Exchange of Information
MUNICH/BERLIN (Own report) - The Siemens Corp. is tightly enmeshed with German foreign intelligence agencies and is said to have enabled the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND - Bundesnachrichtendienst) to spy on foreign clients. This was gleaned from reports in the press on the extent of corruption in Munich's traditional enterprise. According to these reports, employees of the German companies, which have delivered telephone systems or wire-tapping technology, for example to Arab countries, are using their knowledge to facilitate the BND access to recordings of telephone conversations. During his incumbency as BND President (1998 - 2005), the current Interior Ministry State Secretary, August Hanning, had sought to enhance cooperation between Siemens and German foreign intelligence. These efforts coincided with the comprehensive initiative being taken in the Federal Chancellery under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and his chancellery director at the time, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to broaden the competence of the BND and establish an intelligence oriented "security community" in Berlin. Part of the plans are efforts to link private enterprises more closely to German repressive organs, with the aim of a "situation-oriented exchange of information".
Home Delivery Man
As several press organs concurringly report, Siemens, Munich's traditional enterprise, has "for years" been the "home delivery man" [1] for the BND in espionage technology. This refers mainly to electronic wireless intelligence. The West German foreign intelligence has always worked with German electronic manufacturers - "above all with Siemens."[2] According to these reports, the Siemens espionage business was concentrated in its subsidiary ("ICM voice and Data recording"), isolated in the Hofmannstrasse in Munich from the bulk of the enterprise. The Siemens central board of directors maintains its own liaison man to the BND, Volker Jung, who supervises the telecommunications sector for the board. Jung was the founding president of BITKOM (German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media) which he directed from 1999 to 2003.
Dial-In Key
According to the news reports, Siemens did more than merely deliver technology to the BND. It is reported that company employees can "dial into any of the switchboard systems delivered by the company, without leaving Munich" - "for defect analysis."[3] The dial-in key provides also the BND access to that system's data flow. As reported in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, "employees of German companies" that had "delivered telephone systems or even wiretapping equipment to Arab countries" helped the German foreign intelligence "with decoding."[4] The combination of successful company expansion and intensive cooperation between informants and company personnel provides extraordinary dividends. "In the field of electronic intelligence" the BND is among "the best in the world." The majority of its intelligence data was gleaned through telecommunication electronic surveillance. "Each BND president would proudly present to his allied counterpart, the results of wiretapping that they lacked."[5] The practice, described above, has been functioning for decades. The BND was wiretapping the Iranian secret service back when Klaus Kinkel was president of the service (1979 - 1982).
Market Shares
During his incumbency as BND President (1998 - 2005) August Hanning, the current Interior Ministry State Secretary, attempted to broaden the espionage cooperation with Siemens. According to reports, Hanning approached the BND liaison man on the company's central board of directors with his requests. Not only was an (unsuccessful) exchange of personnel between Siemens and the BND part of the plan, but Hanning also incessantly demanded of the manager that Siemens maintain its telecommunications branch market shares in the Persian Gulf nations. Hanning's espionage offensive toward the Munich based company was not an isolated procedure, but was part of the initiative to broaden the competence of the BND, launched under Steinmeier's direction in the chancellery during the administration of the SPD-Green coalition government. The explicit transfer to the BND of responsibility for espionage in the Bundeswehr's theaters of combat was also part of the initiative. Reports in the media at the time saw this development as the "renaissance of the BND."[6]
Surveillance
In this context, telecommunication exports that have been provoking protests over the past few years, because of human rights questions, must be seen in a new light. In March 2006, the German TV program "Monitor" reported on exports to Uzbekistan, a state known for its abuse and torture of prisoners. Siemens Corp. furnished a "state of the art modern digital telecommunications system" including wiretapping technology and the Munich-based Rohde and Schwarz Corp., a "system for the surveillance of radio frequencies" that can also monitor mobile phone calls.[7] Both deliveries were met with apprehension, because the German technology will most likely be used also against the Uzbek political opposition. Current evidence of cooperation between Siemens Corp. and the BND points to the potential benefit to German foreign intelligence from business expansion to Uzbekistan.
Gray Zones
Hanning's demand to have closer cooperation between Siemens and the BND coincides with the general expansion of cooperation between state repressive organs and private companies, as pursued for years by the German government [8] and also demanded by big business. Last year the Federation of German Industries (BDI) stated in a paper that German enterprises expanding abroad are dependant on "risk analyses furnished by state ministries and intelligence services". Therefore a "situation-oriented exchange of information between government agencies and enterprises" [9] should be sought. The "security partnership of the state and business", to date "largely dependant on informal exchange and cooperation as well as the pragmatic aid in judicial gray zones," should be placed on a legal basis by "establishing the corresponding legal norms."
Security Community
Cooperation with the BND is being expanded at a time when espionage agencies seem to be out of control as various scandals indicate. Neither the intelligence services' role in the abduction of Germans to foreign torture prisons has been clarified, nor the spying on journalists and the possibility of support given in the war on Iraq.[10] The recently revealed BND's spying on German-Libyan police training programs also raises questions.[11] By including private enterprises in the German "Security Community", powerful circles are being brought into the maelstrom of repressive organs. The influence exercised by these organs on the development of German society will therefore also grow.
[1] Die Firma; Der Spiegel 14.04.2008
[2] Beste Verbindung; Süddeutsche Zeitung 14.04.2008
[3] Die Firma; Der Spiegel 14.04.2008
[4], [5] Beste Verbindung; Süddeutsche Zeitung 14.04.2008
[6] see also Sicherheitspolitisch verzahnt
[7] Jagd auf Regierungsgegner dank deutscher Abhörtechnik; monitor 16.03.2006
[8] see also Zivil-militärische Symbiose, Nationaler Sicherheitsrat, Strategic Community and Ansprechstellen
[9] see also Grauzonen
[10] see also Steinmeier and His Accomplices, Sinking Into Barbarism (II), Oktober 2001 and Deutsch-syrischer Herbst
[11] see also Wiederbeginn