and many members of the Parliament have accused the head of the German intelligence in indirect legitimization of the Moscow’s actions in the Caucasus. At the same time, German mass-media published the information that the BND transferred to the FSB data concerning possible communications of the Chechen separatists with the international terrorist organizations. Coordinator of the German Intelligence
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| Ernst Uhrlau |
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Community, Ernst Uhrlau acknowledged in this connection that the information interchange in the sphere of fight against the international terrorism and the organized crime is conducted between the Russian and German intelligence services.
Among the BND's activities connected with the CIS and Russia, the wide coverage was received by the special report to the German government from 1997, concerning the illegal immigration to Germany. It was affirmed in it that in the coming years, up to 1.2 million of former citizens of the Soviet Union will illegally enter the country.
Official representatives of the Russian counterintelligence (FSB) have not once accused the BND in conducting espionage activity in the territory of Russia. For example, this organization was accused of using of various German welfare funds as a cover. Simultaneously, it was claimed that the BND employees operating in Moscow under diplomatic cover are engaged in gathering of information among the Russian politicians, businessmen, and government officials.
However, it is known that the last detaining of the German embassy’s employee in Moscow on charge of spying activity took place in May, 1995. Since then, for the last ten years, it appears that no such incidents happened. The German spies began to act more cautiously, and their Russian opponents began to reckon more with the changed political situation, which currently does not prepossesses any loud espionage scandals.
Related items:
German Intelligence Between Israel and Hezbollah (09.08.06)
War in Lebanon Divided Between Russia and Germany (08.08.06)
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