NSA inquiry committee

The NSA committee of inquiry (official name: First parliamentary committee of inquiry of the 18th Bundestag) is a committee of inquiry set up by the German Bundestag on March 20, 2014 on behalf of all parliamentary groups to investigate the NSA affair , the "[...] extent and background of the spying by foreign secret services enlighten in Germany ”.

Members

Eight members of the German Bundestag belong to the committee .

The CDU member Clemens Binninger initially held the chair, but he resigned after the first meeting of the committee after only six days in office. He justified his resignation in two ways - with the dispute over the appointment of Edward Snowden as a witness for the committee: "He no longer has any hope that 'relevant cooperation between all groups' will be possible." This was directed primarily against the opposition. As a second reason for his resignation, Binninger named his office as chairman of the Parliamentary Control Committee (PKGR) . He worried that the same people in the NSA committee could now be questioned on the same issues as in the PKGR - and that his dual role could cause the trust necessary in the secret committee to suffer. The Greens speculated that the pressure on Binninger from the Chancellery had become too great. There is no evidence for this. “The domestic politician could have known both in advance, however, as he also admitted,” stated Lisa Caspari in the time .

Patrick Sensburg with Angela Merkel

Patrick Sensburg (CDU) succeeded him as committee chairman .

On January 29, 2015, Hans-Ulrich Krüger (SPD) resigned from his offices in the committee. While the SPD spoke of a health-related resignation, Spiegel wanted to know that the SPD politician justified his withdrawal with other obligations - with those in the budget committee of the Bundestag. Over Christmas he realized that the work in both bodies could no longer be reconciled in terms of time.

On January 19, Roderich Kiesewetter announced his retirement from the committee on March 1, 2015. He indicated other professional obligations - at the time he was also chairman of the working group foreign policy and chairman of the federal committee for foreign policy and defense. At the beginning of February 2015, Die Welt am Sonntag reported the actual reasons for the resignation. Kiesewetter stated that in November 2014 he discovered that two leading members of the reservists 'association , of which he has been honorary chairman since 2011, are working with the BND: "After I learned about what was going on in the reservists' association, I compromised the association's work through the Federal Intelligence Service seen. In order to counter possible doubts about my impartiality in the NSA investigative committee, I decided consistently and quickly to step down as chairman. "

Members of the NSA Committee of Inquiry function Surname Political party Representation Chairman Patrick Sensburg CDU Tim Ostermann Chairwoman Nina Warken CDU Matern von Marshal member Andrea Lindholz CSU Marian Wendt member Tankred Schipansky CDU Stephan Mayer Chairman Christian Flisek SPD Burkhard Lischka member Susanne noon SPD Jens Zimmermann Chairwoman Martina Renner The left André Hahn Chairman Konstantin von Notz Green Hans-Christian Ströbele

Resigned members Surname Political party Clemens Binninger CDU Hans-Ulrich Kruger SPD Roderich Kiesewetter CDU

Notes A: (April 2014)	↑ Chairman since the resignation of Clemens Binninger; previously chairman ↑ moved up for Patrick Sensburg ↑ moved up for Tankred Schipanski ↑ Chairman until his resignation
Notes B: (January 2015)	↑ Deputy Chairwoman since the resignation of Hans-Ulrich Krüger ↑ moved up for Susanne Mittag ↑ Deputy Chairman until his resignation
Notes C: (March 2015)	↑ Chairwoman since Roderich Kiesewetter's resignation ↑ moved up for Nina Warken ↑ a b from the chairmanship of Sensburg until his resignation as chairman

assignment

The committee is supposed to clarify the extent and background of the spying by foreign secret services in Germany. The task of the committee also includes looking for strategies on how telecommunications can be better protected by technical means.

Framework

Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-House

The committee had files on the NSA around 1988 . If MPs want to look at this material, they have to go to the secret protection office, a particularly strictly secured room in the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus or the Chancellery (Department 6). Many parts of the file's contents are blackened. As a result, the members of the NSA investigative committee threatened to file a lawsuit and urged the federal government to make file contents that they had blacked out for the committee legible again. Hundreds of files are withheld by the federal government: "Before the committee can see them, the USA must first be asked". On March 5, 2015, it became known that the BND had not sent all of the files to the investigative committee. 130 files were withheld - allegedly by mistake. The committee became aware of the missing documents when a BND employee summoned as a witness in the closed part of a meeting from confidential papers that the committee members were not aware of. There is a suspicion that files handed out were manipulated or even specially prepared for the investigative committee. For example, there is none of the structures that are otherwise typical for official files, the pages are obviously not taken from individual folders and put together for the committee. Rather, they are consecutively numbered pages, although there are constant repetitions and jumps in time. The BND also does not have a file plan that shows all the holdings and is mandatory for every authority - at least it is not shown to the committee. The committee of inquiry then demanded that all documents that had been picked out from subject areas of the BND now have to be checked and checked again.

Crypto cell phones were distributed to the chairmen of the committee of inquiry for encrypted communication . It is the Blackberry Z30 model , equipped with a crypto chip from the Düsseldorf manufacturer Secusmart , which enables encrypted communication, for example with journalists. A metal box is set up at the secret part of the NSA committee of inquiry. All cell phones and tablets are deposited there. Classical music is playing in the background as a screen. A non-electronic typewriter as a computer replacement is being considered. However, absolute protection against eavesdropping also seems questionable here, as Heise reported online .

See also : NSA Committee of Inquiry: Spying on the Committee of Inquiry

Letter from the Chancellery to the committee of inquiry regarding public disclosures

In October 2014 the Chancellery was outraged that secret information (e.g. Operation Eikonal) from the NSA committee of inquiry was repeatedly being made public. To prevent this, a letter was sent to the representatives of the people announcing the possible consequences. The Federal Chancellery has threatened the members of the NSA investigative committee with criminal charges should there be further public revelations from the body that are illegal in the eyes of the Chancellery. Reports from Spiegel , the Süddeutsche Zeitung and reports from Netzpolitik.org were explicitly mentioned . Originally, the federal government even considered immediately filing a complaint against unknown persons, but then left it with a written warning. Netzpolitik thereupon published the following statement: "Just as the Chancellery is not intimidated by many criminal charges and is still not prepared to solve the biggest surveillance scandal in human history, we will not shut down our work because of this."

Discussion about the Snowden witness interview

On May 8, 2014, the committee unanimously decided to summon US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who is living in Russian asylum, as a witness. It remained open where the former NSA employee will testify.

Sensburg accused the whistleblower Edward Snowden of just acting out and questioned his credibility. Snowden was "never specifically concerned with the mass spying of German citizens in Germany" and "if Snowden does not soon provide evidence in the form of original documents, he will lose any credibility for the investigative committee." Beyond what can be found on the Internet “Snowden delivered nothing to this day”. Sensburg doubted that Snowden could reveal any significant new details.

Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and Die Linke , on the other hand, consider a statement from Snowden in Germany to be urgently necessary and, if necessary, want to enforce this with a lawsuit before the Federal Constitutional Court . With an ultimatum that passed after the 2014 summer break for the first committee meeting, they underscored a demand on the federal government to clear the way for a witness interview with Snowden.

In March 2015 it became known that the USA had massively threatened Germany: “You (the USA) would have threatened the federal government 'aggressively' if Germany were to grant the ex-NSA employee asylum. If this were to happen, the US intelligence services would cut off the Germans from the flow of intelligence information on counter-terrorism issues. So if a terrorist attack were imminent, the US authorities would no longer send a warning to Berlin. "

The opposition brought an action before the Federal Constitutional Court

On September 23, 2014, the Greens and the Left filed a lawsuit against the CDU, SPD and the NSA committee of inquiry at the Federal Constitutional Court . This was about the decision of the CDU and SPD not to want to question Edward Snowden in Berlin, but via video conference or in Moscow. However, because Snowden refused, the Left and the Greens tried to overturn the decision of the NSA committee of inquiry that Snowden should not be questioned in Berlin.

On September 28, 2014, the Greens and the Left filed a lawsuit against Chancellor Merkel's administration. In her opinion, Chancellor Angela Merkel is hindering the clarification of the global data espionage scandal. The federal government has a duty to support the NSA committee in parliament - and refuses to fulfill this duty. The opposition accused the federal government of violating Article 44 of the Basic Law. Accordingly, the Federal Government must provide “legal and administrative assistance” in the case of an investigative committee. The Chancellor and her government are "obliged to create the legally possible conditions for the hearing of the witness Edward Snowden," says the complaint. It becomes "clear that the federal government refuses to fulfill this obligation".

More than two years later, on November 21, 2016, the Federal Court of Justice approved the opposition's action that Snowden should be personally invited to the NSA committee of inquiry. However, the decision only obliges the committee of inquiry to make a corresponding request to the federal government. A statement that the federal government is obliged to comply with the request to be decided by the committee of inquiry is not associated with this decision.

Political point of view

According to Article VII of the NATO troop statute of 1951, the American military authorities have the right to exercise “all criminal and disciplinary jurisdiction” over all persons subject to American military law within the Federal Republic of Germany. It is also worth mentioning the close links between the German and American secret services through the Article 10 Act and the Two-Plus-Four Treaty . The German-American relations stand in the way of the investigation of the secret service attacks of the USA on the free basic rights of the German citizens, so the Freiburg history professor Josef Foschepoth . The partnership with the USA is also a central component of Germany's raison d'etre . “Entering Snowden, for whatever reason, would therefore be a political meltdown. The federal government would be forced to choose between the interests of the USA and the constitutionally guaranteed protection of fundamental rights, ”said historian Foschepoth.

