WASHINGTON, March 8 (UPI) -- The German embassy in Washington has been receiving calls from Americans thanking Germany for its help in the Iraq war. For the Germans, that is not good news. At home, disclosures that the German intelligence service did sterling work providing information which U.S. forces could use in the Iraqi invasion have caused a political storm that many think has endangered Chancellor Angela Merkel's new coalition government.
At the center of the drama are two agents from the Bundesnachrichtendienst (generally known as the BND) who were sent to Baghdad in Feb. 2003, shortly before the U.S.-led coalition attack on Iraq. According to German press reports, the Berlin government shared at least some of the intelligence they provided with Washington, including information about targets for air and land combat. In a report to the German parliament issued last month, the government admitted that intelligence was passed on to the Americans, but said it was non-military, such as information about the location of schools and hospitals to prevent them from being bombed.
Over the past two months, the German media have been telling the public a different story. According to press reports, the BND's intelligence sharing with Washington was aimed at helping the Americans in combat. On Monday, the Bundestag, the lower house in the German parliament, seemed headed for a full parliamentary investigation -- rare in Germany -- into such allegations. With all three opposition parties -- the Greens, the new Left Party, and the Free Democrats -- all agreed, they have more than the 25 percent of the votes needed to call an inquiry.
The harm of such public scrutiny to one of the best -- and most secretive -- intelligence services in Europe could be incalculable. A reliable German source told United Press International Wednesday that the BND is already in damage control mode, recalling assets from overseas, and shutting down major operations. The revelations are also hurting Germany's comparatively good standing in the Middle East, earned partly as a result to Berlin's strong opposition to the U.S. war; and if Germans become targets of Islamic militant retaliation it could jeopardize Germany's continued role in Afghanistan. Neither is the inquiry likely to help Chancellor Merkel's efforts to repair the damaged relationship with the Bush administration.
The German source, who asked not to be identified because he was not an authorized spokesman, said the BND had more than two spies in Iraq throughout the conflict, plus an intelligence liaison officer attached to the coalition headquarters in Doha, capital of the Gulf state of Qatar. Confirming some of the German press reports, he said the BND was able to give Washington tactical intelligence, including an on-the-ground assessment of the strength, battle readiness and deployment of Iraq's Medina brigade belonging to the elite Republican Guard. German agents also tipped off U.S. forces that Saddam was meeting his senior staff at an army building in downtown Baghdad. U.S. planes bombed the location, but Saddam was not among the victims.
Then last week, the New York Times reported that the agents had managed to obtain a plan for the defense of Baghdad, and had passed that on to American intelligence. The Germans denied ever having the plan, and therefore could not have passed it on to Washington.
Presuming the facts to be even half true, the disclosures show the previous government of Socialist Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder engaged in a massive deception of the German public. Officially, the coalition of Social Democrats and Greens defied the Bush administration by its strong opposition to the war, but behind the scenes it was supporting American policy. To justify this, some Germans argue that although Berlin was against the conflict, once U.S. troops were engaged in combat it was in Europe's interest that the United States should win, and the BND provided what help it could.
Angela Merkel's government is vulnerable largely because of her Social Democrat partners, and particularly Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who as Chancellor Schroeder's chief of staff would have had full knowledge of the BND's activities. Opposition spokesmen said Wednesday that Schroeder, Greens leader and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, and Steinmeier would be called to testify before the parliamentary inquiry, which now seems almost a foregone conclusion. If things go badly for the Social Democrats, it might be a welcome political break for Merkel, some analysts say. She could dissolve the government and call new elections with the certainty that the discredited Social Democrats will do badly and the Christian Democrat leader will win the majority she failed to get the first time.
The big question is: who is feeding the press all the damaging information, and why? Some German officials have hinted that they believe the intelligence disclosures to be misinformation put out by the Bush administration as payback to the Social Democrats for their opposition to the war. That seems unlikely firstly because the revelations could extend to U.S. intelligence secrets, and secondly because Washington prefers to have the Socialists in the coalition government than in opposition where they can interfere with Merkel's planned economic and social reforms. Another theory is that the Christian Democrats' historic allies, the rightist Christian Social Union are trying to sabotage Merkel's government so that she will turn to the CSU to form the next one, and Edmund Stoiber, the CSU leader and prime minister of Bavaria will become foreign minister.
A third theory is that the leaks are coming from disgruntled ex-BND officers who disapproved of the previous government's double standard. "When the Iraq war started all the assets in Baghdad and working with American troops should immediately have been withdrawn, and not left in place," the German source said. "That would be consistent with the German government's policy line." The former agents are hoping to cause an internal upheaval in their former service from which a new, reformed BND can emerge.
