ARD Journalist Defends Schroeder "Peace" Legacy Against Sinister American "Plan"

(By Ray D.)

Put away your Watergate knives. No scandal here. Move along people. Ok, so maybe the German intelligence service (known as the Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND) helped the United States select a bombing target here or there in 2003. But that doesn't mean a thing! It doesn't mean they broke their pledge to keep Germany out of Iraq. Case closed. Drop it!

That's the message published in a commentary currently on Germany's prominent state-run "tagesschau" news website. In the article, entitled "Two BND Agents Still Don't Make a War", author and ARD journalist Tobias Haeuser bends over backwards to downplay charges that the former Schroeder administration provided intelligence to the United States for the selection of targets during the Iraq War in 2003. He also unquestioningly accepts German Foreign Minister Steinmeier's (SPD) claim that the BND did not actively support American combat operations.

Of course if someone like Tony Blair, George W. Bush or Angela Merkel were ever accused of such high-level wrongdoing, Mr. Haeuser and his colleagues would be busily scraping the bottom of the investigative journalism barrel for any conceivable shred of evidence to substantiate the charges. They would be drooling with skepticism and ominously flashing their Watergate knives with the determination of hungry piranhas. But this is different: The red-green coalition government was ideologically aligned with the mainstream media like few German governments before it, particularly on the Iraq War. And despite its repeated failings, numerous German journalists continue to defend the Schroeder government like the loyal little vassals that they truly are. So when anyone starts to uncover uncomfortable facts about the former government that expose its obvious hypocrisy, an army of angry poodles like Mr. Haeuser quickly converge to bark away the charges before they are ever fully investigated.

And naturally Mr. Haeuser quickly identifies the true culprit behind the entire scandal. You guessed it: The United States. He writes:

"Two agents of the German intelligence agency stayed in Baghdad during the Iraq War in 2002 and did their jobs. They collected information on the Iraq War and informed the German federal government about the course of combat operations.

That is exactly their job. And they did that job: Foreign reconnaissance in Iraq, also during the war so that Germany could have a minimal degree of its own information on the course of the war. That is, in fact, the lesson from the false information from the US intelligence services on alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. (...)

The USA needs two German Agents?

The image is really quite ridiculous that the USA, with the most modern electronic war machinery in the world, would be dependent on the help of two German BND agents for locating targets for bomb attacks in Baghdad.

It is interesting, above all, where the speculation comes from that the BND supposedly actively helped the US military in the war. Of all places out of the USA, once again. When US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to Berlin a few weeks ago, the Washington Post published that the German government also supposedly knew about the illegal CIA flights and kidnappings. The plan worked, in Germany the discussion is only about the role of the German federal government and not about the real scandal: That the USA has people abducted and tortured.

"Another Track is Laid

This time the same plan. Before Angela Merkel's trip to Washington another track (to mislead the German media and public) is being laid again with this goal: The German Chancellor shouldn't even bother to make a fuss because the Germans were also involved in the Iraq War just as in the CIA affair. That is, however, by no means so."

Of course! The Washington Post (that bastion of conservatism) was in cahoots with the Bush administration all along to distract the German public from the real scandal. Why didn't anyone but Mr. Haeuser notice that! It was all part of one large, devious "plan" and it worked brilliantly. And now those cunning Americans are trying it again by planting allegations about the two BND agents in Iraq. How fortunate we are to have courageous German journalists to uncover these neocon machinations!

Ok. Is anyone else getting scared yet? Yes, this is considered "serious" German journalism. These sorts of wild fantasies and conspiracy theories about American "plans" are coming directly from the pen of a German journalist working at the main studio of Germany's state-sponsored flagship media outlet in Berlin. It doesn't get too much more "mainstream" than that. Can anyone guess how the German media might be having a negative impact on transatlantic relations now?

And, oh yeah, according to Mr. Haeuser it was the "false information from the US intelligence services" that led everyone to believe that Saddam had WMD. The Germans are just so far above that - no arrogant condescension on Mr. Haeuser's part there. Whoops! Just don't read the following information:

"And it wasn't just the United States that was concerned about Iraq's efforts. By 2002, British, Israeli and German intelligence services had also concluded that Iraq was probably far enough along in its nuclear weapons program that it would be able to put together one or more bombs at some point in the second half of this decade. The Germans were actually the most fearful of all—in 2001 they leaked their estimate that Iraq might be able to develop its first workable nuclear device in 2004."

But hey, we shouldn't allow ourselves to be distracted by little facts like that. After all, why should German journalists ever investigate German politicians when it is so obvious that America and Bush are really the center of "the plan" and the source of all the world's problems? Bark...bark...