Legal point of view

The lawyer Adolf Arndt argued in his article Democratic Legal Interpretation using the example of the term “state secret” (about a comparable whistleblower case Werner Pätsch ) as follows: “The law must not protect injustice.” “In a democracy there is no more state than its own Bringing constitution into existence. Therefore it is not permissible to differentiate between the protection of the state and the protection of the constitution, because this state can only be protected in its constitution; nor can there be a legal requirement to secure something against the law (for example through secrecy) which is unjust according to the constitutional order. "

Public hearings

1st hearing: constitutional law

In the first public hearing of the NSA committee of inquiry on May 22, 2014, constitutional lawyers sharply criticized the foreign espionage of the Federal Intelligence Service . His approach is partly unconstitutional, said the former President of the Federal Constitutional Court , Hans-Jürgen Papier , the former judge at the Federal Constitutional Court, Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem , and Matthias Bäcker , law professor at the University of Mannheim .

Papier said there was a state obligation to ensure a secure communication infrastructure that respects fundamental rights. The constitutional lawyers were also of the opinion that foreign intelligence services had no right to monitor communications in Germany. The state must intervene in the event of interference with German fundamental rights.

2nd hearing: international law

The second public hearing was held on June 5, 2014, and experts in international law were heard. International law experts Stefan Talmon , Helmut Philipp Aust and Douwe Korff were invited to the first block of the session . While the former were skeptical about legal action against the surveillance, Korff pleaded for a state complaint against the British government before the European Court of Human Rights .

In the second part of the hearing, Washington law professor Russell A. Miller and Oxford internet researcher Ian Brown spoke. Miller went into detail on the different legal traditions in Germany and the USA. Brown said British intelligence was allowed to do almost anything in the name of national security, economic interests, or to prevent serious crimes.

3. Consultation: technical issues

In the third hearing on June 26, 2014, the technical conditions of the monitoring and possible technical consequences were discussed. The head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology Michael Waidner , the security researcher Sandro Gaycken and Christopher Soghoian from the American Civil Liberties Union were invited . Soghoian was unable to arrive on time. He published his statement on the Internet, in which he pleaded for more and better encryption. In his place, Frank Rieger , one of the speakers for the Chaos Computer Club , was heard.

Public hearing of witnesses

1. Interrogation: The whistleblowers Binney and Drake

On July 3, 2014, former NSA Technical Director William Binney testified before the investigative committee. He criticized the NSA as a "dangerous data collection machine". “They want information about everything. This is really a totalitarian approach that has so far only been seen in dictators, ”said Binney. "After September 11th, there was no such thing as privacy."

The aim is also to control people, said Binney. It is now possible in principle to monitor the entire population, abroad and in the USA. Binney cited the reason for wiretapping the Chancellor's cell phone that the secret service wanted to better understand Merkel's thoughts and concerns. "You can also use it as a lever in relationships," he said. The aim could also have been to influence the Chancellor or other politicians.

The former NSA employee Thomas Drake , also a witness on the investigative committee, called the Federal Intelligence Service on the night of July 4, 2014 a "worm extension of the NSA". The BND works closely with the NSA and potentially violates the constitution by using data from the partner. The assertion of the BND that they did not know anything about the massive data surveillance by the NSA, is in view of this cooperation "beyond any credibility".

Drake said it was customary for a secret service, if it was subject to legal restrictions, to use information from foreign partner services to obtain information from its own country. "That has become more or less routine." According to Drake's statements, the BND also provided data for the US drone war .

2. Interrogation: What are the NSA and BND doing in Bad Aibling?

On September 25, 2014, the head of the BND office in Bad Aibling ("RU") and the head of the department there ("JZ"), in which the cooperation with the NSA is organized, was interviewed. The witness “Z.” was instructed beforehand to withhold certain information. At the beginning there was a public meeting. "RU" refused to make a public statement more than 50 times, stating that his "permission to testify" did not allow this. According to the witness "RU", the exchange between the BND and NSA is based on a memorandum of understanding from 2002. The contract between the BND and NSA is actually top secret. It was confirmed that it was not the federal government that negotiated which data the German secret service would transfer to the USA. "That alone is questionable, as there is no democratic control over this administrative assistance in espionage," writes Kai Biermann for Zeit Online . The opposition is convinced that the BND did far more than it should have done. One must assume that hundreds of millions of data, possibly also from German citizens, have been generated and forwarded to the NSA. This was followed by a non-public hearing of the first witness "RU". The questioning of the second witness "JZ" took place completely non-public. What exactly was discussed here is a secret. The BND did not allow them to speak publicly about their work; the so-called permission to testify only allows the committee of inquiry to be informed behind closed doors. According to the BND, not even the exact designation of the subject area in which surveillance programs such as XKeyscore are used should be known.

In addition to Bad Aibling, there are the European Center for Cryptology (ECC) in Griesheim, the European Technical Center (ETC) in Mainz-Kastel and the Special Collection Service (SCS) in the Consulate General in Frankfurt am Main and in the US Embassy in Berlin as The investigation focuses on NSA spy station.

3. Interrogation: Federal Intelligence Service ("space theory" and intimidation of the press during the session)

On October 9th, “Dr. F. ”and“ AF ”heard by the Federal Intelligence Service. The lawyer Johannes "Jonny" Eisenberg was there as legal advisor for the BND employees. Here the BND presented its controversial space theory . It states "that the recording of communication via satellites at the branch in Bad Aibling does not take place on Bavarian land, but at most abroad or ultimately on the earth's satellite in space and thus in a largely unlawful area, in which the Basic Law does not extends into it and is therefore not subject to any German restrictions ".

The surveillance of the net politics blogger Andre Meister by a police officer during the meeting caused irritation and criticism . Die Zeit assessed this as a worrying attempt to intimidate the press and quoted Ulf Buermeyer, constitutional lawyer and judge at the Berlin district court: “ There is no reason to look over the shoulder of a media representative. This is moving dangerously in the direction of advance censorship, which is expressly prohibited under the Basic Law. “The Bundestag press office apologized to Meister for the incident and stated that the Bundestag policeman acted“ on his own ”because he feared that Meister could plan an action and, for example, throw leaflets from the stands. Logged incoming lists at the entrance to the visitors' gallery also caused irritation.

4. Interrogation: Federal Intelligence Service (canceled)

The public hearing on October 16 was stopped after a short time because it turned out that witness TB of the BND was able to prepare for the hearing with files that were not available to the committee.

6. Interrogation: Federal Intelligence Service (questions about data collection)

On November 6, the interrupted questioning of witness T. B. was continued, then witness G. L. was questioned, whose statements often consisted of indications of gaps in memory.

7. Interrogation: Federal Intelligence Service (technical reconnaissance)

At the 22nd meeting of the investigative committee on November 13th, during the ninth public hearing of witnesses, the witness WK, subdivision head of the Technical Reconnaissance Department (TA) in the BND, who gave very structured information on technical working methods, was questioned.

8. Interrogation: Stefan Burbaum, former “G-10 lawyer” of the Federal Intelligence Service

Dr. From around June 2002 to January 2005, Stefan Burbaum worked in the Federal Intelligence Service as a "G-10 lawyer" for all legal questions in connection with Article 10 of the Basic Law and the law on the restriction of the secrecy of letters, mail and telecommunications . On November 27, 2014, Burbaum was questioned by the committee at its 24th meeting about the legal workings of the BND.

9. Interrogation: SL (BND, project manager Eikonal) and Kai-Uwe Ricke (Deutsche Telekom)

At the 26th meeting of the committee on December 4, SL, the project manager at the BND of Operation Eikonal , and Kai-Uwe Ricke , former CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG, were heard as witnesses.

10. Interrogation: Federal Intelligence Service (technical reconnaissance)

On March 5, Brigadier General Dr. Dieter Urmann, head of technical reconnaissance at the BND, heard. He said in the committee that in some operations the G-10 filtering was only carried out manually, in others it was carried out by machine - with additional manual samples. The possibility that something slipped through that was not allowed to slip through cannot be ruled out.

11. Interrogation: DE-CIX: "BND bugged internal German and European Internet lines"

On March 26, 2015, Klaus Landefeld, Advisory Board of DE-CIX Management GmbH, and Hans de With, former chairman of the G-10 commission , were heard. Klaus Landefeld explained that the BND is not only interested in lines outside of Germany, such as in the Arab region, but also in lines within Germany, on which over 90 percent of traffic is protected by fundamental rights . One could “absolutely not selectively” decide what “is German or not” on the Internet. The 20 percent rule, according to which secret services are allowed to divert one fifth of the line capacity, would not actually be practiced, Landefeld said. The providers lay out their lines in such a way that they are usually only used to 30 or 40 percent. With the 20 percent rule, you end up with 50 to 60 percent of the through traffic, which is not in accordance with the law. He also said that the most secure protection against surveillance is end-to-end encryption of the data. That is “the only thing that helps. Everything else is illusory, ”says Landefeld.

See also : Lawsuit brought by DE-CIX Management GmbH against the Federal Republic of Germany

Spying on the committee of inquiry

See also : Case Markus R.

On July 4, 2014, it became public knowledge that BND employee Markus R. was arrested by the Federal Prosecutor's Office on July 2 on suspicion of being an agent of the secret service. The 31-year-old German worked in the Foreign Areas Department of the BND registry. His tasks included receiving and scanning documents. He is suspected of spying on the NSA committee of inquiry on behalf of the US intelligence agency, the CIA , in addition to the BND . After the suspected spy was arrested, the United States Ambassador to Germany, John B. Emerson , was summoned to the Foreign Office for an interview .

On the same day it became known that the BND employee had taken a total of 218 secret BND papers since 2012 and sold them on USB sticks at conspiratorial meetings in Salzburg, Austria for a total of 25,000 euros to US services. At least three documents are said to have been related to the NSA committee. The alleged double agent stated that he had sent secret documents to the United States once a week. He is said to have received orders from Vienna. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had already been on the trail of the BND employee, but mistakenly believed him to be a Russian spy and therefore turned to the Americans, of all people, for whom he was spying in order to expose him. The intelligence expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom pointed out, however, that the spy could well be a Russian spy posing as an American spy.

