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Thursday, September 24, 2020
Christof Gramm has to leave his post in the military counterintelligence service. It is said from Berlin that he will leave by common accord. However, behind the scenes, Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer should be primarily responsible for the decision.
The president of the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD), Christof Gramm, is replaced. The German press agency in Berlin learned that Gramm will leave by mutual agreement. The ministry briefed the presidents of the Bundestag on the step it is intended to advance the reform process in the MAD and the Bundeswehr after a series of far-right incidents.
As reported by the “Spiegel”, the personnel are mainly related to the mishaps during the persecution of right-wing extremist soldiers. Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is said to have decided that Gramm should go. Consequently, the CDU leader drove to MAD’s headquarters in Cologne during the day to have a long conversation with Gramm.
Christof Gramm has been a lawyer and president of MAD since 2015. The ministry said that Kramp-Karrenbauer had “decided, with his consent, to release Dr. Christof Gramm from his job next month,” a spokesman said. “They will put him into temporary retirement. A successor will be decided shortly.”
In the fight against right-wing extremism in the Bundeswehr, the MAD has a leading role. One of its tasks is “to recognize extremist tendencies at an early stage and to fully identify and uncover the people involved and the possible structures of the network,” a Defense Ministry spokesman said. To this end, MAD is constantly being modernized and developed. Network analysis and intensive cooperation with other authorities were part of this as well as the renewal of the organization, working methods and personnel.
“The new section must also be visible to staff”
The MAD reforms initiated in October 2019 have already borne fruit. Last year, thanks to the work of the MAD, serious cases were cleared up. MAD’s president “initiated and accompanied these changes and thus achieved notable improvements in organization and working methods in recent years.” “This has achieved an important first objective,” the spokesman said. Kramp-Karrenbauer and Gramm agree that the forthcoming implementation of the reforms and the modernization of MAD marks a new stage “that requires additional efforts and dynamism.” “This new section must also be made visible in terms of personnel,” the spokesperson said.
It had previously been announced that the Bundeswehr secret service should work more closely with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in the search for extremists. The Defense Ministry expects military counterintelligence to function “more aggressively and efficiently,” “Spiegel” reported on Wednesday.
Citing a “classified document,” the magazine wrote that the heads of the three bureaus saw shortcomings in previous cooperation. In the transmission of information between the MAD and the BfV there were “deficits in the past”, says the newspaper. What is now needed is “optimally coordinated and more cooperative cooperation” between the three authorities.
The presidents of the BfV, BKA and MAD decided according to “Spiegel” a package of measures to weld researchers into extremism. In the future, MAD should be represented at the Joint Center for Defense Against Extremism and Terrorism (GETZ), the BKA’s Coordinated Internet Assessment (KIA). In addition, regular “strategic and operational” discussions are planned at all levels and joint processing of cases by MAD and BfV.
The MAD should also be technically updated, the magazine writes. A connection to the intelligence information system (Nadis) is planned, through which the secret services exchange knowledge. Until now, the MAD has only been able to read into the system, but cannot enter its own information into it.
