German Agents Helped With Bombing Targeting for U.S. at Start of Iraq War

Despite government objections to the U.S.-led Iraq war, there are reports that German intelligence operatives in Baghdad helped the United States with targeting requirements during the launch of the conflict in 2003.

Today's Boston Globe reports that opposition politicians in Germany are pressing a Parliamentary investigation into these allegations.

Officials of the intelligence service and other ministries confirmed that the Schroder government authorized exchanges of intelligence information with the United States about installations in Baghdad despite its public opposition to the invasion. The officials insisted, however, that German agents on the ground in Baghdad only provided the United States with information intended to prevent accidental attacks against civilian installations, such as precise coordinates for schools, hospitals, and diplomatic compounds.

This seems like a humanitarian effort, if true. But it is doubtful whether the cooperation was limited to such noble deeds.

Far more controversial, however, are reports that the German intelligence agents also provided coordinates for targets of US attacks, including a failed effort by the United States to kill former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

According to the German news reports, US military intelligence received information on April 7, 2003, that high-ranking officials of the regime were assembled in a restaurant in Baghdad's posh Mansour district. Americans believed Hussein might be present at the gathering. The need for fast information was critical. According to the media reports, the German intelligence agents, acting on a US request, quickly scouted the scene and confirmed the presence of armored vehicles and black Mercedes limousines.

The site was vaporized by four satellite-guided, 2,000-pound bombs delivered by an American B1 bomber, according to statements by the US military soon after the attack.

Hussein was not at the gathering or had departed in the nick of time. The huge blast killed more than a dozen Iraqis, according to news reports filed by journalists who remained in Baghdad during the war. It was never clear whether the victims were officials of the regime or unlucky civilians.

Of course, the German government has its own official apologists.

''It would be Quixotic to assume that the fight against terrorism or international dangers and challenges would be possible without an information exchange between friendly services," main government spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters.

But a German newspaper and public television, quoting an unidentified ''Pentagon official" and other sources, reported this week that intelligence agents in Baghdad also helped the United States identify bombing targets -- allegations that triggered outrage in Parliament.

The "unidentified Pentagon official" doubtlessly thought he was helping new German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is coincidentally visiting Washington this week.

Brilliant move there.

''This accusation about the involvement of German authorities in the Iraq war is a monstrous accusation," said Renate Kuenast, leader of the Greens, a left-leaning political party that shared power with Schroder's Social Democratic Party during the time in question.

''If you don't take part in a war, you can't help with the selection of targets," she told German reporters, urging a formal parliamentary inquiry that could require intelligence officials and other government figures to testify under oath.

It is the conventional wisdom in the U.S. intelligence community that Germany is not nearly as helpful to our "special activities" as is Great Britain and Italy.

There are exceptions:

According to the public television report, one of the German agents received a medal from the United States for his service in the war.

He must be one of those rare "freedom-lovin" Germans.