Intelligence Surveillance, Security Sector Reforms, Accountability Principles and National Security Challenges Within European Union by Musa Jalalzai

Author:Musa Jalalzai [Jalalzai, Musa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788194285151
Amazon: B084GW9Z1X
Barnesnoble: B084GW9Z1X
Goodreads: 54450948
Publisher: VIJ BOOKS INDIA
Published: 2020-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

IV. Conclusion

Democracies need strong and agile security services to guard against a number of increasingly networked threats. International cooperation among national intelligence services is fundamentally important for our security. Yet, given the invasiveness of modern surveillance, intelligence services ought to be subjected to effective democratic oversight. This promotes rights-based and legitimate intelligence governance that is vital to the social fabric of any democracy. By and large, Germany’s recent intelligence reform did not pave the way toward meeting this important objective. It was designed, first and foremost, to provide legal certainty for intelligence service members and private companies involved in pursuit of strategic surveillance.

Legal clarity and the rule of law were not the key objectives of this reform. In fact, the reform created a number of new problems and left major deficits unresolved. Judicial oversight of intelligence, which in theory is the most useful tool to rein in rogue elements given its concrete and immediate sanctioning power, have been hollowed out with this reform. Just take the new Independent Committee as an example. With its creation and the missed opportunity to address the grave deficits of the G10 Commission, the reform unduly fragmented the German oversight landscape and contributed to the retreat of judicial intelligence control. A more fragmented, albeit more resourceful, system of parliamentary intelligence oversight is hardly the appropriate response to Germany’s problems with intelligence governance. The reform also did not address the urgent need to provide for an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of the many surveillance programs either. Besides, many key questions surrounding the use of data gained from strategic surveillance remain within the sole and unchecked responsibility of the executive. Despite being in effect since December 2016, the reform is also far from being fully implemented at the time of writing.30

However, especially with a view to recent intelligence reform in other countries, Germany’s reform has also set a few benchmarks that deserve further recognition. Its intelligence laws now cover a far greater spectrum of SIGINT activities than ever before. The required authorization of foreign-foreign surveillance programs by a panel of jurists also sets a new international standard. By comparison, the U.S. FISA Court only reviews surveillance programs that impact US-nationals.31 While the terms used to restrict surveillance on non-nationals are vague and the actual investigation powers of the Independent Committee unclear, the BND Law – unlike other European intelligence laws–does give special protection to EU citizens. Also in regard to the new requirements for international intelligence cooperation, Germany has gone further with its reform than many other democracies. The reform brought new documentation and authorization requirements for the executive which may lead to more political accountability, a core problem identified by all intelligence inquiries in Germany over the past decade.

German Intelligence Reform, June 2017, Policy Brief. Thorsten Wetzling. This paper is subject to a Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA). The redistribution, publication, transformation or translation of publications of the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung which are marked with the license “CC BY-SA“. Thorsten Wetzling directs the Privacy Project at the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung.

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