Update: You can contact Mr.Haeuser via his studio at: hr@ard-hauptstadtstudio.de

Update #2: Sueddeutsche has the latest round of speculation on whether the BND story is all just one big "disinformation campaign of the Americans." Apparently Minister President for the state of Rheinland-Pfalz Kurt Beck (SPD), buys into the idea. He also happens to be up for reelection in two months.

Comments

[Sock Puppet of Doom]

Nothing like ignoring all the provable facts to flog your spin. It was done by those who supported the Red Green coalition every day then and they still do now. S0SDD.

[PacRim Jim]

It's easy to have a peace legacy when one refuses to defend oneself. Evolution has a way of dealing with such people.

[Tofuse]

Is it so hard to imagine that someone in the government (and where did the information came from, what do you think?) leaked it just in the right moment. You see conspiracy everywhere in the German media but you can't believe that there's any on the other side of the Atlantic.
And maybe you didn't realise that during the whole time of the coalition it was strongly critisided all the time by the media. At the end there was even a little war going on between Schaeuble and the papers.
And at the time when the assault on the iraq began, there was clear evidence that there aren't any wmd in the iraq. Bush began the war just one week before the report of the UN-Inspektors would be published and Blix said before that there is no proof for any wmds. And the main proof of Bush for the wmd-program, that buying of uran in niger was just faked, don't you remember?

P.S Good morning. Ahhhhhh.

[Panther33]

I think this report is probably true. There's a lot more U.S.-European intelligence cooperation going on than anyone will admit to. Of course if the BND had agents in Baghdad during the war, they would have been in contact with the Americans...to keep their own house from being blown up, for one thing. And it would be bad business not to pass some targeting info back in return. Interesting that Haeuser brings up the Rice visit. The Euros were so eager to be reassured by Rice's carefully-worded semi-denials that you have to believe they're are getting some good intel from our "abduct/torture" program. If the judgment of European elite is that the U.S. is immoral, then the Euros themselves are more tainted than they know.

[Mike H.]

Tofuse, can you say Halabja? It's very easy *Ha lob ja* and it fits nicely with the term mustard gas. There were lots of dead children laying around next to their mothers and fathers. You could ignore it as you walked through it. /beyond sarcasm

[Foobarista]

Google. The bane of Truth, the enemy of Beauty. If you're a crusading leftoid journo, that is...

[Scott_H]

Tofuse said: "P.S Good morning. Ahhhhhh."

Oh, I see your cup is empty, Tofuse. Mmmm, good to the last drop. Here, have some more Koolaid.

@Tofuse, let's see what seems more plausible, as far as conspiracy theories go: 1) The US mainstream media, undeniably biased to the left and an unsworn enemy of the current governing administration has suddenly (for some unknown reason) changed its stripes and is cooperating with said governing administration by doing its bidding, *or* 2) The German mainstream media, undeniably biased to the left and an unsworn enemy of the current US governing administration is continuing to do what it has always done: mislead, obfuscate, and ignore facts when they don't support current opinion.

Seems to me a long time ago this guy named Occam had something to say about situations like this...I believe it came to him while he was shaving, or something like that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_Razor

[Ephraim Bielfeld]

Tofuse - please get your facts straight. If you want to know to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the Niger/Uranium story, see the Dulfer Report.

[Cousin Dave]

Well, it looks like the Left has succeeded in redefining the words "peace" and "war" the way that they have previosuly redefined words like "racist". You know the drill:

Tolerance: Anything a leftist does.
Racism: Anything a leftist doesn't like.

Peace: Anything that Europe does.
War: Anything that the U.S. does.

[Ephraim Bielfeld]

Cus Dave, are you there? Eternal truths (i.e. definitions) can have surprisingly short lives. Are you referring to the German Leftists or the American ones?

[FranzisM]

Tobias Häuser is barking up the wrong tree here. When the CIA leaked the renditions to whip up the anti-Western frenzy, nobody in the U.S. was blaming Germany for the leak. Now as the BND throws its cards on the table in a similiar manner, why does this man blame America? It was the ARD's own Panorama program which broke that story.

[LouMinatti]

Howdy,

OT, but have you ever heard of famous Austrian film director Michael Haneke? Me neither.

"Most modern American films are revolting," says Haneke, calmly. "They are pro-Bush propaganda of the worst kind, using the same techniques of persuasion that the Nazis used."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/01/13/bfhan13.xml&menuId=564&sSheet=/arts/2006/01/13/ixfilmmain.html

OK, hands up. Who can name a pro-Bush film that has come out of Hollywood.

