They just got a different tool to use than we do: They kill innocent lives to achieve objectives. That's what they do. And they're good. They get on the TV screens and they get people to ask questions about, well, you know, this, that or the other. I mean, they're able to kind of say to people: Don't come and bother us, because we will kill you. Bush - Joint News Conference with Blair - 28 July '06

Friday, January 13, 2006

German Secret Agents Helped in Iraq Invasion

dw-world.de: A scandal is brewing in political Berlin after two news organizations reported Wednesday that German intelligence agents helped the US during military operations in Iraq. Germany's foreign minister denied the reports.

In a front page story in the respected Suddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), renowned investigative journalist Hans Leyendecker and colleague Wolfgang Krach quoted a high-ranking German security source as saying that two Federal Intelligence Agency agents (BND) in Baghdad helped the US military assess targets during the air invasion of Iraq in the war's opening weeks.

The office of Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, who thrust US-German relations into an ice age through his disapproval of the Iraq invasion, reportedly knew about the cooperation and approved of it, according to the article. The cooperation was made after a "political decision" by Schroder's coalition government. "This wasn't the decision of some department head," the SZ quoted their source as saying. Read more