The parliamentary commission to investigate the activities of the German intelligence service BND met for the first time in April of this year.
At the very time when members of the United States Congress are expressing their concern over the National Security Agency's phone record program, Germany's foreign intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), is facing harsh criticism as well. Created 50 years ago with the mandate of gathering intelligence abroad, the BND stands accused of having infiltrated the offices of several German papers, sometimes paying journalists to work as spies. The scandal emerged after information was leaked from within the German parliamentary committee responsible for overseeing the work of the German intelligence service.
Commentators writing in this Monday's papers are understandably outraged over the affair, although some take pride in the fact that they were placed under surveillance -- what better confirmation that they were doing their jobs as critical journalists? Some papers draw the obvious comparison to the NSA scandal in the US; others are reminded of the extensive surveillance program of the Stasi, the East German secret police.
An editorial in the center-left Berliner Zeitung -- one of several newspapers to have been infiltrated by the BND -- opens with a provocative claim: "We, the editors of Berliner Zeitung, feel encouraged by recent findings on the BND's activities. It seems we've done our job. We've defended the public's right to know what goes on in state institutions so well that these institutions became nervous." Next comes a rebuke to those who like to harp on former East Germany's undemocratic character, and in particular on the activities of the East German intelligence service, infamous for its extensive surveillance program. "Apparently the BND is just as good at keeping a watchful eye on German citizens." The commentator reminds readers that "the BND is an organization that was created in order to protect the nation from outside dangers, and it is only allowed to conduct investigations within the country for purposes of self-protection." That the BND invested considerable time, money and effort into investigating German journalists suggests it felt "seriously threatened" by a press that was only doing its job. And yet there is a twist. After all, the intelligence service used journalists to spy on other journalists: "That the BND recruited journalists to spy on their colleagues is not reassuring news, but it's true as well."
The conservative daily Die Welt speaks of "grave violations of freedom of the press" and demands both the publication of the classified parliamentary report on the BND from which information on the surveillance of German journalists was leaked and "personal consequences, right up to the resignation of those professionally and politically responsible." By violating its mandate of operating only abroad, the BND has "crossed the red line," the editorialist argues. What is more, the scandal has become public "on the 50th anniversary of the intelligence service's creation." In short, "things couldn't be any worse."
Business daily Handelsblatt demands "clear answers" to the question of how the BND could have been allowed to "trespass the limits of intelligence service activities in democratic societies" and expresses outrage over the fact that the BND "didn't give a damn about its mandate to intervene only abroad." The BND's contribution to the recent liberation of two German engineers kidnapped in Iraq is cited approvingly by the commentator; such "successes" are reason for the BND to be "proud" -- which makes it all the more upsetting that the intelligence service should have tarnished its record by spying on journalists. "Like the NSA's phone record program, recent accusations against the BND show to what extent constitutional principles have been allowed to slip following the Sept. 11 attacks," the commentator argues, concluding that the time has come for politicians to re-impose "limits" on the activities of intelligence services.
-- Max Henninger, 11:10 a.m., CET
The SPD Goes Back to its Roots
Kurt Beck is the new chairmen of Germany's Social Democrats.
Kurt Beck, a trained electrician who joined Germany's Social Democrat Party (SPD) in 1972 and became governor of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1994, has now been elected as the party's chairman. At a special party congress held on Sunday, he was elected to the position by a 95 percent vote. Beck replaces Mathias Platzeck, who resigned from the position of chairman several weeks ago due to health problems.
The German press widely celebrates the event as a political triumph for the SPD, portraying Beck as a down-to-earth politician who could help make the party more popular than it has been in recent months. A single voice dissents from the chorus of approval to lament the attention that the SPD has been receiving despite its failure to live up to its self-conception as the working man's party.
"The SPD is returning to its roots," declares a commentator writing in Germany's most widely read newspaper, the conservative and often crassly sensationalist daily BILD. The editorial is full of sympathy for the SPD's new chairman: "With Kurt Beck at the top, the SPD is once more being led by a worker, a West German, a Catholic -- and a political heavyweight!" Beck is portrayed as pragmatic and down-to-earth: "He's neither a brilliant speaker nor a visionary thinker full of new ideas -- he's someone who gets right down to work." With such a man at the helm, glorious days lie ahead for the SPD, the commentator concludes: "If anyone can contribute to an electoral outcome more favorable to the SPD than the one that led to the current coalition, it's Kurt Beck."
The center-right daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung describes Beck's promotion to party chairman as the "opening of a new chapter in the history of the SPD." Much of the editorial is devoted to the popular question of how long Beck will remain in his position, given that his predecessor had to leave after only a few months. The commentator is confident that this "new chapter" will be "longer than the last," pointing out that, unlike the younger Platzeck, Beck disposes of "the strength that comes from experience and which is absolutely necessary for leading an organization with almost 600,000 members." What is more, no one suspects that Beck became chairman because others in powerful positions wanted him to (something that was often said of Platzeck, who had the support of his predecessors Schröder and Müntefering); rather, "Beck has himself to thank before anyone else," according to the commentator.
"The SPD, a crying shame" is the title of an editorial in the left-wing daily Die Tageszeitung, which laments the increasing banality of the decisions made at SPD party congresses. "The SPD might as well hold its party congresses behind closed doors," the editorial begins, "because it's been a while since the party has had anything exciting to tell the world." If no one really cares who the SPD's new chairman is, as the editorial suggests, then this may be because the party has lost touch with its base. That, in any case, is what the commentator believes: "The SPD has become a complacent little club, completely out of touch both with the realities of the 21st century and with the debates about them." Instead of living up to its original mandate of "offering a political perspective to society's underprivileged," the SPD has been "boring the public with a debate over who is more prone to take decisions quickly: the SPD or its coalition partner, the Christian Democrats?" In short, "it's a crying shame."
-- Max Henninger, 12:10 a.m., CET
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