BoyElroy
02-22-2006, 12:13 AM
Agence France Presse -- English
February 21, 2006 Tuesday 10:36 AM GMT
HEADLINE: Germany believes US tapped their intelligence agents during Iraq war: press
DATELINE: BERLIN, Feb 21 2006
The German government suspects the US secret services of tapping the phone calls of two German intelligence agents stationed in Baghdad during the Iraq war, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The Leipziger Volkszeitung said it was citing a government report on the BND, the German intelligences services abroad, that was due to be handed to a parliamentary commission on Wednesday.
The newspaper said the surveillance of the German agents gave the US military access to sensitive information while it was bombing Baghdad.
Still saying it was citing the report, it added that the US military contingent based in Qatar had put considerable pressure on the German agents to share their information, but that they had refused.
The German government in January conceded that despite Berlin's strong opposition to the US-led war, it had decided to keep to intelligence agents in Baghdad in 2003 when the conflict began.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that there had been a routine exchange of information gathered by the agents with the "US side" but denied that Germany had helped the US military.
He said the aim was to pass on information that would prevent the bombing of civilian targets and the loss of innocent lives.
According to the Leipziger Zeitung, information from only 25 out of 125 reports filed by the agents to their superiors in Germany had been shared with the United States.
jlv-ef/afm
LOAD-DATE: February 21, 2006
February 21, 2006 Tuesday 10:36 AM GMT
HEADLINE: Germany believes US tapped their intelligence agents during Iraq war: press
DATELINE: BERLIN, Feb 21 2006
The German government suspects the US secret services of tapping the phone calls of two German intelligence agents stationed in Baghdad during the Iraq war, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The Leipziger Volkszeitung said it was citing a government report on the BND, the German intelligences services abroad, that was due to be handed to a parliamentary commission on Wednesday.
The newspaper said the surveillance of the German agents gave the US military access to sensitive information while it was bombing Baghdad.
Still saying it was citing the report, it added that the US military contingent based in Qatar had put considerable pressure on the German agents to share their information, but that they had refused.
The German government in January conceded that despite Berlin's strong opposition to the US-led war, it had decided to keep to intelligence agents in Baghdad in 2003 when the conflict began.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that there had been a routine exchange of information gathered by the agents with the "US side" but denied that Germany had helped the US military.
He said the aim was to pass on information that would prevent the bombing of civilian targets and the loss of innocent lives.
According to the Leipziger Zeitung, information from only 25 out of 125 reports filed by the agents to their superiors in Germany had been shared with the United States.
jlv-ef/afm
LOAD-DATE: February 21, 2006