Bundestag Inquiry into BND and NSA

Index of witnesses

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Witnesses who are identified by initials only

A

Alster
Date testified: January 15 2015
Hearing: 30th Session
Thomas Alster lives in Frankfurt, is a technical telecommunications senior civil servant by profession and has retired one month ago. In 1966 he started his education as a telecommunications technician. In 1970 he changed to Deutsche Bundespost, and in 1979/1980 he was moved to the upper postal administration. Since then he has worked in the field of "civil defence" and "G 10". He was at the Deutsche Post till 1994 (continuously in Frankfurt). From then on, after the privatisation into Deutschen Telekom AG, he was the head of the regional department for governmental special requirements (interface for security services in Hesse for operative requests of the police). Thus, he was the supervisor of the witness Harald Helfrich.

Aust
Date testified: June 5 2014
Hearing: 7th Session, Part 1
Dr. Helmut Philipp Aust is research assistant at the Chair of Professor Dr. Georg Nolte at the Humboldt-University of Berlin, Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge, and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Lodz.

B

Bartodziej
Date testified: April 23 2015
Hearing: 45th Session
Dr. Peter Bartodziej, born in 1963, is principal in the German Chancellery. He has been educated as fully qualified jurist, started his career at the Federal Ministry of Justice in 1993 (Bonn) and changed to the Chancellery in 2002. There he has been working in different departments, amongst other things and with interruptions, responsible for G-10 matters. Since 2011 he has been group leader of group 13.

Baecker
Date testified: May 22 2014
Hearing: 5th Session
Professor Dr. Matthias Baecker is junior professor for Public Law specializing in Civil Rights Protection in Germany and Europe, Police and Security Law as well as Law of Information Technology at the University of Mannheim.

Binney
Date testified: July 3 2014
Hearing: 11th Session
William Binney is former Technical Director of the World Analysis and Reporting in the NSA and chief of the Technical Advisory Panel to the Foreign Relations Counsel for the NSA.

Breitfelder
Date testified: December 18 2014, January 15 2015
Hearing: 28th Session, 30th Session
Reinhardt Breitfelder was born on June 28, 1945 and is a former professional soldier (more than 41 years). He is an office machine mechanic by profession. He was educated to be an officer (including general staff education). In 1996 he changed to the BND. There he has been occupied in three departments (Evaluation, Technics and Technical Reconnaissance), and from 2003 to 2006 he was head of department 2 in Technical Reconnaissance.

Brown
Date testified: June 5 2014
Hearing: 7th Session, Part 2
Professor Dr. Ian Brown is Deputy Director of the Cyber Security Centre at the University of Oxford and Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute.

Burbaum
Date testified: November 27 2014
Hearing: 24th Session
Dr. Stefan Burbaum is a 43-year-old jurist and works for the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI). From 2002 – 2005 he was employed at the BND (Pullach). There he first was referent and then head of department in the area of Technical Reconnaissance, concerned with the legal questions and the G-10 concerns of the BND. Later, from end of 2003 to beginning of 2005, he was the G-10 commissioner of the BND. Then he changed to the BMI. Here he has been working in the functional supervision of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) until 2008 (also concerned with G-10-issues). For several years he has been head of the household department of the BMI.

C

D

de With
Date testified: March 26 2015
Hearing: 43rd Session
Hans de With is 82 years old and is now a lawyer. From 1999 to January 2014 he was the chairman of the G-10 Commission.

Drake
Date testified: July 3 2014
Hearing: 11th Session
Thomas Drake is a former senior executive at the NSA. He was Senior Change Leader reporting to the Director of Signals Intelligence as the Chief of the Change Leadership & Communications Team, and also served as a Technical Director for Software Engineering Implementation across all of NSA. He became a whistleblower after challenging the NSA's Trailblazer project.

E

F

Fechner
Date testified: March 19 2015
Hearing: 41st Session
Dr. Harald Fechner is almost 69 years old and a graduated electrical engineer by profession (his studies were at the Technical University of Munich, PhD in 1980). He has been working for the BND in different areas for 28 years, most recently as the head of the department 2. In June 2009 he retired.

G

Gaycken
Date testified: June 26 2014
Hearing: 9th Session
Dr. Sandro Gaycken is Appointed Director of the NATO SPS Program on National Cyber-security Strategies, Associate Fellow of Oxford University’s Martin College and Senior Fellow at the EastWest Institute.

Golke
Date testified: January 29 2015
Hearing: 33rd Session
Martin Golke is 53 years old and an electrical engineer by profession (specialised in telecommunication). In 1992 he started his career at the BSI. There his tasks in the beginning included the development and evaluation of cryptosystems, later of information-protecting components and of connected systems. At the moment he works in the department for cybersecurity (security of networks, audits according to IT-security accreditation and IT-security provisions, international expert panels).

