Die NSA soll für ihre Schnüffelei auch Server in Deutschland nutzen. Datenschützer Peter Schaar verlangt darüber Auskunft von den Telekomanbietern. Weil diese schweigen, droht er mit Kontrollbesuchen.

“Die Tätigkeit von ausländischen Nachrichtendiensten auf deutschem Boden muss geklärt werden”: Deutschlands oberster Datenschützer Peter Schaar.

Die USA halten uns hin, die Bundesregierung weiß angeblich von nichts und Kanzlerin Merkel gibt sich mit solchen Details nicht ab: Manchmal scheint es, als wäre der Bundesdatenschutzbeauftragte Peter Schaar der einzige Offizielle, der wirklich an der Aufklärung der NSA-Spähaffäre interessiert ist. Tief besorgt über die offenbar fast grenzenlosen Möglichkeiten zur Überwachung des Internets durch den US-Auslandsgeheimdienst zeigte sich Deutschlands oberster Datenschützer am Freitag in der ARD. “Das versetzt uns in Alarm, zurecht”, sagte Schaar. Das Programm “XKeyscore” sei “nicht nur so ein Stück Software”. Es handele sich offensichtlich um ein System, das aus einem Programm und weltweit verteilten Servern besteht.
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“Was mich besonders beunruhigt, sind die Meldungen darüber, dass es auch in Deutschland entsprechende Server geben soll, über die entsprechende Informationen über den Internetverkehr abgegriffen werden”, erklärte Schaar. Dieser Frage gehe er derzeit nach. Er habe sich an die entsprechenden Telekommunikationsunternehmen gewandt – aber “bisher kaum Antworten gekriegt”. Er und seine Mitarbeiter hätten jedoch das Recht, sich dies vor Ort anzuschauen, warnte der Bundesbeauftragte die Telekomanbieter. “Und gegebenenfalls werden wir davon auch Gebrauch machen.”

Von der Bundesregierung erwartet er dabei offenbar mehr Unterstützung und ein selbstbewussteres Auftreten gegenüber der US-Regierung und der NSA: “Auch die Tätigkeit von ausländischen Nachrichtendiensten auf deutschem Boden, etwa im Rhein-Main-Gebiet, wo sich die wichtigsten Internetknoten befinden, muss geklärt werden”, forderte er in der “Berliner Zeitung”.
“Unsere Grundrechte werden ausgehebelt”

Die eigene Regierung griff Schaar in der NSA-Affäre ungewöhnlich scharf an. “Wie Herr Pofalla zu sagen, die deutschen Nachrichtendienste hielten zu 100 Prozent den Datenschutz ein, ist sehr mutig”, sagte er der Zeitung mit Bezug auf die jüngsten Beschwichtigungen von Kanzleramtsminister Ronald Pofalla (CDU). “Wenn Sie meine Tätigkeitsberichte lesen, werden Sie feststellen, dass da auch nicht alles zu 100 Prozent datenschutzkonform gelaufen ist.”

Da in- und ausländische Nachrichtendienste ihre Informationen offenbar austauschten, bestehe der begründete Verdacht, “dass auf diese Weise unsere Grundrechte ausgehebelt werden, selbst wenn es bei uns eine gesetzliche Begrenzung auf 20 Prozent der Übertragungskapazität gibt”. Klärungsbedarf sieht Schaar nach wie vor, da nicht nur das Parlamentarische Kontrollgremium – in dem Pofalla jüngst vorgesprochen hatte – Anspruch auf Informationen habe. “Wir brauchen mehr Transparenz”, sagte er der Zeitung, “nicht nur gegenüber Geheimgremien, sondern in der Öffentlichkeit”. Eine Kontrolle im Geheimen sei nur “sehr begrenzt wirksam”.
“Ich habe Friedrichs Äußerung nicht verstanden”

Tadelnde Worte richtete Schaar auch an Bundesinnenminister Hans-Peter Friedrich (CSU), der im Zusammenhang mit den aufgedeckten Überwachungsprogrammen von einem “Supergrundrecht” auf Sicherheit gesprochen hatte. “Ich habe diese Äußerung nicht verstanden”, sagte der zum Jahresende aus dem Amt scheidende Datenschutzbeauftragte. “Es gibt im Grundgesetz ein einziges Supergrundrecht, und das ist die Menschenwürde.” Sicherheit sei wichtig, dürfe aber nicht über allem stehen. Schaar zufolge muss eine Demokratie den Anspruch haben, “hier steuernd einzugreifen und die Überwachung zurückzufahren”.

2. August 2013, 11:32 Uhr

Find this story at 2 August 2013

© stern.de

Germany has been under surveillance by the United States for decades, and German leaders have been fully aware of it, says historian Josef Foschepoth. The reason? Secret post-war accords.

Deutsche Welle: The NSA spy scandal continues to ruffle feathers in Germany, Mr. Foschepoth. As a historian, you say the surveillance has been going on since the early days of post-war Germany. So, the revelations of Edward Snowden were not a surprise to you?

Josef Foschepoth: No, not really. I was surprised instead by the initial reactions, in particular, from the political side. They were as if this had happened for the first time, as if it was something terribly bad and unique. But that is not the case. From my own research, I know that this happened countless times in the 1960s in Germany.

How do you explain the rather low-key response from the German government?

Well, such affairs are always very uncomfortable because they bring to light something that had functioned in the shadows. And this function should not be disturbed, so it’s played down. But now, this is no longer the case because it is an instance of severe and intensive surveillance. And moreover: it has been conducted by a friendly state.

This surveillance, as you’ve said, has been going on for decades, since the beginning of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. What rights did the occupation forces – among them, the Americans – have at that time?

Let’s be clear that the victorious forces were in Germany to occupy the country. They wanted to make sure that Germany would never again be a threat as it was during the Nazi dictatorship. But, after the victory over Nazi Germany, a further conflict began with the Soviet Union and the Cold War was born. It was a two-fold conflict that required a new strategy from the United States. A policy of double containment ensued: containment of the Soviet Union on the one hand and Germany on the other. And an essential element of this policy was surveillance.

The so-called General Treaty, which regulated ties between Germany and the three allied powers, went into effect in 1955. The Federal Republic was to have the full powers of sovereignty over its domestic and foreign affairs. What did that mean for the surveillance strategy of the Americans?

These formulations, of course, are always very nice and are meant for the public, more than anything. Ten years after the end of World War Two, the Germans felt the fundamental urge to be a sovereign state once again. But that was not the case at all because in the treaties from 1955 – it was volumes of treaties – were secret supplemental agreements which guaranteed key rights for the Western allied forces; among them, the right to monitor telephone and postal communications.

What was the motivation for the German side behind all this?

The Americans exerted massive pressure. They did not want to give up this territory, which was geostrategically important for its surveillance operations. German leaders, of course, wanted to be able to say that we now had a bit more sovereignty; in other words, a few strokes for the reawakening national psyche. Of course, what they didn’t say was we had to accept the same circumstances we had in the past under the occupation in the future as well, due to the international treaties and secret agreements. And these agreements are still valid and binding for every German government, even today.

How could these agreements survive all these years?

They were secret. The US had build a little America with its bases, in which the German government could not govern. When then-chancellor Helmut Kohl worked to clinch German reunification, he realized that this issue was a little difficult and controversial, so he said let’s just ignore it, and so, there were no negotiations over America’s special status rights. Therefore, these supplemental agreements are still in effect.

Chancellor Merkel stresses that Germany is not a ‘big brother’ society. You say that Germany is one of the most closely monitored countries in Europe.

The phrase ‘big brother society’ is certainly a bit polemical. But let me put it this way: The fall from grace happened in 1955 when Konrad Adenauer agreed to the special status rights in negotiations with the allied forces. The recognition of these rights by the chancellor meant that there was no going back to the sanctity and privacy of post and telecommunications, as it is written in the German constitution. That is how the large German-allied intelligence complex arose.

That is interesting in that Germans are known for being very private about their data and it’s why they put great emphasis on data privacy.

In the early years of the Federal Republic that was even more pronounced than it is today. That is why it was kept secret in the first place.

Professor Josef Foschepoth is a historian at the University of Freiburg and author of the book “Überwachtes Deutschland. Post- und Telefonüberwachung in der alten Bundesrepublik” (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2012)

Find this story at 29 July 2013

© 2013 Deutsche Welle

Is a new building under construction at US Army headquarters in Wiesbaden also designed to house NSA spies? There are rumors, but the army says the facility is strictly for military intelligence units.

One of the US Army’s most important facilities in Europe since the end of World War Two is in Wiesbaden, west of Frankfurt. During the Berlin blockade, this is where US planes took off in 1949 to supply Berlin with food, fuel and aid in what became known as the Berlin airlift. Today, the US Army in Europe (USAREUR) has its headquarters in Wiesbaden and is reportedly building a new military intelligence center that may also be used by the US National Security Agency (NSA.)

The chief of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Gerhard Schindler, is said to have disclosed the plans during a closed-door meeting of parliament’s internal affairs committee. The BND, however, denied a subsequent German newspaper report on the planned surveillance outpost,and refused further comment.
Mayor Gerich held lengthy talks with the US

The army applied for a building permit for the high-tech structure, the Consolidated Intelligence Center (CIC), in 2008. The building is expected to be completed by the end of 2015, and will cost 124 million euros ($163 million). In the wake of mounting outrage at disclosures that the NSA was spying on allied governments and their citizens, Wiesbaden Mayor Sven Gerich wanted more information on the new surveillance outpost at Clay Barracks. Gerich met earlier this week for four hours of talks with Colonel David Carstens, commander of the US garrison in Wiesbaden.

Friendly clarification

The US military did not react angrily when asked about a possible NSA presence, the Wiesbaden mayor told DW. They understand how sensitive the issue is in Germany, Gerich said: “Colonel Carstens literally told me, this is purely a US Army facility, not an NSA facility.”

