German spy probe to include CIA "kidnap", flights

BERLIN, Mar 11 (Reuters) A parliamentary inquiry will probe the alleged CIA kidnapping of a German national as well as focusing on the role of German spies during the US invasion of Iraq, the three opposition parties agreed yesterday.

The Greens, Free Democrats and Left Party said they had agreed to demand a broad inquiry into the intelligence services, which will now go ahead despite the opposition of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative-led coalition.

Allegations that two German agents in Baghdad in early 2003 helped the United States to launch its invasion, including by identifying bombing targets, have caused a political storm even though the government and the BND foreign intelligence agency have strongly denied them.

The suggestion of covert German support for the war is highly controversial because Merkel's predecessor, Social Democrat Gerhard Schroeder, had won re-election in 2002 on the back of his strong opposition to the invasion.

The three parties said the inquiry should also cover other sensitive security issues. ''It's by no means just about the BND activities in Iraq,'' said Petra Pau, a senior Left Party member.

One issue to come under scrutiny will be the alleged abduction by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency of Khaled el-Masri, a German national who is suing the agency's former chief after being detained in Macedonia, flown to Afghanistan and held there for months in 2004 as a terrorist suspect.

Another is whether CIA flights via German bases were used for ''rendition'', a process whereby terrorism suspects are secretly transferred to third countries, including states known to practice torture.

And whether it was appropriate for German security officials to interview terrorist suspects at the United States' detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and in a Syrian prison.

The opposition parties have enough votes between them to get the inquiry approved by parliament as early as this month.

It could run for many months, potentially embarrassing the security services and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who as Schroeder's chief of staff was responsible for overseeing them at the time of the Iraq war.

BND chief Ernst Uhrlau on Thursday reiterated his denial that German agents had helped Washington pick bombing targets. He said the allegations had damaged Germany's image in the Arab world and compromised its security.

REUTERS DKS SSC1035