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Switzerland listened. And the Federal Council knew nothing. This is the conclusion of the business audit delegation (GPDel) in their report on Crypto AG, about which foreign secret services have been listening to other countries for decades.
You can read the full report here
Since 2001 at the latest, the Swiss intelligence service has also been able to eavesdrop, with the consent of the Americans, thanks to a backdoor in the Made in Switzerland encryption devices. Fully legal, as the GPDel report says: The current intelligence services law makes such wiretapping actions possible in joint ventures with other countries.
A mic bump for little Switzerland
An unprecedented eavesdropping blow for the small Swiss intelligence service, which was only possible because no one believed neutral Switzerland was so malicious.
That neither the heads of the secret service nor the VBS knew about this hit sounds incredible. Especially since the secret information obtained was extremely valuable to the Swiss government and flowed into the security, economic and foreign policy of Switzerland, for example, in the case of the Swiss hostages in Libya. And because there had to be enough confidants; like the politicians from Zug who were part of the Crypto AG board of directors.
Nobody wants to have known anything
The GPDel summoned five sitting federal councilors and three former defense ministers and asked them: They all don’t want to know anything. According to the GPDel report, only a few people in the intelligence service were aware of the secret of the Swiss wiretaps. There, no one wanted to approve the procedure either.
According to the GPDel report, former intelligence service director Markus Seiler, for example, was briefed on Crypto AG during his tenure, but refused to accept a corresponding information note. “Do it, but I don’t know anything,” that seemed to be Crypto AG’s creed for decades.
The GPDel report doesn’t just show that the tactic of staying silent and looking the other way still works today. It also shows that the intelligence service was arbitrarily toying with Switzerland’s neutrality, credibility and reputation. Alfred Heer, president of GPDel, speaks of an “intelligence service within the intelligence service” that is not accountable to the Federal Council or to democratic institutions.
Intelligence out of control?
If it is true that Viola Amherd and all her predecessors knew nothing, then the intelligence service ran the Federal Council, and not the other way around, as was actually intended. It is risky for the intelligence service to mislead politicians and conclude secret deals with foreign services without their knowledge.
It seems urgently necessary for the Federal Council and, in particular, the head of VBS, Viola Amherd, to bring the intelligence service under control, examine all activities and discover those in the know. Because an intelligence service that has gotten out of control can do a lot of damage to Switzerland.
André Ruch
Editor of the Bundeshaus, SRF
