Bundestag Inquiry into BND and NSA

Today, Tuesday 12 May, WikiLeaks releases ten months of transcripts from the ongoing German Parliamentary inquiry into NSA activities in Germany. Despite many sessions being technically public, in practice public understanding has been compromised as transcripts have been withheld, recording devices banned and reporters intrusively watched by police.

WikiLeaks is releasing 1,380 pages of transcripts from the unclassified sessions, covering 34 witnesses – including 13 concealed witnesses from Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). The transcripts cover from the start of the inquiry in May 2014 through to February 2015.

WikiLeaks has also written summaries of each session in German and English as the inquiry, due to its subject matter, is of international significance.

The BND is referenced 1,782 times, the NSA 1,671 times, the CIA 179 times, Edward Snowden 204 times and German Chancellor Angela Merkel 14 times.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks publisher, said: "In this important Bundestag inquiry, the German and international public is the injured party. The purpose of this inquiry, properly stated, is to discover who is responsible for the injury of a great many people's rights and how these violations were committed. As the injured party, the public has a right to understand this inquiry's work. It is only through effective public oversight that this inquiry's stated objectives of transparency and justice will be met."

Calls for an inquiry into NSA spying on Germany grew in the second half of 2013, particularly when it emerged that the US had specifically targeted Chancellor Merkel's phone. On 18 March 2014 the inquiry was established (in English), to investigate surveillance activities by the United States on German soil and to what degree German agencies have been complicit with the spying.

Despite the lack of an available public record, several important scandals have emerged from witness testimony. For example, in the 26th session it emerged that a letter was sent from the Germany Chancellory directly to Kai-Uwe Ricke, who was the CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG from 2002 to 2006. The letter called on the assistance of Deutsche Telekom to facilitate the continuous mass surveillance of German and international internet and telecommunications data at Deutsche Telekom's Frankfurt exchange point. This operation, codenamed "Eikonal", saw these intercepts then pass from the BND to the NSA. The letter was addressed to Ricke and marked to be read by him personally. In the inquiry Ricke claimed he had never seen such a letter. After this letter was sent, the request to allow the BND access was granted. This letter was not allowed to be shown or discussed in full by the inquiry committee due to its classification; however, the fact of the letter and complicity in the co-operation, which had previously been unknown, came to light through this process.

Meta issues that have emerged from the inquiry have to do with the effectiveness and accountability of the process itself. Recording is forbidden, so official, precise and authoritative accounts of the public sessions are non-existent. Journalists have also complained that other conditions applied to the gallery also limit access. The public and media attending the inquiry have felt this at every session, including netzpolitik.org, the publication following the inquiry with the greatest detail, which is very closely monitored by police during the sessions.

The released transcripts also document how the absence of a full public record has led to witnesses abusing the inquiry process. In at least three instances the statements of a witness in the public session contradicted their statements in the private session. The transcripts also show that the committee's ability to properly interrogate witnesses has been affected by excessive redactions. In one case the meeting was interrupted because the witnesses had received unredacted documents for their own preparation, while the parliamentarians on the committee themselves got a redacted version.

One of the biggest scandals to emerge from the inquiry so far is the recent "selector" spy target list scandal where a BND official revealed that the agency was expected to spy on thousands of targets at the instruction of the NSA. These targets included members of the French government and European industry. This put into question Germany's suitability in taking a leadership role in the European Union. It also showed that international co-operation on mass surveillance, which has been marketed in public as a counter-terrorism measure, is in practice also used by the United States for the purposes of industrial espionage and geopolitical advantage vis-a-vis members of the European Union. The committee requested the full "selector" list of targets provided to the BND by the NSA. The committee was told that the US would first need to be asked permission for the list to be revealed to the committee (even in confidence). Last Wednesday, 6 May 2015, when the answer was meant to be delivered, stalling tactics were used, leaving the German public, and the Parliamentary inquiry, without any ability to understand what their own secret services are up to.

With today's publication WikiLeaks aims to shed some much-needed light on this important process, allowing the public and the media alike access to authoritative, citable transcripts, without which proper analysis and accountability is awry.

If you have additional information relating to this inquiry contact us confidentially.

Witnesses:

Jurists:

Professor Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem (former judge at the Federal Constitutional Court)

Professor Dr Hans-Jürgen Papier (former judge at the Federal Constitutional Court)

BND:

Reinhardt Breitfelder (BND)

Dr Stefan Burbaum (BMI, ex-BND, ex-BfV)

Concealed witnesses: A, AS, BK, EB, GL, H, HF, JF, JZ, KL, L, RS, RU, SL, TB, UL, WK, WP

NSA:

William Binney (ex-NSA)

Thomas Drake (ex-NSA)

Deutsche Telekom:

Kai-Uwe Ricke (former CEO of Deutsche Telekom AG)

Harald Helfrich

Wolfgang Alster

Udo Laux

Dr Bernd Köbele

Other agencies:

Martin Golke (BSI)

Peter Schaar (former BfDI)

Dr Sandro Gaycken (NATO)

Academics and civilian experts:

Professor Dr Matthias Bäcker (University of Mannheim)

Professor Ian Brown (University of Oxford)

Professor Douwe Korff (London Metropolitan University)

Professor Russell A. Miller (Washington & Lee University)

Professor Dr Stefan Talmon (University of Bonn)

Professor Dr Michael Waidner (Fraunhofer-Institute)

Dr Helmut Philipp Aust (Humboldt-University of Berlin)

Frank Rieger (CCC)