BERLIN, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Germany's opposition won't launch a parliamentary inquiry into allegations that German spies picked targets for U.S. bombers in Iraq.
"It makes no sense to start an inquiry if the government is still answering questions," Renate Kuenast, head of the opposition Green Party, said Monday in Berlin.
Such an inquiry might be necessary later if the government fails to give details on Germany's intelligence role in Iraq, the abduction of a German national by the CIA, why German agents interrogated prisoners in Guantanamo, and a secret prison in Syria.
Noerbert Roettgen of the Christian Democrats and Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats said their respective parties, which form Germany's left-right government would push for a clarification by the end of February and publish the findings in a public report.
News reports claiming two officers of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service BND directly aided with a U.S. bombing that intended to kill former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but did kill 12 civilians are false, officials have said.
Germany's three opposition parties, the Free Democrats, the Left Party and the Green Party, a member of the last government, had initially demanded a parliamentary inquiry on the exact role of the German intelligence during the U.S.-led conflict, but on Monday, the Greens bailed out.
The Free Democrats were angry at what they called an obvious bid to protect the record of former Green Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. To force an inquiry the opposition needed to vote nearly unanimously.
The BND confirmed last week that the two German spies remained in Baghdad during the conflict, which was previously been unknown.