[Dino@berlin]

Dear David Kaspar,
let us assume that you understand german... so I will continue in german...
In Ihrer Site steckt augenscheinlich sehr viel Zeit und Arbeit und dennoch kann man nur noch den Kopf schütteln, wenn man liest wie SIE die deutschen Medien hier darstellen... Sie legen die oft (berechtigt) kritischen Berichte der Medien, als Amerikafeindliche deutsche bzw. europäische Propaganda aus .Zudem sind ihre "Artikel" nicht Objektiv. Sie beinhalten ihre eigene, äußerst oberflächliche und fast schon „feindselige“, Meinung.
Jetzt frage ich mich welchen nutzen ihre Homepage eigentlich hat ?!
Zu einer besseren Verständigung zwischen Amerika und Deutschland trägt diese Site jedenfalls nicht bei… im Gegenteil!

PS: The BND gave informations to the american military to protect hospitals and public/civilian places !(i hope so)

Thx

Notiz von David: Danke, Dino - Sie haben mir die Augen geöffnet! So hatte ich das bisher noch überhaupt nicht gesehen...

Und was den BND betrifft: auch hier besten Dank für Ihre Interpretation der Arbeit des BND in Bagdad! Natürlich, so muß es gewesen sein - der BND gab den Amerikanern, die natürlich von selbst auf so etwas nicht kommen konnten mit ihren WeltkriegII-Feldstechern, die Informationen über Krankenhäuser und öffentliche Bedürfnisanstalten. Auf diese Weise half der BND, half die Bundesregierung, half Deutschland, viele unschuldige Opfer zu verhindern.

Genau, so war es!

[WhatDoIKnow]

Zu einer besseren Verständigung zwischen Amerika und Deutschland trägt diese Site jedenfalls nicht bei… im Gegenteil!

Ich stimme zu!

David, seien Sie ein guter Deutscher und hören Sie auf die Medien zu kritisieren. Warum können Sie nich das tun, was Millionen in Deutschland bereits tun, nämlich den Kopf in den Sand stecken und ihn höchstens dann rausholen, wenn eine berechtigte, organisierte, zeitlimitierte, Deutschland-weite Kritik-kampagne an sagen wir ... Trennung der Plastikflaschen unter 0.25 liter nach Farbe angesaget wird. Warum muss es immer einige geben, die die wunderbare deutsche Einstimmigkeit einfach so, meistens ohne Grund, stören wollen.
/kopfschütteln

[TM Lutas]

The FRG has closed its embassy. Saddam's regime, already paranoid on its best day, is now on heightened alert as the US prepares to invade. Two BND agents are in a safe house. This, so far, I buy. I do not buy that they wandered around Baghdad without ministry minders and identified "no go" or "please bomb here" sites. That's just insane. The safe house implies that the BND had done its job previously and had created a native support structure. A normal spying infrastructure includes not only safe houses but a network of native agents, especially in countries where you don't exactly blend in. Iraqis are many things but germanic is not one of them.

It makes sense that the chief of station and aid stayed behind and ran their networks to whatever purpose will be revealed in half a century. What interests me is that everybody is passing over the improbability of Saddam's regime just ignoring these very busy two germans who look like just like two guys who should have left with the FRG embassy staff.

Forget left and right, anti or philo american. This goes to plain competence. The FRG media isn't just biased, it's dumb. But tens of millions live their lives according to their pronouncements. Doesn't that make you feel special?

[FranzisM]

@LouMinatti - The most repugnant persuasion technology used by the Nazis were sick jokes carefully tailored to resemble your silent dreams without your dreams resembling them. Such as giving a poetic name to a concentration camp for intellectuals in a beech forest near Weimar where Goethe once had found inspiration. The Nazis aimed to show their victims in the most flashy possible way that your silent dreams had become their loudest jokes, so when you had to look into the psychotic distorting mirror of your dream you may yourself become mad enough to covert into a Nazi.

Does Hollywood employ that Wagnerian technology?

[Jabba the Tutt]

@Dino: Erstens, dieser Artikel wurde von Ray D. nicht David gescrieben. Zweitens, der Zweck dieser Homepage steht unter der Titel: "Politically Correct Observations on Reporting in the German Media." Es steht nichts von "Zu einer besseren Verständigung zwischen Amerika und Deutschland" beizutragen. Ich glaube, dass David und Ray fuer eine besseren Verstaendigung sind, aber das kommt nur durch eine wahre Darstellung der USA in der deutschen Medien, nicht durch die Versteckung von Amerika/Bush Hass in der deutschen Medien. Daher der Zweck dieser Homepage ist 'die politische unkorrekte Beobachtungen an Berichterstattung in der deutschen Medien'.

