BILD: Western Intelligence Agencies Mistrust Germany

Because of constant “leaks” to the Kremlin.

Western intelligence agencies have long distrusted Germany due to leaks of classified information to Russia.

As BILD columnist Peter Thiede writes, commenting on the scandal with the leak of a conversation between German officers about the Taurus missile attack on the Crimean Bridge, a saying common in Western countries comes to mind: “If you want something to end up in Moscow, give it to the Germans!”

“The mistrust of the Western allies in German intelligence services and politicians is enormous, it developed historically: for almost 80 years, no Western country has been subjected to such intensive and successful intelligence from Moscow as Germany. Secrets always reach Moscow through Germany,” Tiede writes.

As a source in one of the German intelligence services told BILD, they have not been trusted by Western intelligence services for many years due to constant scandals and leaks.

“Nobody from the CIA or MI5 comes and says openly that they don’t trust us anymore. This is a gradual process: you are invited less, you learn about important meetings on certain topics only later... In the world of intelligence services, we are considered second class and we are treated accordingly: we are not in the first league,” says the source.

He calls the reason “over-regulation”: the BND’s foreign intelligence alone is controlled by up to seven government agencies.

“In every Western country, information coming from partner intelligence agencies is protected. Before using it in court cases or investigative commissions, you need to ask the intelligence agency where the information came from: the secret information belongs to them. But in Germany it’s not like that, here it’s not protected, every secret threatens to become public knowledge. We must submit it to courts and committees — first it was regulated by the courts, and now by law. As a result, we are receiving less and less information from our partners because it is not safe,” the source said.