Germany vs IS: Berlin wants to censor reconnaissance data with Turkey

[MikeWB]

Even Germans don't trust Turkey.

Translated automatically so it's shitty... but you get the gist of it:



http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/bundeswehr-zensiert-tornado-daten-aus-syrien-fuer-die-tuerkei-a-1065948.html

The "Tornado"  should make the air strikes against the IS efficiently. Ironically NATO partner Turkey, however, will only get censored German data - Berlin does not trust Turkey.

When Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen visited on Thursday afternoon, Turkey, the partnership is the fight against "Islamic state" are the focus (IS). In a rush of von der Leyen military have negotiated with the NATO member that already next week the first "Tornado" -Aufklärungsjets and a tanker aircraft can be laid on the Turkish military base Incirlik. The Minister will officially bagging the deal during visit to Ankara.
The base in Turkey is strategically located. From Incirlik from the "Tornados" have to be completed within a short journey into the Syrian airspace. There you shall go forward from January to Spähmissionen, the high-resolution cameras are then also provide objective data for the air war the US-led coalition against IS. After the attacks in Paris Germany wants to make the entry into the anti-IS coalition's determination in the fight against terror to the test.

But even while a team from the Air Force in Incirlik planned the details of the deployment, discussed the strategists in Berlin in the last few days, a less amicable topic in dealing with Turkey. Under the military, the question was discussed at length how to prevent misuse of the German Enlightenment data through Turkey. At the end, the decision to censor the dissemination strictly fell - specifically facing the NATO partners.

Background is the double game that Turkey plays in the war on IS. Although Ankara has the coalition assumed eight F16 fighter jets, from time to time they also fly to the IS at concerted air attacks with. At the same time, Turkey takes the air war against the Kurdish militias of the YPG or the Workers' Party PKK - precisely those partners of the United States so that the ground fighting in the north of Iraq and Syria against the Islamists of the IS.

The fear of the military is obvious. So it would be quite possible that Turkey also identifies Kurdish objectives by evaluating German photos fights them later off the flights of coalition air strikes. The dilemma shows again how complicated the processes in the coalition, whose members pursue their own interests quite under the guise of anti-terror war.

Access to German data for only a few countries

For the censorship, the Bundeswehr has designed quite strict rules. To prevent that, Turkey at the end uses German reconnaissance results for their war against the Kurds, was installed two "red card holder". Translated from the military jargon this act as a sort of referee, who control both the use of the German "Tornado" and also the dissemination of the data collected and to stop if necessary with a red card.
Ministerin von der Leyen: "Wenn der Auftrag nicht dem gemeinsamen Ziel entspricht, wird er nicht angenommen" Zur Großansicht
AFP

Minister von der Leyen: "If the job does not correspond to the common goal, it is not accepted"
The task of the inspectors is clearly defined: The German officers who are stationed in the command post of the coalition on the Al Udaid airbase in Qatar, to ensure that the Germans are not even used for missions on the southern edge of Turkey. Before parliamentarians promised the ministry that flight orders, "not serve the clarification of the IS, rejected" would. This would be the observation of the Kurds, as well as possible, excluded.
If the "Tornadoes" but accidentally make Kurdish positions in her paintings, so the plan, these data are explicitly not passed on to the partner Turkey. The evaluation of the German data, as internal papers, success "First National". Then could by "the quality of products" and a "determination of the distribution loop be established to what extent the findings be shared". In case of problems so that Turkey would not be supplied.

Publicly wanted Minister von der Leyen not go on the sensitive issue in detail. In Berlin she said on Thursday only, the order of the fight against IS cabinets "a very strong, on which we focus." If it should actually occur but, "that the order does not correspond to the common goal, it is not accepted". Without Turkey to name, added von der Leyen, only "a small group of countries" have ever access to the German data.

The leftists who reject the use, do not trust the announced control. "The fact is that Turkey airstrikes against flying positions and areas in Syria, which are held by the Kurdish People's Protection Units," warned Left politician Wolfgang Gehrke. Consequently, could "not be excluded that the results of the reconnaissance flights German 'tornadoes' lead indirectly to the murder of Syrian Kurds".