BERLIN – The Merkel government is shaking. For days there have been fights over the late evacuation of the Germans from Afghanistan between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Defense and the chancellery. But today rags flew directly between the head of foreign affairs Heiko Maas (Spd) and the head of the external secret services Bnd, August Hanning on the bad German management of returns.
For the head of German diplomacy, “the Bnd has provided an incorrect analysis of the situation, as have other secret services”, as he explained to Spiegel. And Maas also had to deny rumors of a backward step that have been chasing each other since last weekend. But Hanning replied closely from the columns of the picture: “The minister exaggerates and wants to distract from his failure which has produced a devastating situation regarding the security” of the embassy staff and other Germans in Kabul.
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The confused management of the German evacuations – which started in fits and starts two days after those of the Americans and many other countries – has already sparked a clash between ministries for days, after the Bundeswehr was sent so late in Kabul as to force the government to ask Americans for help in rescuing embassy personnel. But to the delays of the executive led by Angela Merkel also contributed a note from the Bnd’s services last Friday that contained a glaring error of assessment: “a takeover of Kabul by the Taliban before 9/11 is rather unlikely”, the men of the secret services had written.
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Their analysis was based, as explained to the picture the CDU security expert, Patrick sensburg, on the strength of the Afghan army. “The facts were correct,” he argues. Too bad, he adds, that “the Afghans did not know what to fight for after the surrender of the governors, their willingness to be bought and the escape of the president” Ghani.
The head of services Hanning, however, insists: “the ambassador and the security personnel of the embassy had requested an immediate evacuation on Friday and Saturday, before the fall of Kabul. The response from the Foreign Ministry’s Crisis Unit, based on the newest information we have, was: we can’t do anything. The minister has not yet decided ”.
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