[disillusioned_german]

What's that crap about a "better understanding between the US and Germany"? I happen to be German and am not the least interested to understand most of the moonbats in my country of birth. I prefer to educate my American friends that they cannot rely on Germany as a reliable partner because this country has gone down the drain (and it still keeps going down further). A majority of Germans are morons, it's as easy as that. I've given up hope long ago - hence my chosen user-name.

[Imbecilia]

@Jabba:
Yeah, but it seeds hate between Germany and the US - as we see in most of the comments on this site.

Both groups of readers may forget that the two countries have lots of differencies:

1. The German media has a tradition to "bash" the government - and not only the own. Of course over all it`s not that "leftish" as described on this site every day. German media is sort of a forth member in the separation of powers and uses its freedom to a lot. In the US this may be a bit different. (NOT ironic meant!)

2. The political system is different. Know anyone who can tell the official writings of the SPD from the ones of the CDU or CSU for sure? In the US I think it`s a lot easier to find differencies between the two big parties. And again, the US are traditionally more conservative than Germany. (NOT meaning that this is good or bad or whatever - it`s just grown from history!)

[LouMinatti]

"The Nazis aimed to show their victims in the most flashy possible way that your silent dreams had become their loudest jokes, so when you had to look into the psychotic distorting mirror of your dream you may yourself become mad enough to covert into a Nazi. Does Hollywood employ that Wagnerian technology?"

Uhhhh, no. Hollywood is about recycled T&A jokes. Michael Haneke is severely messed up in the head if he sees what you describe in "Deuce Bigalow" movies.

So what pro-Bush movies are Michael Haneke talking about? I've asked this elsewhere and I keep hitting a big fat goose egg.

[Jabba the Tutt]

@Imbecilia: "Yeah, but it seeds hate between Germany and the US - as we see in most of the comments on this site."

So, it would be better to verschweigen, what is written and said daily in the German media? Just make happy talk?

[Jabba the Tutt]

@disillusioned german: "What's that crap about a "better understanding between the US and Germany"? I happen to be German and am not the least interested to understand most of the moonbats in my country of birth."

Someone has to be the optimist. ;^)

I think David and Ray want a honest reporting about the US to German, not more understanding of German moonbats by Americans. I can tell you, Americans tend to have a positive opinion of Germans. It may be outdated, but the goodwill is there.

[americanbychoice]

@imbecilia,

There are huge differences between the average German and the average American.
1) Americans tend to be more optimistic than Germans.
2) Americans want less government interference in their daily lifes. Germans want as much Government as possible to guarantee them housing, food, etc.
This may also be a reason that German productivity and innovation is ranked 50 years behind the US.

[Oh Eric!]

@Jabba the Tutt: You say "the goodwill is there". Yes, in a nostalgic way. But what effect does that have on substantive policy differences? And there are many of these. Well, it can get your foot in the door to talk. Anything else? Tourism, I guess. Maybe that'll bail out Germany's anemic economy. Or not.

[FranzisM]

@LouMinatti - "Hollywood is about recycled T&A jokes."

So were the Nazis, since whom mixing politics into porn is taboo. I wonder why does that Hollywood T&A play come under the guise of culture?

Maybe Michael Haneke has unsuspectingly walked into such a movie, and it entered as deep into his imagination as porn, only unsolicited. That would explain his bitterness.

I wouldn't start searching for Bush references in the cinema though. His identification of Hollywood with the Bush administration is just intellectual laziness.

[FranzisM]

@disillusioned German - I suggest your kids take you out to the Berlin Moonbat Museum to cheer you up ;-)

[PacRim Jim]

Achtung Deutschland! You need to be reminded of John Stuart Mill's truism: "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

[FranzisM]

Some more thoughts on Michael Haneke and his Nazi comparison.

Obviously, Hollywood is a stumbling bloc in European-American relations. It is not fully understood on our side of the pond, so the Nazis are an easy choice, but not a helpful analogy to get to the bottom of the phenomenon. What would be the right comparison?

In my eyes, Hollywood seems to be the American equivalent to Kyoto. It is utterly science fiction, but obviously no culture would develop something of this size without a purpose. Outsiders see it primarily in terms of possible collateral damage, but for its home culture it has a crucial cathartic function. And of course adherents tend to expect the whole world would want nothing more than to opt in...

If this comparison is true, then the corresponding counterpart to this European moviemaker who believes Hollywood is Hitler would be an American environmentalist who believed Eurocentrists were Nazis. I don't know whether you have such people, but if you have then you also have a model for the cognitive dissonance of Michael Haneke.