More than three years of work went into the report presented by investigative committee chairman Patrick Sensburg to the Bundestag on Wednesday, but in the end, no one washappy with it.
The multi-party parliamentary investigation was sparked by the 2013 revelation by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that US intelligence services had kept allies under surveillance, even going so faras to eavesdrop on Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.
"It's not okay for friends to spy on one another," Merkel said in her most famous statement when the affair broke.
But investigators soon found out that Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND, had cooperated with the NSA and also kept tabs on its allies , for instance, by using so-called selectors - search terms for dragnet surveillance. The investigation was soon expanded to include the question of whether the US had piloted drones used in combat from its bases in Germany - an accusation that was never proven, although the report found that the German government often "looked the other way."
The committee's report contains a head-spinning plethora of minutiae about everything fromthe technical specifications or capabilities of drones to various national and international intelligence operations. But it rarely reaches clear conclusions about what, if anything, was done wrong by whom. That was - as the report admits- down to fighting between political parties.
"Unfortunately, despite the common conviction of all parliamentary groups about the necessity of the investigation when it began, there were substantial disagreements between the governing and opposition groups about the methodology and goals of the committee's work," the report read.
The report was published by the governing coalition of the conservative CDU-CSU and Social Democrats alone, after a row last week about a 450-page dissent written by the opposition Left Party and the Greens. The chairman of the committee refused to publish that document, claiming it revealed classified information, whereupon the Left and Greens refused to sign off on the final version of the report as a wholeand were removed from the committee.
Read: German opposition criticizes BND's illegalespionage
A massive document of dissent
Although the report is critical of both the US and German governments on a number of topics, on the underlying question of whether the US essentially betrayed Germany's trust, it reaches many "surprisingly positive" conclusions.
For example, one such passage read: "The committee is of the opinion that despite all the difference concerning NSA spying in the past there is relatively large agreement about the rigor and establishment of intelligence service oversight by the parliaments in Germany and the US."
Opposition parties would like more oversight of the BND's actions
The opposition Left Party and Greens see the situation entirely differently. In a section that was included in the official report, the two parties make a series of extremely critical recommendations, including subjecting German intelligence services to increased external and parliamentary oversight, strengthening IT security and ending what they call "a secret war in, from and with Germany."
"Germany and facilities located in Germany are not permitted to play any role in drone warfare that violates international law," the opposition parties wrote. "The German government must immediately and forcefully insist that all actions of this sort cease and must monitor it."
"Unprecedented, unparliamentary behavior"
The opposition also criticizes the fact that Snowden, who currently lives in asylum in Russia, was never able to testify in front of the committee because the German government refused to guarantee him safe conduct. In a TV interview on Wednesday morning ahead of the Bundestag debate, Green parliamentarian Konstantin von Notz called Snowden's absence "a damning indictment."
The Left Party and the Greens say they are evaluating whether to legally challenge what Notz called the governing coalition's "unprecedented un-parliamentary behavior."
The committee only succeeded in "scraping free" a part of the "surveillance infrastructure," Notz complained to the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
Opposition committee members like Notz heavily criticized the findings
Members of the governing parties disagree with that assessment and accuse the opposition of trying to create a scandal in an election year.
"There are no indications that Germans were spied upon en masse," conservative committee chairman Sensburg that newspaper.
The Social Democrats' lead figureon the committee, Christian Flisek, accused the opposition of a "complete refusal" to cooperate. But he also aimed a barb at conservatives and Merkel.
"There was a system of the very top of the Chancellery of not wanting to know anything," Flisek told dpa news agency.
The verbal jousting over the NSA investigative committee report will continue as the Bundestag debates it on Wednesday evening.
In Berlin, the revelations that the NSA may have listened to Chancellor Merkel's cell phone have created a wave of protest. During the Cold War, American allies established an elaborate espionage system called Echelon to eavesdrop on communication activities in the Eastern Bloc. Back then the German government was aware of US-spying tactics from places like the Teufelsberg in Berlin.
Teufelsberg, or "Devil's Mountain," offered Americans an ideal vantage point over the divided city of Berlin. After World War II some 25 million tons of war rubble were heaped up in a forest on the edge of Berlin to form the city's largest hill at 120 meters. Underneath the debris lies a never completed Nazi military technical college. Today, all that's left of the spy station is a ruin.
After dumping the debris of some 15,000 war-damaged buildings onto the site, the Berlin government covered the hill in vegetation and turned it into a winter sports paradise. Shortly afterwards, the US military discovered the hill provided a perfect elevation point for monitoring flight paths to West Germany and radio and telephone networks in East Germany.
Part of Teufelsberg was turned into a military zone in October 1964 and the construction of the large listening station began. The project was only referred to as "The Hill" by American soldiers. Several secluded buildings as well as five powerful antenna domes were built. It is estimated that more than 1,000 people worked on the project at its busiest time.
The spy station was part of the global Echelon intelligence gathering network created to monitor the military and diplomatic communications of the Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc allies during the Cold War. It was located in the British Sector, but the Brits and Americans didn't trust each other. So they split up the area in two, built everything twice and double-eavesdropped on their enemies.
Almost the entire Eastern Bloc was under surveillance, from the governing party in Eastern Germany to Soviet military facilities. Conversations in German, Czech, Polish and Russian were meticulously recorded, transcribed and translated. In a three-stage evaluation system only the most important information was forwarded. The surveillance reached up to 700 kilometers to the east.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the listening station was abandoned. In 1992, the Americans took their electronic devices and left the radar domes behind as empty shells. The site was used for civil air surveillance for a short time before being bought by private investors. Their plan was to build apartments and hotels on the hill, but nothing resulted from their preparations.
The abandoned spy station soon became a popular target for vandals. Now windows are broken, old computers smashed, the interior is in ruins and even old pipes were stolen to be sold as scrap. With rusty fences and weathered iron gates, it's clearly stated that visitors enter at their own risk. Holes in the ground, missing railings and unsecured stairwells do not make exploring the area any safer.
What was once a major building site for Nazis and then a surveillance center during the Cold War is now a popular spot for enjoying a view over the German capital and surroundings. Since 2011, the site has been open to the public. The Teufelsberg Community of Interest organizes an open-air electro festival on the premises. The only question left is whether the US is still watching.
Author: and photos: Anne-Sophie Brndlin
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NSA spying scandal committee presents controversial final report - Deutsche Welle