But how credible is this information? “I do not have the impression that Colonel Carstens was lying,” the German mayor said, adding that the building was designed to house elements of a brigade currently at a base in Darmstadt. The US Army’s military intelligence brigade is being given better working conditions and more space to gather information for the safety of US troops in Europe. Larger structures, including antennas are not planned, Mayor Gerich said and made it clear that the city is in no position to object, anyway.
The former NSA monitoring base in Bad Aibling near Munich

New openness

The meeting with the US military had an element of surprise, Gerich said. Media have reported the new surveillance structure in Wiesbaden will be completely sealed off, with access only by US personnel and even construction firms and material shipped from the US. However, it appears this secrecy is to be loosened somewhat by new information polices to accommodate concern among the population. Colonel Carstens offered to invite the media once construction of a good part of the surveillance center was finished. He wants people to realize that there are no subterranean facilities.
Under certain circumstances the German government could have the site shut down

The NSA site in Griesheim near Darmstadt has quite a few underground, or secret, facilities. Intelligence groups formerly set up in the Bavarian town of Bad Aibling work at the so-called Dagger Complex. That facility was closed in 2004, due to political pressure by former Bavarian state premier Edmund Stoiber. There was concern American intelligence services were using the Echelon intelligence collection and analysis network at the Bad Aibling station for industrial espionage in Germany. “They did not just have an eye on the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq,” German espionage expert Erich Schmidt-Eenboom told Deutsche Welle.

Probably no NSA in Wiesbaden

According to the expert, the Griesheim units are predominantly involved in satellite tracking. Depending on intelligence priorities, satellites are repositioned in their orbit, and moved to cover new areas of a crisis. NSA experts help with the data analysis. “If it is true that the Griesheim unit is not being moved to Wiesbaden, the information the US colonel gave the mayor is correct: NSA staff will not be working in the new surveillance building,” Schmidt-Eenboom said. The Wiesbaden mayor’s office confirmed authorities always noted military intelligence units from Darmstadt would move to Wiesbaden, there was never mention of the NSA in Griesheim .
Satellite trackers reposition satelites

Schmidt-Eenboom pointed out, however, that should the US Army’s information turn out to be false after all, the German government has the right to demand the site be shut down. Under the NATO Status of Forces Agreement, intelligence installations are not meant to provide protection to one individual nation, but to all member states.

Should US spying activities actually target Germany, a difficult situation would arise – in theory. In reality, according to information spread by US whistleblower Edward Snowden, German and American intelligence services cooperate closely. Thus, and despite official disclaimers, experts are convinced NSA workers come and go at US bases across Germany.

Date 26.07.2013
Author Wolfgang Dick / db
Editor Gregg Benzow

Find this story at 26 July 2013

© 2013 Deutsche Welle

Berlin police are investigating whether an artist who projected “United Stasi of America” onto the US embassy in the German capital earlier this week could be charged with a criminal offence.

German artist Oliver Bienkowski projected the message, along with a picture of internet tycoon and online activist Kim Dotcom onto the US embassy in Berlin on Sunday night.

He was likening reported sweeping internet surveillance by Washington and London to spying by the former East German secret police. And while the image was projected onto the building for 30 seconds on Sunday night, the action has caused quite a stir.

An investigation has been launched into whether the action constituted “slander against the organizations and representatives of a foreign state,” the Berlin-based Der Tagesspiegel newspaper reported on Thursday.

Bienkowski’s lawyer Fabian Eickstädt pointed out that the projection was onto the US embassy, which is technically US territory. “For me it is not even clear whether German law would apply,” he said.

And Der Tagesspiegel said that a criminal case of slander could only be launched if the victim were to make a formal complaint. The US embassy told the paper it had no interest in a prosecution.

While Dotcom had no problem claiming the projection. “I defaced the U.S. embassy in Berlin with a truth-projection last night. 0Wned!” he tweeted. The video on YouTube has garnered nearly 80,000 hits.

Dotcom, a German national, is the founder of file-sharing website Megaupload that was shut down by US authorities who seek to extradite him on charges of racketeering, fraud, money laundering and copyright theft.

Dotcom, born Kim Schmitz, denies any wrongdoing and is free on bail in New Zealand ahead of his extradition hearing.

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, in limbo at a Moscow airport, is also seeking to evade US justice after leaking explosive details about a vast US electronic surveillance programme and bugging of European missions.

Germany has reacted with particular alarm to the revelations about the US and British spy programmes, given its history of state surveillance under the Nazis and the communist East German regime.

Published: 11 Jul 2013 11:51 CET | Print version

Find this story at 11 July 2013

© The Local Europe GmbH

Berlin – Er ist bekennender Freimaurer, Sympathisant der Hacker-Gruppe „Anonymous“ – und er hat den Licht-Anschlag auf die US-Botschaft in Berlin für „Kim Dotcom“ verübt.

Oliver Bienkowski (31), Chef einer Düsseldorfer Guerilla-Werbeagentur, projizierte den Schriftzug „United Stasi of America“ auf das Botschaftsgebäude. Für die Aktion brauchte er mehrere Wochen Vorbereitung, dazu drei Tage lang in der Hauptstadt, um sich den Ort anzuschauen.

Sonntagnacht schlägt er zu: Plötzlich blitzt gegenüber dem Berliner Holocaust-Mahnmal die Licht-Botschaft auf. Darunter ein Bild von Internet-Betrüger Kim Schmitz (39), alias „Kim Dotcom“.

► Die Licht-Parole auf der US-Botschaft soll ein Protest gegen die Abhör-Aktivitäten der USA sein. Und weil Bienkowski ein Fan von „Kim Dotcom“ ist, schrieb er ihm per Mail von der Idee. Bienkowski zu BILD.de: „Er hat gesagt, dass wir sein Bild benutzen dürfen. Der Slogan stammt von ihm.“ Hacker „Kim Dotcom“ lebt in Neuseeland und betrieb dort die illegale Daten-Tauschbörse „Megaupload“.

Der Licht-Anschlag kostete 5000 Euro, inklusive digitalem Beamer. Bienkowski hat alles aus eigener Tasche bezahlt. Auf YouTube stellte der Künstler ein Video der Aktion ein.

Schließlich wurde er von der Polizei verjagt, eine Anzeige fürchtet der Lichtmaler, wie er sich nennt, aber nicht. Für die Grünen strahlte er bereits das Kanzleramt an, beim „Festival of Lights“ zauberte er einen Regenbogen aufs Brandenburger Tor.

„Kim Dotcom“ freute sich seinerseits über die Aufmerksamkeit und postete den ersten BILD-Artikel bei Twitter.

Ein Sprecher der US-Botschaft über die Aktion: „Sehr lustig, aber wer so einen Vergleich anstellt, kennt weder die Stasi noch Amerika.“

08.07.2013 – 18:09 Uhr
Von SOLVEIG RATHENOW

Find this story at 8 July 2013

© BILD.de

Das Spionagewerkzeug XKeyscore, das NSA und BND einsetzen, hat viele Fans – auch in privaten US-Unternehmen. In Stellenanzeigen suchen die Firmen ganz offen nach Fachleuten für diverse NSA-Programme. Wichtige Einstellungsbedingung: ein bestandener Lügendetektortest.

Washington/Fort Meade – Die National Security Agency ist eine gewaltige Behörde. Der “Washington Post” zufolge arbeiten derzeit etwa 33.000 Menschen für den US-Geheimdienst, der auf Spionage, Verteidigung und Angriff in Netzwerken spezialisiert ist. Die NSA unterhält nicht nur eine riesige Zentrale in Fort Meade, Maryland, sondern auch noch zahlreiche Stützpunkte in den USA und anderswo. Im britischen Menwith Hill sollen demnächst bis zu 2500 NSA-Bedienstete arbeiten. In Bluffdale, Utah, baut der Geheimdienst derzeit das vermutlich größte Rechenzentrum des Planeten.

Doch all diese Einrichtungen sind nur ein Teil des tatsächlichen Geheimdienstapparats – andere Teile der US-Sicherheitsarchitektur sind längst outgesourct. In einem großangelegten Bericht über diese Schattenbranche schätzte die “Washington Post” schon 2010, dass von 854.000 Personen mit der Sicherheitsfreigabe “Top Secret” 265.000 Vertragsangestellte von Privatunternehmen waren.

Noch immer suchen sowohl die NSA als auch die knapp 500 privaten Firmen, mit denen sie zusammenarbeitet, ganz offen nach weiterem Fachpersonal für Überwachung, Spionage und Cyberwar. Eine ganze Reihe von Stellenanzeigen der NSA selbst für Positionen etwa im Bereich Computer Network Operations beginnt jeweils mit der gleichen, erstaunlich offenen Passage:

“Unsere Nation ist in eine neue Ära eingetreten, die tiefgreifende Veränderungen hinsichtlich der Operationsweise der National Security Agency mit sich bringt. Die explosive Ausbreitung des World Wide Web verlangt nach einer Mission im Bereich Computer Network Operations. Diese wichtige Mission besteht aus drei Teilen: Netzwerkverteidigung, Netzwerkattacken und Erschließung von Computernetzwerken. Um diese Funktionen zu erfüllen, sucht die NSA Menschen, die mit hoher Sachkunde und Leidenschaft den Krieg im Cyberspace gewinnen wollen.”

Dass der Geheimdienst den “Krieg im Cyberspace” als gegeben betrachtet, lässt tief blicken. Die NSA verschickt solche Stellenanzeigen sogar über einen eigenen Twitteraccount.

Doch die NSA selbst ist bei weitem nicht die einzige Organisation, die in Online-Stellenanzeigen freimütig mit dem eigenen Bedarf an Arbeitskräften hausieren geht. Eine ganze Reihe von Unternehmen sucht beispielsweise Analysten, Techiker, Programmierer, die mit dem als streng geheim eingestuften System XKeyscore umgehen können, das SPIEGEL-Informationen zufolge auch der Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) und der Verfassungsschutz (BVF) einsetzen.

