Was there really nothing hushed up or concealed?
The controversy over the air raid on Kunduz in Afghanistan which left up to 142 dead rumbles on with new details emerging over the reaction of senior officials.
A secret email has now called into question the role in the affair of ex-Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr, Wolfgang Schneiderhan.
According to the leaked email, Germany’s most senior soldier – who had to resign over the botched raid – had never intended to follow the official Nato findings of the devastating air strike.
Because he was already certain: Colonel Georg Klein, who had been in charge in the field, had done everything correctly.
Strange – Schneiderhan had always said that no conclusions should have been drawn before the official report into the incident: “I am convinced that the investigation will be carried out professionally”.
But Schneiderhan himself did not seem particularly interested in the results of the inquiry. On October 19 2009, his office was asked to prepare a press statement for the former Chief of Staff – ten days BEFORE the Nato report was finished.
The email outlined what was to be in the statement: “GI [General Inspekteur, or Chief of Staff] is of the belief that K. [Colonel Klein] acted correctly and lawfully”.
That was a belief which completely contradicted all later reports!
And the statement for Schneiderhan was to have gone even further. Even if the official Nato report should conclude that “innocent civilians” were killed, the Chief of Staff would remain of the “judgement that K. had acted lawfully”.
Although there was still no official report, Schneiderhan wanted under no circumstances to admit any possible blame on the part of Colonel Klein.
The email contained a clear instruction: “In no event use the term ‘justifiable’”.
Before the official report was complete, Schneiderhan said in an interview: “We must in addition be prepared that there will be details established which require further answers from us”.
Bild.com
