German government blocking inquiry into secret aid provided for Iraq war

[IndianaGreen]

German government blocking inquiry into secret aid provided for Iraq invasion

By Justus Leicht and Peter Schwarz
26 January 2006

The German government is strenuously seeking to prevent a parliamentary committee of inquiry aimed at clarifying the role played by Germany’s former Social Democratic (SPD)-Green Party coalition in supporting the Iraq war and other illegal practices carried out by the US government. All of the parties in Germany’s current grand coalition elected last autumn—the SPD, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU)—are working in unison to prevent any parliamentary investigation.

The SPD is afraid that further exposures of the activities of the German Intelligence Service (BND) will finally bury the myth that the SPD-Green government, led by Gerhard Schröder, opposed the US war. In addition, any investigation may jeopardise Germany’s current foreign minister, Frank Walter Steinmeier (SPD), who as a head of the chancellery in the Schröder government was responsible for coordination with the secret services. Steinmeier has expressed his own opposition to a committee of inquiry, which, he argued, would simply be used to encourage “anti-Americanism.”

The CDU is also opposed to shedding light on the secret cooperation between the Schröder government and the Bush administration. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) would like even closer cooperation with the US. Further exposures of German support for the criminal activities of American secret services would be detrimental to such a move. “A committee of inquiry would make the work of the services more difficult,” warned the chairman of the Union faction in the German parliament (Bundestag), Volker Kauder.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) even claimed that an investigation into the activities of the secret services would represent a threat to domestic security. The former head of the BND, August Hanning, has functioned as undersecretary of state under Schäuble since last December.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/germ-j26.shtml

[Mojorabbit]

1. I am starting to think that it is all an illusion

That those in power everywhere have preplanned everything and that we the people are being played so we think we have some control.

[KakistocracyHater]

2. These are the kind of people that will tell you whatever you

want to hear, & because they have no consciences, they will appear to be genuine. It's a pattern that holds for the USA & of western Europe, & they purposely use the local people's loyalty to clan/country against them; as in-we (in Europe) are not nearly as crazy as those Americans, & yet look closer.........They are highly adept at controlling group dynamics to their advantage.

[Kellanved]

3. actually the government can't do that

The Opposition has enough seats to start an inquiry.
The reason the inquiry is not underway is quite simple: The FDP wanted the inquiry to attack their fellow opposition Green party; it was not directed against the Government.
Also, the story does not have legs; two agents in Iraq are not really news, as it was pretty much known throughout the war that there were people on the ground; not just around Iraq, but also inside. It even was mentioned in a few press releases.