German Spies Helped U.S. in Iraq Invasion

(Berlin) Two news outlets reported on Wednesday that German intelligence agents assisted the United States military during the invasion of Iraq. The German Foreign Minister has denied the allegations.

From Deutsche Welle:

In a front page story in the respected Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), renowned investigative journalist Hans Leyendecker and colleague Wolfgang Krach quoted a high-ranking German security source as saying that two Federal Intelligence Agency agents (BND) in Baghdad helped the US military assess targets during the air invasion of Iraq in the war's opening weeks.

The office of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who thrust US-German relations into an ice age through his disapproval of the Iraq invasion, reportedly knew about the cooperation and approved of it, according to the article. The cooperation was made after a "political decision" by Schroeder's coalition government. "This wasn't the decision of some department head," the SZ quoted their source as saying.

Well, well, well! I'm astonished. Give the man a knockwurst and a stein of good German beer. All along, the Germans were giving the impression that they were not helping and they allegedly really were. Of course, we can also credit someone for leaking classified information and a loudmouth media. Here's some details.

The report was indirectly confirmed by a former US defense official in the German television program "Panorama." Whereas the article in the SZ said the agents were involved in reporting targets on the ground that shouldn't be attacked, the US defense official claimed the agents did much more.

The BND gave "direct support" in "selecting targets," said the official. One example of that support: a BND agent drove to the Baghdad district Mansur in an armored limousine in order to confirm US suspicions that a caravan of cars carrying Iraqi officials, including Saddam Hussein, was driving through the area. The information he relayed on April 7, 2003, was reportedly used in an immediate bomb attack on a complex of buildings in which at least 12 people died.

Support in the selection of targets where people died indicates the Germans were directly participating in the war.

All the German leftists are having a fit.

Companion post at Interested-Participant.

Posted by: Mike Pechar at 06:30 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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