On July 9, a second US spy, an employee of the Federal Department of Defense , was exposed. The two are said to be related: The latter was used to deal with the suspicion of espionage against Markus R. According to information from the picture, there should be more than a dozen other spies in German ministries. The focus is on the ministries for defense, economy, the interior and development aid.

The chairman Roderich Kiesewetter was bugged on his mobile phone, as a Bundestag technician discovered in July 2014. Kiesewetter told Südwestrundfunk that he had indications that all four representatives of the parties represented in the NSA committee of inquiry had been wiretapped.

The left-wing politician and NSA critic Steffen Bockhahn's cell phone was also spied on. Bockhahn's closest colleague noticed tampering with her cell phone on July 30, 2013. Unknown people are said to have searched through the entire SMS traffic between her and the then member of the Bundestag and specifically searched for service mails relating to the parliamentary control body .

On March 3, 2015, another suspicion of espionage became known: There is a strong suspicion that the encrypted cell phone of the NSA committee chairman Sensburg was hacked. At the request of Die Welt , the Bundestag confirmed that, due to malfunctions, the Bundestag administration sent the cell phone in a sealed container to the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) in Bonn for inspection and that the container had arrived at the recipient open. It is said to have been removed in the meantime. The suspicion is in the room that the actions of the secret services could possibly be behind the actions, discrediting the committee and preventing further processing. Because if secret information from committee members cannot be protected, the committee should no longer receive any information, which would be in the interests of all the secret services involved.

Reactions

Voices from German politicians

According to the first statements by Patrick Sensburg on July 5, 2014, there has been no evidence to date that internal documents of the committee of inquiry have been spied: "I currently have no knowledge that documents of the committee of inquiry itself have been spied on, but documents that have been forwarded to the committee of inquiry should be - by government institutions and authorities. "

Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed concern about the case. A confirmation is a breach of trust by the US secret service. The Attorney General is examining the case. Should a cooperation with the US secret service prove to be true, "this is a very serious matter," said Merkel.

Federal President Joachim Gauck sees the friendship with the USA endangered by a BND employee for US services spying on the NSA committee of inquiry:

"Then you really have to say: Now that's enough."

- Joachim Gauck : ZDF summer interview on July 6, 2014

Federal Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen called on the US to cooperate in the espionage affair: "We expect the US not only to admit what has happened, but to work constructively with us to ensure that something like this does not happen again."

The former chairman of the Union parties in the NSA committee of inquiry, Roderich Kiesewetter, called for a significant increase in the budget for the BND so that it would be able to counter-enlighten Germany's allies in the future.

In response, the parliamentary group of the party Die Linke called for the negotiations on the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement (TTIP) to be suspended .

Attempted explanation

On July 7, 2014, the historian Josef Foschepoth outlined the close links between the German and American secret services through the Article 10 Act and the Two-Plus-Four Treaty :

“The then head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hubert Schrübbers, said during the wiretapping affair in 1963 that German and American secret services were a unified organism. It is important to finally understand this: the NSA affair is not a purely American, but a Janus-faced, German-American affair. "

- Josef Foschepoth : Tagesschau

Deportation of the top representative of the US secret service CIA

In response to the espionage, the federal government announced in the committee meeting of the NSA committee of inquiry that the top representative of the US secret service CIA in Germany had been asked to leave Germany. The government spokesman Steffen Seibert stated that the request to leave "was issued against the background of the ongoing investigations by the Attorney General as well as the questions that have been pending for months on the activities of US intelligence services in Germany, for which the German Bundestag has set up a parliamentary committee of inquiry" - at the same time raised he highlighted the German interest in continuing to work closely with the USA. The chairman of the Bundestag committee for the control of the secret services (PKGr) Clemens Binninger announced that the request was made “as a reaction to the long-term lack of cooperation in the effort to clarify”, the SPD representative in the PKGr, Burkhard Lischka, described the request as "Correct reaction". Germany asked many questions in the USA “without getting any answer”. The opposition parties Greens and Left also welcomed the federal government's move.

Restriction of cooperation with American secret services

On July 11, 2014 , the Chancellery responsible for the German secret services issued an instruction to all German secret services to limit cooperation with American partner services to the bare minimum until further notice. This means all cooperations that do not affect Germany's immediate security interests, such as the security of German soldiers in Afghanistan or on other missions abroad, as well as the defense against terrorist threats.

Congressmen from both parties urged President Barack Obama's administration to act. "I am deeply concerned," said the chairwoman of the US Senate intelligence committee, Democrat Dianne Feinstein , about the affair.

"The situation is starting to get out of hand," said Republican Senator Jim Risch , who is also on the Intelligence Committee. "The governments of both countries have to sit down at a table and try to solve that." Germany is a "very important country" for the United States.

Observation of foreign secret services

According to information from SZ , NDR and WDR , the federal government has decided to also observe American and British secret services on German soil in the future. The measures are purely defensive. The government refuses to let the BND spy in the USA.

On August 8, 2014, Der Spiegel announced that the Federal Foreign Office was officially requesting all foreign embassies to name all their secret service personnel through official diplomatic channels.

Espionage by the Federal Intelligence Service (BND / NSA affair)

Domestic espionage

Operation Eikonal

History and timing of the operation

Radomes of the telecommunications office of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND code name: Hortensie III, abbreviation: 3 D 30) currently in use (as of May 2015). Until 2004, these were part of the former Bad Aibling Station , a facility of the US secret service NSA as part of the global spy network " Echelon ".

On October 4, 2014, a research team from Süddeutscher Zeitung, NDR and WDR published a report on Operation Eikonal . Secret files of the Chancellery and the Federal Intelligence Service show how exactly the cooperation between the BND and the NSA worked between 2004 and 2008. The files show that telephone and Internet data in Frankfurt am Main were recorded by filters in a network node of Deutsche Telekom under the name Operation Eikonal , in order to flow via a Deutsche Telekom line to the BND headquarters in Pullach. The BND and the Telekom had signed a contract, according to which the Telekom gave the BND access to their servers - and received 6,000 euros a month for it. From Pullach, the data were forwarded to Bad Aibling in the Mangfall barracks to the so-called telecommunications center of the Federal Intelligence Service , where NSA and BND work together ( Special US Liaison Activity Germany ).

See also : Cooperation between the Federal Intelligence Service and the NSA

The incoming telephone traffic in Frankfurt am Main was monitored from 2004, and Internet monitoring followed in November 2005. In 2005 the BND noticed that the NSA was looking for information about " EADS ", " Eurocopter " (for industrial espionage purposes ) or French and Austrian authorities. According to the research network, however, the BND continued for a long time. One note states that only with the help of the NSA can he learn "to be able to deal with and clear up mass data from the Internet earlier."

According to the information provided by Member of the Bundestag Flisek , the Eikonal operation allegedly ended because the BND used such strong data filters that the remaining material was of little interest to the NSA. A filter called "Dafis" should filter out the data of German citizens; However, this never worked properly and it is assumed that at most 95% of all data protected by fundamental rights was filtered out.

The NSA reacted angrily to the end and sent its then NSA Vice President John C. Inglis to the Chancellery in Berlin and demanded “compensation”. The BND had just been given access to a “global” and “globally important communication line” to which the NSA had no access. Thanks to the BND, the NSA became a “silent partner” and received the data. In a balance sheet of Operation Eikonal , it is said that "until recently an 'absolute and error-free' separation between German and foreign telecommunications was not possible."

See also : space theory

Persistence of the methodology

Excerpt from an NSA presentation about XKeyscore and the collaboration with BND and BfV.

In Germany, from 2007 to 2013 the main tasks of the NSA were Strategic Mission J ( industrial espionage ) and Strategic Mission K (monitoring of political leaders).

Despite the alleged end of Operation Eikonal, according to NSA statistics from 2013, up to 20 million telephone connections and around 10 million Internet data records from Germany were still stored on normal days. In December 2012 it is said to have been around 500 million metadata that were recorded in the Mangfall barracks in Bad Aiblingen. On peak days like January 7, 2013, the NSA monitored around 60 million telephone calls in Germany. Of the 500 million data records originating from Germany each month that were generated as part of the entire monitoring activities, 180 million entries came from XKeyscore in December 2012 .

In an interview broadcast at the beginning of 2014, Edward Snowden again confirmed Germany's access to XKeyscore. In May 2015 Zeit Online reported that the BND sent far more metadata to the NSA than was known. Of the 6.6 billion metadata that the BND intercepts every month, up to 1.3 billion metadata is passed on to the NSA. These are allegedly filtered on the basis of Article 10 legislation , but those responsible in the committee of inquiry admitted that the filters do not work properly. With the help of this BND metadata, the NSA and CIA create targets for combat drones , among other things , which are used by Ramstein Air Base in Ramstein-Miesenbach as an interface for planning and controlling operations against suspected terrorists in Africa and the Middle East .

The witness "WK", sub-department head of the technical intelligence department in the BND, also confirmed the continuation of the method on November 13, 2014 in the 22nd meeting of the NSA committee of inquiry:

“Eikonal included selective recording of international-international transit traffic. Don't forget time: Afghanistan, terrorism reconnaissance. Selected data was recorded and automatically forwarded. More precise only non-public (Lower Austria), we are still doing the method. "

- Live blog from the 22nd session of the NSA Committee of Inquiry

Furthermore, Klaus Landefeld, Advisory Board of DE-CIX Management GmbH, reported to the NSA investigation committee on March 26, 2015 that the BND's wiretapping practice at DE-CIX had continued since 2009. The Federal Chancellery is said to have intervened several times and both the G-10 Commission , and the Federal Network Agency from investigating the wiretapping. He also stated that the BND is not only interested in lines outside of Germany, such as in the Arab region, but also in lines within Germany, on which over 90 percent of traffic is protected by fundamental rights . One could “absolutely not selectively” decide what “is German or not” on the Internet.

See also : 11. Interrogation: DE-CIX: “BND listened to German and European Internet lines”  and use of XKeyscore in Germany

More recent developments from April 2015

Tanker aircraft A330 MRTT of the Airbus Group , Europe's largest aerospace and second largest defense company.

