After the release of the government report into the BND scandal the Media went frantic for a short time. The general agreement was that the report is inconclusive leaving out vital information. The article is a list of summarized quintessence with short notations on what questions the mentioned points raised or found inconsistencies.

To consider ist he fact that the open version was used as the complete one is classified and only available to government personal with clearance. The more complete version might answer some of the questions raised here.

1) (P.15 & P.17) two members of the BND, in the report referred too as SET (special deployment team) were sent to Baghdad with a long list of assignments. In fact so many that it would have been an impossible mission to fulfil without the assistance of other agencies.

2) In case of emergency it was agreed that US troops would evacuate, in case of chemical or biological attack decontaminate and in case of air strikes warn the SET. The BND declared there is no hard evidence on this agreement, everything was verbal and on hand shakes?

3) (P.19) the BND reassured that at no point did the SET have direct contact to American troops. Later in the report however this statement is being confuted by the BND themselves probably hoping that between pages of non essential gibberish readers would slacken attention and miss the point.

4) (P.33, 34) elaborates situations in which the SET had direct contact using telecommunication to pass on information to US troops. Remember page 19 includes a reassurance that direct contact had been strictly out ruled.

5) (P.21) the SET was permitted to keep contact to other intelligence personal that had stayed behind. The CIA or MI6 were not namely excluded in those words so the reader just has to assume that fact, or maybe not? And even if this was the case what would have permitted the SET to pass on gathered intelligence to let’s say the French and use them as a go-between?

6) (P.21) partial assignments included the gathering of information on military movements. Chancellor Schroeder declared openly, Germany would not participate or aid the Iraqi war in any way. Now please someone explain why than did the SET receive orders to gather military movement?

7) (P.22) One BND staffer, responsible for telecommunication statet not to have known anything about the regulations not to pass on any information to the US. His superior explained that the employee isn’t classified to know about such regulations in any case and that he didn’t pass on any information anyway. Now if the person didn’t know about the regulation AND wasn’t high enough up to should have known about it AND didn’t do it anyway, WHY is this useless paragraph in the inquiry?

8) (P.22) the SET usually used encoded connections to communicate with the BND head quarter in Pullach. Those communiqués are said to be taped and would be available for legal processing. The BND claims to have occasionally resorted to non encoded ways of communication for technical failures. Of course there are no records on those messages. However the BND gives their boy scouts oath that those communication weren’t used to pass on information including GPS coordinates.

9) The Bush Administration is currently under critic for using unethical wiretapping in their own country what’s hindering them to do so abroad?

10) (P.25) The use of GPS devices or Thuraya phones were prohibited in all over Baghdad. The SET though verifies to have made use of such devices, a fact that put the SET in harms way. Now what coordinates were so important for the SET to make them risk their lives in order to obtain them when at the same time they were not imperative for military actions?

11) (P.26) the BND also admits to have occasionally passed on coordinates or reports of locations with coordinates attached to them. They claim those reports consist mainly of civil buildings in order to prevent damage through air raids. That might sound chivalric but it consists of an active support to military actions. If the US didn’t have those coordinates air raids might had been less frequent and more selective therefore removing a reconnaissance advantage on the American site. As Germany had openly opposed the Iraq war claiming pacific intentions for passing on such information is hypocorism.

12) (P.30, 31) list of documented reports with coordinates, some of which include movements of military units. The BND describes those reports to have been of no importance as the units were moving. The time delay resulting from the necessary submission to Pullach and than to the US head quarters would have rendered them useless. Now why than did the BND risk being caught with GPS and put in harms way for such GPS coordinates. It sounds too much of a folly to have been committed by two top intelligence agents?

13) (P.32) Media reports claim that the SET passed on information of a club which Saddam was said to been visiting at the time. An aired on the club, gone wrong resulted in the loss of the life of 12 civilians as a nearby building was hit. The BND assures those claims to be wrong but one still anonymous source in the US is said to have exclaimed: ‘The work of the German has been a vital part of the air raid on this day’! Both sides insist on it so obviously one must be lying.

14) (P.34) the BND claims, out of immediate need to react, on the 4.April 2003 to have violated the installed communications protocols. The US had filed an info application, the object was a hotel said to host VIP Iraqi officials. According to the BND, the SET was said to have within minutes invalidate such claims and the air raid was cancelled. The BND at this time in the report prides itself on the sufficiency and speed of the SET agents and I can do nothing but agree. The fact that by pure coincident the SET had been close to the hotel and within minutes of the request managed to conduct a thorough search of the hotel is nothing short of a superhumanly magnificent performance.

15) (P.35) after the conclusion of operation ‚Iraqi Freedom’ the two members of the SET were awarded the ‘Meritorious Service Medal’ by the American government. Congratulations to the German heroes of the American led invasion of Iraq.

Part two and three of the report consist of accusations to flights conducted by the CIA as well as the subject of illegal imprisonment, torture and extraordinary rendition and to what extend the German government was aware or involved in such actions.

However this part is as much a waste of time as it is a waste of paper. Most paragraphs only explain international regulations such as the Geneva Convention or elaborate the meaning of certain terms like rendition, followed by statements explaining the necessary solidarity between the governments to fight terrorism.

Also included are statistic listings of flights with the conclusion that German official did have no knowledge as to who was on the flights; later followed by continuous reassurances that the German government or it’s bodies and agencies would never violate valid national or international law.

Concerns were raised when the German parliament after a few days of review decided that the report provided sufficient prove to disburden the BND and the Government of any wrong doing.

Thanks to some smaller opposition parties who complained the vote was revoked. The parties are now trying to find a compromise on a new more thorough inquiry, this time hopefully lead by a prosecutor or a government committee empowered with legal rights to subpoena BND members.

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