BERLIN, June 26 (UPI) -- Questions have arisen in Germany as to how secret intelligence files between 1998 and 2003 disappeared because of technical problems.
German public broadcaster ARD first reported the loss Monday of data spanning such operations as the military's activities in Afghanistan and Kosovo. Tuesday, the Berliner Zeitung said data linking the U.S. transfer of terror suspects to a secret prison in Bosnia is also missing, Deutsche Welle reported.
In a letter to a parliamentary committee, Deputy Defense Minister Peter Wichert said the data was transferred from disks to a single set of tapes that could later not be read, the report said.
"In accordance with the current regulations dealing with the classified material, the no longer readable tapes were destroyed on July 4, 2005," Wichert wrote.
Intelligence expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom told the Berliner Zeitung there was no shortage of technicians who specialize in retrieving lost data.
"There is the Federal Criminal Police Office and several highly specialized companies that have long been in a position to save and reconstitute damaged data storage devices," he said.