On April 23, 2015, the media reported again on the extent of the cooperation between the BND and NSA in Bad Aibling. On the basis of an application for evidence by the parliamentary groups, it was investigated how many of the 800,000 selectors ( IP addresses , email addresses, telephone numbers, geographic coordinates , MAC addresses ) were directed against German and European interests. These selectors were automatically assigned to the BND by the NSA over the course of 10 years; several times a day a BND server connected to an NSA server and downloaded new selectors. The knowledge gained was then passed on to the NSA.

The BND facilities in Bad Aibling, Bavaria, were used to spy on high-ranking officials from the French Foreign Ministry , the Presidential Staff and the EU Commission . Companies such as B. Airbus are mainly affected because the USA allegedly looked for evidence of illegal export transactions. The number of selectors supplied by the USA since the start of the cooperation was also known: in the years 2002-2013 there were 690,000 telephone numbers and 7.8 million IP search terms, reported the research network of Süddeutscher Zeitung, NDR and WDR on April 30th.

As early as 2013, after the Snowden documents were published, the BND compiled a list of all potentially problematic selectors. It comprised 2,000 illegal selectors that were used and not sorted out. In the course of the new investigations from March to May 2015, another 459,000 such selectors were found. B. European politicians and companies. Of these, only 400 were sorted out. At the moment (as of May 2015) it is unclear how many of these selectors were rejected or executed by the BND, whether there are more and what exactly they are. Der Spiegel reported on May 15, 2015 that over half of the 40,000 selectors that were found in March 2015 were also active, i.e. H. have actually been used to research government, business and other destinations in Europe.

Publication of the list of selectors

According to information from Süddeutscher Zeitung, NDR and WDR, the Federal Chancellery does not want to submit the NSA's selector list to the German Bundestag. Instead, according to the SZ on June 9, 2015, the SZ said on June 9, 2015, a kind of investigative officer from the federal government should be able to inspect the documents and report to the NSA investigative committee and the parliamentary control body. The SPD wants the Bundestag to decide. Leading Social Democrats suggest that the opposition should be allowed to appoint its own second investigator. This proposal contradicts Merkel's promise to submit all material from the Chancellery and the BND to the NSA committee of inquiry:

"All materials from the Chancellery, and some of it is still in the process, including from the BND, are supplied to this committee of inquiry, that is a matter of course for us."

- Angela Merkel during a CDU press conference after the Bremen election on May 11, 2015

On June 11, 2015, Die Zeit reported on a confidential report by the Scientific Service of the Bundestag with the title: " Questions about the investigative officer under Section 10 of the Investigation Committee Act (PUAG) ". The conclusion of this report is:

“According to the history of the origins, the wording and the meaning of this law, an investigator is only an 'auxiliary person' of the parliamentarians; they alone have the right to control. [..] From a legal point of view, however, the committee must not be refused access to material that is accessible to the investigator. "

- Questions about the investigative officer according to § 10 Investigation Committee Act (PUAG)

Bundestag President Norbert Lammert predicted in the Spiegel magazine a lawsuit before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe should the government push through its plans against the will of parliament: "If no convincing solution is found," Lammert said.

Knowledge of the Chancellery about the joint activities of the BND and the NSA

Netzpolitik.org reported on October 4, 2014: “The BND discussed whether at least the G-10 committee should be informed about the true nature of the operation. The question landed in the Chancellery, was discussed again and, it seems, answered with no. On 27 April 2004 in the so-called this decision "For want of Presidents, took part in the usually well Steinmeier, have been hit. 2008 allegedly leaked operation was the former head of the chancellery Frank-Walter Steinmeier responsible.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reported on April 27, 2015 that documents that were available to the NSA committee of inquiry clearly show that the Chancellery was informed and apparently tolerated the NSA's espionage activities. The "Bild" newspaper quotes a person involved with the following statement: "At the time, they said: 'We need the information from the Americans, that's how it works, we don't want to endanger the cooperation.'" The Chancellery knew that the NSA wanted to spy on Germans and Europeans and let it happen, according to the FAZ.

On April 27, 2015, Focus continues to write, “... that the allegations specifically concern at least two documents that the BND sent to the Chancellery in 2008 and 2010. In both cases, the Chancellery should be prepared for high-level discussions with US intelligence officials. ”It was about the preparation of a trip to the United States by Thomas de Maizière , the head of the Chancellery at the time , who was“ very likely ”informed. In any case, today's (as of April 2015) BND Vice Guido Müller and Günter Heiss , who is still responsible for secret services in the Chancellery , were inaugurated . Furthermore, the Focus mentions the year 2010 "since the Chancellery knew at the latest that many of these goals massively violated German interests, but nothing was done."

On April 29, it became known that Thomas de Maizière had made false statements to parliament and the public. This is evidenced by the answers given by the Ministry of the Interior (BMI) on behalf of the Federal Government to inquiries from the Left. On April 14, 2015, the Home Office responded to an inquiry about NSA espionage in printed matter 18/4530: "There is still no evidence of alleged industrial espionage by the NSA or other US services in other states."

The NSA spied out German and European targets until at least 2013. The federal government confirmed this on May 4, 2015 in a secret paper which the ZDF magazine Frontal21 was able to view. Accordingly, the BND found on August 26, 2013 that the NSA was spying out current e-mail addresses of European politicians, ministries of European member states, EU institutions, but also representatives of German companies. The paper admitted that the American espionage practice violated German interests.

According to Zeit Online , the Federal Chancellery is said to have been informed in 2006 of illegal espionage attempts by the US secret service NSA in Europe with the help of the BND. The then president of the BND, Ernst Uhrlau , told the NSA committee of inquiry that in 2006 he learned from the BND about problematic NSA targets for spying on data traffic. The name of the aerospace company EADS (now Airbus Group) was also used in this context, according to Uhrlau. He assumed that he had mentioned the information orally in the Chancellery.

See also : Timeline of events over the past 14 years

Reactions to the revelations

The journalist Heribert Prantl (former judge and public prosecutor) wrote on October 4, 2014 in the SZ about Operation Eikonal :

“ In no case may a fundamental right be compromised in its essential content. It says so in the Basic Law. This also applies to the secret services, and this also applies to the Chancellery, which has to supervise the secret services. The essence of telecommunications secrecy according to Article 10 of the Basic Law is obviously not only touched, it has already been pretty much destroyed. "

The Eikonal operation is therefore not in accordance with Article 19 (1) of the Basic Law (encroachment on a fundamental right with a legal reservation), writes lawyer Markus Kompa on Heise Online.

The German government called on 23 April 2015 by the Federal Intelligence Service, communication of new spying allegations. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert announced that the Chancellery had “been in close contact with the BND for several weeks and had instructed them to fully clarify the complex issue. The Federal Chancellery identified technical and organizational deficits at the BND as part of its service and technical supervision. ”The Federal Chancellery immediately issued instructions to“ rectify these, ”said Seibert. Martina Renner , chairwoman of the NSA committee of inquiry, demanded the resignation of BND President Gerhard Schindler and expected the Federal Prosecutor to immediately convert the previous investigation into a proper investigation, because there was suspicion of treason .

The President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Ulrich Grillo , demanded on April 29, 2015 in Spiegel that “the federal government must clarify the allegations quickly and without any gaps - without compromise.” The BDI was appalled by the allegations against the Federal Intelligence Service To have supported US industrial espionage against German industry for years. Grillo describes the relationship of trust between the state and industry as "heavily burdened". Martin Wansleben , General Manager of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHT), asked for a quick clarification. Bitkom managing director Bernhard Rohleder demanded that the work of the intelligence services must be absolutely transparent to the supervisory authority.

The aerospace company Airbus filed a criminal complaint against unknown persons based on reports of NSA / BND espionage targeting Airbus. “We asked the federal government for information. We will now file criminal charges against unknown persons on suspicion of industrial espionage, ”said a company spokesman for the Handelsblatt on April 30, 2015.

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights , Nils Muiznieks, considers the control of the secret services in Germany to be inadequate. "The control system must be strengthened," he told the German press agency. The secret service controllers of the Bundestag did not have enough employees with expert knowledge to really do justice to their role. In addition, their powers are severely limited. “In the Netherlands, the inspectors have the right to visit secret service facilities at any time, to speak to employees there and to inspect all files,” says Muiznieks.

See also : BND scandal: What happened so far

Operation Glotaic

For the so-called Operation Glotaic, the German subsidiary of the US provider MCI WorldCom gave the Federal Intelligence Service access to its telephone lines between 2003 and 2006. During Operation Glotaic, the Federal Intelligence Service stored and forwarded around a million metadata and hundreds of thousands of telephone calls every day , including to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Operation Monkeyshoulder

On May 1, 2015, the "Spiegel" reported on another clandestine collaboration between the BND. According to this, the NSA, the British secret service GCHQ and the BND were planning a ring exchange: In 2012, the British secret service GCHQ offered the BND a "sophisticated recording and processing system" in order to access information from a central data line of Deutsche Telekom in Frankfurt am Main. The BND should therefore use it to tap data lines that run through Germany and to transmit raw data from them. In return, the British wanted to provide data from their own international data collection. As a third partner, the Germans wanted to involve the NSA. The operation was called "Monkeyshoulder".

Despite considerable legal and political concerns in its own ranks, the BND pushed the Monkeyshoulder project forward well into 2013. Internally, the announcement was made not to inform anyone officially - neither the Federal Office for Information Security nor its own supervisory authority, the Federal Chancellery. BND employees have been specially trained in several workshops on the GCHQ recording system in Great Britain. BND President Gerhard Schindler only stopped the operation in August 2013 - weeks after Edward Snowden's revelations began. Nevertheless, the BND's interest in developing similar technical possibilities as those available to the NSA / GCHQ: in 2014, the BND submitted an application to the Bundestag budget committee for a special budget for 300 million euros with which this technical Armament should be financed.

