22 August 2002. Thanks to Anonymous.

For more on the NSA/CIA Special Collection Service: http://cryptome.sabotage.org/cia-nsa-scs.htm


August 21, 2002

I thought that you might help bring to light the serious issue described below, particularly as you are not part of the mainstream news media. 

A reliable senior business consultant (aerospace industry) whom I have known for years recently shared with me his first hand knowledge of a recent, troubling event.  He has chosen not to make this information public at this time for obvious reasons.  However, as a lawyer involved in international trade, I am appalled by our nation’s continuous breach of international law, in this case the Vienna Convention, and I believe as a democracy the following information should see the light of day. 

The known facts are as follows.  On or about the first week of July this year an agreement was reached between an unknown American (male, mid-forties) temporarily assigned to the CIA chief of station in Berlin and two Iraqi ex-patriate businessmen (one living in Kiel, a former Iraqi air force electrical engineer who spoke near-fluent English, and the other from a suburb of Hamburg).  The agreement focused on obtaining records from the Iraqi embassy (and consular offices in particular) in Berlin, either covertly or overtly “before November.”  It appears that the latter was selected (perhaps as a result of a subsequent agreement with the BND and/or others in the Shroeder administration). 

Apparently one of the two Iraqis was convinced that the diplomatic compound housed certain documents that could establish a link between at least one consular official and the Sept. 11 hijackers who operated primarily out of Germany.

As you know, the break-in into the Iraqi compound in Berlin occurred yesterday and the previously unknown group of dissidents managed to have nearly six hours to search for records.  What is clear is that our intelligence services (with or without the knowledge of the German authorities) initiated an incident that is in breach of international law—the unauthorized, forced entry of a diplomatic compound.  The rest of this puzzle is speculation. 

We can only guess as to whether in addition to the hostage-takers, the German security services that retook the compound also helped to search for documents (and perhaps remove the equipment used to copy and transmit the documents).  A similar indicent occurred when Swiss police “liberated” the Polish Embassy in Bern in 1982, at which time they found substantial information regarding Soviet and East Bloc intelligence activities in Switzerland and neighboring countries).  That’s all I have to share. 

This is disturbing information that should be made public because allowing some to jeopardize customary international law is a risk to all of us.  If the German government was not involved in this operation, there will likely be other sources who will leak details of this illegal operation.