Could one of you closer to the German political scene explain to me what the <BR>V-Mann-Affaire is or was?<BR>I have seen reference to it in German press releases, but the articles assume that the reader knows more about it than I do.<BR><BR><BR>

Right-hand man? In reference to a discreet alliance?

Hi FODORITES,<BR>the V-Man is an undercover agent.<BR>The is getting into something like a<BR>Mafia or something that seems to be illegal.<BR>Than he spies them out but have to report all the time.<BR>In our case it was a scandal as as far as I now, the Minister for internal affairs did not know that the V-Man actually was member of a party called<BR>"Nationalpartei"(or so, kind of "NAZI-<BR>ideology) that was to be spied.<BR>The reports should leave to a prohibition of that party, what actually<BR>a problem in a free democratic country is. So it is took to our constitutional court. Due to this scandal - now the question is - can this case be continued, or do we have stop the case,<BR>because of false information and all the<BR>sleazy out of control situation.<BR>So far my understanding of this case.<BR>Shain/eu/de(d&uuml;sseldorf)<BR>If anyone has more info please input us.

Thanks Shain. I will go back over the German language news releases that come to me via email and see if I can read with more understanding. My reading knowledge of German is fair, even though my compositional ability is weak.

<BR>Hi everyone,<BR><BR>the NPD ( "Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands", or "National Democratic Party of Germany" ) calls itself democratic, but most people agree that it is a anti-democratic, right-wing party. There is some evidence that the NPD is responsible for recent violence against Jewish institutions in Germany and other minorities. In response to this, the German government ( represented by the Minister for Internal Affairs, Otto Schily ) tries to prohibit the NPD. The only way to do this is to go to the Bundesverfassungsgericht ( the Constitutional Court ) and proof the anti-democratic character of the NPD. The Bundesverfassungsgericht can prohibit the NPD if it thinks there is enough evidence against it. The government collected a lot of proofs. Part of it are the statements of some high functionaries of the NPD. The scandal is that at least one of these functionaries is an V-Mann of the German secret service ( V-Mann means indeed undercover agent, the "V" stands for Verbindung, or connection ). This means that his statements are worthless as an evidence in the current court procedure. The problem is, as Shain pointed out, that they now may have to stop the whole process, although there seems to be enough evidence against the NPD besides the statements of the possible undercover agents. Otto Schily says he didn't now about the whole thing, but he should have known since there had been newspaper articles about this very topic several months ago.<BR><BR>Hope this is understandable and helpful.<BR><BR>Regards, Jochen