Licensed to kill, hack, sabotage or disinform — Germany’s spy ‘revolution’
Germany’s federal security intelligence services — its state spy network (the equivalent of the CIA or Britain’s MI6) — have been granted malicious new powers. The BND, or Bundesnachrichtendienst, will be given potentially lethal functions, including a new “licence to open fire.” It maintains that this will only be used in “self-defence” scenarios, however. The Guardian calls Germany’s espionage overhaul a “revolution,” in which its parliament handed the deep-state security apparatus its “wishlist“. That apparatus includes both domestic and foreign intelligence arms, according to experts cited in European media. The BND employs some 6,500 operatives (on record). The Times labels the…

