German Intelligence Services Handed Sweeping New Powers, Including Sabotage Abroad

Germany's foreign and domestic intelligence services are to be given greater powers to combat espionage, terrorism and sabotage after the country's parliament, the Bundestag, approved a major overhaul of its intelligence legislation.

In the Bundestag, 309 MPs voted in favour of the new law, while 190 voted against and 71 abstained.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who championed the bill, has called it a 'reform of the century', necessary because of the increasing threats from foreign powers.

The legislation gives numerous new powers to Germany's BND federal intelligence service and its BfV domestic service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

For historical reasons, German intelligence has mainly focused on gathering information rather than acting on it. The new law changes that position.

In future, BND agents working abroad will be able to conduct covert operations, including sabotage. This could include paralysing the servers of state-sponsored hacker groups, disrupting disinformation networks, or even disrupting supply chains for weapons.

Agents for the domestic intelligence service, the BfV, will no longer be limited to gathering information. For the first time they will be able to take protective action against property and IT systems, if specific threats are identified.

That means they will be allowed to dismantle or break explosives or weapons, divert or block data flows during cyber-attacks, delete or falsify data stored for malicious purposes, and plant false information on those involved.

Under certain conditions, BfV agents will also be permitted to enter homes covertly. However, the measure must always be authorised in advance.

They will also be given wider powers of digital surveillance, including monitoring encrypted telecommunications, carrying out online searches, using AI-supported data analysis and biometric image matching on the internet.

The government says the reform is needed because of an increase in foreign espionage, particularly from Russia, China and Iran. 'We are the target of hybrid threats,' said Dobrindt. 'Germany is a theatre of operations for terrorism, extremism and foreign powers.'

In August, a drone carrying an explosive device was discovered at Leipzig Airport, close to Ukrainian cargo planes. It failed to explode as the bomb's detonator was apparently faulty. German authorities say Russia was behind the attack.

The new law has been bitterly criticised by some opposition politicians. Clara Bünger of the Left Party said Dobrindt was creating a new German secret police, calling the law 'a monster' summoning ghosts that may never be got rid of. She warned the separation between the police and the secret service was being eroded, a lesson learned from the Nazi era.

However, Sonja Eichwede of the centre-left SPD, part of Germany's governing coalition, said the reforms would make a significant contribution to ensuring the country's democracy was 'robust and resilient'. Dobrindt said it was 'madness' to think Germany was creating a new secret police.