Federal Intelligence Service
The BND was founded during the Cold War in 1956 as the official foreign intelligence agency of West Germany, which had recently joined NATO, and in close cooperation with the CIA."[3] From the early days of the Cold War the Gehlen Organization and later the BND had an intimate cooperation with the CIA, and often was the western intelligence community's only eyes and ears on the ground in the Eastern Bloc.The domestic secret service counterparts of the BND are the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, or BfV) and 16 counterparts at the state level Landesämter für Verfassungsschutz (State Offices for the Protection of the Constitution); there is also a separate military intelligence organisation, the Military Counterintelligence Service (Militärischer Abschirmdienst, or MAD).[5] Many had been operatives of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris' wartime Abwehr (counter-intelligence) organization, but Gehlen also recruited people from the former Sicherheitsdienst (SD), SS and Gestapo, after their release by the Allies.Among them were Adolf Eichmann's deputy Alois Brunner, who would go on to die of old age despite having sent more than 100,000 Jews to ghettos or internment camps, and ex-SS major Emil Augsburg.Critchfield added that Gehlen hired former Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service of the Reichsführer-SS) men "reluctantly, under pressure from German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to deal with 'the avalanche of subversion hitting them from East Germany.[12] During the first years of oversight by the State Secretary in the federal chancellery of Konrad Adenauer of the operation in Pullach, Munich District, Bavaria, the BND continued the ways of its forebear, the Gehlen Organization.They knew the carrying capacity of every bridge, the bed count of every hospital, the length of every airfield, the width and level of maintenance of the roads that Soviet armor and infantry divisions would have to traverse in a potential attack on the West.The BND was positioned and able to inject forged reports implying that the loose spy was actually the KGB investigator, who was then arrested by the Soviets and shipped off to Moscow.[15] Several informants in East Berlin reported in June and July 1961 of street closures, clearing of fields, accumulation of building materials and police and army deployments in specific parts of the eastern sector, as well as other measures that BND determined could lead to a division of the city.Gehlen's influence on the US government should not be underestimated, because the BND was able to regularly provide the CIA with detailed information about Soviet arms deliveries through its very good sources in Cuba.Ten days before the Bay of Pigs invasion, Gehlen reported to Bonn: "Within a relatively short period of time, large-scale military operations to defeat Fidel Castro will begin."[dubious – discuss] CIA analysts on the other hand did not support the notion of "fraternal assistance" by the satellite states of Moscow; and US ambassador to the Soviet Union, Llewellyn Thompson, quite irritated, called the secret BND report he was given "a German fabrication".[25] The fact that the BND could score certain successes despite East German communist Stasi interference, internal malpractice, inefficiencies and infighting, was primarily due to select members of the staff who took it upon themselves to step up and overcome then existing maladies.[26] Only slowly did the younger generation then advance to substitute new ideas for some of the bad habits caused mainly by Gehlen's semi-retired attitude and frequent holiday absences.Years later, Wessel's obituary in the Los Angeles Times, reported that he "is credited with modernizing the BND by hiring academic analysts and electronics specialists".According to his obituary in the Los Angeles Times in August 2002, the "former intelligence officer in Adolf Hitler's anti-Soviet spy operations" ... "is credited with modernizing the BND by hiring academic analysts and electronics specialists".[30] The kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich was a watershed event for the BND, following early warnings from other countries, because it led the agency to build counter-terrorism capabilities.[32] According to an interview with Stasi defector Col. Rainer Wiegand, BND agents were assigned to use the anti-Stasi protests in East Germany in order to covertly obtain files from Building No.[33] Operation Summer Rain was a highly classified joint mission involving the Federal Intelligence Service and special units of the German Armed Forces during the Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s.The committee tasked the former Federal Appellate Court (Bundesgerichtshof) judge Dr. Gerhard Schäfer [de] as special investigator, who published a report confirming illegal BND operations involving and targeting journalists between 1993 and 2005.[40] In 1990, BND gave the Finnish Security Intelligence Service the so-called Tiitinen list—which supposedly contains names of Finns who were believed to have links to Stasi.The list was classified and locked in a safe after the Director of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service, Seppo Tiitinen, and the President of Finland, Mauno Koivisto, determined that it was based on vague hints instead of hard evidence.A few weeks later BND president Konrad Porzner and minister of defence Gerhard Stoltenberg rated the transfers as not to be problematic, since the equipment was only handed over for trials and was supposed to be returned afterwards.The BND mediated the German Finance Ministry's $7.3 million acquisition of a CD from a former employee of the LGT Group – a Liechtenstein bank owned by the country's ruling family.While the Finance Ministry defends the deal, saying it would result in several hundred millions of dollars in back tax payments, the sale remains controversial, as a government agency has paid for possibly stolen data.The Bundestag committee investigating the NSA spying scandal has uncovered that the German intelligence agency intercepts communications traveling via both satellites and Internet cables.[58] The Bundesnachrichtendienst is divided into the following departments: BND is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and processing of information and data for foreign and domestic intelligence and counterintelligence purposes with content of German interest.
Federal Intelligence Service (Switzerland)List of intelligence agencies of GermanyBND headquarters in BerlinGovernment of GermanyBND headquartersBerlinWolfgang SchmidtMinister for Special AffairsBruno KahlGerman ChancelleryGermanintelligence agencyGermanyChancellor's OfficeGerman Intelligence CommunityCold WarWest GermanyGehlen OrganizationReinhard GehlenEastern BlocMiddle Eastviolent non-state actorsearly warning systemgovernmentthreatswiretappingelectronic surveillanceinternational communicationsorganized crimeinformation warfaremilitaryintelligenceStrategic Reconnaissance CommandBundeswehrsecret serviceFederal Office for the Protection of the ConstitutionMilitary Counterintelligence ServiceWorld War IIAbteilung Fremde Heere OstWehrmachtWilhelm CanarisAbwehrSicherheitsdienstGestapoAlliesNazi atrocitiesWest GermanThe IndependentAdolf EichmannAlois BrunnerEmil AugsburgSilberbauerAnne FrankNational Security ArchiveJames H. CritchfieldCentral Intelligence AgencyThe Washington PostKonrad AdenauerPullachMunich DistrictBavariaEast Germanydouble agentsCuban Missile Crisisintelligence serviceSovietmedium-range missilescaribbean islandUnited StatesWashingtoncommunistLatin AmericaBay of Pigs invasionGehlenFidel CastroWaffen-SSSoviet-blocSix-Day WarUnited States National Security CouncilRichard HelmsDean RuskCzech crisisLlewellyn ThompsonLos Angeles TimesThe New York Timeskidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes1972 Olympics in MunichCrypto AGLibyan1986 Berlin discotheque bombingOperation Summer Rainspecial unitsGerman Armed ForcesSoviet-Afghan WarjournalistsFinnish Security Intelligence ServiceTiitinen listMauno KoivistoGerman reunificationFederal Ministry of DefenceZSU-23/4WilhelmshavenManchingAlhornWasserschutzpolizeiWilly WimmerHelmut KohlKonrad PorznerGerhard StoltenbergGlobal surveillanceOriginsPre-20132013–presentReactionsXKeyscoreECHELONSentientCarnivoreDishfireStone GhostTemporaFrenchelonFairviewMYSTICBoundless InformantBullrun