Foreign espionage

Wiretapping of officials of friendly states

On August 15, 2014, it became known that the BND accidentally wiretapped the then US Secretary of State John Kerry in 2008 and the then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2013. However, German government circles deny that there is systematic espionage by the BND against the USA. Rather, the conversation that Clinton had during her tenure from a US government machine was only picked up by chance. Markus R.'s documents show that the BND intercepted a phone call from Clinton when she flew over a crisis area in a US government plane in 2013 and spoke to Kofi Annan on the phone. The BND monitored communications there. So the intercepted conversation was a kind of by-catch. However, the transcript of the phone call was not immediately destroyed. A number of BND officials read it. Only then was it supposed to be destroyed - by Markus R., of all people, who copied the transcript and gave it to the CIA.

“Since mid-2013,“ incidental finds ”relating to officials of friendly states should no longer be brought to the attention of the management level, but should be deleted immediately. Whether - and if so, how - this directive can actually be implemented in day-to-day operations of the secret service appears to be questionable, ”writes Spiegel Online .

At its first meeting after the summer break on September 11, the NSA investigative committee of the Bundestag dealt with the incidentally recorded telephone calls of US politicians. An attempt was made to clarify who knew something about it and when. The heads of the BND and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution should also be available to answer questions. The Interior Minister of Austria Johanna Mikl-Leitner stated on 5 May 2015 that the Government had made a complaint against persons unknown for the prosecutor in Vienna "and Secret Intelligence Service, to the detriment of Austria".

Wiretapping of other countries

Among the documents that Markus R. has handed over to the CIA, there is also the “order profile of the federal government” for the BND. It contains the states in which the BND clearing up resp. To pursue espionage. So far, neither the public nor the Parliamentary Control Committee had seen this paper. The NATO member state Turkey is also listed, in contrast to the United States, which according to the paper is not a target of the BND. Die Welt wrote that one reason for the BND's activities in relation to Turkey could be a possible nuclear weapons program by Turkey. The BND also stores all communication data from crisis countries such as Afghanistan or Somalia and forwards it to the NSA. The data is usually stored for seven days.

Wiretapping of German diplomats

The BND also bugged the German diplomat Hansjörg Haber. Haber was head of the EU observer mission in Georgia from 2008 to 2011, then headed the planning staff of the EU diplomatic service in Brussels, was the German ambassador in Cairo in 2014 and has been the EU ambassador to Turkey ever since.

Political Consequences

In June 2016, the federal government and coalition factions agreed on a reform of the BND law on secret service surveillance, which gives the BND extensive new powers. The opposition considers this unconstitutional. In October 2016, the Bundestag again extended the powers of the BND. In the future, this will be allowed to completely spy out data from entire telecommunications networks with international traffic, including domestically. This includes, for example, the DE-CIX network node in Frankfurt . Furthermore, a new regulation of parliamentary control was passed. The law allows the federal government to choose its secret service inspectors in a separate body, while the parliamentary control body (PKGr) exists in parallel in a weakened form. In future, an independent body is to keep an eye on domestic foreign-foreign telecommunications intelligence. A “ permanent authorized representative ” with its own staff is to work for the parliamentary control body of the Bundestag, which actually controls the secret services. In conversation for the post, however, is the previous Vice-Head of the BND, Guido Müller . He would then control the authority that he previously helped manage. In June 2017, the Bundestag wants to pass the law on the everyday use of state Trojans .

Markus Beckedahl from Netzpolitik.org: “The most important consequence is that all illegal practices of the BND that came to light through the work of the committee of inquiry were legalized afterwards. The BND has received massively more opportunities and money to expand its mass surveillance. In other words: Edward Snowden's revelations were seen as a feasibility study for the German market, not as a warning. ”Glenn Greenwald described the committee of inquiry as:“ a ritual that is supposed to create the illusion of an investigation ”.

From the perspective of the Greens and the Left Party , the NSA committee has proven that mass surveillance of citizens in Germany has taken place without cause . The cooperation of the Federal Intelligence Service with the services of other countries was "illegal in many places," said Martina Renner , who sits on the committee as chairwoman for the Left Party. The opposition is also convinced that the Federal Chancellery failed in its task of controlling the BND. Also because the BND did not inform its control committee about many operations. The Greens and the Left are therefore calling for the Federal Intelligence Service to have documentation. "If an authority interferes with fundamental rights , as the BND does, then all processes must be recorded in writing," said Renner. It should not be allowed to "only discuss important matters orally and not to file files". Furthermore, the opposition accuses the government of deliberately lying and deceiving the population. This had "actively pursued the investigation", had blackened files and prevented an interrogation of Snowden. A known active participation in the drone war on the Palatine military base in Ramstein was also kept secret. And in 2013, when the NSA affair became public, they falsely promised a no-spy agreement with the USA - for the Greens and the left, a deliberate deception before the federal elections at the time. Netzpolitik.org published the 457-page special opinion of the opposition in June 2017.

From the opposition's point of view, something was done wrong on two levels: at the Federal Chancellery, which did not get sufficient information about the Federal Intelligence Service (“looking the other way because legal gray area” and “fear that amendments to the law will not be approved in parliament”), and at the Federal Intelligence Service ("Incomplete, partly not truthful statements"). The opposition distances itself from mass surveillance and demands: “The state must guarantee the integrity of the infrastructure under constitutional law.” She cites Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem : “Without misunderstanding the need for state precaution and defense, courts should appeal to the Compliance with rule of law guarantees and the limitation of state authorizations also in the run-up to dangers, taking into account the principle of proportionality and the requirement of certainty as well as compliance with procedural safeguards exist. "The opposition sees a systemic problem and calls for a fundamental rethink as a key question of the rule of law.

Final report

The committee was shaped by differences between the government and the opposition: In May 2017, the chairman of the committee, Patrick Sensburg (CDU), presented his book on the work of the committee. On June 19, 2017, the Left and the Greens again presented the key points of their special vote in their more than 400-page final report . The committee secretariat checks a release for the Bundestag. It must be clarified whether the partially cited material classified as confidential may actually be published. On June 28, 2017, the committee presented its 1,800-page final report to the Bundestag, which netzpolitik.org published without redacting. According to tagesschau.de, the final report shows the disagreement of the committee members, Martina Renner , LINKE chairwoman, is quoted as follows: “Mass surveillance has taken place - shall we say. It did not take place, say the SPD and CDU. ” According to SPD chairman Christian Flisek , Chancellor Angela Merkel failed to deal with the NSA affair. You have thrown out the phrase "Spying on friends, that doesn't work" into the world. "And that at a time when she could actually have had all the information about the situation if she had wanted to."

Others

Controversial statements by Roderich Kiesewetter

A few weeks before his resignation, Roderich Kiesewetter (former chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in the investigation committee) stated in a Twitter discussion in December 2014 :

"The investigation is going really well, so far not a single reference to mass surveillance without cause "

and comments on the statements of the former President of the Federal Constitutional Court, Hans-Jürgen Papier , who was invited as an expert with the tweet:

" Prof. Papier has fantasized and not only we MdB know that, but also his environment "

Kieswetter resigned from his office on March 1, 2015 in order to counter possible doubts about his impartiality in the NSA investigation committee. The newspaper Die Welt claims that Kiesewetter's withdrawal from the committee of inquiry was the result of a Russian secret service operation in which a double agent informed Kiesewetter about BND helpers in his environment. Since Kiesewetter did not want to expose himself to the accusation of being biased against the BND, he then resigned from his office.

Failed interview of Greenwald's witnesses

The US journalist Glenn Greenwald was to be interviewed by the German NSA committee in September 2014. On August 1st, he canceled this appointment in writing by email and raised serious allegations against the parliamentarians. He would like to support the Bundestag when it comes to a serious investigation into the investigation of Germans by the NSA. By refusing to question the key witness Snowden, however, German politicians had shown that it was more important to them not to anger the USA than to seriously want to investigate the NSA espionage. That is why he is not ready "to participate in a ritual that is supposed to give the appearance of an investigation".

The Greens chairman in the NSA committee of inquiry, Konstantin von Notz , said that the responsibility for Greenwald's rejection lies with the grand coalition. The decision of the US journalist with reference to the refusal of the federal government is "bitter, but understandable". His party will continue to fight for a testimony from Snowden to the committee in Berlin and an actual clarification by parliament.

Austria: Member of the National Council Peter Pilz

The Green Member of the National Council, Peter Pilz, calls for an NSA investigative committee in Parliament for Austria.

Publication of internals

In December 2016 WikiLeaks published 2420 non-public documents of the committee of inquiry under the English title German BND-NSA Inquiry Exhibits , which comprised a data volume of 90 gigabytes. They came from the Federal Chancellery , the Federal Intelligence Service and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution . The Bundestag member Konstantin von Notz therefore criticized a “deliberate torpedoing of the reconnaissance and necessary control of the services”.

Special form of media reporting

The podcast "Technical Enlightenment" was a special form of media observation . A group of a graphic designer, two students at the time, blogger André Meister and technically interested observers met at the end of the session to classify the day, the group spent in different constellations always on the committee of inquiry.

The Netzpolitik.org blog wrote almost verbatim minutes of each session. The reason for this was the non-existent publication of the committee's minutes. The blog thus ensured comprehensive reporting.

Web links

General

Commons : NSA Committee of Inquiry  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Dossier on the NSA committee of inquiry. In: netzpolitik.org . July 19, 2017. Retrieved July 19, 2017 . 
• Stefan Krempl: Secret files BND & NSA: A look at three years of attempted clarification. In: heise.de. February 19, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2017 . 
• Harald Neuber: "The Grand Coalition is essentially blocking the Enlightenment". In: heise.de . June 12, 2015, accessed June 12, 2015 . 
• Heribert Prantl: NSA and BND - a bad joke by the federal government. In: sueddeutsche.de . June 10, 2015, accessed June 12, 2015 . 

