According to media reports, the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the US secret service CIA have spied on more than a hundred countries for decades.
With the help of a Swiss encryption technology company under the control of the two secret services, it was possible to sell manipulated technology to the states and then listen to supposedly secure communication, the ZDF reported today. The station had researched together with the Washington Post and Swiss television SRF.
„Operation Rubicon“
The media involved in the research evaluated around 280 pages of previously unpublished documents, which were written by leading BND and CIA employees about the „Operation Rubikon“ that ran from 1970 to 1993. „Diplomatic and military traffic in many important Third World countries, but also in European countries (…) could (…) be read across the board,“ says the documents.
The „Operation Rubikon“ is described as „one of the most successful intelligence activities in the post-war period“.
According to the report, the BND and CIA each owned half of the Swiss company Crypto AG from 1970. The company produced encryption technology for tap-proof communication and sold it worldwide. Customers would not have known that the BND and CIA were manipulating the technology.
According to the media, the biggest buyers for the manipulated encryption devices were Saudi Arabia and Iran. For decades, German and US agencies had been informed of the Iranian leadership’s secret government communications, even during the hostage-taking at the US embassy in Tehran in 1979.
