Minister under fire for Germany's role in Iraq
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BERLIN: The credibility of Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Social Democrat who will challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel in national elections in the autumn, came under sharp attack Thursday over continuing allegations that - under his tutelage - Germany in fact aided the United States both in its "war on terror" and in the Iraq invasion that Berlin opposed.
In a foretaste of the national election campaign next year, conservatives aligned with Merkel and opposition deputies both sharply attacked Steinmeier's credibility when he appeared - for the fifth time in two years - before a parliamentary committee investigating allegations that German intelligence services were aware of CIA kidnappings, and of prisoner renditions to third countries where torture was permitted, and were involved in preparing the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
As chief of staff for the former Social Democrat chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, Steinmeier was politically responsible for intelligence services and their activities.
As in previous appearances, Steinmeier denied that German intelligence agents based in Baghdad had passed on information to the United States during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, or that he was aware of any renditions that involved the kidnapping of alleged terror suspects for U.S. interrogation.
"There is no reason for me to believe that the wishes of the government were either knowingly or unknowingly violated," Steinmeier said.
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But the allegations continue to embarrass the Social Democrats. Schröder firmly opposed the Iraq invasion, joined France and Russia in a coalition against it and won re-election in 2002 on the strength of a strong campaign against U.S. policy.
Deputies who support Merkel sharpened their attacks Thursday, capitalizing on a furor stirred this week by a report in Der Spiegel magazine that the German BND intelligence agency played a role in planning some parts of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The magazine cited former U.S. military officers, including General Tommy Franks, who commanded the Iraq invasion. Franks was quoted as telling Der Spiegel: "It would be a huge mistake to underestimate the value of information provided by the Germans. These guys were invaluable," referring to two agents in Iraq.
The affair "hangs like a millstone around Steinmeier's neck," said Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, leader of the Christian Social Union, a Bavarian party that is allied with Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. Norbert Röttgen, a senior figure in Merkel's party, said Steinmeier's credibility was now at stake.
Previously, the conservatives - who now govern in awkward tandem with the Social Democrats - had spared Steinmeier such criticism. But the atmosphere is heating up ahead of the campaign next year.
Opposition members were also sharply critical. It was now increasingly clear that Germany under Schröder "played an active role in the Iraq war," said Max Stadler of the Free Democrats. A Green deputy on the committee, Hans-Christian Ströbele, dismissed Steinmeier's claim that the agents were on a humanitarian mission as "absolute nonsense."
Steinmeier insisted that the two German intelligence agents in Baghdad in spring 2003 did not provide "active support of combat operations."
He said they worked "to avoid an embassy or hospital from being bombed, which has nothing to do with double standards but with saving innocent people's lives."
The agents, based at the French Embassy, were gathering their own information and were not forced to rely on outside sources, he said.
Steinmeier has also denied knowing anything about the kidnapping of Khaled el-Masri, a German-Lebanese who has said that he was imprisoned by U.S. agents in December 2003 in Macedonia and then tortured in Afghanistan before being released five months later.
Masri has said that while he was in Afghanistan he was questioned by a man who spoke perfect German.
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