by Matthew Ellard (Posted Thu Sep 05, 2013 1:33 am)
I'm very unhappy with the "smoking gun" from the German Bundesnachrichtendienst. Firstly the intercept came from German military signals interception and not the BND. The BND issued an assessment. Secondly, the intercept was communication between Hezbollah and Iran and the Syrian armed forces were not a party to this communication. This sort of information provides a "lead to follow" not "evidence for the court". The nature of the conversation, that Hezbollah thinks Assad has "überstürzt handeln" ( panicked) suggest Hezbollah is looking for a temporary Iranian safe haven, if they can't get back into Lebanon, if Syria falls.
What is really stupid is that the German military were reading communications between Hezbollah and the Iranian embassies. By announcing this in the press this source of treasure will close. Other better evidence should have been searched for, before blowing this "insight" in the press. World leaders could have been presented real evidence and then been confidentially briefed that signal intercepts "follow the story"
The good news is that Germany will not act away from NATO.
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I'm very unhappy with the "smoking gun" from the German Bundesnachrichtendienst. Firstly the intercept came from German military signals interception and not the BND. The BND issued an assessment. Secondly, the intercept was communication between Hezbollah and Iran and the Syrian armed forces were not a party to this communication. This sort of information provides a "lead to follow" not "evidence for the court". The nature of the conversation, that Hezbollah thinks Assad has "überstürzt handeln" ( panicked) suggest Hezbollah is looking for a temporary Iranian safe haven, if they can't get back into Lebanon, if Syria falls.
What is really stupid is that the German military were reading communications between Hezbollah and the Iranian embassies. By announcing this in the press this source of treasure will close. Other better evidence should have been searched for, before blowing this "insight" in the press. World leaders could have been presented real evidence and then been confidentially briefed that signal intercepts "follow the story"
The good news is that Germany will not act away from NATO.
Read Main Topic