The American and German secret services have spied for more than a hundred countries for years through a Swiss company specializing in encrypting conversations, revealed on Tuesday 11 February Washington Post, German television ZDF and Swiss radio and television SRF.
After the Second World War, Crypto AG became the market leader in encryption equipment, selling for " millions of dollars " its material to more than 120 countries, report the three media. Among his clients are "Iran, the military juntas of Latin America, India and Pakistan, and even the Vatican", explains the American daily. In total, around 100 countries, including European countries (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Spain) and members of NATO, have used Swiss company technology.
Customers who were unaware of the very discreet links between Crypto and American post-war intelligence. In 1960, the CIA and the founder of the Swiss company, Boris Hagelin, signed a commercial agreement, which involved the payment of $ 855,000. A sum officially presented as "Marketing expenses".
Approached by French intelligence
The company's recognized expertise in encryption has attracted the lusts of other states. In 1967, the French and German intelligence services informed Hagelin of their desire to buy Crypto. The founder refused, and sent the offer up to the CIA … which would eventually buy the company three years later, in tandem with its German counterpart, the BND, for $ 5.75 million.
The two counter-spy agencies were then able to "Rigging company equipment to easily break the codes that countries (customers) used to send encrypted messages ", explain the three media.
They monitored the hostage crisis at the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979, provided information on the Argentine army in the United Kingdom during the Falklands War, followed the assassination campaigns of South American dictators, and surprised Libyan officials congratulate themselves on the attack on the La Belle nightclub in West Berlin in 1986 that killed two American soldiers, says the Washington Post.
The operation, named "Thesaurus" then "Rubicon", was "The coup of the century" on intelligence matters, the CIA welcomes in a 2004 report consulted by the investigators. They also had access to documents gathered by the German intelligence services in 2008. The latter finally disengaged from the agreement from the end of the 1970s, and completely withdrew at the time of reunification, transmitting their shares to the CIA. The American agency only sold the company in 2018. "Crypto had lost its importance on the global security market due to the massive diffusion of strong encryption technology now available on smartphones", analyze it Washington Post.
Slush fund
Neither the CIA nor the BND declined to comment on the investigation, without denying the authenticity of the documents, reports the American daily. Several investigations already suspected the involvement of American intelligence services in the enterprise, but this is the first time that internal CIA and BND documents attest to the existence of the project – and its scale.
The former German intelligence coordinator, Bernd Schmidbauer, confirmed to the ZDF the existence of this operation, believing that "Rubicon" had allowed "To make the world a little bit safer". The revelation of the existence of the project, however, raises many questions, in particular concerning the destination of the very comfortable income generated by the company, which according to documents consulted by the three media could have fed a "slush fund" of the German intelligence services. The German Greens have asked for "Explanations" to the federal parliamentary commission in charge of intelligence.
Swedish company Crypto International, which bought Crypto AG, said the investigation was "Very alarming", assuring that she had "No link with the CIA or the BND". Swiss authorities said on Tuesday they had launched a " research " on the subject on January 15th. The company's export license has been suspended pending the investigation.