H

Helfrich
Date testified: January 15 2015
Hearing: 30th Session
Harald Helfrich was born on August 2, 1958 and currently works as a technical telecommunications senior civil servant at the Deutsche Telekom (Frankfurt am Main). He graduated as an electrical engineer specialising in telecommunications, and has been occupied at the Deutsche Bundespost since finishing university (1983). Later he moved on to the Deutsche Telekom AG (Frankfurt) in the field of security (collaborations with security services).

Hoffmann-Riem
Date testified: May 22 2014
Hearing: 5th Session
Professor Dr. Wolfgang Hoffmann-Riem is former senator of justice of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. From 1999 to 2008 he was judge at the Federal Constitutional Court. Today he is Affiliate Professor at the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg.

I

J

K

Korff Date testified: June 5 2014
Hearing: 7th Session, Part I
Professor Douwe Korff is a Dutch international lawyer specializing in Data Security, professor for International Criminal Law at the London Metropolitan University, as well as visiting professor at the Universities of Zagreb und Rijeka in Croatia.

Köbele
Date testified: January 29 2015
Hearing: 33rd Session
Dr. Bernd Köbele is 56 years old and retired in 2013. By profession he is jurist and has been working at the Deutsche Telekom since the nineties (firstly in the human resources, then in the department for corporate security, where he has been a contact for security authorities).

L

Landefeld
Date testified: March 26 2015
Hearing: 43rd Session
Klaus Landefeld is 46 years old and an entrepreneur and executive director by profession. He has studied computing and has worked as an entrepreneur in this field since he was 16 years old. Since 1990 he has offered commercial services together with a large network provider, which he founded himself (worldwide services in 17 countries). He participated in the establishment of several Internet nodes, for example the build-up of DE-CIX (German Internet exchange node in Frankfurt), run by the eco-association of the German Internet industry, where he is dean.

Laux
Date testified: January 29 2015
Hearing: 33rd Session
Udo Laux (born in 1952) has been retired since 2009 from being a civil servant. He was working at the Deutsche Telekom as a technical telecommunications senior civil servant starting in 1991 (1998 to 2003 in the department for secrecy-protection, particularly dealing with classified documents and protocol control TKÜV), from 2004 in the department for corporate security, and before 1991 he was employed at the Deutsche Post. He is a graduated engineer for telecommunications.

M

Miller
Date testified: June 5 2014
Hearing: 7th Session, Part II
Professor Russell A. Miller is Professor at the Washington & Lee University School of Law in Lexington.

N

O

P

Papier
Date testified: May 22 2014
Hearing: 5th Session
Professor Dr. Hans-Jürgen Papier was judge at the Federal Constitutional Court from 1998 to 2010. He has been president there since 2002. Today he holds the Chair of Public Law as an emeritus at the Faculty of Law of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich.

Q

R

Ricke Date testified: December 4 2014
Hearing: 26th Session
The witness Kai-Uwe Ricke is 53 years old, has lived in Switzerland since 2008 and is entrepreneur in the field of telecommunications (no technical background). After an apprenticeship at a bank he studied business administration and since the beginning of the nineties he worked in the field of mobile communication. In 1998 he started at the Deutsche Telekom as CEO of T-Mobile and later on became CEO of the Deutsche Telekom (2002 to 2006). Since then he has been working as an entrepreneur (worldwide investments in the area of telecommunications as well as supervisory board mandates).

Rieger
Date testified: June 26 2014
Hearing: 9th Session
Frank Rieger is a German hacker, non-fiction author, technical publicist, Internet activist and one of the speakers of the Chaos Computer Club.

S

Schaar
Date testified: January 16 2015
Hearing: 31st Session
Peter Schaar is 60 years old and graduated economist by profession. He is the former Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (up until December 2013).

T

Talmon
Date testified: June 5 2014
Hearing: 7th Session
Professor Dr. Stefan Talmon is professor for Public, Public International and European Law at the University of Bonn as well as Director at the Institute for Public International Law at the University of Bonn.

U

Urmann
Date testified: March 5, 2015
Hearing: 39th Session
Dr. Dieter Urmann is 63 years old and a professional soldier in retirement. From 1971 to 2013 he was a member of the army. Aside from his education as an officer, he has studied electrical engineering and did his PhD in machine engineering. At the German Armed Forces, he was group leader in the department for material. In 2001 he changed to the BND. There he became staff manager in autumn 2003 in the department for technical reconnaissance (Department 2), then head of the sub-department for intelligence collection and then the successor of Reinhardt Breitfelder.

V

W

Waidner
Date testified: June 26 2014
Hearing: 9th Session
Professor Dr. Michael Waidner is head of the Fraunhofer-Institute for Secure Information Technology, Fraunhofer SIT, and also holds the Chair of Security in Information Technology at the Technical University of Darmstadt.

