Ernst Uhrlau, Angela Merkelâs new head of the BND, Germanyâs foreign intelligence service, is revealed by DEBKAfileâs counter-terror sources as the man behind Berlinâs secret decision to trade German archeologist Susanne Osthoff kidnapped in Iraq on Nov. 25 for the jailed Hizballah terrorist wanted in America, Mohammad Ali Hammadi. | Ahah. That explains why he wasn't turned over to us... |
| Duh. I was watching the whole time and never made the connection... |
1. It is the first time since al Qaedaâs 9/11 attacks in America that a senior European ally in Americaâs global war on terror has succumbed to enemy pressure and bought a hostageâs release by freeing a convicted terrorist.She made Uhrlau, who was the secret service coordinator in ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroederâs office, head of the BND. The other key appointment was her transfer of Klaus-Dieter Fritsche from the top post at Germanyâs domestic intelligence agency, the Verfassungsschutz, to secret services coordinator in the new chancellery.
2. DEBKAfileâs counter-terror experts recall that Hammadi was assigned to hijack the TWA airliner by the notorious Imad Mughniyeh, veteran head of the Hizballahâs âsecurity operationsâ and current organizer of al Qaedaâs infrastructure in Beirut. In the 1980s he specialized in hostage-taking, assassination, hijacking and bombing massacres against Americans and Israelis. Mughniyeh and Osama bin Laden have the same $25 m price on their heads. Hizballah repeatedly attacks Israel and its agents are planted deep inside Palestinian terrorist groups.
3. Hammadiâs repatriation to Lebanon shows that this country is still a haven and hub of operations for terrorists notwithstanding American clean-up efforts since the February assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri.
4. The swap of a hostage kidnapped by Iraqi guerrillas for a Lebanese Hizballah terrorist exposes for the first time the clandestine operational links between the Hizballah and Iraqi guerrillas and fellow-terrorists. It elevates the Lebanese Shiite groupâs standing in Europe to a higher league in a way detrimental to American and Israeli security interests.
5. The shakeup of German intelligence, according to DEBKA-Net-Weeklyâs intelligence sources, is the off-the-record motive behind the resignation of Detlev Mehlis as head of the UN team on the Hariri case. He made the decision shortly after Merkel reshuffled Germanyâs security and intelligence services, a step she took two days after sitting down in the chancellorâs office in Berlin on Nov. 30.
Chancellor Merkel is clearly eager to bring into play the close and complex web of ties Uhrlau has cultivated over the years with top Iranian officials and intelligence chiefs, key members of the Syrian regime, Hizballah chiefs, and operatives of Islamist radical groups ideologically close to al Qaeda. Uhrlau came to international prominence as broker of the Hizballah prisoner exchange last year. The new German chancellor, by promoting him to director of the BND, shows she expects Iranian issues, the war on al Qaeda and the radicalized Middle East to stay at the center of international affairs during her five-year tenure.
Mehlis, an expert in his own right in the labyrinthine intelligence-cum-terror organizations of the Middle East, does not argue with this perception. But in the eight months he has led the Hariri inquiry, he concluded that the majority of the Syrian and Lebanese officials involved in the assassination of the Lebanese leader belong to intelligence or terror establishments with which Uhrlau boasts excellent connections. By pressing ahead with his probe, Mehlis feared he would prejudice the new BNDâs connections at the very moment that they might be of use to the new chancellor for promoting German influence in the Middle East. The German investigative prosecutor therefore decided to bow out rather than step into this minefield.