Germans protest news that the BND, the German intelligence service,

had been helping the NSA collect information by skirting German law.

Bundestag's NSA Committee of Inquiry Threatened with Criminal Charges (Die Zeit, Germany)

"The Federal Chancellery has threatened Bundestag members serving on the NSA Committee of Inquiry with criminal charges, should additional information from confidential documents provided the committee be leaked to the outside. … The members are prohibited from quoting secret documents and from making public specific events mentioned in the documents. However, they see it as their duty to ensure that disputed incidents are investigated and that the public is informed about maladministration."

Translated By Stephanie Martin

October 17, 2014

Germany - Die Zeit - Original Article (German)

The Federal Chancellery has threatened Bundestag members serving on the NSA Committee of Inquiry with criminal charges, should additional information from confidential documents provided the committee be leaked to the outside. In a letter seen by Die Zeit, committee chairman Patrick Sensburg (CDU) was asked to ensure the confidentiality of documents that the committee has been provided in the course of its work.

The chancellor's office complained of at least four cases in which the media had quoted documents that had previously been provided to the Committee of Inquiry. Named are the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Spiegel and the blog Netzpolitik.org. The Süddeutsche and Spiegel published several quotes from confidential files, mainly about the Eikonal case. Netzpolitik published a document in which the BND gave one of its employees permission to testify on evidence that had been classified as confidential.

[Editor's Note: According to the Snowden documents, Operation Eikonal involved BND cooperation with the NSA in skirting Germany's G10 Law, which forbids the monitoring of the personal communications and data of Germans – to say nothing of direct access to the Frankfurt DE-CIX Internet exchange point].

According to information provided to Die Zeit, Chancellery Chief of Staff Peter Altmaier had initially considered filing charges immediately against persons unknown in order to identify the leak. However for now, the decision was made to issue a written warning.

Official statements

Previously, Chairman Sensburg had announced plans to pursue an investigation into these breaches of secrecy, which triggered a dispute among committee members. The members are prohibited from quoting secret documents and from making public specific events mentioned in the documents. However, they see it as their duty to ensure that disputed incidents are investigated and that the public is informed about maladministration.

Posted By Worldmeets.US

Altmaier is threatening not only committee members. Employees of the agencies involved, including the BND, for example, are now obliged to make official statements on whether they have committed any breaches of secrecy. That means that if they make secret files accessible to others, they could face not only criminal charges but consequences concerning regulations governing civil servants.

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