WikiLeaks

• WikiLeaks : Minutes of the NSA Committee of Inquiry to February 2015
• German BND-NSA Inquiry Exhibits - WikiLeaks releases 90 gigabytes of information relating to the German parliamentary inquiry into the surveillance activities of Germany's foreign intelligence agency Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and its cooperation with the United States' National Security Agency (NSA). In: wikileaks.org. November 21, 2016, accessed December 1, 2016 . 

Minutes and documents from the NSA committee of inquiry

• Who controls whom? - On-line archive composed of materials published in connection with the work of the NSA Committee of Inquiry. Retrieved November 2, 2016 . 
• Live blogs from the NSA committee of inquiry at netzpolitik.org :

Drop-down list of live logs :
5th meeting, expert hearing: Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem, Matthias Bäcker, Hans-Jürgen Papier: "The entire German foreign investigation is illegal." May 22, 2014
7th meeting, expert hearing: Stefan Talmon, Helmut Philipp Aust, Douwe Korff: "Global surveillance is completely incompatible with fundamental legal principles" June 5, 2014
11th session, hearing of witnesses: William Binney, Thomas Drake: “The greatest threat to democracy since the American Civil War” July 3, 2014
14th meeting, hearing of witnesses: Mr. RU, BND: What are the NSA and BND doing in Bad Aibling? September 25, 2014
16th meeting, hearing of witnesses: Ms. RDn Dr. F., BND: The BND stores connection data over five levels October 9, 2014
18th session, hearing of witnesses: Mr TB, BND: session canceled after a few minutes on October 16, 2014
20th meeting, hearing of witnesses: Mr. TB and Ms. GL, BND: Officials do not fall under G-10 protection November 6, 2014
22nd meeting, hearing of witnesses: Mr. WK, BND: "Metadata are not personal data" November 13, 2014
24th meeting, hearing of witnesses: Dr. Stefan Burbaum, former G-10 lawyer at the BND: "Use of legal powers with desired side effects" November 27, 2014
26th meeting, hearing of witnesses: SL, project manager "Eikonal" and Kai-Uwe Ricke, former CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG: "Like a pharmacy in which all the pills are distributed on the floor" December 4, 2014
28th meeting, hearing of witnesses: Reinhardt Breitfelder and KL, Ex-BND: “Up to 90% of traffic falls under the protection of Article 10” December 18, 2014
30th meeting, hearing of witnesses: Mr. Helfrich and Mr. Alster, Deutsche Telekom: "Cooperation between Telekom and BND is a business secret" January 15, 2015
31st meeting, hearing of witnesses: Peter Schaar, former Federal Data Protection Officer: "The Ministry of the Interior was a problem, they never answered." January 16, 2015
33rd meeting, hearing of witnesses: Martin Golke (BSI), AS (BND), Udo Laux (formerly Telekom), Dr. Bernd Köbele (Telekom): "Is the Telekom a tool of the BND?" "With Eikonal: yes." January 29, 2015
35th meeting, hearing of witnesses: WK, BND / JF, BND, Head of Rheinhausen 2002–2006: "We are not even allowed to name the name of the Glo ... project" February 5, 2015
37th meeting, hearing of witnesses: EB, BND, Head of the Schoeningen / RS, BND registration office: “Half a million telephone calls recorded every day.” February 26, 2015
39th meeting, hearing of witnesses: Brigadier General Dr. Dieter Urmann, Head of the Technical Reconnaissance Department of the BND from 2006 to 2008: BND gave massive amounts of raw data from fiber optics directly to NSA March 5, 2015
41st meeting, hearing of witnesses: Harald Fechner, from 2008 to 2009 at the BND department head for technical reconnaissance and “AF”, BND lawyer, from 2009 to 2014 responsible for G-10 applications and procedures: “Every day, millions of communications records are relatively small . " March 19, 2015
43rd meeting, hearing of witnesses: Klaus Landefeld, Advisory Board DE-CIX Management GmbH, and Hans de With, former Chairman of the G-10 Commission: “BND taps German and European Internet lines” March 26, 2015

Links concerning the BND affair / Operation Eikonal

• Timeline of the events of the past 14 years , on time online (updated May 5, 2015)
• Christian Rickens: Unresolved questions in the BND affair: The slouch hat players. In: Spiegel Online . May 4, 2015, accessed May 13, 2015 . 
• Constanze Kurz and Frank Rieger : Only those who have to hide unpleasant things act like this. In: FAZ.net . May 11, 2015, accessed May 13, 2015 . 
• netzpolitik.org:
  • Tomas Rudl: BND scandal: what happened so far. In: netzpolitik.org. April 30, 2015, accessed May 13, 2015 . 
  • Adrian Schultze: BND scandal follow-up: From monkey shoulders and attestations. In: netzpolitik.org. May 4, 2015, accessed May 13, 2015 . 
  • Adrian Schultze: More voices on the BND scandal in our chronology. In: netzpolitik.org. May 13, 2015, accessed May 13, 2015 . 

Snowden documents

• Snowden's Germany File ; numerous PDF documents by Edward Snowden relating to Germany on Spiegel Online
• Snowden documents on The Intercept

