Taurus wiretapping affair: Air Force inspector was connected via an insecure line

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Air Force Inspector Gerhartz: “I am not willing, I want to make that clear again, to fall for Putin here.”

Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa

The Taurus wiretapping affair is making waves both internationally and domestically.

Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) took part in a special meeting of the Bundestag Defense Committee, where further details about the affair came to light.

In the intercepted conversation between Bundeswehr officers about Taurus cruise missiles, a second participant dialed in incorrectly.

Pistorius confirmed this after the special session.

It was the Air Force inspector, Ingo Gerhartz.

However, according to previous investigations, unlike another participant, there was no “data leakage” for him.

However, investigations would have to be awaited before possible legal consequences.

“I am not willing, I want to make this clear again, to fall for Putin here and to expose my best officers, whether they made a mistake here or not,” said Pistorius.

Such behavior would be “exactly what Vladimir Putin expects from us.”

A Russian intelligence service had intercepted a conference call between four high-ranking Air Force officers.

They had discussed operational scenarios for the German cruise missile if the Taurus were to be delivered to Ukraine.

The defense policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Florian Hahn, said after the meeting that there were still unanswered questions.

It is also necessary to speak to Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the Taurus debate and to speak to the air force inspector about the wiretapping affair.

Meanwhile, in the debate over the delivery of cruise missiles to Ukraine, the differences of opinion in the traffic light coalition are becoming clearer.

After Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) described a so-called ring swap, in which Germany could give Taurus cruise missiles to Great Britain and London would deliver additional Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine, as an "option", her party leader Omid Nouripour made a similar statement: This could be “an option for how we can break the knot,” he said.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz is skeptical about the option of a Taurus ring exchange, but is fundamentally open to it.

"That may be the second best solution to achieve the goal - that's not particularly honorable," said Merz after a meeting of the presidiums of the CDU and CSU in Berlin.

For him, the option of exchanging rings seems “a bit” like saying, “Wash my fur, but don’t get me wet.”

Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has clearly rejected the ring exchange considerations.

»My clarity is there.

That is my job as Chancellor, as head of government, to express myself precisely and not to create any misleading expectations.

My answers are correspondingly clear," said Scholz at a press conference in Berlin when asked whether, like Baerbock, he saw exchanging rings as an option.

He does not consider the use of the Taurus to be justifiable, which is why this question is “neither direct nor indirect,” emphasized Scholz.

Röttgen and Hofreiter accuse Scholz of scaremongering

CDU foreign expert Norbert Röttgen and Green Party politician Anton Hofreiter jointly criticized Scholz severely.

In a guest article for the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" they accused the SPD politician of "catastrophic defeatism" and "dramatically poor communication."

With a view to Scholz's arguments against a Taurus delivery, they criticized the Chancellor for spreading fear and terror among the population.

Scholz's claim that Taurus deliveries are turning Germany into a warring party is "factually and legally wrong."

This also snubs France and Great Britain, who have already delivered.

The Union wants to submit another proposal for a vote in the Bundestag on Thursday to supply Ukraine with the Taurus system.

There are signs that the Union proposal could also be supported by individual members of the FDP and Greens.

Despite her support for a Taurus delivery to Ukraine, Strack-Zimmermann indicated her distance from the Union's actions.

The Bundestag can vote every week, she said.

But one must be careful that the issue, which is important for Ukraine, “does not degenerate into a farce.”

eru/dpa/AFP