FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Germany is pushing to strengthen its foreign intelligence agency with sweeping new powers in preparation for a possible divorce from the United States. The plan comes at a time when German and other European leaders are increasingly concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump could take steps to stop the sharing of American intelligence that Europe relies on, or exploit that dependence for influence.
Just as European countries must radically strengthen their militaries to gain more autonomy, officials in Berlin argue, the German intelligence apparatus must also become much more capable.
“We want to continue to work closely with the Americans. But if a US president, whoever he is, decides in the future to act alone without the Europeans... then we need to be able to stand on our own two feet ,” Marc Henrichmann, chairman of a special committee in Germany’s Bundestag that oversees the country’s intelligence services, told POLITICO.
German leaders believe this need is particularly urgent in their country, where the foreign intelligence service, or BND, is much more legally restricted than intelligence agencies elsewhere. Those restrictions stem from deliberate safeguards put in place after World War II to prevent a repeat of the abuses committed by the Nazi spy apparatus. But those restrictions have had the side effect of making Germany particularly dependent on the United States for intelligence gathering, and that is now seen as a potential danger.
"The intelligence business is a business where the question always arises: What do you offer me, what do I offer you? And of course, if Germany is only a recipient, the risk is simply too great ," Henrichmann said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz now wants to strengthen and free up his country's foreign intelligence service, giving it much broader authority to carry out acts of sabotage, conduct offensive cyber operations, and conduct espionage more aggressively.
Thorsten Frei, the chancellery official overseeing intelligence reform, this week compared the plans to the Zeitenwende, or “historic turning point,” declared by former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At the time, Berlin announced major investments to bolster its long-neglected armed forces.
Such restrictions continue to this day. German spies, for example, may become aware of plans for an impending cyberattack through surveillance, but are virtually powerless to stop it themselves. They can intercept a conversation with strict legal oversight, but are unable to carry out acts of sabotage to undermine a detected threat.
Germany's strict data protection laws further restrict the BND. The agency must, for example, redact personal information in documents before passing them on to other intelligence services. Such restrictions are no longer justified, especially in light of the growing threat of Russian sabotage, German officials say.
"If there are attacks on Germany, then in my opinion it is not enough for us to simply observe, we must be able to defend ourselves. All other countries in the world that have relevant services of a corresponding size do this ," said Frei, the chancellery official responsible for BND reform.
As a result of Germany’s weak intelligence, the country has relied heavily on clandestine U.S. activities to thwart planned attacks. The U.S., for example, issued warnings about a Russian plot to assassinate the CEO of Rheinmetall and a plot by a Chechen national to attack the Israeli embassy in Berlin. Only about 2 percent of warnings about terrorist threats come from the BND itself, according to a report in Germany’s Bild that cited a confidential agency document.
This heavy reliance on the US has led some German leaders to warn that the alliance with Washington must be preserved to the extent possible, even as Berlin is gradually moving towards becoming less dependent on it.
German officials were shocked when Washington temporarily halted intelligence sharing with Ukraine in March last year to pressure Kiev during peace talks with Russia, a move that effectively blindsided the Ukrainian military in the midst of the war. The episode showed that the Trump administration is willing to use American dominance in intelligence gathering to exert influence over allies. A few months later, Merz pledged to significantly increase the BND’s capabilities.
" Old safeguards have become obsolete, tried and tested rules no longer apply. Given the responsibility we bear in Europe in relation to our size and economic strength, it is therefore our aspiration that the BND operates at the highest level in terms of intelligence ," Merz said in a speech to agency officials.
Merz's government has increased the BND's budget by about 26 percent to 1.51 billion euros this year. The chancellor is also pushing to loosen the data protection regulations to which the BND is subject, allowing the use of artificial intelligence and facial recognition. The chancellery hopes to bring a full package of proposed reforms to a vote in parliament by the fall.
However, significant restrictions on the BND are likely to remain in place. The agency's expanded powers would depend on the chancellery's national security council declaring a "special intelligence situation" that would also require the approval of two-thirds of lawmakers in the parliamentary committee that oversees the BND, according to German media citing a draft of the chancellery proposal.
But many lawmakers belonging to Germany's coalition government still believe that the proposed changes will put the country in a much better position to protect itself.
"Those who are working against us, Russian state actors, Russian cyber factories, are working in the same way as the Nazi intelligence services did back then. In a game without rules, we cannot stand idly by and impose artificial restrictions on ourselves ," said Henrichmann, the conservative lawmaker who chairs the parliamentary committee./ Politico
Lini një Përgjigje