BERLIN
Germany has reformed its domestic intelligence agency amid growing criticism over its failure to prevent a series of neo-Nazi murders, the government said Friday.
The new laws aim to enhance the powers of the national domestic intelligence agency, known as the BfV, in targeting extremist groups.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere (pictured) said the legislation drew lessons from the failure to identify the killings carried out by the National Socialist Underground (NSU).
"The revelation of the NSU crimes nearly four years ago was a shock for all of us… it was the result of failure of the security agencies and domestic intelligence officers," he told parliament.
"We have learned lessons from the shortcomings in the work of domestic intelligence."
NSU members killed at least eight Turkish immigrants, a Greek worker and a German policewoman between 2000 and 2007 as intelligence and police agencies excluded any racist motive for the murders.
The group is believed to have deliberately carried out the attacks across five federal states to take advantage of the lack of cooperation and information exchange between authorities.
The German public first learned of the group’s existence in November 2011, when two members died after an unsuccessful bank robbery.
Recent revelations have shown NSU members were known as right-wing extremists in the eastern state of Thuringia. The BfV and state-level intelligence agencies had around 40 informants with connections to NSU members but failed to prevent the murders.
De Maiziere said the legislation would allow the BfV to intervene in state operations and carry out its own operations without consulting state agencies. Cooperation and information sharing would also be improved under the law.
