German Government Contract Winners Will Have To Denounce The NSA

IT companies that want to work for the German public sector will have to guarantee they are not supplying information to any foreign intelligence agency, including the US government’s NSA, as part of the new rules proposed by the coalition government.

According to the German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung, the rules are primarily aimed at organisations that cooperate with the US National Security Agency (NSA), and could put many US businesses in a difficult position.

Germany was among the most vocal critics of the mass surveillance methods employed by the NSA, especially after it emerged that the agency was tapping the personal mobile phone of chancellor Angela Merkel.

A strong response

Süddeutsche Zeitung says that the Germans were perfectly aware of the NSA spying even before Edward Snowden started releasing sensitive documents. It reminds readers about the case of German citizen Khaled el-Masri, who was mistakenly abducted, handed over to the CIA and subjected to torture in 2003 after a subsidiary of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) gave up his data to the US authorities.

In the past, the German government could only revoke the public contract if the company was found to be engaged in criminal activity. Now, according to Süddeutsche Zeitung, even a suspicion that an organisation is working with foreign spies could be the reason enough to disqualify it from the procurement process.

To make matters official, all applicants will have to sign a document in which they state they are not required by contract or law to provide confidential data to organisations like the NSA.

According to the German Interior Ministry, the aim of this initiative is to stop “the flow of valuable knowledge to foreign intelligence agencies”.

It is currently not clear if the CSC will be prevented from bidding on contracts under the new rules.

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