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German Security Circles: Agents Never Had Saddam's Defence Plan

Posted on: Monday, 27 February 2006, 12:00 CST

Excerpt from report by German news agency ddp on 27 February

Berlin/Washington: According to ddp news agency information, the Federal Intelligence Service [BND] agents who were active in Iraq four years ago never had the secret defence plans of Iraqi dictator Saddam Husayn in their hands. ddp learned this from security circles in Berlin on Monday [27 February].

The circles "resolutely" contradicted a New York Times report that the two agents had managed to procure a copy of the plans for Baghdad's defence before the beginning of the Iraq war in December 2002. [passage omitted]

According to the security circles, they stated that they "had never seen the sketch of Saddam's secret plan that had been published now". It was a "manipulated report that is supposed to hit our intelligence service", the agents stated, according to high- ranking German experts. [passage omitted]

The security circles also stressed that the German government's 300-page secret report on the investigations of the Parliamentary Control Commission (PKG) does "not" contain "any information whatsoever that might support the New York Times report". It is obviously "a new carefully directed campaign" against the decision of the German government not to participate in the Iraq war. It is "again suggested in a roundabout way that, contrary to their statement, the Germans had militarily participated in the Iraq war", the Berlin circles stated. A BND spokesman did not want to officially comment on the newspaper article. [passage omitted]

The German security circles took the view that the New York Times report "is aimed at disturbing Berlin's political scene in the Iraq discussion" after the PKG investigations. [passage omitted]

Source: BBC Monitoring Newsfile

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