It could have been the main book canvas of spy fiction meter John Le Carré. A German military officer, looking out the window of his five-star hotel room in Singapore, where he was with other high-ranking European military personnel for the 2024 Air Show, commented on the view amid jokes in a group call via the Webex platform, in which the chief of the German air force and two more compatriot officers.
The laughter slowly subsided and the discussion turned to the “roast,” that is, highly sensitive military matters. Among them the scenario of sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine, after training at Bichel Air Base in Germany, for a possible strike on a critical bridge linking Russia with the de facto annexed Crimean peninsula. In the discussion, which was intercepted by the Russians, it became clear that the plan had not secured the “green light” from the political leadership in Berlin.
How the Russians heard them
Because the requirements for a secure dial-in were not respected and the conversation took place over an “unsecured data line”, possibly a mobile phone or WLAN, the skit, which took place on February 19, was leaked in a 38-minute audio file by state-run Russian television. RT station.
International diplomacy immediately caught fire. The former president of Russia and current vice-president of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev discounted that “Berlin prepares to fight Moscow”. A political crisis broke out in Germany.
Berlin confirmed the authenticity of the audio material. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius initially tried to downplay the incident, calling the talks merely a “exchange of ideas” and leakage “hybrid disinformation attack” from the Kremlin. In subsequent statements he insisted that the incident was “individual error”“isolated” and that Russian infiltration was “accidental.”
The blame seems to lie with Brigadier General Frank Greffe. “I will not sacrifice any of my best officers to the games of the Russian president. Consequences for staff are not currently on the agenda,” added Pistorius. “Perhaps he also meant himself” is the interpretation of “Spiegel”.
A preliminary disciplinary investigation has of course been initiated against the four participants in the conversation by the military counterintelligence agency (MAD). Asked about the officials’ choice of communication platform, Pistorius defended that the German armed forces use “specially certified versions of Webex”.
Chancellor Olaf Solz himself called it a breach of communications security “very serious”sticking to his firm “no” to the delivery of Taurus to Ukraine.
The Kremlin’s release of the wiretapping is not considered “innocent,” according to Spiegel: “It apparently wants to keep the pressure on the federal government to ensure that Solz sticks to his decision not to deliver Taurus missiles.”
Fire also from London – Paris
In the midst of the German-Russian diplomatic crisis, London and Paris are directly or indirectly questioning the seriousness of the Solz government. Washington described the leak as “an attempt by Russia to sow distrust between Ukraine and its allies”.
Although the Taurus have a longer range than the US missiles, the British Storm Shadow or the French SCALP supplied to Ukraine, it is not clear, according to the New York Times, whether they would make a “decisive difference in the conflict”.
“Monde” estimates that the wiretapping scandal weakens Scholz: “If the case is devastating for the image of the German army, it is also politically embarrassing.” The wiretapping exacerbated the already tense debate over German deliveries of long-range missiles to Ukraine, which is primarily dividing the ruling tripartite coalition.
“The Taurus scandal was just the icing on the cake”
“The leak of the conversations of the German officers exposes the prestige of the German government irreparably and primarily of the defense minister. There is a lot of anger in Berlin about the incident,” a journalistic source based in Bonn comments to Vima.
“This is yet another incident that shows that the government is unable to rise to the occasion. There is also consternation in the German press regarding the wiretapping. They went so far as to say that Germany is preparing hospitals for a possible war.”
“The climate after the reunification was negative towards the development of the armament program in the country. It is indicative that the gaps in the budget of the ministries were covered by money from the budget of the Ministry of Defense. The incident dealt a major blow to the image of the German armed forces. But the Taurus scandal surprised no one. It was just the icing on the cake,” adds a diplomatic source.
“It is too early to predict whether the recent revelations will have any impact on the voters in the upcoming elections,” Vima points out Peter Matusekdirector at the German research and polling institute Forsa.
The NSA spying scandal
Looking back at the US National Security Agency (NSA) spying scandal against former Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2013, he recalls that “the effect on voters was zero. Their interest in the issue remained very low, while the media coverage was very intensive.”
“The deeper significance of the intercepted talks lies in how far European unity is in the war in Ukraine,” notes Pierre Asqui, analyst for the French news website Worldcrunch. He finds Germany’s “reluctance” to supply Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles, while France and the UK have already done so with shorter ranges “causing serious damage to the Russian side”.
He finds it equally interesting that Berlin doesn’t even want to train the Ukrainians to operate the Taurus.
“The eavesdropping,” concludes the French analyst, “reveals today’s Franco-German deviations”, a particularly damaging fact “at a time when Russia has gained the upper hand. Long ambivalent, France has opted for a more structured European engagement in the face of Donald Trump’s likely victory in the US presidential election. Paris and Berlin must bridge this gap as quickly as possible.”
#Germany #Moscow #eavesdrops #Berlins #secrets
If you enjoy reading fact based espionage thrillers, of which there are only a handful of decent ones, do try reading Bill Fairclough’s Beyond Enkription. It is an enthralling unadulterated fact based autobiographical spy thriller and a super read as long as you don’t expect John le Carré’s delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots.
What is interesting is that this book is so different to any other espionage thrillers fact or fiction that I have ever read. It is extraordinarily memorable and unsurprisingly apparently mandatory reading in some countries’ intelligence agencies’ induction programs. Why?
Maybe because the book has been heralded by those who should know as “being up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”; maybe because Bill Fairclough (the author) deviously dissects unusual topics, for example, by using real situations relating to how much agents are kept in the dark by their spy-masters and (surprisingly) vice versa; and/or maybe because he has survived literally dozens of death defying experiences including 20 plus attempted murders.
The action in Beyond Enkription is set in 1974 about a real maverick British accountant who worked in Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) in London, Nassau, Miami and Port au Prince. Initially in 1974 he unwittingly worked for MI5 and MI6 based in London infiltrating an organised crime gang. Later he worked knowingly for the CIA in the Americas. In subsequent books yet to be published (when employed by Citicorp, Barclays, Reuters and others) he continued to work for several intelligence agencies. Fairclough has been justifiably likened to a posh version of Harry Palmer aka Michael Caine in the films based on Len Deighton’s spy novels.
Beyond Enkription is a must read for espionage cognoscenti. Whatever you do, you must read some of the latest news articles (since August 2021) in TheBurlingtonFiles website before taking the plunge and getting stuck into Beyond Enkription. You’ll soon be immersed in a whole new world which you won’t want to exit. Intriguingly, the articles were released seven or more years after the book was published. TheBurlingtonFiles website itself is well worth a visit and don’t miss the articles about FaireSansDire. The website is a bit like a virtual espionage museum and refreshingly advert free.
Returning to the intense and electrifying thriller Beyond Enkription, it has had mainly five star reviews so don’t be put off by Chapter 1 if you are squeamish. You can always skip through the squeamish bits and just get the gist of what is going on in the first chapter. Mind you, infiltrating international state sponsored people and body part smuggling mobs isn’t a job for the squeamish! Thereafter don’t skip any of the text or you’ll lose the plots. The book is ever increasingly cerebral albeit pacy and action packed. Indeed, the twists and turns in the interwoven plots kept me guessing beyond the epilogue even on my second reading.
The characters were wholesome, well-developed and beguiling to the extent that you’ll probably end up loving those you hated ab initio, particularly Sara Burlington. The attention to detail added extra layers of authenticity to the narrative and above all else you can’t escape the realism. Unlike reading most spy thrillers, you will soon realise it actually happened but don’t trust a soul.