Germany: intelligence powers for German customs
01 January 1991
Germany: intelligence powers for German customs
artdoc June=1991
In the wake of allegations of participation by German corporations in the
supply of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their delivery
systems to Iraq, the German cabinet has agreed to grant the German
Zollkriminalinstitut (ZKI, customs investigators) intelligence-gathering
powers, including the power to monitor telecommunications and mail. The new
powers will also permit the ZKI to gather information on German firms
before concrete allegations are made. Plans call for the ZKI to be raised
to federal agency status: Zollkriminalamt (ZKA), subordinate to the
Wirtschaftsministerium (trade ministry). The staff will increase from 200
to 300.
The decision to create a fourth federal intelligence service in Germany
(after the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Bundesamt fuer Verfassungsschutz
(BfV) and Militaerischer Abschirmdienst (MAD) is a compromise following
months of discussion in which German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble
argued that the BfV should be empowered to monitor organized crime. The FDP
political party, whose position in the ruling coalition in Bonn was
significantly enhanced following the 2 December elections, opposed
increasing the BfV's field of operations. Now these activities will be
monitored, but by an agency controlled by the FDP Wirtschaftsminister
Juergen Moellemann.
Intelligence Newsletter, no 163, 13 February 1991 (10, rue du Sentier,
75002 Paris).
Statewatch, no 2, May/June 1991