Doch nicht nur nach Fachleuten im Umgang mit dieser NSA-Software wird gesucht. In zahlreichen Stellenanzeigen tauchen Programmnamen auf, die man von den bislang publizierten NSA-Folien – etwa über das Prism-Programm – kennt. Andere stehen auf einer Liste mit NSA-Programmnamen, die der Geheimdienst-Fachmann William Arkin schon im März 2012 veröffentlichte.

Einige Beispiele:

Der Rüstungskonzern L3 Communications (nicht zu verwechseln mit dem Telekommunikationskonzern Level 3 Communications) sucht für seine Sicherheitssparte einen Systems Integration Engineer am Standort Maryland / Fort Meade – dort ist auch die NSA zu Hause. Mit Programmen wie XKeyscore sollte sich der Bewerber auskennen, vor allem mit dem Entwickeln von Zusatzprogrammen, sogenannten Plug-ins.
Als Netzwerk-Spezialist ist man gefragt bei Tasc. Die Firma mit mehreren tausend Mitarbeitern und laut “Washington Post” schon 2009 einem Jahresumsatz von zwei Milliarden Dollar bietet IT-Lösungen für Geheimdienste und Militär an. Mitbringen sollen Bewerber Kenntnisse von NSA-Programmen wie XKeyscore, Tuningfork, Discoroute oder Marina. Letzteres dient den Prism-Folien zufolge der Auswertung von Internetverbindungsdaten. Die potentiellen Mitarbeiter werden mit der Aussicht gelockt, “Schutz und Sicherheit zu verbessern und die Grundwerte der Gesellschaft zu schützen”.
Das Unternehmen CyTech sucht einen Analysten, der sich auf das Auswerten verschiedener Quellen versteht – mit NSA-Programmen wie Anchory/Maui, Pathfinder oder Skywriter. Pluspunkte sind Kenntnisse von Pinwale und XKeyscore. Pinwale ist ein Analyseprogramm für Video-Inhalte, das ebenfalls auf den Prism-Folien auftaucht.

Die Liste ließe sich fortsetzen: Auch andere einschlägige Unternehmen wie Saic, Raytheon oder BAE Systems suchen nach qualifizierten Fachkräften für Überwachungssoftware, die man nun als NSA-Werkzeuge kennt. Umgekehrt preisen im Business-Netzwerk LinkedIn Dutzende Mitglieder ihre Erfahrung mit XKeyscore und anderen NSA-Programmen als Qualifikation an.

Was Bewerber in der Regel mitbringen müssen: eine Sicherheitsfreigabe “mit Lügendetektor”. Die Kandidaten müssen Dokumente der höchsten Geheimhaltungsstufe einsehen dürfen, außerdem eine Überprüfung durchlaufen haben, um auch mit besonders gesicherten Informationen zu arbeiten.

Auch auf den XKeyscore- und den Prism-Folien steht stets “Top Secret” – die Unternehmen aus dem Dunstkreis der US-Geheimdienste suchen dennoch ganz offen nach Fachleuten. Womöglich nach solchen, die wiederum die NSA selbst ausgebildet hat. Für sein “Digital Network Exploitation Analyst Development Program” (DDP) wirbt der Geheimdienst etwa mit den Worten: “Wegen ihres Fachwissens und der Bandbreite ihrer Erfahrungen herrscht intensive Nachfrage nach Personen mit einem Abschluss in diesem Programm.”

Tatsächlich wandern ständig junge, gut ausgebildete Leute von den US-Diensten zu privaten Unternehmen ab, die einfach besser bezahlen – um dann über Outsourcing-Verträge doch wieder für NSA oder CIA zu arbeiten. So war es auch bei Edward Snowden: Er arbeitete für die CIA, bevor er sich von der privaten Firma Booz Allen Hamilton anheuern ließ, um dann für ein sechsstelliges Gehalt als Systemadministrator zu arbeiten. Bis er sich mit Tausenden NSA-Dokumenten aus dem Staub machte.

22. Juli 2013, 18:08 Uhr
Von Christian Stöcker und Ole Reißmann
Mitarbeit: Judith Horchert

Find this story at 22 July 2013

© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2013

Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly said she knew nothing about American surveillance activities in Germany. But documents seen by SPIEGEL show that German intelligence cooperates closely with the NSA and even uses spy software provided by the US. By SPIEGEL

It was a busy two days for the surveillance specialists of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence agency. At the end of April, a team of 12 senior BND officials flew to the United States, where they visited the heart of the global American surveillance empire: the National Security Agency (NSA). The purpose of their mission can be read in a “top secret” NSA document which SPIEGEL has seen — one of the trove of files in the possession of whistleblower Edward Snowden.

According to the document, BND President Gerhard Schindler repeatedly expressed an “eagerness” to cooperate more closely with the NSA. The Germans, the document reads, were looking for “guidance and advice.”

Their wish was fulfilled. Senior employees with the NSA’s Foreign Affairs Directorate were assigned to look after the German delegation. The Americans organized a “strategic planning conference” to bring their German partners up to speed. In the afternoon, following several presentations on current methods of data acquisition, senior members of a division known as Special Source Operations, or SSO, spoke to their German guests. The SSO, one of the most secretive groups within the intelligence community, is the division that forms alliances with US companies, especially in the IT sector, for data mining purposes. Snowden describes this elite unit as the NSA’s “crown jewels”.

The journey to Washington wasn’t the first educational trip by German intelligence officials across the Atlantic this spring — nor was it the last. Documents from Snowden that SPIEGEL has seen show that cooperation between Berlin and Washington in the area of digital surveillance and defense has intensified considerably during the tenure of Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to one document, the Germans are determined to “strengthen and expand bilateral cooperation.”

Completely Unaware?

This is awkward news for Merkel, who is running for re-election as the head of the center-right Christian Democrats. The German campaign had been relatively uneventful until recently, but now a new issue seems to have emerged: the Americans’ lust for data. Opposition politicians have intensified their attacks in recent days. First Peer Steinbrück, the Social Democratic candidate for the Chancellery, accused Merkel of having violated her oath of office for failing to protect the basic rights of Germans. Not long later, SPD Chairman Sigmar Gabriel referred to Merkel as a “spin doctor who is trying to placate the population.” According to Gabriel, it has since been proven that the German government knew about the NSA’s activities.

But the attacks from the SPD are not the chancellor’s biggest worry; the real threat comes from within. At a very early juncture, Merkel insisted that her government had been completely unaware of the NSA’s activities. It is a position she reiterated before starting her summer vacation last Friday.

She will now be judged on the basis of those statements. Internally, Merkel’s advisors argue that she had no choice but to take such a clear position. After all, both the head of the BND and the president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, had said that they had had no detailed knowledge of the Prism surveillance program and the extent of American data collection. On what basis could Merkel have contradicted them?

But with each day, fears are growing at the Chancellery that a paper could eventually turn up that clearly shows the government’s knowledge of the NSA activities.

But does that really matter? What is worse? To be governed by a cabinet that conceals its connivance from citizens? Or to have a chancellor and ministers whose intelligence agencies exist in a parallel world, beyond the supervision of the government and parliament? Internal NSA documents show that the Americans and German intelligence agencies are cooperating more closely than previously known. The repeated assertions by the government and intelligence agencies in recent weeks that they were not fully aware of what US surveillance specialists were doing appear disingenuous in the extreme in light of the documents SPIEGEL has seen from the collection secured by Snowden.

‘Key Partners’

According to those documents, the BND, the BfV and the Bonn-based Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) all play a central role in the exchange of information among intelligence agencies. The NSA refers to them as “key partners.”

The Americans provided the BfV with one of their most productive spying tools, a system called “XKeyscore.” It’s the same surveillance program that the NSA uses to capture a large share of the up to 500 million data sets from Germany, to which it has access each month, according to internal documents seen and reported on by SPIEGEL on the first of this month.

The documents also reveal the lengths to which the German agencies and German politicians were willing to go to develop an even closer relationship with the Americans. This is especially applicable to the G-10 law, which establishes the conditions under which surveillance of German citizens is permissible. In one classified document — under a section titled “Success Stories” — it reads: “The German government modifies its interpretation of the G-10 privacy law … to afford the BND more flexibility in sharing protected information with foreign partners.”

The claim that German intelligence agencies knew nothing was already hard to believe given that they have been cooperating with American agencies for decades. According to an NSA document from this January, cooperation between the offensive divisions of the NSA and the BND’s “Technical Reconnaissance” unit began long ago in 1962.

The Americans are extremely satisfied with the Germans. For decades, Washington poked fun at the conscientious German spies, who always had a legal decree on hand to justify why they were regrettably unable to participate in an especially delicate operation. This was a source of annoyance to the Americans, but ultimately they had no choice but to accept it.

More recently, however, that has changed, as the Snowden documents indicate: The German bureaucrats have become real spies.

During the course of 2012, in particular, the Germans showed great “eagerness and desire” to improve their surveillance capacities and even “to take risks and to pursue new opportunities for cooperation with the US,” according to the NSA documents to which SPIEGEL was given access.

A Close Link

The shift to a more offensive German security policy began in 2007, when Merkel’s conservatives were in power in a coalition with the SPD, the so-called “Grand Coalition.” Based on information the NSA had passed on to the BfV, German authorities discovered a group of Islamists led by convert Fritz Gelowicz, known as the Sauerland cell. Gelowicz and several of his friends had planned to detonate bombs in Germany. To this day, the German government is grateful to the Americans for the tip.

According to the NSA document, the successful operation created “a significant level of trust” between the NSA and the BfV. Since then, the document reads, there have been “regular US-German analytic exchanges and closer cooperation in tracking both German and non-German extremist targets.” The documents show that the NSA also provided several training sessions for BfV agents. The aim was “to improve the BfV’s ability to exploit, filter and process domestic data.” The hope was to create interfaces so that data could be exchanged on a larger scale — a cooperation “that could benefit both Germany and the US,” the paper reads.