German Bundestag

• bundestag.de/bundestag/ausschuesse - 1st investigation committee "NSA"
• Agenda of the 1st committee of inquiry
• Expert opinions
• Kurt Graulich : Intelligence service telecommunications reconnaissance with selectors in a transnational cooperation - examination and assessment of NSA selectors in accordance with the BND-26 evidence resolution (PDF)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Establishment of a committee of inquiry. (PDF 152 kB) German Bundestag, March 18, 2014, accessed on May 12, 2015 . 
2. ^ Members of the 1st committee of inquiry. (No longer available online.) German Bundestag, archived from the original on October 5, 2014 ; accessed on May 15, 2015 . 
3. ↑ Thorsten Denkler: CDU in the NSA committee - disinterest and suspicion of beatings. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. February 10, 2015, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
4. ^ ^{A b} Lisa Caspari: NSA Committee: A strange resignation. In: Zeit Online. April 9, 2014, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
5. ↑ Clemens Binninger: Personal statement on the resignation of the chairmanship in the 1st investigation committee. (No longer available online.) In: clemens-binninger.de. April 9, 2014, archived from the original on May 15, 2015 ; accessed on May 15, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Clemens Binninger: NSA committee chairman is in dispute. In: Zeit Online. April 9, 2014, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} NSA committee of inquiry: Binninger resigns from committee chair. In: German Bundestag. Retrieved May 15, 2015 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b} Probably another BND project with a foreign secret service. In: spdfraktion.de. SPD parliamentary group, January 29, 2015, accessed on May 15, 2015 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b} Annett Meiritz, Jörg Diehl: NSA Committee: SPD deputy Hans-Ulrich Krüger is leaving committee. In: Spiegel Online. January 29, 2015, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
10. ↑ Annett Meiritz: NSA Committee: Roderich Kiesewetter gives up office as chairman. In: Spiegel Online. January 19, 2015, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
11. ↑ ^{a b c} Robin Alexander: The dubious resignation of Merkel's husband for the NSA. In: The world. February 8, 2015, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
12. ↑ Constanze Von Bullion: NSA committee of inquiry. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. February 9, 2015, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
13. ↑ Andre Meister: Live blog from the intelligence service committee of inquiry: “Half a million phone calls recorded every day.” In: Netzpolitik.org. February 26, 2015, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
14. ^ New deputy chairwoman in the NSA-UA. (No longer available online.) In: Authority mirror. Archived from the original on May 18, 2015 ; accessed on May 15, 2015 . 
15. ^ Parliamentary groups CDU / CSU, SPD, Die Linke. and Alliance 90 / The Greens: Establishment of a committee of inquiry. (PDF) German Bundestag, March 18, 2014, accessed on October 9, 2014 (motion to set up the committee). 
16. ^ 1. Committee of Inquiry ("NSA"). (No longer available online.) German Bundestag, archived from the original on October 7, 2014 ; Retrieved October 9, 2014 . 
17. ↑ Annett Meiritz: NSA Committee: BND contained over 130 documents. In: Spiegel Online. March 5, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
18. ↑ Blacked files in the NSA committee: Opposition threatens to take legal action. In: Spiegel Online. August 17, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
19. ↑ Kai Biermann: Surveillance affair: NSA committee sees only black. In: Zeit Online. September 9, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
20. ^ Kai Biermann: The government holds important files to the NSA committee. In: The time. September 23, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 . 
21. ^ NSA affair: BND "accidentally" contained 130 files. In: Zeit Online. March 5, 2015, accessed May 2, 2015 . 
22. ^ Kai Biermann: NSA committee of inquiry: MPs consider BND files to be manipulated. In: zeit.de . March 5, 2015, accessed May 2, 2015 . 
23. ↑ ^{a b} Constanze von Bullion: NSA committee - cell phone of the chairman intercepted. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. March 4, 2015, accessed May 2, 2015 . 
24. ↑ John Goetz, Hans Leyendecker, Georg Mascolo, Frederik Obermaier: NSA Investigation Committee - music for safety. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. July 4, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
25. ↑ NSA investigation committee - typewriter should ensure safe communication. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. June 14, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
26. ↑ Volker Briegleb, Fabian Scherschel: Espionage: This is how the Soviets bugged typewriters. In: Heise Online. July 14, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
27. ↑ Andre Meister: Threat of the Federal Chancellery: We publish the letter in which Altmaier threatens us with criminal charges. In: netzpolitik.org. October 16, 2014, accessed May 13, 2015 . 
28. ↑ NSA scandal: Chancellery threatens investigative committee. In: heise.de. October 16, 2014, accessed May 2, 2015 . 
29. ↑ Annett Meiritz: Written warning: Chancellery threatens NSA scouts with criminal charges. In: Spiegel Online . October 16, 2014, accessed May 2, 2015 . 
30. ↑ Markus Beckedahl: Written warning: Chancellery threatens NSA investigators with criminal charges (update). In: netzpolitik.org. October 16, 2014, accessed May 13, 2015 . 
31. ^ Edward Snowden: NSA committee chief wants to question Snowden in the Swiss embassy. In: Zeit Online. May 11, 2014, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
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42. ↑ Federal Court of Justice. In: juris.bundesgerichtshof.de. November 11, 2016. Retrieved November 22, 2016 . 
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56. ^ ^{A b} Friedhelm Greis: CCC: Telekom prevents Schengen routing. In: Golem. June 26, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 . 
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59. ↑ Thomas Drake on the NSA committee of inquiry. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. July 4, 2014, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
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61. ↑ ^{a b c} Kai Biermann: Bad Aibling, unlawful listening room of the BND. In: Zeit Online. September 25, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 . 
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63. ↑ Andre Meister: Secret information: How the surveillance of BND and NSA works in Bad Aibling. In: Netzpolitik.org. September 25, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 . 
64. ↑ Kai Biermann: "I am not allowed to say anything about this in public". In: Zeit Online. September 25, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 . 
65. ↑ Andre Meister: Live blog from the Secret Service Investigation Committee: What are the NSA and BND doing together in Bad Aibling? In: Netzpolitik.org. September 25, 2014, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
66. ↑ Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Holger Stark: Shrimps from Griesheim. In: Spiegel Online. August 12, 2013, accessed May 15, 2015 . 
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68. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Secret files BND & NSA: Bad Aibling and the "space theory" - heise online. In: heise.de. March 26, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2017 . 
69. ↑ Kai Biermann: BND committee of inquiry: Does the Bundestag intimidate the media? In: Zeit Online. October 10, 2014, accessed May 2, 2015 . 
70. ↑ Christian Tretbar: Were journalists monitored in the stands? In: Der Tagesspiegel. October 13, 2014, accessed May 2, 2015 . 
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72. ↑ Andre Meister: Live blog from the secret service investigative committee: "Officials do not fall under G-10 protection". In: Netzpolitik.org. November 6, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
73. ↑ Andre Meister: Live blog from the secret service inquiry committee: "Metadata are not personal data". In: Netzpolitik.org. November 13, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
74. ↑ Andre Meister: Live blog from the intelligence service committee of inquiry: "Use of legal powers with desirable side effects". In: Netzpolitik.org. November 27, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
75. ↑ Bundestag: German Bundestag - NSA Committee: Witness: G-10 data are strictly controlled. (No longer available online.) In: bundestag.de. German Bundestag, archived from the original on May 16, 2015 ; accessed on May 16, 2015 . 
76. ↑ Anna Biselli: Live blog from the intelligence service committee of inquiry: "Like a pharmacy in which all the pills are distributed on the floor". In: Netzpolitik.org. December 4, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
77. ↑ Andre Meister: Live blog from the secret service inquiry committee: BND gave masses of content data from fiber optics to NSA. In: Netzpolitik.org. March 5, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
78. ↑ Andre Meister: Live blog from the intelligence service inquiry committee: "BND taps German and European Internet lines". In: Netzpolitik.org. March 26, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
79. ^ ^{A b} Andre Meister: Klaus Landefeld in the Secret Service Investigation Committee: How the BND has been tapping the DE-CIX Internet node since 2009. In: Netzpolitik.org. March 30, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
80. ↑ Stefan Krempl, Martin Holland: NSA Committee: "BND has a free hand in Internet surveillance". In: Heise Online. March 26, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
81. ↑ Friedhelm Greis: NSA Committee: DE-CIX raises serious allegations for BND wiretapping. In: Golem. March 26, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
82. ↑ Till Schwarze: BND affair: the archives hold power. In: Zeit Online. June 8, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
83. ↑ Martin S. Lambeck: BND agent spied for CIA. In: image. July 6, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
84. ↑ ^{a b} Media: Arrested BND man spied for the CIA. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. June 6, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
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87. ^ Christoph Sydow, Matthias Gebauer: BND spy: US Ambassador Emerson asked to go to the Foreign Office. In: Spiegel Online. July 4, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
88. ↑ Martin Holland: Arrest: BND employees are said to have spied on NSA investigative committee. In: Heise Online. July 4, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
89. ^ Maria Marquart, Gesa Mayr : Espionage affair: BND spies were led from the US embassy in Vienna. In: Spiegel Online. July 12, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
90. ↑ BND: The Office for the Protection of the Constitution wanted to expose agents with US help. In: Spiegel Online. July 5, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
91. ↑ Anna Dolgov: Alleged CIA Spy in Germany May Have Worked for Russia All Along. In: The Moscow Times. July 11, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 . 
92. ^ Hans Leyendecker, Georg Mascolo: Second US spy in the Ministry of Defense. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. July 9, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
93. ↑ Curious connection between US espionage cases. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. July 11, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
94. ↑ Federal government blows the agent hunt. In: image. July 13, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
95. ↑ Media: More than a dozen spies in ministries. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. July 13, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
96. ↑ Judith Horchert: espionage: Steffen Bockhahn and Roderich Kiesewetter affected. In: Spiegel Online. July 13, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
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98. ↑ Manuel Bewarder: Suspicion of espionage: Cell phone hacked by NSA committee chief? In: The world. March 3, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
99. ↑ NSA committee: BND man is said to have only spied a little. In: The world. July 5, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
100. ↑ Lisa Erdmann: BND affair: De Maizière wants to use secret services against the USA. In: Spiegel Online. July 7, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
101. ↑ Thomas Walde, Joachim Gauck: ZDF summer interview 2014. June 6, 2014, accessed on January 7, 2019 . 
102. ^ Dpa: Espionage scandal: Gauck warns the USA against "playing with friendship". In: Handelsblatt. July 6, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 .  , Page 2
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107. ↑ Patrick Gensing: German-American cooperation: "The BND is a foster child of the USA". In: Tagesschau. ARD, July 7, 2014, accessed on May 16, 2015 . 
108. ↑ Espionage scandal: Federal government expels top US intelligence officer. In: The world. July 10, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
109. ↑ ^{a b c The Office for the} Protection of the Constitution had evidence of a spy as early as 2010. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. July 11, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
110. ^ Christoph Hickmann, Georg Mascolo: Berlin wants to monitor friendly secret services. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. July 23, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 . 
111. ↑ Matthias Gebauer, Jörg Schindler: Espionage: Government demands disclosure of all agents in Germany. In: Spiegel Online. August 8, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 . 
112. ^ Georg Mascolo, John Goetz: BND - The surveillance factory. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. May 1, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
113. ^ ^{A b c} Georg Mascolo, Hans Leyendecker, John Goetz: Codeword Eikonal - the nightmare of the federal government. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. October 4, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 . 
114. ^ Eikonal: Opposition warns of "NSA sniffer branch". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. October 4, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
115. ↑ ^{a b c} Markus Beckedahl: Eikonal: The calculated breach of fundamental rights by the federal government - How the BND gave the NSA access to the DE-CIX Internet node. In: Netzpolitik.org. October 4, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
