Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung has begun publishing articles based on the book ‘Secret War’ – about Germany’s central role in America’s ‘war against terror’ initiated after the 9-11 attacks. This article, written by the book’s authors, Christian Fuchs and John Goetz, and a number of other reporters, examines the very heart of America’s secret operations in Germany – the U.S. Consulate General in Frankfurt.
For the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, reporters Christian Fuchs, John Goetz, Frederik Obermaier, Bastian Obermayer, and Tanjev Schultz start off this way:
From here, secret prisons are planned, kidnappings organized, and the occasional horse delivered to Afghanistan. The U.S. Consulate General in Frankfurt houses one of the largest branch offices of the CIA in the world. The research center for U.S. espionage in Germany.
FRANKFURT: It’s no surprise that people around the U.S. Consulate General in Frankfurt are nervous. But is it really so suspicious when someone strolls by and even stops now and then? Or, to rephrase the question, is it so suspicious as to require not one, but two police vehicles and U.S. security people dressed in black? Really?
One finds the consulate in the north of Frankfurt, in a building that once housed the largest American military hospital in Europe. Today, the building looks more like a fortress: high walls, barbed wire, tank traps, cameras, and men with machine guns, who patrol with measured paces. It doesn’t take long for the police patrol: “What are you doing here?” the officers ask. The American security men join the group.
On the other hand: It is no wonder one is nervous here. The Consulate General’s office plays a unique role in the NSA’s global surveillance scandal, and is a key element of surveillance when it comes to Germany. Here, in the middle of Frankfurt, a branch of the “Special Collection Service,” a joint CIA-NSA unit, is allegedly located, a unit that, among other things, supposedly eavesdropped on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone. This has emerged from a document in the collection of whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Long before the cell phone surveillance affair, it is clear that Germany’s government knew agents were operating from within the U.S. Consulate General. It’s hard to find another explanation for the fact that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had a helicopter take a low, circular flight over the building in August to take high resolution photographs.
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