German intelligence chief quits after neo-Nazi probe scandal

German intelligence chief quits after neo-Nazi probe scandal

PanARMENIAN.Net - The head of German intelligence was forced to resign yesterday, July 2 amid explosive revelations that his agents deliberately destroyed and manipulated files containing information about a neo-Nazi terror cell behind the country's worst far-right violence since the Second World War, Belfast Telegraph said.

Heinz Fromm, 63, said he took responsibility for the actions of staff who shredded seven intelligence documents, left out key information from computer files and lied to their superiors at the height of an inquiry into neo-Nazi terrorists last November.

Mr Fromm, who resigned after 12 years at the helm of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said the actions of the agents involved were unprecedented. "Nothing like this has ever occurred before during my tenure," he said. "It is a major breach of trust and hugely damaging to the reputation of the service."

One of the most serious post-war German intelligence scandals began to unfold last week. Reports about the shredded documents were leaked to the media and provoked outrage from MPs who called for an immediate investigation.

Politicians said the shredded files left the agency open to "every possible suspicion", including the notion that neo-Nazis were on its payroll or that agents themselves had neo-Nazi sympathies. The agency has made no secret of its use of paid "moles" to infiltrate the neo-Nazi scene.

The destroyed documents contained background information on members of the National Socialist Underground (NSU).Over a decade, the neo-Nazi terrorist cell murdered a female police officer, shot dead nine immigrants, injured more than 20 people in two bomb attacks and robbed 14 banks to finance its operations.

For more than a decade, police ruled out the possibility of neo-Nazi involvement and attributed the killings instead to immigrant "gang warfare". German police even set up two of their own Turkish doner kebab stalls to catch the presumed immigrant gang leaders. It only dawned on police that a far-right terrorist cell was behind the attacks after they followed up leads from the bank robbery last year and found the Ceska murder weapon.

It emerged at the weekend that the agent who shredded the seven files was a high-ranking officer who worked for a department specialising in surveillance of the extreme right at intelligence headquarters in Cologne. He is said to have destroyed the documents on 11 November last year – the same day that federal prosecutors took over the investigation of the case.

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