June 29, 2016.

Angela Merkel’s cabinet signs off on reforms to keep country’s foreign intelligence agency on tighter leash.

Germany
has approved new measures to rein in the activities of its foreign
intelligence agency after a scandal over improper collusion with the US
National Security Agency.

Two months after replacing the head of the BND service over the
damning revelations, chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet signed off on
the reforms to keep the country’s spies on a tighter leash.

Oversight of the spy agency directly from Merkel’s office will be
beefed up with an external watchdog panel of jurists, and the list of
duties the BND carries out for the NSA has been overhauled.

While intelligence-gathering from EU institutions or partner states
will not be explicitly banned, it will be limited by law to “information
to recognise and confront threats to internal or external security”.
Economic espionage is barred.

The reforms, which require approval from parliament, are based on the
findings of a government-appointed investigator into claims that the
BND spied on its European allies for the NSA.


The 300-page report found the NSA had kept a long list of European
government offices as targets for espionage and that the US had thus
“clearly violated treaty agreements”.

The investigation was based on a review of telephone numbers and IP
addresses the NSA handed to the BND’s surveillance apparatus with the
request that the results to be sent back to the US.


The findings indicated that over the years the BND whittled down the
list of thousands of NSA targets while still maintaining cooperation.

Germany reacted with outrage when information leaked by former NSA
contractor Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that US agents were carrying
out widespread tapping worldwide, including of Merkel’s mobile phone.

Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany where state spying on citizens was rampant, declared repeatedly that “spying among friends is not on” while acknowledging Germany’s reliance on the US in security matters.


Germany announced in late April that it was replacing the head of the BND. Gerhard Schindler, 63, will take early retirement from July 1, leaving the reins to Bruno Kahl, a 53-year-old trained lawyer and high-ranking finance ministry official.

SOURCE: The Guardian