The pact also intensified on German soil. An NSA analyst accredited as a diplomat at the US Embassy in Berlin uses an office at the BfV once a week. According to the document, the analyst’s job is to “nurture” the thriving relationship with the BfV. The agent also “facilitates US requirements.” In addition, the Germans set up a “communications link” to the NSA to improve ties between agencies.

Personal relationships also intensified. In May alone, just a few weeks before the Snowden revelations began, BfV President Hans-Georg Maassen, Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich and the 12-member BND delegation paid a visit to NSA headquarters. In the same month, NSA Director General Keith Alexander traveled to Berlin, where he made a stop at the Chancellery, which supervises the BND.

The cooperation went beyond high level visits. According to the papers from the Snowden files which SPIEGEL has seen, the NSA provided the BfV with XKeyscore, and BND officials were also very familiar with the tool, given that their job was to instruct their counterparts with German domestic intelligence on how to use the spy program. The main reason the BfV was to be provided with XKeyscore was to “expand their ability to support NSA as we jointly prosecute CT (counter-terrorism) targets.”

A “top secret” presentation dated Feb. 25, 2008, which almost reads like an advertising brochure (the American spies are apparently very proud of the system), reveals all the things XKeyscore was capable of doing already five years ago.

NSA Pleased with German ‘Eagerness’
According to the presentation, the system is easy to use and enables surveillance of raw data traffic “like no other system.”

An NSA transparency titled “What is XKeyscore?” describes a buffer memory that enables the program to absorb a “full take” of all unfiltered data for a number of days. In other words, XKeyscore doesn’t just track call connection records, but can also capture the contents of communication, at least in part.

In addition, the system makes it possible to retroactively view which key words targeted individuals enter into Internet search engines and which locations they search for on Google Maps.

The program, for which there are several expansions known as plug-ins, apparently has even more capabilities. For instance, “user activity” can be monitored practically in real time and “anomalous events” traced in Internet traffic. If this is true, it means that XKeyscore makes almost total digital surveillance possible.

From the German perspective, this is especially troubling. Of the roughly 500 million data sets from Germany to which the NSA has access each month, XKeyscore captured about 180 million in December 2012.

This raises several questions. Does this mean that the NSA doesn’t just have access to hundreds of millions of data sets from Germany, but also — at least for periods of days — to a so-called “full take,” meaning to the content of communication in Germany? Can the BND and the BfV access the NSA databases with their versions of XKeyscore, which would give them access to the data on German citizens stored in those databases?

If this were the case, the government could hardly claim that it had no knowledge of the Americans’ vigorous data acquisition activities.

German ‘Eagerness’ Is ‘Welcomed’

SPIEGEL put these questions to both agencies and the Chancellery, but it received no answers on the use of the system. The BND merely issued a brief statement, saying that it was regrettably unable to comment publicly on the details of intelligence activities.

The NSA and the White House were similarly curt in their responses to SPIEGEL inquiries, merely noting that they had nothing to add to the remarks President Barack Obama made during his recent visit to Berlin.

The new revelations also shine a spotlight on the presidents of the BND and the BfV, Gerhard Schindler and Hans-Georg Maassen. Both men are relatively new in their positions. But BND President Schindler in particular, in office since January 2012, has already made his mark. He embodies the new, more offensive approach being taken by the foreign intelligence agency, which the NSA has expressly praised. Schindler’s “eagerness,” according to the NSA documents, was “welcomed” already in 2012.

When he came into office, the outspoken head of the BND encapsulated the new willingness to take risks. Internally, he asked each BND department to submit three proposals for joint operations with the US intelligence agencies.

Of course, there are also positive sides to this closer cooperation with the Americans. One of the BND’s responsibilities is to protect German soldiers and prevent terrorist attacks. Doing so adequately is impossible without help from the Americans. Conversely, the BND’s reputation has improved among US intelligence agencies, especially after it proved to be helpful in the Kunduz region of northern Afghanistan, where the German military, the Bundeswehr, is stationed. The Germans are now the third-largest procurer of information there.

They don’t just share their information with the NSA, but also with 13 other Western countries. Some time ago, the agency brought its technical equipment in Afghanistan up to the latest standard. Results have been especially good since then, and the NSA is pleased.

In recent years, the BND has had the capability to listen in on phone conversations on a large scale in northern Afghanistan, aiding in the arrests of more than 20 high-ranking members of the Taliban — including Mullah Rahman, once the shadow governor of Kunduz.

Relaxed Interpretation of Privacy Laws

According to an NSA document dated April 9, Germany, as part of the surveillance coalition in Afghanistan, has developed into the agency’s “most prolific partner.” The Germans are similarly successful in North Africa, where they also have special technical capabilities of interest to the NSA. The same applies in Iraq.

But according to the documents, the German foreign intelligence agency went even further in its effort to please the Americans. “The BND has been working to influence the German government to relax interpretation of the privacy laws to provide greater opportunities of intelligence sharing,” the NSA agents noted with satisfaction in January.

Indeed, when Schindler took office, BND officials were divided over whether it was legal to pass on information to partner intelligence agencies that had been obtained in accordance with the German G-10 law. Schindler decided that it was, and the United States was pleased.

The surveillance base in Bad Aibling, a well-known American listening post in southern Germany, also shows how close ties are between the BND and the NSA. It was a symbol of technical espionage during the Cold War. Most recently, the NSA referred to the listening post by the code name “garlic.” Although the last parts of the base were officially handed over to the BND in May 2012, NSA officials still come and go.

The NSA chief for Germany is still stationed at the local Mangfall Barracks. Some 18 Americans were still working at the surveillance station at the beginning of the year, 12 from the NSA and six working for private contractors. The office is expected to be scaled back during the course of the year, with the plans ultimately calling for only six NSA employees to remain at the base. According to the Snowden documents, their work will be to “cultivate new cooperation opportunities with Germany.”

To be sure, intensive cooperation in counterterrorism activities is part of the core mission of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency. But did lawmakers know about the scope of cooperation with the Americans? And, if they did, since when?

Making Things Worse

So far, the BND has been able to count on support from the Chancellery for its new approach. But things seem to be changing. The surveillance scandal has the potential to shake public confidence in the German government and in Chancellor Merkel — and could negatively effect her chances for re-election.

The NSA’s activities, of course, are not exactly driving the German people into the streets in droves. Nevertheless, revelations as to the extent of America’s surveillance abroad are chipping away at Merkel’s image as a reliable manager of the government. Some 69 percent of Germans are dissatisfied with her efforts to shed light on the issue, a number that has alarmed the Chancellery. Until the end of last week, Merkel had tried to distance herself from the subject, issuing only sparse statements. Instead of Merkel, Interior Minister Friedrich was expected to handle the delicate matter.

But Friedrich only made things worse, returning largely empty-handed from his trip to Washington. Instead, he seemed extremely proud of the fact that he had been allowed to speak with US Vice President Joe Biden.

To make matters worse, Friedrich had hardly returned to Germany before making the remark that “security” was a “Supergrundrecht,” a new concept that implies that security trumps other civil rights. A minister charged with upholding the constitution who suddenly invented an interpretation of the German constitution that suits the NSA’s purposes? At that moment, Merkel must have realized that she couldn’t leave things entirely to her interior minister.

Last Friday, shortly before leaving for her summer vacation, Merkel unveiled an eight-point plan intended to provide more data security. But most of her points felt more like placebos. How, for example, are European intelligence agencies to agree on common data privacy guidelines if British and French intelligence agents are already snickering over the Germans’ obsession with data privacy?

In a Bind

Merkel is in a bind. On the one hand, she doesn’t want to give the impression that she is doing nothing about the Americans’ lust for information. On the other hand, this also brings the scandal closer to the chancellor. In the end, it will revolve around the question of how much the government knew about the Americans’ surveillance activities. Last Friday, the BND insisted, once again, that it had “no knowledge of the name, scope and extent of the NSA ‘Prism’ project being discussed.”

But even if that’s true, Prism was only a part of the NSA’s surveillance system, and the new documents show that Germany was indeed extremely familiar with the agency’s comprehensive ability to spy. They benefited from it, and they wanted more.

But Merkel claims that she knew nothing about the Americans’ surveillance software. “I became aware of programs like Prism through current news reports,” she told the left-leaning weekly newspaper Die Zeit last week. According to Merkel’s staff, when she uses such language, she is relying on statements made by the German intelligence chiefs.

But what does that mean? Does the German government still have its intelligence agencies under control? Or have they become a kind of state-within-a-state?

And who exactly keeps track of whether the agencies, in their zeal to enforce the “Supergrundrecht” of security, haven’t already gone too far?

The place where the activities of domestic and foreign intelligence agencies ought to be debated is the Parliamentary Control Panel in the German Bundestag. By law, the government is required to regularly and “comprehensively” inform the 11 members of the board, which meets in secret, about the work of the BND and the BfV, and explain “procedures with special importance.”

Oddly enough, the board has met four times since the beginning of the NSA scandal, and, four times, lawmakers have learned little about the global data surveillance programs. Instead, they were forced to listen to long-winded lectures by those responsible, the essence of which generally was: We really don’t know anything.

Spotlight on Merkel

Over the years, the board has mutated into a stage for large egos and is no longer particularly secret. The problem is that many panel members don’t have sufficient time or expertise to truly understand the kind of activities the intelligence agencies are engaged in. It is a perfect situation for Germany’s spies: The less the public learns about their activities, the more they can go about their business undisturbed.

“Monitoring of the agencies is purely theoretical,” says Hans-Christian Ströbele, the Green Party representative on the board. “We don’t learn about the truly explosive issues until they’ve been exposed by the media.” This isn’t surprising, given the vagueness of statutory provisions on the supervision of intelligence agencies.

The agencies enjoy “complete freedom,” says attorney Wolfgang Neškovi, who once spent many years on the control board for the Left Party. The CDU, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) have now agreed to establish an intelligence body to monitor the intelligence agencies. But in light of recent events, CDU domestic policy expert Clemens Binninger believes that a “major solution” is needed. He favors the idea of a parliamentary intelligence official, to be provided with his own powers and staff.

