Center for intelligence in the Bundeswehr

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Bundeswehr Intelligence Center
- ZNBw -

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active July 1, 2002 to 
December 31, 2007
Country GermanyGermany Germany
Armed forces armed forces
Organizational area Force Base Force Base
last position Gelsdorf

The Bundeswehr Intelligence Center ( ZNBw ) was the Bundeswehr's central office for determining, analyzing and assessing the military and political situation of other countries as well as the military security situation in the Federal Republic of Germany . It was dissolved on December 31, 2007. The location was Gelsdorf near Bonn .

history

The ZNBw emerged on July 1, 2002 from the Bundeswehr Intelligence Office (ANBw), supplied and analyzed information for the operational command and the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) in close cooperation with the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the Foreign Office (AA ) and other security organs of the Federal Republic.

Since the Federal Ministry of Defense could not directly dispose of the work of the BND due to a lack of authority, the ZNBw did not consider itself superfluous, even if the BND performed similar tasks. Graduated degrees of secrecy or the protection of sources of the BND usually only allowed a very narrowly defined disclosure of individual information by the BND. The ZNBw , on the other hand, provided the Ministry of Defense with its complete information, and most importantly without delay.

The ZNBw was decommissioned with effect from December 31, 2007. The tasks of the ZNBw were partly taken over by the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the State Security , the Strategic Reconnaissance Command (KSA) and the Armed Forces Support Command and the offices and command commands of the military organizational areas.

assignment

The ZNBw had the task of establishing, analyzing and evaluating the military and political situation of other states and of assessing the military security situation in the FRG.

The main sources of information of ZNBw were the BND, the use of quotas, the center PSYOPS , military attaches , the field news center of the Bundeswehr , Ambassador, the Strategic Reconnaissance Command (KSA), fasteners in friendly intelligence services of NATO and especially press reports. Since the ZNBw, unlike the BND and the press, did not have its own news volume from crisis areas , the ZNBw saw itself as a watchful eye with forward-looking, current analyzes in hand.

organization

The ZNBw of the A 61 seen from

The ZNBw was finally divided into the following departments:

  • Basics,
  • Commitment,
  • Central tasks
  • System center JASMIN (Joint Analysis System Military Intelligence) and
  • Teaching group.

The Fundamentals department analyzed the cross-armed forces and specific elements for dealing with the situation of other states, including their land, air and sea war potential.

The ZNBw situation center was assigned to the Deployment department and permanently assumed a central warning and protection function for the Ministry of Defense and the Bundeswehr as well as their deployment contingents. The ZNBw was thus able to provide information around the clock.

The ZNBw had around 650 posts, of which, however, around 30 percent were occupied by civilian employees.

Criticism ("JASMIN breakdown")

In June 2007, after research by Report Mainz and tagesschau.de, it became known that secret service information from the years 1999 to 2003 had apparently been irretrievably destroyed due to a breakdown in the JASMIN (Joint Analysis System Military Intelligence) data processing system . This became public when the Defense Committee of the Bundestag wanted to request information on the Bundeswehr database from 2002. The committee needed the information in the proceedings regarding the then inmate Murat Kurnaz and the involvement of the KSK in them. State Secretary Peter Wichert admitted that the data had been lost since the end of 2004. He justified this with the fact that the storage robot from JASMIN had already reached the limits of its storage capacity a few years after it was put into operation and therefore archives and data backups in the form of magnetic tapes were created in 2004 - but only once. It later emerged that the tapes were no longer legible. "In accordance with the valid regulations for handling classified information, the illegible cassettes were destroyed on July 4, 2005," the ZNBw finally announced.

Data backup experts such as Peter Böhret and secret service experts such as Erich Schmidt-Eenboom doubted that the damaged data could not be recovered with reference to modern data recovery methods. Schmidt-Eenboom also suspected an intentional destruction of data in connection with information about illegal secret interrogations by the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) in Tuzla in 2001 , which could have been reconstructed with the help of the missing data. Other statements assume that the data are still available, but may not be passed on. According to press reports, all data or at least parts of it could now be reconstructed.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Loss of data in the Bundeswehr Intelligence Center. (PDF) In: Drucksache 16/6011. German Bundestag, July 23, 2007, accessed on September 8, 2014 (response of the Federal Government to the minor question from the MPs Birgit Homburger, Elke Hoff, Dr. Rainer Stinner, other MPs and the FDP parliamentary group).
  2. ↑ a b Alexander Richter, Thomas Reutter: Explosive material from missions abroad lost. Bundeswehr destroyed secret data. In: tagesschau.de. June 25, 2007, archived from the original on October 20, 2008 ; accessed on January 24, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Serious breakdown in the Federal Ministry of Defense. In: Report Mainz . Das Erste, June 25, 2007, accessed on January 24, 2015 (press release).
  4. ^ Peter Böhret, managing director of the data recovery company Kroll Ontrack in Germany; see. "Very questionable". Doubts about data loss . n-tv , June 26, 2007.
  5. ↑ Andreas Förster: Secret reports disappeared. Controversial Bundeswehr data was deleted under red-green . Berliner Zeitung , June 26, 2007.
  6. ↑ It is possible that the Bundeswehr is trying “not to give information to the outside world,” said Green Party politician Hans-Christian Ströbele : “Very questionable”. Doubts about data loss . n-tv , June 26, 2007.

Coordinates: 50 ° 34 ′ 6 ″  N , 7 ° 2 ′ 10 ″  E