Germany's espionage activities in Austria

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The espionage activities in Germany in Austria are a political affair between Austria and Germany . It became known that the German foreign secret service Bundesnachrichtendienst  (BND) spied on numerous institutional, economic and private agencies in Austria in the 1990s and 2000s. There are connections with the cooperation of the BND and the US National Security Agency  (NSA).

facts

From at least the 1990s until 2006, the Federal Intelligence Service targeted state and Vienna-based international organizations , companies and private individuals. According to a list that has become public, these included the UN , the International Atomic Energy Agency  (IAEA) or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe  (OSCE) and various foreign embassies as well as Austrian ministries , authorities and state-affiliated organizations such as the National Bank . Other targets were Islamic institutions , terror suspects and arms dealers. In addition, the monitoring of electronic communication also included almost all of the country's larger companies, such as Voestalpine or the Raiffeisen Bank .

enlightenment

The first suspicions about espionage activities in Germany, including in Austria, had already arisen in 2013 - after the Snowden revelations - when information about NSA-BND cooperation also appeared in this NSA leak . Initially, it was primarily about assumptions about the joint monitoring of the DE-CIX Internet hub in Frankfurt, through which most of the Internet traffic from Austria runs.

There have been several parliamentary questions on this subject as a result. The investigations initiated by Austria in 2015 could not be completed due to a lack of cooperation from the German authorities. The “transparency offensive” announced by the BND director Schindler in 2014 initially had no effect on the incidents in Austria. Reference was also made to the German Chancellor Merkel's statement in October 2013: “Spying on friends - that doesn't work” (about the NSA intelligence in Germany).

In 2018, a previously unknown list of almost 2000 selectors , such as telephone numbers, fax numbers, email addresses or names, appeared. The magazine Profil and the daily newspaper Der Standard published a report on the new source in June this year. In a joint press statement, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen and Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz demanded full clarification from Germany - a very unusual procedure for Austrian politics, both in terms of the joint appearance of the state leadership and in terms of publicizing the interstate problem. In particular, Austria also requires the disclosure of the data collected and their possible deletion. The investigation by the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office was resumed.

Martin Nesirky , the spokesman for the Vienna UN City Vienna International Center , one of the worldwide locations of the international organizations, referred to the "respect for the 'inviolability of their premises'" and the immunities of the UN guaranteed by international law .

The German Bundestag expressed, according to the German politician Armin Schuster intention on the parliamentary oversight committee of intelligence agencies to consider whether the current allegations are new or if they were already part of the 2015 treated allegations. In this regard, Kurz pointed out that the list of the specific sources spied out was not known at the time. There was no comment from the BND.

In August 2019 it became known that the relevant investigations by the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office against the BND had been terminated.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Federal Intelligence Service has spied on Austrian targets for years - Vienna demands clarification. Meret Baumann in: NZZ online, June 17, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b cf. Secret services: The Fleurop list. In: Der Spiegel 14/2016 (online spiegel.de).
  3. ↑ NSA and BND espionage in Austria: so far no investigation. Markus Sulzbacher, Fabian Schmid in: Der Standard online (derstandard.at), September 26, 2016.
  4. ↑ cf. NSA spying in Vienna detailed at Chaos meet. In: The Local online (thelocal.at), December 31, 2014.
  5. ↑ a b Austrian ministries were among the top targets of the German secret service: the government is sitting out its surveillance by the BND. Markus Sulzbacher in: Der Standard online, March 28, 2017.
  6. ↑ Austria reports the BND affair: Vienna demands "complete clarification". t-online.de, AFP. In: T online, May 6, 2015.
  7. ↑ Information from Federal Chancellor Kurz, press conference 2018 and following.
  8. ↑ a b BND: Justice sends requests for mutual legal assistance to Germany. In: ORF.at, June 18, 2018.
  9. ↑ Weblink Der Standard , June 15, 2018.
  10. ↑ a b Austria demands clarification about BND spying. In: Zeit online (zeit.de), June 16, 2018.
  11. ↑ Exclusive: German intelligence service spied in Austria. In: Profil online (profil.at). June 15, 2018.
  12. ^ The list: Who the German secret service spied on in Austria. In: Der Standard online (derstandard.at), June 15, 2018.
  13. ↑ Austria demands "full investigation" from Germany in the espionage affair. In: Der Standard online, June 16, 2018.
  14. ↑ Austria Seeks Explanation From Germany About Spying Reports. Associated Press. In: The New York Times online (nytimes.com), June 16, 2018.
  15. ↑ BND surveillance: Vienna UN City insists on "inviolability". In: Der Standard online, June 19, 2018.
  16. ↑ Berlin distances itself from BND espionage in Austria. Markus Sulzbacher in: Der Standard online, June 18, 2018.
  17. ↑ Austria calls on Germany to clarify spying allegations. Reuters online, June 16, 2018.
  18. ↑ No chance of success: Investigations against BND and NSA terminated. In: derstandard.at . August 15, 2019, accessed August 15, 2019.