Bundeswehr eavesdropping unit operating on thin constitutional ice

Largely unnoticed by the public, the Military Intelligence Service (MilNW) and its almost 7,000 employees have established themselves as the largest German intelligence service in the Federal Republic of Germany. In contrast to the three better-known institutions, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD), it is allowed to conduct almost unbridled surveillance and is virtually unchecked.

Corbinian Ruckerbauer and Thorsten Wetzling from the think tank Interface (formerly Stiftung neue Verantwortung) made this clear on Friday at the Netzpolitik.org conference "Bildet Netze" in Berlin. Both say that this construct is highly questionable under constitutional law. The traffic light coalition knows this, but is doing nothing about it.