There is also growing mistrust of the intelligence agencies within Merkel’s government, a situation which led to a memorable scene in the federal press conference last Wednesday. According to a NATO document that had been circulated before the press conference, the German military was indeed aware of the existence of Prism. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert stated that it was the BND’s assessment that the program in question had nothing to do with NSA spy software. But he made sure to keep a distance from the intelligence agency’s assessment. Later, the Defense Ministry issued a statement of its own which directly contradicted the BND statement.

It is an awkward situation for Merkel. In the midst of an election campaign, her government suddenly looks to be characterized by chaos. Of course, if it turns out that the intelligence agencies were deceiving her, she could clean house. BND chief Schindler would seem to be in the front of the firing line, with Ronald Pofalla, who, as Merkel’s chief of staff, is tasked with monitoring the intelligence agencies, not far behind.

But the Chancellery staff has no illusions. The SPD and the Greens will continue putting Merkel in the NSA spotlight no matter what happens. “The chancellor is more interested in defending the interests of the US intelligence agencies in Germany than German interests in the United States,” says SPD Chairman Gabriel. It seems unlikely that the opposition will stand down any time between now and election day, on Sept. 22.

BY RENÉ PFISTER, LAURA POITRAS, MARCEL ROSENBACH, JÖRG SCHINDLER and HOLGER STARK
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
07/22/2013 12:19 PM

Find this story at 22 July 2013

© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2013

Die Präsidenten der deutschen Geheimdienste haben Vorwürfe dementiert, wonach sie mittels NSA-Spähsoftware im großen Stil Daten gesammelt hätten. Die Software sei nur zu Testzwecken verwendet worden.

Hans-Georg Maaßen, der Präsident des Bundesamtes für Verfassungsschutz, gerät nach Enthüllungen über eine in Deutschland verwendete NSA-Spähsoftware zusehends unter Druck

Der Präsident des Bundesamtes für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), Hans-Georg Maaßen, und der Präsident des Bundesnachrichtendienstes (BND), Gerhard Schindler, haben sich gegen die Vorwürfe gewehrt, ihre Dienste hätten in großem Umfang mit dem US-Geheimdienst NSA (National Security Agency) zusammengearbeitet. Zu einem Bericht des Nachrichtenmagazins “Der Spiegel”, wonach das BfV NSA-Software zur großflächigen Ausspähung von Daten verwende, sagte Maaßen der Zeitung “Bild am Sonntag”, dass dies nur zur Testzwecken geschehe. Die zur Verfügung gestellte Software werde “derzeit” aber nicht für die Arbeit des BfV eingesetzt.
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Auch BND-Chef Schindler sagte der Zeitung, es gebe keine “millionenfache monatliche Weitergabe von Daten aus Deutschland an die NSA” durch seinen Dienst. 2012 seien zwei einzelne personenbezogene Datensätze deutscher Staatsbürger an die NSA übermittelt worden. Die Zusammenarbeit mit der NSA habe er jüngst im Parlamentarischen Kontrollgremium vorgetragen.
Riexinger fordert Suspendierung der Geheimdienst-Chefs

“Der Spiegel” hatte am Samstag vorab aus seiner jüngsten Ausgabe berichtet, der Verfassungsschutz habe der NSA mit der Schnüffelsoftware “Xkeyscore” beim Datensammeln geholfen. Mit dem Programm könne unter anderem sichtbar gemacht werden, welche Begriffe eine Zielperson in eine Suchmaschine eingegeben habe. Auch sei das System in der Lage, teilweise auf Kommunikationsinhalte zuzugreifen.

Der Vorsitzende der Partei Die Linke, Bernd Riexinger, forderte die Suspendierung Maaßens und Schindlers “bis zur vollständigen Klärung der Vorwürfe”. Alles spreche dafür, dass die deutschen Geheimdienste die “systematische Aushebelung von Grundrechten” betrieben hätten. Auch die Klärung der politischen Verantwortung müsse ohne Ansehen der Person vorangetrieben werden. Im kommenden Bundestag werde seine Partei deshalb die Einsetzung eines Untersuchungsausschusses beantragen, fügte Riexinger hinzu.
Grüne fordern Änderung des Grundgesetzes

Als Konsequenz aus der NSA-Datenaffäre fordern die Grünen eine Änderung des Grundgesetzes. In einem Beitrag für die “Frankfurter Rundschau” schreiben die Spitzenkandidaten Katrin Göring-Eckardt und Jürgen Trittin: “Was für Briefe gilt, muss für jede E-Mail und SMS gelten.” Deshalb wollen die Grünen “den Artikel 10 Grundgesetz – das Postgeheimnis – ausbauen, zu einem Kommunikations- und Mediennutzungsgeheimnis auch für die digitale Welt”.

21. Juli 2013, 10:30 Uhr

Find this story at 21 July 2013

© stern.de

Der BND wisse seit Jahren von der nahezu totalen Datenerfassung
Der Auslandsgeheimdienst BND und das Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz nutzen laut eines Medienberichts eine Spähsoftware des US-amerikanischen Geheimdienstes NSA. Es gilt als eines der ergiebigsten Spionage-Programme und ermöglicht nahezu digitale Totalüberwachung.
Was wissen Angela Merkel und ihre Minister in der Abhör-Affäre? Laut einem Bericht des Nachirchtenmagazins „Spiegel“ nutzen der Auslandsgeheimdienst BND und das Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz eine Spähsoftware des US-amerikanischen Geheimdienstes NSA. Das berichtet das Magazin am Samstag auf seiner Internetseite. Das gehe aus geheimen Unterlagen der NSA hervor, die dem Magazin vorlägen. Demnach habe sich der BND um die Schulung des Verfassungsschutzes mit dem Umgang des Programms gekümmert. Der Verfassungsschutz, so das Magazin weiter, habe die NSA bei der Terrorbekämpfung unterstützt.

Das System „XKeyscore“, um das es sich handele, sei ein ergiebiges Spionagewerkzeug, so der „Spiegel“ weiter. Es ermögliche die digitale Totalüberwachung und könne beispielsweise sichtbar machen, nach welchen Begriffen Zielpersonen im Internet gesucht haben. Von rund 500 Millionen Datensätzen aus Deutschland, auf die die NSA monatlich Zugriff habe, seien im Dezember 2012 etwa 180 Millionen von „Xkeyscore“ erfasst worden.

Verantwortungslose Heuchelei
In der Meldung des „Spiegel“ heißt es außerdem, dass sich die „Zusammenarbeit deutscher Dienste mit der NSA zuletzt intensiviert“ hätte. Weiterhin hätten die Amerikaner die deutschen Kollegen und den BND-Präsidenten Gerhard Schindler für ihren Eifer gelobt. In Afghanistan, so zitiert das Magazin aus einem internen Papier, sei der BND der „fleißigste Partner“ in Sachen Informationsbeschaffung. BND und Verfassungsschutz hätten sich auf Anfragen des „Spiegels“ aber nicht zum Einsatz des Spionagewerkzeugs geäußert.

Die Hinweise auf eine Einbindung europäischer Nachrichtendienste in die Ausspähprogramme des US-Geheimdienstes NSA verdichten sich also. Nach Darstellung des früheren NSA-Chefs Michael Hayden im ZDF hatten die USA ihre Kooperation mit den Europäern nach den Anschlägen vom 11. September 2001 massiv ausgeweitet – und dabei keinen Zweifel an den Zielen gelassen: „Wir waren sehr offen zu unseren Freunden.“ Zu dieser Zeit regierten in Deutschland SPD und Grüne. Sie dringen nun auf rasche Aufklärung. Die CDU warf der Opposition deshalb „verantwortungslose Heuchelei“ vor.

Samstag, 20.07.2013, 18:46
dpa / Paul Zinken

Find this story at 20 July 2013

© FOCUS Online 1996-2013

The German government Wednesday denied a report claiming that the nation’s military knew for years about the US surveillance programme PRISM revealed by fugitive former intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.

Germany’s foreign intelligence service BND said that a separate programme with the same name existed for NATO forces in Afghanistan to share intelligence.

The spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, who faces elections on September 22, said he had no reason to doubt the BND statement.

The issue is sensitive for Merkel, who said last week she only learnt about the scope of the US National Security Agency (NSA) snooping through media reports.

Many Germans are angry that their emails, phone calls, web searches and other data have been captured and stored under the NSA programme.

Any suggestion that the government failed to stop it or was complicit in it
would spell political danger for Merkel, whose chancellery oversees Germany’s
secret services.

The mass-circulation daily Bild reported earlier that the German military
command for northern Afghanistan had been informed of PRISM in September 2011

in a letter from the Kabul command of the NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force.

According to Bild the letter mentioned that the programme was for phone
and email surveillance and run by the NSA.

However, the BND later said in a brief statement: “The programme referred
to as PRISM in today’s Bild newspaper is a NATO/ISAF programme that is not
identical to the PRISM programme of the NSA. It is also not classified as
secret.”

The BND also stressed that it “had no knowledge of the name, scope and extent of the NSA programme”.

Merkel has testily told Washington that “we are not in the Cold War anymore” but also defended the role of secret services in keeping citizens safe and preventing terrorist attacks.

Snowden, on the run from the US government, has been marooned at a Moscow
airport since June 23 and on Tuesday filed an application for temporary asylum
in Russia. Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua have said they would be open to
offering refuge to Snowden.

Published: 17 Jul 2013 17:00 CET | Print version

Find this story at 17 July 2013

© The Local Europe GmbH

Der NSA-Skandal geht in Woche sechs, doch die Aufklärung läuft schleppend. Die Spähaffäre wirft ein Schlaglicht auf das Geflecht von Bundesregierung, Parlament und Agenten-Apparat. Kann man Geheimdienste überhaupt kontrollieren?

