Wikileaks Releases Documents on US-German Intel Cooperation

Local Editor

The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks released nearly 2,500 sensitive documents over the cooperation between the German and the US spy agencies as well as data on Berlin's inquiry into the matter.

"Today, 1 December 2016, WikiLeaks releases 90 GB of information relating to the German parliamentary inquiry into the surveillance activities of Germany's foreign intelligence agency Bundesnachrichtendienst [BND] and its cooperation with the US National Security Agency [NSA]," as statement on the website reads.

Among the 2,420 documents leaked by WikiLeaks are print-screens of the papers from the BND itself, the German military intelligence [MAD], the Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution [BfV] and other key ministries.

The revelations come amid an ongoing parliamentary inquiry in Germany into BND's support of NSA global spying program. According to one particular document, the German intelligence even mulled that one of its employees was to learn writing of the US spy software XKeyscore, which was used by the NSA for mass surveillance.

While in the part called the "public answer" the BND merely admits the cooperation, more details are provided in the "for internal use" section. According to it, the German intelligence signed contracts with the CSC subsidiary back in 2002 with the value of ‎€17.5 million and did not cut the ties.

Similar sections "for public answer" and "for internal use" can be found in numerous documents leaked by the WikiLeaks on December 1.

The NSA and BND ties came to light back in 2013 following the revelations by a former NSA employee, Edward Snowden. The leaked documents pointed to the fact that the US intelligence widely spied on Americans as well as foreign leaders and officials.

They have also shown that the BND acted on behalf of the NSA while spying at home and abroad, spurring outrage among the German public and many local officials.

With the investigation into the matter still ongoing, the German parliament passed a bill in October, aimed at reforming the BND.

The legislation has put additional control measures on the work of its intelligence, yet also gave it wider powers with regard to the internal data monitoring and also justified spying on EU facilities if German security was in danger. The bill has also envisioned no complete wrap-up of the cooperation with the NSA.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team