BND
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Formation | 1 April 1956 |
Parent organization | Germany |
Type | intelligence agency |
Interest of | Aristide Brunello, Richard Christmann, Katherine Horton |
Subpage | •BND/President |
The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany.[1]
Contents
History
The BND was formed in 1956 on the basis of the Organisation Gehlen controlled by former Nazi General Reinhard Gehlen, who remained as head until 1968.[2]
The U.S. army intelligence (CIC) working in Germany 1945 was interested in Gehlens files which he hid at the end of World War II before contacting CIC. The common enemy was now (communist) Russia and Gehlen had sensitive information on them. In Operation Rusty the CIC recruited and funded the former German service. One of the many released memos under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act[3] read:
"[...] my meeting with General Gehlen, June, 1945 [...]
Colonel Philip was very favorabley impressed with the men [of Gehlen] and with their intelligence capabilities. He agreed that they would be a desirable unit working for General Siebert as Theater G-2 [Red Army controlled areas] and thenceforth supported the project to the fullest.
[...]
In order to keep up the morale of the Gehlen Group, we arranged that those who were within a day's visit of their family should visit thair homes. In the case of those who were further removed, I arranged to have Lt. Landauer make a round trip, taking letters and a few items of American stores to their families.
[...]
General Siebert wanted the men and the documents kept together, and that General Siebert had agreed with my recommendation that we reconstitute the group as far as possible." - John R. Boker, Jr.[4]
In 1946 Gehlen is transferred to the U.S. with part of his staff, another part stays in Germany. In the words of a CIA analyst: after the Nazis' return they work "first under U.S. Army and later CIA trusteeship, then [1956] accepted by Bonn as the BND."[5]
Iraq
Curveball
The BND was responsible for briefing the Iraqi defector known as Curveball after he claimed asylum in Germany in 1999. His stories would form the basis of a claim in George W. Bush's 2003 state of the union address that Iraq had mobile biological weapons labs .[6]
People
Presidents
- Reinhard Gehlen 1956-1968
- Gerhard Wessel 1968-1978
- Dr Klaus Kinkel 1979-1982
- Eberhard Blum 1982-1985
- Heribert Hellenbroich August 1985
- Dr Hans-Georg Wieck 1985-1990
- Konrad Porzner 1990-1996
- Dr Hansjörg Geiger 1996-1998
- Dr August Hanning 1998-2005
- Ernst Uhrlau 2005-[7]
Vice Presidents
- Dr. Arndt Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven Vice President
- Maj. Gen. Armin Hasenpusch Vice president for Military Affairs
- Werner Ober Vice President for Central Functions and Modernization
Structure
- Directorate GL: Situation Centre
- Directorate UF: Specialised Supporting Services
- Directorate EA: Areas of Operation/Liason
- Directorate TA: Signals Intelligence
- Directorate LA: Region A Countries
- Directorate LB: Region B Countries
- Directorate TE: Terrorism and International Organised Crime
- Directorate TW: Proliferation, NBC Weapons
- Directorate SI: Security
- Directorate TU: Technical Support
- Directorate TK: Technical Development
- Directorate ZY: Central Services
- Directorate UM: Relocation[8]
Employees on Wikispooks
Employee | Job | Appointed | End | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Erich Dethleffsen | Leader of Analysis Section | July 1958 | 1968 | |
Willi Krichbaum | Head of the General Agency L | 1948 | 1961 | Former Deputy Gestapo Chief |
Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven | BND/Deputy Director | 2007 | 2010 |
Related Documents
Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Document:Did German bungling lead to Pan Am 103? | Article | 24 September 1989 | Gavin Hewitt | The blunders of "Operation Autumn Leaves" didn't end with the case of Marwan Khreesat. One of those arrested in the 26 October 1988 sweep was a Palestinian by the name of "Ramzi Diab" which was not his real name, it turned out. That name had been taken from an Israeli passport stolen in Spain. The German police suspect he may actually have transported the Lockerbie bomb. |
Document:Privatization for Dummies – The Nuts & Bolts of The World's Biggest Scam | article | 21 March 2019 | Ronald Thomas West |
References
- ↑ About BND, Bundesnchrichtendienst, accessed 5 September 2009.
- ↑ Daniele Ganser, NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe, Frank Cass, 2005, pp.200-201.
- ↑ National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 146, Released Under Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, February 4, 2005, accessed Nov 23, 2014, http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB146/index.htm
- ↑ CIC Memo: Report of Initial Contacts with General Gehlen's Organization, John R. Boker, Jr., May 1, 1952. http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB146/doc06.pdf
- ↑ CIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM, The Service: The Memoirs of General Reinhard Gehlen by Reinhard Gehlen. Book review by Anonymous, 2 JULY 96, accessed Nov 23, 2014, https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol16no3/html/v16i3a06p_0001.htm
- ↑ Bob Drogin, Curveball, Ebury Press, pp.366-367.
- ↑ Die Präsidenten des Bundesnachrichtendienstes, Das Bundesarchiv, accessed 5 September 2009.
- ↑ Structure, Bundesnachrichtendienst, accessed 5 September 2009.