Berlin – Die Bundesregierung gerät im Skandal um amerikanische Spähaktivitäten zunehmend unter Druck – und zieht sich auf drei Formeln zurück. Erstens: Deutsche und ausländische Nachrichtendienste arbeiten zusammen. Zweitens: Von der Dimension der Spähprogramme habe man erst durch den Whistleblower Edward Snowden erfahren. Drittens: Details über die Arbeit deutscher Geheimdienste werden nicht öffentlich, sondern in Gremien beraten.

In einem dieser Gremien ging die Debatte um die Spionageaffäre am Dienstag in die nächste Runde: Innenminister Hans-Peter Friedrich (CSU) war im Parlamentarischen Kontrollgremium zu Gast – eine vertraulich tagende Gruppe, die die deutschen Geheimdienste überwachen soll. Dreimal tagte das Gremium in den vergangenen Wochen. Viel klüger ist man allerdings noch immer nicht.

Der NSA-Skandal wirft ein Licht auf das undurchsichtige Geflecht von Bundesregierung, Parlament und Geheimdiensten: Wer informiert wen? Kann man Nachrichtendienste überhaupt kontrollieren? Wie geht es jetzt weiter?

Die wichtigsten Fragen und Antworten:

1. Warum tagt das Gremium geheim?

Die elf Mitglieder des Parlamentarischen Kontrollgremiums (PKG) setzen sich aus Innen- und Sicherheitsexperten aller Bundestagsfraktionen zusammen. Sie treffen sich in einem abhörsicheren, fensterlosen Raum in einem Nebengebäude des Reichstags, unweit der Kantine. Da die Arbeit der Geheimdienste naturgemäß geheim bleiben soll, ist die Gruppe zur Verschwiegenheit verpflichtet, auch gegenüber anderen Abgeordneten.

Innenminister Friedrich berichtete am Dienstag dem PKG, was er während seines Besuchs in Washington an Informationen bekam. Ähnlich wie beim Bundessicherheitsrat, der über Rüstungsexporte entscheidet, dringen aber nur selten Details nach draußen, so auch dieses Mal.

Bei der letzten Sitzung war Kanzleramtsminister Ronald Pofalla geladen, der unter anderem für die Koordinierung der Geheimdienste zuständig ist. Dazu die Chefs der drei Geheimdienste: Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Militärischer Abschirmdienst (MAD), Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV). Die Grünen fordern, die Kanzlerin selbst müsse vor dem Gremium erscheinen. Das soll in absehbarer Zeit allerdings nicht passieren.

Die Regierung muss das Gremium über die Arbeit der Geheimdienste und besondere Vorgänge unterrichten. Die Gruppe darf Geheimakten einsehen und Mitarbeiter der Dienste befragen.

So weit die Theorie. In der Praxis kann die Arbeit frustrierend sein, denn was Bundesregierung und Geheimdienste für berichtenswert halten, entscheiden sie zunächst einmal selbst. Die Folge: Von wirklich heiklen Vorfällen oder möglichen Skandalen erfahren die Bundestagskontrolleure oft erst aus den Medien.

2. Kann man Geheimdienste überhaupt kontrollieren?

Zwar mag die Kontrolle hierzulande besser sein als anderswo. Doch eine echte Überwachung der Geheimdienste ist kaum möglich. Wie sollen elf Parlamentarier auch überblicken, was Zehntausende Agenten im In- und Ausland treiben?

Der Grünen-Abgeordnete Hans-Christian Ströbele, Dienstältester im PKG, sagte einmal: “Wie sollen wir die Geheimdienste kontrollieren, wenn wir keine Informationen bekommen?” Der Abgeordnete Wolfgang Neskovic, der für die Linken bis 2012 im PKG saß, nannte das Kontrollniveau “erbärmlich”, das Gremium einen “Wachhund ohne Gebiss”. Geheimdienstler würden die Sitzungen als “Märchenstunde” verspotten.

Neben dem PKG ist aber auch noch die beim Bundestag angesiedelte sogenannte G-10-Kommission für die Kontrolle der Geheimdienste zuständig. Der Name bezieht sich auf das “Gesetz zur Beschränkung des Brief-, Post- und Fernmeldegeheimnisses” (Artikel-10-Gesetz). Auch dieses Gremium tagt geheim. Es hat vier Mitglieder, die vom PKG bestellt werden. Sie müssen keine Bundestagsabgeordneten sein. Derzeit sitzt dem Gremium der SPD-Politiker Hans de With vor, der einst Parlamentarischer Staatssekretär im Justizministerium war.

Die G-10-Kommission muss ihre Genehmigung erteilen, wenn Geheimdienste Computer oder Telefone anzapfen wollen, um deutsche Staatsbürger auszuspähen. Auch die Durchsuchung von Kommunikationsdaten nach bestimmten verdächtigen Schlagworten muss die Kommission genehmigen.

2011 soll das Gremium den Inlandsgeheimdiensten insgesamt 156 Abhörmaßnahmen bewilligt haben. Die Gründe dafür sind im Gesetz festgelegt, unter anderem geht es um Terrorabwehr, Waffen- und Drogenschmuggel sowie organisierte Geldwäsche.

Allerdings kann auch der Auslandsgeheimdienst BND bei der G-10-Kommission beantragen, im großen Stil Daten an den internationalen Internetknotenpunkten abzufischen. Eine flächendeckende Überwachung ist verboten, das Gesetz sieht eine Grenze von 20 Prozent vor. Die wird angeblich nicht ausgeschöpft, sondern “pendelt bei etwa fünf Prozent”, sagte jüngst Kommissionschef de With.

3. Was wussten deutsche Agenten vom US-Lauschangriff?

Darauf gibt es bislang keine abschließende Antwort. Die hiesigen Geheimdienstler sagen, sie hätten keine Hinweise darauf, dass an deutschen Kommunikationsknotenpunkten Daten abgesaugt wurden. Es gebe zwar eine Zusammenarbeit mit den US-Behörden. Über massenhafte Lauscheinsätze gegen deutsche Bürger sei man aber nicht informiert gewesen.

Der Whistleblower Snowden hatte im SPIEGEL angegeben, deutsche und amerikanische Geheimdienste steckten in Sachen Internetüberwachung “unter einer Decke”. Auch ein Bericht der “Bild”-Zeitung wirft neue Fragen auf. Demnach wusste der BND angeblich seit Jahren von der nahezu kompletten Datenerfassung durch die Amerikaner und griff in Gefahrenlagen aktiv darauf zu.

Derzeit kann nichts nachgewiesen, aber Zweifel können auch nicht ausgeräumt werden. Wenn deutsche Geheimdienste von den Aktionen der US-Dienste gewusst und diese möglicherweise unterstützt haben, wäre das nach deutschem Recht strafbar.

4. Wie geht es jetzt weiter?

Die Kanzlerin telefonierte mit US-Präsident Barack Obama, mehrere Fragenkataloge wurden verfasst, zwei Delegationen nach Washington geschickt. Zur Zeit wird gewartet: Darauf, dass die USA einige als geheim eingeordnete Dokumente deklassifizieren, also aus der Geheimhaltungsstufe herausheben. Von diesem Schritt verspricht sich Berlin Aufschluss über das Ausmaß der NSA-Aktivitäten. Weitere Besuche und Gespräche sind geplant.

Teile der Opposition fordern einen parlamentarischen Untersuchungsausschuss. Schnelle Antworten gäbe es durch den aber auch nicht. Im EU-Parlament beschäftigt sich der Innenausschuss mit der Materie und will bis Ende des Jahres einen Bericht vorlegen. Zu einem Sonderausschuss konnte man sich in Straßburg nicht durchringen. Sechs Wochen nach den Enthüllungen sind also wichtige Fragen noch immer offen. Gut möglich, dass das Thema den Wahlkampf mitbestimmen wird – vor allem, wenn noch weitere Details herauskommen sollten.

16. Juli 2013, 14:25 Uhr
Von Annett Meiritz und Philipp Wittrock

Find this story at 16 July 2013

© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2013

Noch immer behauptet die Bundesregierung eisern, sie habe von den US-Schnüffelprogrammen erst kürzlich erfahren. Nun wird klar, dass der BND schon vor Jahren gezielt in den USA nach gespeicherten Daten von entführten Deutschen fragte – und sie auch bekam.

Berlin – Der Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) hat in den vergangenen Jahren immer wieder von der Sammelwut der US-Geheimdienste im Internet profitiert und offenkundig von der kompletten Speicherung auch deutscher Daten gewusst. Unter Berufung auf US-Geheimdienstler berichtete die “Bild”-Zeitung am Montag, der deutsche Dienst habe bei Geiselnahmen im Jemen und Afghanistan in den vergangenen Jahren mehrfach gezielt um die von der NSA gespeicherten Internetdaten der Entführten gebeten. So sollten die letzten Kontakte der Gekidnappten und mögliche Hintergründe des Verschwindens recherchiert werden.

Was sich wie eine selbstverständliche Amtshilfe unter befreundeten Diensten anhört, hat weitreichende Implikationen. Da der BND sich direkt wegen der gespeicherten Daten an die US-Kollegen wandte, müssen die Deutschen von dem Speicherprogramm der Amerikaner gewusst haben. Ebenso muss dem Geheimdienst klar gewesen sein, dass die USA auch deutsche Kommunikation standardmäßig speichern.

Die neuen Fakten passen nicht zur angeblichen Ahnungslosigkeit der deutschen Regierung bis hoch ins Kanzleramt. Diesem ist der BND direkt unterstellt. Von dort ließ Kanzlerin Merkel noch in der vergangenen Woche mitteilen, sie habe erst aus der Presse vom Abhörprogramm Prism erfahren. Seit Anfang Juni enthüllt der Ex-Geheimdienstmitarbeiter Edward Snowden immer wieder Details über die Praktiken der internationalen Geheimdienste (eine Chronik der Affäre finden Sie hier).

