Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Meet the German intel chief behind the Netzpolitik treason probe

The dismissal of German top federal prosecutor Mr. Range pushed the treason probe in to online journalism site netzpolitik.org into international news besides rt.com, who have had a field day with the affair for a few days.

With various German government ministers having wiggled and wobbled, as politicians do, nobody took a look at the man whose agency initiated the probe.

That man is Mr. Hans-Georg Maaßen, whose bland English Wikipedia page ignores the role he played in the scandal about Germano-Turkish Guantanamo Bay prisoner M. Kurnaz in the 2000s as well as a couple of other highlights that some people called big red flags when he was promoted to head the German federal domestic intelligence agency.

Called a hardliner (or the very unflattering German term Scharfmacher by major German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung just recently), Mr. M.'s role in the scandal around M. Kurnaz paints the picture of a bureaucrat par excellence who uses the letter of the law in creative ways in his work.

The Kurnaz affair
For a long version, see the German Wikipedia page.
Kurnaz, then about 20 years old, of Turkish descent, born an raised in Germany, travelled to Pakistan to join a Sunni orthodox religious group and go on a pilgrimage in October of 2001, just weeks after 911. Like many others, he was arrested by the Pakistanis, handed over to US forces in Afghanistan, and ended up in Guantanamo.
German officials interrogated him at Gitmo and came to the conclusion that he simply had been "in the wrong place at the wrong time".
In January 2005, US judge Joyce Hens Green found that no ties to Al-Quada existed and that his detention was unlawful.
The German top federal prosecutor found no indications that warranted an investigation into terrorist ties or conspiracy. A German state attorney general initiated another investigation that, again, failed to produce an indictment.

Mr. Maaßen was involved as the author of an expert opinion in the decision as to whether M. Kurnaz should be allowed to return to Germany when he was released from Gitmo.
Mr. Maaßen argued that Kurnaz had no right to return to Germany because he had been outside of the country for more than six months at a time without filing for permission for an extended stay, thus losing his residence permit.
Mr. Maaßen dismissed the fact that Kurnaz had no possibility to make any filing with the German authorities from some hell hole in Afghanistan or Guantanamo as irrelevant in view of the letter of the law.

Germany disregarded Mr. Maaßen's legal brief and did eventually let M. Kurnaz back into the country, where he has been living an uneventful life since.

Mr. Maaßen has made himself a name as someone who vigorously pursues leaks of information and filed another criminal complaint against persons unknown who leaked a report on the surprise death of a confidential informant of the domestic intelligence. The man, code named "Corelli", was a former neo Nazi who had played an as yet not fully resolved dubious role in the decade long murder spree of the extreme right group known as National Socialist Underground (NSU).
With ten murders, fourteen bank robberies, and bombings, the dubious role of the CI would appear highly relevant. The federal top prosecutor did not take over the investigation into the Corelli leak.

Another indication of Mr. Maaßen's inner workings is that he called NSA leaker Snowden a traitor.

Not withstanding who replaces the ousted German federal prosecutor, Germans can expect more pushback regarding whistleblowers and leakers as well as efforts for wider mass surveillance under Mr. Maaßen's leadership of the federal domestic intelligence agency.

[Update 8/6/2015]
Civil liberties
At an event in the Bavarian town of Tutzing on 5 July 1015, Mr. Maaßen made the following statement according to an @gutjahr tweet of Aug 4.
We quote the German and provide our own, hopefully adequate, translation.
Es kann durchaus sein, dass die Politik sagt, uns ist es wichtig, dass die Menschen unbeobachtet, unkontrolliert auf der Straße herumspazieren können, dieses Risiko gehen wir ein. Dann ist das halt so.

It may well be that the politicians say: it is important to us that people can wander around the streets unobserved and uncontrolled, we accept this risk. Then so be it.

His statement is as remarkable as it is disingenuous. Remarkable because he considers citizens going about their lives unobserved and uncontrolled (or unchecked) to be a risk. Tenants of what we thought of as basic civil liberty as a risk. While claiming willingness to accept this if, and only if, the politicians state their willingness to accept this risk, the then so be it makes it abundantly clear that it would not be his preferred option.

Disingenuous because he separates himself from the realm of politics despite the fact that he is, and must have been throughout his career, someone who sought to shape and drive policies. The position as the president of Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency is a political appointment pure and simple, yet Mr. Maaßen disassociates himself from politics by implying that only elected officials are politicians.
Given that you cannot, in Germany, rise to a position as influential as his without holding outright membership in a party or without having shown a clear political profile throughout your career, his statement is - to be charitable - somewhat divorced of the mechanics of German civil service careers.

So, the man leading an agency whose job it is to protect the German constitution - where civil liberties take pride of place - sees exercising something as quintessential as a right to free movement as a risk.




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