X

Y

Z

Witnesses identified by initials only

A.F.
Date testified: March 19 2015
Hearing: 41st Session
A. F. is a jurist at the BND in Pullach. Since 2009 he has worked at the BND (Referent in the department of Technical Reconnaissance - in 2013 and 2014 he was also commissioner for G-10).

A.S.
Date testified: January 29 2015
Hearing: 33rd Session
A. S. is 50 years old and works for the BND. He is an electrical engineer by profession. After occupations in the private sector he started his career at the BND in 1994. He particularly has been working in the department for development and cable-capturing. Since 2013 he has been head of the department for IT-support for special systems.

E.B.
Date testified: February 26 2015
Hearing: 37th Session
The witness E. B. is 55 years old and a soldier by profession. He has been educated by the German Armed Forces (Signaling), started as regular soldier and then studied electrical engineering (specialised in telecommunications technology) within his officer training. After that he was technical officer and then head of squadron. In between he was officer in the Federal Ministry for Defense (field of armament management) for two years. In 1996 he changed to BND (Munich), starting in the department of technical equipment. In 2001 he changed to project management. From January 2004 to present he is the head of the capturing garrison Schöningen (the focus is capturing and processing of satellite traffics referring to regions of crisis and wars).

G.L.
Date testified: November 27 2014
Hearing: 24th Session

H.F.
Date testified: October 9 2014
Hearing: 16th Session
H.F. is a fully qualified lawyer, has been working for the BND for over 9 years and has been commissioner for data protection at the BND for almost two and a half years.

J.F.
Date testified: February 5 2015
Hearing: 35th Session
The witness J. F. is 53 years old, an electrical engineer by profession at garrison Pullach. After university he was in the German armed forces for 12 years. In 1993 he joined the BND and there, he has been responsible for planning and conception of technical projects and was head of a department for electronic data processing. Afterwards (2002-2006), he was head of the garrison Rheinhausen (administrative and security-related tasks, responsible for capture and evaluation of orders).

J.Z.
Date testified: September 25 2014
Hearing: 14th Session
J.Z. is employed at the BND-Department in Bad Aibling.

K.L.
Date testified: December 18 2014, January 15 2015
Hearing: 28th Session, 30th Session
The witness K. L. is employed at the BND. Her studies in informatics make her competent to work in upper-level services. Directly after her studies, she started working at the BND in 2006, being appointed in the department for technical reconnaissance (Pullach).

L
Date testified: November 13 2014
Hearing: 22nd Session
Project manager L. is employed at the Federal Intelligence Service (BND).

R.S.
Date testified: February 26 2015
Hearing: 37th Session
R. S. works in Rheinhausen and is 49 years old. By profession he is graduated physicist. After university, he started at BND and began working as referent, since 1993 then in Rheinhausen as head of the department for signal- and telemetry-analyses. Since 1996 he was responsible for operations in Rheinhausen and since ca. 2011/2012 he is the head of systems support (production of data, generation of contents).

R.U.
Date testified: September 25 2014
Hearing: 14th Session
R.U. used to study electrical engineering and has been working for the BND since 1996. He has been deployed at the outpost Bad Aibling for over four years.

S.L.
Date testified: December 4 2014
Hearing: 26th Session
S. L. is a graduated engineer in electrical engineering (specialised in telecommunications; amongst other places he studied abroad in the USA) and since 2003 has been a staff member of the BND (Gardeschützenweg, Berlin). There he has started with strategic telecommunications reconnaissance in the field of cable capturing and has been the head of the operation “Eikonal” (until 2008; here also was occupied with technical connections to the captured signals). Afterwards he changed to other areas of technical reconnaissance (intelligence gathering, later on intelligence processing). Until 2012 he was stationed in Pullach, afterwards in Bad Aibling. His tasks in the project "Eikonal" were the technical-operative part in terms of conception and coordination of the structure of the capturing systems located at the service provider (He was referent for cable reconnaissance and responsible for the capturing technology right at the front of the capturing head).

T.B.
Date testified: October 16 2014, November 27 2014
Hearing: 18th Session, 24th Session
T.B. states that his initials are T.B. and he works at the BND.

W.K
Date testified: November 13 2014, February 5 2015
Hearings: 22nd Session, 35th Session
W.K. is a qualified engineer (electrical engineering, telecommunications) and sub-department manager of technical telecommunications capturing in the Department of Technical Reconnaissance of the Federal Intelligence Service in Pullach. We has worked for the BND for over 20 years. He has been employed at the garrison Rheinhausen in capacity of head of department of the system support group (the IT-group occupied with technical tasks).

W.P
Date testified: November 13 2014
Hearing: 22nd Session
W.P. is employed at the Federal Intelligence Service (BND).