Für den BND waren die US-Daten sicherlich hilfreich. Bei Entführungen sind vor allem die letzten E-Mails und Telefongespräche wichtig. An ihnen kann man ablesen, ob die Opfer bedroht wurden, es geschäftliche Probleme im Vorfeld gab oder ob gar das Umfeld der Gekidnappten an der Verschleppung beteiligt sein könnte.

Die Daten der NSA flossen laut “Bild”-Zeitung mehrfach in die Arbeit deutscher Krisenstäbe ein, um entführte Deutsche zu befreien. US-Regierungs- und Geheimdienstkreise betonen laut der Zeitung ebenfalls, dass der BND seit Jahren von der nahezu totalen Datenerfassung weiß, in Gefahrenlagen darauf zugreifen konnte – und dies auch aktiv tat.

Auch in Zukunft sollen die Daten fließen

Die Bundesregierung reagierte ausweichend auf diese Enthüllungen. Ein Regierungssprecher sagte lediglich, es sei “bekannt, dass es zwischen den deutschen Nachrichtendiensten und US-Diensten eine langjährige Kooperation gibt”.

Tatsächlich aber bangen die Dienste derzeit um diese Kooperation. So bat Innenminister Hans-Peter Friedrich bei seiner US-Reise hinter verschlossenen Türen eindringlich, dass die USA trotz der Affäre auch in Zukunft NSA-Informationen weitergeben. Dies verlautete aus seinem Ministerium. Aus Friedrichs Sicht sind die US-Daten – ganz gleich wo sie herkommen – für die Gefahrenabwehr in Deutschland extrem wichtig. Öffentlich erwähnt hat er seine Bitte an die USA jedoch in keinem der vielen Statements während und nach der Reise.

15. Juli 2013, 11:16 Uhr

Find this story at 15 July 2013

© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2013

German authorities insist they knew nothing of the NSA’s Internet spying operations. But SPIEGEL research shows how closely US and German agencies work together. The German opposition is asking uncomfortable questions 11 weeks ahead of a general election.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government faces uncomfortable questions about German involvement in American and British Internet and telephone surveillance after whistleblower Edward Snowden told SPIEGEL that German agencies and the NSA are “in bed together.”

With a general election due in 11 weeks, the controversy has opened up a new battleground in the campaign, and the opposition center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Green Party are charging onto it.

SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel said it could be that Merkel “knows more than has become known so far.”

Thomas Oppermann, a senior member of the SPD, called on the government to cancel surveillance cooperation agreements with the United States. Hans-Christian Ströbele, a lawmaker with the Greens, said he didn’t believe the government’s statements that it didn’t know about the spying.

“For me it’s just a matter of time before the government admits something,” he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Petra Pau of the Left Party said Merkel should stop “pretending she knew nothing.”

For the last four weeks, the German government has been insisting that it didn’t know that the United States has spent years monitoring vast quantities of Internet traffic, emails and telephone calls.

The parliament’s oversight committee monitoring German intelligence activities has met three times since the revelations came to light, and each time senior government representatives who had been called to testify shrugged their shoulders.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution — Germany’s domestic intelligence agency — the BND foreign intelligence agency, and Merkel’s Chancellery were all apparently unaware of what has been going on. Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said he knew nothing but made clear that the data fishing by Germany’s American friends was bound to be OK. Criticism of it, he said, amounted to “anti-Americanism.”

Germany Cooperates Closely With NSA

But Snowden told SPIEGEL that the BND knew more about the activities of the NSA in Germany than previously known.

SPIEGEL reporting also indicates that cooperation between the NSA and Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, is more intensive than previously known.

A lot is at stake for Europe and the US. This week talks will begin on the planned trans-Atlantic free trade agreement, the Transatlantic Trade and Invesment Partnership (TTIP). The Americans’ snooping could endanger the project.

The Snowden case is entering its next round. At first he revealed how the NSA spes on data networks. Last week SPIEGEL reported that the US was also spying on its allies including Germany. Now the controversy has broadened to include whether the allies themselves are involved in the snooping.

There are times when the inner workings of the world suddenly come to light. Veils fall to the ground and the world suddenly looks different. These are such times.

A man does something that represents the best traditions of the West — he enlightens people, points out wrongdoing and opens eyes. That’s what Edward Snowden has done. And what’s happening to him? The West’s leading nation, the US, is hunting him down, and almost every country is going along with it, especially the rest of the West.

Western Nations Kow-Towing to US

Fear is governing the world, fear of the wrath of the US, fear of President Barack Obama who was once hailed as a global savior. Few seem ready to dare to take on the political and economic superpower.

The West is making itself look ridiculous through submissiveness, by failing to live up to its own values. Meanwhile, states like China or Russia, the constant focus of Western moral finger-wagging, were the first where Snowden sought shelter.

Last Wednesday, Merkel and Obama had a telephone conversation in which both tried to play down the row. There would be “opportunities for an intense exchange about these questions,” officials said afterwards. That wasn’t the tough talking that 78 percent of Germans are demanding of Merkel in her dealings with the US on the issue, according to a recent opinion poll by Infratest Dimap.

This week a German government delegation will travel to Washington for talks with the Department of Homeland Security, the NSA and the US administration. They hope to glean information on what has been going on. When German opposition parties complained that the delegation only consisted of second-tier officials, Interior Minister Friedrich hastily decided to join them.

9/11 Silenced Criticism of ‘Echelon’ Spying System

Foreign data snooping has caused outrage in Germany and Europe before. Twelve years ago, a European Parliament committee criticized “Echelon,” which it described as a “global surveillance system for private and business communcations.” In a 200-page report, the committee said that within Europe, all communications via email, telephone and fax were regularly monitored by the intelligence services of the US, Britain, Canada and Australia.

The European lawmakers recommended a series of rules and agreements to curb the snooping. But two months later, terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and it quickly emerged that some of them had lived in Germany. All criticism of “Echelon” fell abruptly silent.

But the German government, despite all its current protestations of ignorance and innocence, cannot be unaware that US surveillance specialists remain active on German soil. At present the NSA is expanding its presence in Germany considerably.

The best-known monitoring facility is in the Bavarian town of Bad Aibling, extensively described in the “Echelon” report. Officially, the Americans gave up the listening post in 2004. But the white domes of the “Echelon” system, known as radomes, are still there. When the site was officially turned over to civilian use, that didn’t apply to the area with the snooping technology. A connecting cable now transmits the captured signals to the site of the Mangfall army base a few hundred meters away. This is officially a German army communications base — but in truth it belongs to the BND. Cooperating closely with a handful of NSA surveillance specialists, the German foreign intelligence service analyzes telephone calls, faxes and everything else transmitted via satellite.

BND Admits Monitoring Cooperation With NSA

Officially, the BND post in Bad Aibling doesn’t exist, and neither does the local cooperation with the Americans. But in a confidential meeting with the parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, BND head Gerhard Schindler last Wednesday confirmed the cooperation with the US service,

There are other locations in Germany where the Americans engage in data monitoring. The US army runs a top secret lstening post in the town of Griesheim near Darmstadt, in western Germany. Five radomes stand on the edge of the August-Euler airfield, hidden behind a little forest. If you drive past “Dagger Complex” you get suspicious looks from security guards. It’s forbidden to take photos. Inside, soldiers analyze information for the armed forces in Europe. The NSA supports the analysts.

The need for data appears to be so great that the US army is building a new Consolidated Intelligence Center in the nearby city of Wiesbaden. The $124 million building will house bug-proof offices and a high-tech control center. As soon as it’s completed, “Dagger Complex” will be shut down. Only US construction firms are being used. Even the building materials are being brought in from the US and closely guarded along the way.

Is it really conceivable that the German government knows nothing of what the NSA is doing on its own doorstep? Last month Interior Minister Friedrich said in a parliamentary debate on the NSA snooping: “Germany has fortunately been spared big attacks in recent years. We owe that in part to the information provided by our American friends.” Sentences like that reveal a pragmatic view of the US surveillance apparatus: What the NSA gets up to in detail is secondary — what counts is what its snooping reveals. And that information, intelligence officials admit, is indispensable.

Without the tip-offs provided by the Americans, authorities would be partly blind in the fight against terrorism. While the BND and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution are bound by strict rules, foreign intelligence agencies operating in Germany are largely uncontrolled in what they do, as long as it serves the war on terror.

Frankfurt’s Role as East-West Data Crossroads

The example of Frankfurt, Germany’s financial center, illustrates that. Frankfurt is a major crossroads for digital data. This where fiber-optic cables from Eastern Europe and Central Asia meet data lines from Western Europe. Emails, photos, telepone calls and tweets from crisis-hit countries in the Middle East also pass through Frankfurt. This is where international providers — companies like Deutsche Telekom or US firm Level 3, which claims to transmit a third of the world’s Internet traffic — operate digital hubs.

For agencies like the NSA or BND, Frankfurt is an inexhaustible source of information. Documents provided by Snowden show that the NSA accesses half a billion pieces of communication each month. The BND also helps itself to data here. It is allowed to tap up to 20 percent of it. The service feeds data from five hubs in Germany for analysis to its headquarters in Pullach near Munich. Its analysts comb through the data for phone calls, emails or Internet messages that might uncover a nuclear smuggling deal or an al-Qaida plot.

The BND uses the NSA’s help to analyze Internet traffic from the Middle East. The Americans provide the Germans with special tools that work with Arabic search terms. Does the US agency get access to the data in return? The BND denies this. All cooperation is in the form of assessing “finished intelligence,” or completed intelligence reports, it insists.

But relations between the BND and NSA are closer than publicly admitted. They work together on clearly defined individual joint operations abroad when it comes to fighting terrorism or monitoring weapons shipments. At the Bad Aibling listening post, an NSA team works closely with BND agents. The BND uses Bad Aibling mainly to monitor Thuraya satellite phones used in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Americans help the Germans in this work. Is it really conceivable that with such close cooperation the one partner didn’t know what the other was doing?

