German ex-minister admits bribe (ex-spy chief in US&Saudi arms deals)

[Monkie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4630267.stm

"A former top German defence official on trial over an arms deal with Saudi Arabia has admitted accepting bribes.
Holger Pfahls, who was a deputy defence secretary in Helmut Kohl's government, told the Augsburg court he had accepted about one million euros (£700,000).

His confession related to an arms deal with the US - not the 1991 sale of 36 armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia in which he allegedly took bribes.
~snip~
He was head of German counter-intelligence before becoming state secretary for armaments at the defence ministry."

I love this new reality we live in where ex-intelligence officials "help" govern "democracies"

[Kellanved]

1. Yup, this might get interesting

He took the bribes from the infamous weapons-dealer Schreiber (Canadian DUers might know the name - it is the very same Schreiber as in the Mulroney case). Schreiber is known for two things: close contacts to important conservative German politicians and corruption.

While Schreiber is probably not the single source of the conservative party's sudden wealth, this incident shows that high officials under Kohl were corrupt - and as the deputy-minister level was in the habit of taking bribes, there is no reason to believe that it stopped there.

Pfahl's confession might get the investigation underway again; all too many conservative politicians suspected of taking bribes are hoping to gain a nice cabinet seat after the elections later this summer.

[gandalf]

2. And thanks to his confession he could be a free man

as early as this summer...

Being a corrupt official in Germany is not that evil, apparently. Some months in jail will do it.

I wonder if they want to keep the trial short and easy in order to avoid digging deeper into this mess. Perhaps some akward details are lingering out there...

[Kellanved]

3. certainly not for CDU politicians

Taking money for weapon deals? That's just the due recognition for helping the economy.

Selling government secrets to Taiwan? That's not treason, it is diplomacy.

Illegal party financing? It is the honorable thing to do.


...

With the right party affiliation, there is just one motto: anything goes. (and that's not even counting the constant stream of xenophobic and anti-Semitic statements)