116. ↑ Judith Horchert, Ole Reißmann: Bad Aibling: NSA locations in Germany. In: Spiegel Online. June 18, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
117. ↑ NSA spying: BND is said to have deleted 12,000 search terms. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. May 1, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
118. ↑ Georg Mascolo: BND forwarded data from Germans to NSA. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. October 3, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 . 
119. ↑ Kai Biermann: BND knowingly sent data from Germans to the NSA. In: Zeit Online. October 3, 2014, accessed October 9, 2014 . 
120. ^ Friedhelm Greis: Operation Eikonal: NSA no longer wanted the BND's DE-CIX data. In: Golem. October 8, 2014, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
121. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Secret files BND & NSA: Operation Eikonal - the inland as "virtual foreign country" - heise online. In: heise.de. April 9, 2017. Retrieved April 10, 2017 . 
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123. ↑ United States SIGINT System January 2007 Strategic Mission List. (PDF; 2.0 MB) National Security Agency, January 8, 2007, accessed November 5, 2013 . 
124. ↑ SIGINT Mission Strategic Plan FY 2008–2013. (PDF; 2.7 MB) National Security Agency , October 3, 2007, accessed November 5, 2013 . 
125. ↑ Andre Meister: Internal document proves: BND and the Federal Chancellery knew about industrial espionage by the USA against Germany. In: netzpolitik.org. May 27, 2015, accessed May 27, 2015 . 
126. ↑ Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Holger Stark: NSA monitors 500 million connections in Germany. In: Spiegel Online. June 30, 2013. Retrieved July 10, 2013 . 
127. ↑ According to SPIEGEL, BND forwards massive amounts of metadata to the NSA. In: Spiegel Online. August 3, 2013, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
128. ^ NSA affair: BND gives details about data transfer to NSA. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. August 3, 2013, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
129. ↑ BND and BfV use NSA spy program XKeyscore. In: Spiegel Online. July 20, 2013, archived from the original on July 21, 2013 ; Retrieved July 21, 2013 . 
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131. ↑ Kai Biermann: BND espionage affair: BND delivers 1.3 billion metadata to NSA - every month. In: Zeit Online. May 12, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
132. ↑ Kai Biermann: BND stores 220 million metadata every day. In: Zeit Online. February 6, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
133. ↑ Andre Meister: Live blog from the secret service investigative committee: BND employees K., L. and P. on the witness bench. In: Netzpolitik.org. November 13, 2014, accessed November 13, 2014 . 
134. ↑ Markus Beckedahl: Completely out of control: BND probably helped the NSA to monitor German politicians. In: Netzpolitik.org. April 23, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
135. ^ Maik Baumgärtner, Hubert Gude, Marcel Rosenbach, Jörg Schindlisa Erdmann: Federal Intelligence Service: New NSA affair shakes BND. In: Spiegel Online. April 23, 2014, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
136. ↑ ^{a b} Kai Biermann, Patrick Beuth: Federal Intelligence Service: What are selectors? In: Zeit Online. April 24, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
137. ↑ Georg Mascolo: Secret Service Affair - BND helped NSA spying on France and the EU Commission. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. April 29, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
138. ^ Hubert Gude: BND affair: Further lists with explosive search terms emerged. In: Spiegel Online . May 21, 2015, accessed May 23, 2015 . 
139. ↑ Kai Biermann, Patrick Beuth, Tilman Steffen: Espionage: BND helped NSA to monitor European politicians. In: Zeit Online. April 23, 2014, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
140. ^ Matthias Gebauer, Hubert Gude: Federal Intelligence Service: Schindler in NSA affair. In: Spiegel Online. April 23, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
141. ^ Secret service affair : BND activates 25,000 NSA selectors. In: Spiegel Online. May 15, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
142. ↑ Hans Leyendecker: Espionage affair - NSA spy list remains under lock and key. In: sueddeutsche.de . June 9, 2015, accessed June 10, 2015 . 
143. ↑ ^{a b} Markus Beckedahl: Federal government wants to prevent parliament from looking into NSA selectors. In: netzpolitik.org. June 10, 2015, accessed June 10, 2015 . 
144. ↑ Lisa Caspari: BND affair: The SPD is baking a special investigator. In: zeit.de . June 10, 2015, accessed June 11, 2015 . 
145. ↑ Markus Beckedahl: Chancellor Merkel promises: "All materials from the Chancellery and the BND will be delivered to the NSAUA". In: netzpolitik.org. May 15, 2015, accessed June 10, 2015 . 
146. ↑ ^{a b} Martin Klingst: BND affair: Special investigators may not withhold anything from MPs. In: zeit.de . June 11, 2015, accessed June 11, 2015 . 
147. ↑ Investigative officer in NSA affair: Lammert insists on self-determination by the Bundestag. In: Spiegel Online . June 13, 2015, accessed June 13, 2015 . 
148. ↑ Dispute over BND activities: Government does not want to draw personnel conclusions. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. April 27, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
149. ↑ ^{a b} "Definitely known for years": Warned by the BND: The Chancellery knew about NSA espionage. In: Focus. April 27, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
150. ^ NSA affair: Chancellery was aware of espionage cases. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. April 28, 2014, accessed May 11, 2015 . 
151. ^ Martin Holland: BND scandal: Chancellery under pressure. In: Heise Online. April 28, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
152. ↑ Small inquiry : Consequences after the attack on the world's largest chip card manufacturer by the NSA and GCHQ secret services, printed matter 18/4530
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154. ↑ Martin Holland: BND scandal: Federal government made false statements about NSA espionage. In: Heise Online. April 29, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
155. ↑ Christoph Sydow: BND affair: NSA spied on German companies in 2013. In: Spiegel Online. May 5, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
156. ↑ Failure, concealment, covering up - The BND and the Chancellery. (No longer available online.) In: Frontal21. Second German Television, May 5, 2015, archived from the original on May 14, 2015 ; accessed on May 14, 2015 . 
157. ↑ Joachim Bartz, Ulrich Stoll: Manuscript for the broadcast: Failure, silence, cover up - The BND and the Chancellery. (PDF 48 kB) (No longer available online.) In: Frontal21. Second German Television, May 5, 2015, archived from the original on May 14, 2015 ; accessed on May 14, 2015 . 
158. ^ ZEIT ONLINE, dpa, sk: BND affair: Ex-BND boss knew about NSA espionage since 2006. In: zeit.de . June 12, 2015, accessed June 12, 2015 . 
159. ↑ Andre Meister: Live blog from the secret service investigative committee: Ex-BND President Ernst Uhrlau and Dieter Urmann. In: netzpolitik.org. Retrieved June 12, 2015 . 
160. ↑ Heribert Prantl: Total loss of a basic right. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. October 16, 2014, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
161. ↑ Markus Kompa: Double agent Steinmeier exposed. In: telepolis. Heise Online, October 5, 2014, accessed on May 14, 2015 . 
162. ^ Espionage: Chancellery calls for reform of the BND. In: Zeit Online. April 23, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
163. ↑ Florian Diekmann, Nicolai Kwasniewski: BND affair: BDI sharply criticizes the federal government. In: Spiegel Online. April 29, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
164. ^ Economy demands clarification in BND affair. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. May 4, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
165. ^ BND affair: Airbus files criminal charges for NSA espionage. In: Handelsblatt. April 30, 2014, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
166. ^ Martin Holland: BND scandal: Commissioner for human rights criticizes weak intelligence control. In: Heise Online. May 12, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
167. ↑ US telephone giant let BND overhear. In: Spiegel Online. January 9, 2015, accessed May 14, 2015 . 
168. ↑ Friedhelm Greis: Operation Glotaic: BND apparently accessed data from a front company. In: Golem. February 24, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
169. ^ ^{A b} Secret service cooperation of the BND: Operation "Monkeyshoulder". In: Spiegel Online. May 1, 2015, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
170. ^ Kai Biermann: The secret surveillance wish list of the BND. The BND wants to buy technology for 300 million euros. The intelligence service needs some of this. But some things are dangerous. ZEIT ONLINE explains the secret list. In: Zeit Online. November 13, 2014, accessed May 1, 2015 . 
171. ↑ ^{a b c} BND lists NATO partner Turkey as a target of education. In: Spiegel Online. August 16, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
172. ^ Germany: NSA committee of inquiry will deal with BND activities. In: Zeit Online. August 18, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
173. ^ BND affair: Austria files a complaint. In: Tagesschau. ARD, May 5, 2015, archived from the original on May 6, 2015 ; accessed on May 16, 2015 . 
174. ↑ Georg Mascolo: BND heard the US foreign minister at the time. Exit Hillary Clinton. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. August 15, 2014, accessed May 13, 2015 . 
175. ^ Christian Baars: Telephone calls intercepted: Germans also spy on friends. In: Tagesschau. ARD, August 16, 2014, archived from the original on August 16, 2014 ; accessed on May 16, 2015 . 
176. ↑ Hans Rühle: Turkey could work on a secret nuclear weapons program. In: The world. September 22, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
177. ↑ Surveillance: BND prepares data from crisis regions for NSA. In: Zeit Online. September 7, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
178. ^ BND wiretapped German diplomats. In: rbb-online.de
179. ↑ Andre Meister: The new BND law: Everything that the BND does is simply legalized. And even expanded. In: netzpolitik.org. June 30, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016 . 
180. ↑ Continuous fire against the Basic Law - this is how the grand coalition drives the country into the surveillance state. In: netzpolitik.org. Retrieved August 13, 2020 . 
181. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Free ticket for complete Internet surveillance: Sharp criticism of BND reform. In: heise.de. June 30, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016 . 
182. ^ Stefan Krempl: BND reform: Bundestag resolves Internet surveillance à la NSA. In: heise.de. October 21, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016 . 
183. ↑ The most dangerous thing about the new BND law is not even the mass surveillance. In: Motherboard .
184. ↑ New BND law: BND gets a license to collect data. In: Sueddeutsche.de .
185. ↑ State Trojan: Bundestag has passed the most glaring surveillance law of the legislative period (updates). In: netzpolitik.org. Retrieved August 13, 2020 . 
186. ↑ Patrick Beuth, Kai Biermann: State Trojan: Your Trojan friend and helper. In: The time. June 22, 2017, accessed August 13, 2020 . 
187. ↑ The state Trojan is a breach of fundamental rights. In: Sueddeutsche Zeitung. June 22, 2017, accessed on August 13, 2020 (Comment by Heribert Prantl). 
188. ^ Hecht, Patricia: Netzpolitik.org boss on NSA committee: "Angela Merkel lied". In: taz.de .
189. ↑ Three years of the intelligence service committee of inquiry: The investigation remains wishful thinking, the surveillance continues. In: netzpolitik.org .
190. ↑ Glenn Greenwald cancels the committee of inquiry: "Ritual that is supposed to create the illusion of an investigation". In: netzpolitik.org .
191. ^ Kai Biermann, Jakob Börner: NSA investigation committee: Opposition accuses government of lying. In: The time. June 19, 2017, accessed August 13, 2020 . 
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193. ^ Opposition accuses the government of deliberate lying. Retrieved August 13, 2020 . 
194. ^ Konrad Litschko: Opposition on the NSA committee: "Disproportionate and illegal". In: taz.de. Retrieved August 13, 2020 . 
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198. ^ NSA committee: Scandal in the Bundestag investigative committee. In: The world. Retrieved August 13, 2020 . 
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200. ^ Resolution and report of the 1st committee of inquiry: Printed matter 18/12850 (PDF)
201. ↑ Kai Biermann: Surveillance affair: What the NSA committee achieved and what not. In: zeit.de . June 28, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2017 . 
202. ↑ ^{a b c} NSA committee of inquiry: disagreement to the end. In: tagesschau.de. June 28, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2017 . 
203. ^ Ronen Steinke: NSA committee ends in dispute. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung online. June 27, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2017 . 
204. ↑ Printed matter 18/12850 not blackened
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207. ↑ Robin Alexander: Why did Merkel's husband resign from the NSA committee? In: Welt.de . February 8, 2015, accessed February 8, 2015 . 
208. ^ "BND reports employees for betrayal of secrets" , Die Zeit Online of July 20, 2015
209. ↑ Hubert Gude: Glenn Greenwald cancels the hearing of witnesses before the NSA committee. In: Spiegel Online. August 1, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
210. ↑ Andre Meister: Glenn Greenwald cancels the committee of inquiry: "Ritual that is supposed to create the illusion of an investigation". In: Netzpolitik.org. August 1, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
211. ↑ Criticism of NSA committee of inquiry: Greenwald rejects testimony. In: Tagesschau. ARD, August 1, 2014, archived from the original on August 2, 2014 ; accessed on May 16, 2015 . 
212. ↑ Florian Horcicka: Espionage: Peter Pilz calls for an NSA investigation committee. In: format . July 24, 2014, accessed May 16, 2015 . 
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214. ↑ Felix Betzin: Technical Enlightenment | The podcast on the German secret service committee of inquiry. Retrieved October 25, 2019 . 

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