Germany, Russia Silent on 'Spying Consul' Report

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5695801&cKey=1113825926000

BERLIN (Reuters) - A Russian diplomat was forced to leave Germany last December after German counter-intelligence and the CIA caught him buying military secrets, a German news magazine reported.

No comment was available from the German government or the Russian embassy Monday on the detailed report in respected weekly Der Spiegel.

The magazine said Alexander Kuzmin, Russian consul in Hamburg, was caught at a secret meeting in a restaurant last November with a member of the German armed forces who handed him documents about communications and weapons systems.

The report said Kuzmin was summoned back to Moscow on Dec.5 and the espionage affair was kept quiet by both sides in order to avoid damaging relations.

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[gandalf]

1. Chancellor Schröder praised Putin as a "flawless democrat"

(Russian Oil & Gas is important for Germany)

We won't let a spy disturb the party.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Seeing the CIA was involved I wonder just who this spy was spying on?

The US has a shitload of military bases in Germany.

Don

[gandalf]

3. Perhaps they (CIA) want to spy undisturbed in Germany

"shitload of military bases". right, and spy bases like the big NSA station in Bad Aibling.

[Durant]

4. Every nation spies on the other..

they get caught, they get expelled. Fact of life...

[Kellanved]

5. which was dismantled

Sorry to chime into this thread with something questionable, like facts.
The Bad Aibling base was shut down in 2004. It will continue in history as the reason for Nena's "99 Luftballons" /"99 Red Balloons".

[gandalf]

6. Which was relocated to Darmstadt

"Technology and personnel from Bad Aibling will be relocated to Darmstadt". (1)

But that is only a minor detail. Notwithstanding Bad Aibling or Darmstadt, the US will certainly monitor data traffic in Germany. Nowadays, I guess, much of this traffic cannot be intercepted by stations like Bad Aibling, but by intercepting fiber optic cables. How that is done is reported by Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (2).

(1) Frankfurter Rundschau, 04/03/2004
Darmstadt/Griesheim · Der Grund der Aufregung steht hinter Zäunen und Stacheldraht: Die futuristisch anmutende Antennenanlage, bei der leistungsstarke Parabolspiegel unter schützenden Kuppeln installiert sind - wegen des Aussehens Ice-Box genannt - gehen im April in Betrieb. Technik und Personal des Lauschpostens wurden aus einer Aufklärungsanlage im bayerischen Bad Aibling nach Darmstadt verlegt. Mehr als hundert Kommunikationsexperten der noch in Bad Aibling stationierten 66th Military Intelligence Group sollen im April nach Darmstadt kommen.

(2) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 9/13/01
Immer mehr Daten werden daher von amerikanischen Diensten zur spaeteren - bedarfsweisen - Auswertung gespeichert. Im Muenchner Stadtteil Trudering, in Frankfurt, aber auch in Berlin und Hamburg finden sich beispielsweise als Industriebauten getarnte Gebaeude, durch die Glasfaserkabel der Ballungszentren verlaufen. Diese optischen Signaltraeger moderner Kommunikation werden dort "angezapft" und ueber sie geleitete Daten fuer etwa sechs Monate digital gespeichert.