exclusive
The hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan caused horror around the world. Loud WDRAfter conducting research, the Federal Intelligence Service discussed whether they would have been better prepared if the US military had been wiretapped beforehand.
At 8:28 a.m., on August 15, 2021, according to a note from the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the phone rang for an employee of the German foreign secret service in Kabul. The Taliban had already brought large parts of Afghanistan under their control in those days, and now the Islamists were advancing on the Afghan capital.
The BND employee reported that the situation was becoming noticeably worse: the “Green Zone”, the specially protected area of the city where several Western embassies were located, was no longer protected by US troops. The Americans have already dismantled security technology and are apparently withdrawing. And so the BND also recommended that its employees and the staff of the German embassy immediately evacuate to Kabul airport.
The chaos in Kabul caused horror around the world – and the German foreign intelligence service also came under heavy criticism in Berlin. Why hadn’t the BND foreseen these developments? Was it due to the lack of quality of the service? Or because of legal hurdles, as former BND boss Gerhard Schindler claimed in an interview just a few days later?
Explosive apology
A search was made for the reasons and culprits for the alleged failure of the German agents – also within the service. The BND employees should develop a response template that could also be presented to the management of authorities, parliament and the Chancellery. On August 20, 2021, just a few days after Kabul was handed over to the Taliban, a BND employee from the secret service’s controlling department sent an email to the Technical Reconnaissance (TA) department, responsible for worldwide interception of telephone calls, radio , satellite and internet communications.
The original question: Whether the legal situation and the amendments to the law would have restricted the gathering of information in Afghanistan? The Technical Reconnaissance sent a reference to the fact that due to changes in laws and service regulations, the surveillance of the EU, NATO and member states is now heavily regulated – and even went one step further.
After WDRDuring research, the TA department raised the question of whether the unforeseen, sudden withdrawal of the USA from the “Green Zone” in Kabul would have been less surprised if the Americans had been wiretapped beforehand.
An employee from the TA department literally noted in an internal letter: With “advance reconnaissance by US agencies in Afghanistan,” this circumstance “could possibly have been recognized considerably earlier.” The “very restrictive” limitation of options and corresponding reservations with regard to “informing partners” had a detrimental effect on the complete clarification of the situation.
An explosive and controversial assessment that has not yet been publicly expressed. After all, spying on partner countries and services was one of the most scandalous aspects of Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations in 2013. At that time, it became known that the US secret services had been tapping Angela Merkel’s cell phone for years. The then Chancellor then coined the sentence: “Eavesdropping among friends is not possible.”
One consequence of the Snowden revelations: The federal government adapted the BND law with so-called amendments, first in 2016, then again in 2022. Technical interception measures in particular have been more strictly regulated since then.
Which sentence goes to the Chancellery?
In fact, there was also controversy within the BND’s technical department as to whether the sentence should appear in the language regulations. An employee noted that, in his opinion, there were “no tangible legal reasons” that “causally led to a deterioration in the AFG information/clarification options in the present context.”
The head of the department also did not want to sign the evaluation, pointing out that such statements about the meaning and benefits of wiretapping partners could only be made by the responsible evaluators.
“In principle quite possible”
Elsewhere, an employee pointed out another aspect: that despite the strict legal requirements and internal regulations, it would have been entirely conceivable to monitor the Americans. “The advance reconnaissance of US agencies” in Afghanistan, according to an email, was “possible” in accordance with service regulations with the appropriate exemption from the department head.
The BND employee went on to write that he would therefore recommend removing the relevant reference from the reply letter – otherwise the accusation could be made, which is why a corresponding exemption was not obtained.
There was apparently disagreement in the BND as to whether more extensive interception measures – even against partners if necessary – might have led to a better assessment of the situation in Kabul. A measure that might have been technically feasible, but would hardly have been politically supported.
When asked, the BND did not want to comment on the matter; a spokesman pointed out that the service “as a general rule does not take a public position on matters that concern possible intelligence findings or activities.”
Questions for him Committee of Inquiry
In the Bundestag, an investigative committee is currently set to clarify the many open questions surrounding the federal government’s role in the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Several representatives from the BND and numerous diplomats have already been heard there as witnesses. In the coming months, the head of the Federal Intelligence Service, the incumbent President Bruno Kahl and the former Vice President Tania Freiin von Uslar-Gleichen, will also be questioned.
It would probably not have been necessary for partners to conduct an eavesdropping operation to be able to better assess the situation in Afghanistan. At the end of last year, the German US Ambassador and former State Secretary in the Interior Ministry, Emily Haber, answered the questions in the investigative committee. Almost a week and a half before the Taliban came to power, Haber had warned the Foreign Office against an early withdrawal of US troops.
After discussions with senior US officials, the top German diplomat sent a confidential cable report to Berlin on August 6, 2021. It said that the Americans believed it was likely that the Afghan government would collapse and that they might then withdraw earlier: “We have to be prepared for that.”