US Need Not Fear Much German Criticism

“We have no information so far that Internet hubs in Germany were spied on by the NSA,” says the president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen. He also has no information on any snooping on the German government by the US. The agency has set up a working group to investigate Snowden’s allegations.

In the end it’s relatively insignificant whether any light will be shed on the outflow of German Internet data to the US. The German authorities are unlikely to criticize the Americans too harshly. “We can be blackmailed,” said a high-ranking security official. “If the NSA shut off the tap, we’d be blind.”

The US isn’t just a friend, it’s an all-powerful force one can choose to be friends with or not. The Snowden case shows how closely intertwined friendship and submissiveness can be.

SVEN BECKER, THOMAS DARNSTÄDT, JENS GLÜSING, HUBERT GUDE, FRITZ HABEKUSS, KONSTANTIN VON HAMMERSTEIN, MARC HUJER, DIRK KURBJUWEIT, MATHIEU VON ROHR, MARCEL ROSENBACH, MATTHIAS SCHEPP, JÖRG SCHINDLER, GREGOR PETER SCHMITZ, CHRISTOPH SCHULT, HOLGER STARK
07/08/2013 05:47 PM

Find this story at 8 july 2013
© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2013

Too much data surveillance?

Not everybody has a sense of irony. Some people simply lack the ability to read between the lines. A funny, ironical remark left online could see the police come knocking at your door.

“I’m known for my sense of irony. But even I would not have come to think of putting a statue of liberty in New York Harbor,” Irish Nobel Prize winner of Literature George Bernard Shaw once said. But, as far as we know, he got away with this sharp-tongued comment when trying to enter US territory, a comment that implicitly made fun of the US’ idea of liberty.

But maybe he was only left alone because in the early 20th century, border officials did not yet have access to the vast amount of data about people desiring to cross into their countries as they do today. Today, every visitor seems transparent; and harmless but remarks are often interpreted as evil intentions. Shaw’s fellow countryman just experienced that.

US Homeland security strike

The young Irishman was denied entry by the US homeland security agency DHS at Los Angeles airport. The reason: an ironic remark on Twitter. The sender insists he wasn’t even targeting the US. On the contrary, he wanted to tell his followers that he was going to “party to the extreme in LA,” and he described it by saying that “digging out Marilyn Monroe” and “destroying America” were part of his plan. But immigration officers didn’t care much about his sense of humor. He spent 12 hours detained in a cell.
Security comes first during border controls in the US

“I can only advise against such remarks, even if you’re sure you’re being ironic,” said Klaus Lodigkeit, a Hamburg-based IT law specialist. “Americans store almost all our phonecalls, they store a lot online, and make backup copies. And if they search for a name or a nickname online and find such posts they can link to a certain person then you represent a danger for the security of the United States. So be careful.”

Cheeky teenager

But offhand and ironic remarks online can also be misinterpreted outside of airports’ immigration zones. Just before the verdict for security guard George Zimmerman was announced, the killer of black teenager Trayvon Martin, a 15-year-old in the small town of Zion in Illinois posted a comment online. If Zimmerman was acquitted, he wrote, he would shoot dead every single person in Zion and then also be acquitted of charges.

A short while later, local police detained the teenager. After an examination, the officers were convinced he didn’t constitute a threat. “He doesn’t own any weapons and doesn’t have access to any either,” a police report said.

Crazy or just foolish?

18-year-old US citizen Justin Carter wasn’t that lucky. According to his parents, he had a fight with other users while playing a fantasy role-playing game online. When the users then wrote on Facebook that he was “a lunatic, crazy, and off his head,” Carter replied: “Yeah, sure I’m a total mess, I will go and shoot children at a school and eat their beating hearts.”

He must have instantly realized that remarks like that are often misunderstood. He quickly added a ‘LOL’ [‘Laughing out loud’] and a ‘JK’ [‘Just Kidding’]. But it didn’t help: He spent several months in prison because of that comment on Facebook. He has been released on bail.

“If you publish a concrete threat to life or physical condition online, the threat itself constitutes a criminal offence,” according to IT legal expert Lodigkeit. “It’s enough to be convicted. And you’re remanded in custody while investigations are conducted because you’re considered a flight risk.”
The Pirate party criticizes online spying and surveillance activities by governments

But does that give security agencies in Germany and the US the right to spy on private communication? “No,” said Mario Tants, spokesman for online freedom advocates the Pirate party in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. “In the cases we’ve talked about, security authorities in the US didn’t screen private communication. Instead, what happened was that somebody who knew the respective perpetrator or potential perpetrator gave them hints. And if a real person gives a real hint, then security agencies are obliged to examine what’s going on.”

‘NSA spy protection league’

The latest case from Germany is slightly more confusing in comparison. 28-year-old Daniel Bangert invited others on facebook to join him on a “Walk to the Dagger complex.” It’s a US-American installation near Darmstadt in the German state of Hesse, where the NSA is said to have underground offices. Bangert clearly used an ironic tone, calling his group the “NSA spy protection league,” inviting others to “explore and observe.”

But the US military police in Germany apparently don’t share Bangert’s sense of humor. The Americans informed German security agencies who then visited the young man early in the morning and interrogated him. State security were also involved and asked Bangert questions about his “political leanings,” as he put it.

“That’s exactly what we’re critical of,” said Mario Tants from the Pirates’ party. “In future, any citizen writing anything anywhere has to expect a visit by the police or state protection. That’s the problem in surveillance states, and we’re actually effectively already there.”

Date 21.07.2013
Author Marcus Lütticke / nh
Editor Jessie Wingard

Find this story at 21 July 2013

© 2013 Deutsche Welle

Wegen eines angekündigten Spaziergangs zum streng geheimen Dagger Complex bekam Daniel Bangert Besuch vom Staatsschutz. Das schreckt ihn nicht ab: Jetzt lädt er zu einer zweiten Erkundungstour nach Griesheim, um “NSA-Spione” zu beobachten.

Selten hat ein Spaziergang für so viel Aufsehen gesorgt: Der Griesheimer Daniel Bangert hatte auf Facebook scherzhaft dazu eingeladen, einen Erkundungsgang zum streng geheimen Dagger Complex zu unternehmen. Vor der abgeschotteten US-Einrichtung in der Nähe von Darmstadt wolle man “gemeinsam den bedrohten Lebensraum der NSA-Spione erforschen”.

Der ironische Aufruf stieß auf Facebook zunächst nicht auf viele Interessenten, dafür aber bei der Polizei. Die US-Militärpolizei, die für die Sicherheit auf dem Dagger Complex zuständig ist, hatte die deutsche Polizei eingeschaltet – die Bangert prompt aus dem Bett klingelte. Danach kam auch noch der Staatsschutz vorbei und brachte Bangert dazu, seinen Spaziergang als Demo anzumelden, was er auch tat. Schließlich spazierten 70 Leute in Begleitung zweier Streifenwagen zu der abgeschotteten US-Einrichtung.

Trotz oder wegen des ganzen Wirbels soll es nun einen weiteren Erkundungsgang geben. “Der Vorstand des NSA-Spion-Schutzbundes lädt Sie recht herzlich zum zweiten Entdecken und Beobachten Wochenende am Dagger Complex ein”, heißt es in einer öffentlichen Einladung auf Facebook.

Ein Picknick auf der Straße

Schließlich war die letzte demonstrative Entdeckertour zwar ein großer Medienerfolg, vom “wissenschaftlichen” Standpunkt aus gesehen aber ein Reinfall: “Ein Teil der Gruppe hat mit allerlei Lockrufen versucht, die NSA-Spione aus ihrem Bau zu locken”, schreibt Bangert in einem Rückblick auf Facebook. Leider habe man aber “keine echten NSA-Spione zu sehen” bekommen. Deshalb wolle man dieses Mal “im Anschluss an den Spaziergang ein Picknick auf der Straße vor dem Dagger Complex machen”. Vielleicht ließen sich die Spione ja “durch den Duft diverser Köstlichkeiten aus ihrem Bau locken”.

Es sollen wieder viele Kameras mitgebracht werden, Papier und Stift, Verpflegung fürs Picknick und Blumen, “um den Lebensraum der NSA-Spione etwas aufzupeppen”. Verkleidungen sind erwünscht, und Theaterrequisiten, etwa in Form von Edward-Snowden-Masken, sind ausdrücklich erlaubt.

Klingt alles wie beim letzten Mal – nur dürften sich diesmal wohl ein paar mehr spazierende Demonstranten einfinden, die aus den Medien vom Wirbel um den ersten Erkundungsgang erfahren haben. Deshalb steht in der aktuellen Einladung außerdem: Der Spaziergang und das anschließende Picknick seien selbstverständlich angemeldet.

Die Teilnehmerzahl ist nicht abzuschätzen

“Wie viele Teilnehmer es werden, ist völlig unberechenbar”, sagt Initiator Daniel Bangert, “das habe ich auch der Polizei gesagt: Es können 50 werden oder auch 1000, wobei ich das nicht glaube.” Er habe diesmal Kooperationsgespräche geführt, und wieder sei der Staatsschutz dabei gewesen, erzählt er. Auch wenn das womöglich in Darmstadt so üblich sei, irritiere ihn das.

Trotzdem tut er sich den ganzen Stress gern an, angefangen bei den Formalitäten bis hin zu den Fragen der vielen Journalisten. “Ich finde einfach, dass da bei den Leuten mehr Interesse herrschen könnte”, begründet er seine Motivation. Und seine Geschichte zeige doch, “dass ein Einzelner sehr wohl etwas erreichen kann, auch ohne Mittel”.

Ansonsten hofft er auf ein bisschen Hilfe durch die anderen selbsternannten Spion-Forscher: Es stünden mehr Ordner zur Verfügung; doch es wäre gut, wenn ein paar Teilnehmer Warnwesten mitbrächten.

19. Juli 2013, 14:19 Uhr
Von Judith Horchert

Find this story at 19 July 2013

© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2013