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Entrance of the Office for the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) in Cologne
Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa
There are new investigations into the Bundeswehr against a group of possible extremists.
On Tuesday, the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) approached a branch of the Federal Armed Forces Procurement Office and questioned several suspects.
The eight officials, including the head of the regional quality test center in Ulm, are supposed to sympathize with the so-called Reich citizens.
The movement rejects the state as an institution and does not accept any laws.
The investigations against the group of officials began at the end of 2019, when a tipster contacted the MAD.
During the action on Tuesday, the suspects were questioned and their technical devices were seized.
Defense State Secretary Peter Tauber briefly briefed the representatives of the Defense Committee about the MAD's measures.
According to a short letter from Tauber to the MPs, the MAD's suspicions were largely confirmed by the interrogations.
Tomorrow, other employees of the department are to be interviewed.
After the interrogations, the suspects were not allowed to enter the offices.
MAD assumes a possible Reich Citizen Network in various authorities
Accordingly, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the State Criminal Police Office and the Federal Intelligence Service are also involved in the research.
According to SPIEGEL information, the MAD assumes that a larger network of Reich citizens could exist in different authorities.
The now interrogated head of the agency was previously employed by the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and is said to have had many contacts there to this day.
Suspects may have had access to weapons
In security circles it was also said that several officers who were now questioned were sport shooters and also had weapons at home.
Investigators emphasized that the research was still at the beginning.
However, the case is worrying.
Defense State Secretary Tauber said that extremists of any color had no place in the Bundeswehr.
This also applies to the citizens of the Reich, since they »reject the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany, its legal system and the free democratic basic order«, according to Tauber.
The aim of the Bundeswehr must be to keep such people away from the force or, in a case like this, to remove them quickly.
Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) said, according to the AFP news agency, extremism and a lack of loyalty to shared values are "incompatible with our mission, but also with the principles of camaraderie and collegiality."
Kramp-Karrenbauer called it "encouraging that the key information comes again from internal sources."
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mgb / AFP
