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Germany: Kinkel's intelligence role

01 July 1995

German intelligence specialist Mr Erich Schmidt-Eenboom recently brought out a book on German Foreign Minister Dr Klaus Kinkel, focusing on the period of his presidency of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) foreign intelligence service from 1979-1982. The author describes Dr Kinkel's role in a number of questionable BND operations such as the supplying of personal data on refugees and migrants from Turkey, Iraq and Palestine to the governments that they escaped from, and the support granted to the Libyan and other Arab regimes. The book concedes that the Libyan-controlled firm Telemit has provided Dr Kinkel's FDP party with millions of Deutschmarks to win the elections. Furthermore, Dr Kinkel's BND is criticized for being unproductive on Eastern Europe and other issues, while playing an important covert role in the Yugoslav quagmire which Mr Kinkel as foreign minister is believed to continue to the present day. The book ends with an extensive listing of BND "residentura" abroad in 1982, including the names of the BND functionaries responsible for them. Throughout the book, dozens of other BND functionaries are identified as well. Der Schattenkrieger - Klaus Kinkel und der BND (The Shadow Warrior), Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, Dusseldorf: ECON Verlag, 1995: 320 pp, index, bibl, ISBN 3-430-18014-7.