BND chief: Russia is waging a “shadow war” against Germany. The agencies lobby for more powers
The heads of the BND, the Verfassungsschutz and the MAD said in public, in the Bundestag, what is usually said only behind closed doors. They warned of sabotage and killing operations. And they asked for new powers.
For three hours, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the heads of the federal government’s three intelligence services sat on Monday in the Paul-Löbe-Haus before the Parliamentary Oversight Panel. A public hearing is held only once a year; by netzpolitik.org’s count it was the tenth. BND President Martin Jäger said Russia is waging a shadow war against Germany, one that is above all about intimidation. The Federal Republic is at risk of being drawn into a violent conflict with Russia. A major Russian attack, however, he considers unlikely, according to taz. Sinan Selen, president of the Verfassungsschutz, the domestic intelligence agency, warned of espionage and of Moscow’s readiness for sabotage and killing operations. The president of the Military Counterintelligence Service, Martina Rosenberg, said the country now faces concrete attacks; earlier, officials had spoken of an abstract threat.
The hearing was also a sales pitch. An amending bill is planned that would widen the powers of the Verfassungsschutz and the BND. Jäger spoke of a “realignment of the Federal Intelligence Service,” and Selen stressed the close cooperation between the BND and the Verfassungsschutz. Netzpolitik.org criticized that the agency heads were able to lobby for more powers largely unchallenged. Left Party MP Clara Bünger warned, according to taz, against widening powers while weakening parliamentary oversight at the same time. The panel itself seats, in this parliamentary term, only members from the CDU/CSU, the SPD and the Greens; candidates from the AfD and the Left Party failed to win the required majority in the Bundestag.