German Spies in Iraqi Talks before War

Secret documents recovered from the bombed headquarters of Saddam Hussein's secret service in Baghdad show that German spies attempted to forge links with their Iraqi counterparts over a year before the war began.

The papers, recovered by British journalists working for the daily newspaper The Telegraph, describe a meeting between German secret service agent Johannes William Hoffner, described as "the new German representative in Iraq", and Taher Jalil Haboosh, the director of Iraq's intelligence service.

Relationship between secret services

Hoffner, believed to have entered Iraq under diplomatic cover, met with Haboosh on January 29, 2002 and is quoted within the documents as expressing a desire to develop a "relationship" between the German secret service and the Iraqis. The Telegraph's Sunday edition describes the passage in the document where Hoffner tells Haboosh: "My organization wants to develop its relationship with your organization."

Recovered from the rubble of the Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad, one of the many government buildings targeted by airstrikes during the war, the papers reveal a prospective deal between the Germans and the Iraqis. It appears to hinge on the government in Berlin's ability to prevent an American-led invasion of Iraq in return for lucrative contracts for German companies.

In a section that reproduces the conversation between Hoffner and Haboosh almost word for word, the Iraqi tells the German agent that Iraq has "big problems" with Britain and the United States. "We have problems with Britain because it occupied Iraq for 60 years and with America because of its aggression for 11 years," he says.

No problems with Germany

Habbosh tells Hoffner that his country has no such problems with Germany and that its international support of the regime will be rewarded. "When the American conspiracy is finished, we will make a calculation for each state that helps Iraq in its crisis." The Iraqi secret service director also urges the German to lobby his government to raise its diplomatic mission in Baghdad to full ambassadorial level but is told that the decision rests with the German foreign ministry.

The meeting in Baghdad came just six months before Chancellor Gerhard Schröder began his strongly pacifistic policy of direct opposition to any war on Iraq. It was a successfully applied tool in the heated general election campaign that saw Schröder's Social Democrats hang onto power in September 2002.

Offer of contracts well known

A statement from the German government released at the weekend said that it is "well known" that lucrative contracts had been offered by Baghdad, providing Berlin kept up an anti-war stance in relation to the growing pressure on Iraq as the imminent conflict approached. "Iraq made these kinds of promises before the war and praised Germany for its position," said the government spokesperson.

Russians also implicated

The discovery of the documents in Baghdad adds to the growing number of potentially damaging revelations of covert operations coming out of the war-torn country in the wake of the conflict. Reports also found in the smoldering ruins of the secret service HQ suggest that Russian spies briefed Saddam Hussein in the run up to war. It is alleged that Russian secret service operatives told the regime that U.S. plans to provoke a war rested on Iraqi opposition to the United Nations weapons inspections.

It also claimed that the Russians spied on the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, during private meetings with Western leaders to discuss the war. According to Iraqi intelligence documents, the information gathered was then passed on to Baghdad. The reported monitoring of one meeting in particular, between Blair and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, has prompted investigations by the British and Italian governments.