MPs Demand Answers To German Intel Failure In Afghanistan

Following the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, members of Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, demanded an explanation on why Germany's intelligence service had not predicted the collapse of the Afghan government.

Photo Insert: Bundestag member Andrea Lindholz

Bundestag member Andrea Lindholz of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) that she wondered why the advice from the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) had been so "misguided."

Lindholz is one of the nine members of the Parliamentary Oversight Panel, a body that meets secretly to oversee the work of the German intelligence services on behalf of the Bundestag.

"Why was it not possible to foresee how rapid the Taliban's advance would be?" asked Lindholz. "With all the knowledge they had, why did they misjudge the situation?"

Fellow Bundestag member Andre Hahn, also a member of the panel, told dpa: "Above all, I want to know why the Federal Intelligence Service was so completely clueless. They apparently relied entirely on the Americans, who in this case also had no idea how quickly things could happen. They had no intelligence of their own."

The BND now appeared to be "completely naked," Hahn said. "What do you think such a foreign intelligence service is for if it is not able to generate its own intelligence and warn the federal government in time?"

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