Intelligence needs staff
Strack-Zimmermann: BND not equipped for crisis situations
07/23/2023 8:39 am
The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan or the Wagner uprising in Russia. In crisis situations abroad, the federal government is often blank in terms of information technology. The German secret service should therefore do something, demands FDP politician Strack-Zimmermann.
The Chair of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, believes that the German intelligence services are no longer adequate in crisis situations. “You obviously need more employees, but they should also be given the green light to be closer to the action,” said the FDP politician in Berlin.
In the event of a political earthquake, politicians also turn their attention to the secret services – Strack-Zimmermann sees problems with the BND.
(Photo: IMAGO/Panama Pictures)
“We also base our knowledge on friendly services. We then derive our information from this and get an idea of the situation. Can it be that other countries take a much more researchy and closer look?” After the armed uprising by the head of the Russian mercenary organization Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozchin, against Moscow’s military leadership, criticism of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) was voiced. Chancellor Olaf Scholz had indicated that the German foreign intelligence service was surprised by the uprising.
Strack-Zimmermann has seen deficits for several years and points to the Taliban taking power in the Hindu Kush in 2021. “Taliban, Afghanistan. We didn’t receive any information about this. And we were pretty much left there,” she said. “This was also the case with the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. We were informed up to this point that the Russian army also has logistics and blood supplies, but nothing more.”
When assessing the situation in West African Mali – where the German armed forces are deployed on blue helmets – they were waiting for more information about the extent to which the country’s transitional government wanted to see the UN mandate completely ended, said Strack-Zimmermann. Certainly not everything was foreseeable, but a closer look was necessary in Mali, especially since the Wagner mercenary group had been present there for a long time “and was relevant militarily as well as politically and strategically”.
Are legal chunks slowing down the BND?
She sees the situation with Prigozhin’s Wagner uprising in Russia in a row: “It was obviously also a complete surprise for the service. These are four significant events in quick succession that were not clarified in advance or were simply not properly classified.”
She believes that there is also a mental structure problem in the secret service apparatus. The reason for this could be that Germany simply ignored certain dangers after the end of the Cold War. Previously, the old Federal Republic had a realistic risk scenario and also had a strong secret service. Strack-Zimmermann: “Even under the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Chancellor Willy Brandt, Germany put 3.5 percent of its gross domestic product into defense.”
Three weeks ago, former BND President Gerhard Schindler accused politicians of having curtailed the capabilities of the Federal Intelligence Service too much in recent years. “Anyone who puts one legal chunk after another in the way of the BND shouldn’t be surprised that this has an impact on the ability to obtain information,” said the 70-year-old. He added: “The mutation from an operating intelligence service into an administrative authority that deals with itself is politically desired. The changes in the law in recent years have brought about exactly that.”