***** German Spies Helped U.S. In Iraq War *****
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Courtesy of: Al Jazeera
1/12/06
http://aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=10488

German spies in Iraq helped American forces strike targets at the beginning of the 2003 invasion despite Berlin's claims that it wasn't involved in the war. German media reported on Thursday.

According to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and NDR TV, two agents of Germany's BND Foreign Intelligence Agency were operating in Iraq at the beginning of the war; supplying their American counterparts with information.

"they gave us direct support. they gave us information for targeting," NDR quoted a former US military official as saying in a preview of a programme to be aired later on Thursday.

The official cited a April 7, 2003 air strike on a Baghdad suburb where Saddam Hussein was thought to be hiding in. He said US forces carried out the raid after a BND officer confirmed limousines were parked outside a building. More than 12 Iraqi civilians were killed in the attack.

Correspondents say the report, if confirmed would be an embarrassment to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was Chief of Staff to then Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, had supervised the German Security Services at the time.

NDR said Steinmeier refused to be interviewed for the programme. It said that BND confirmed that two agents were operating in Iraq but denied they had been helping US forces.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung cited unidentified security officials as saying the approval of BND's co-operation was a "political decision" taken by Schroeder's government after discussions between the BND and the Chancellery.

The newspaper also said that the German spies had been based in French Diplomatic Quarters because Germany's Embassy in Iraq was closed on March 17, 2003--three days before the war started--France backed Germany's opposition to the US-led invasion.

The report could help Chancellor Angela Merkel, who makes her first official visit to the US later on Thursday on a mission to restore relations harmed by Schroeder's opposition to the US-led invasion of Iraq.