Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution as an Instrument for Character Assassination

It should be obvious that the OPC's tasks of analysis, classification and evaluation ought to be done on the basis of objective criteria. That they are not has been known about for many years, and is the subject of numerous critical discussions, articles and publications.

The OPC's mandate is “the collection and evaluation of information... on endeavors which are directed... against constitutional democratic order... Such endeavors are politically determined, goal and purpose-oriented manners of conduct by a group of persons which is intended to remove or nullify one of the constitutional principles.”

So long as it was investigating terrorist organizations like the Red Army Faction, it served a legitimate function. But that is no longer the case. Its weapons of bugging, infiltration and propaganda are being brought to bear not only on larger and larger segments of the population but on religious minorities; they were not designed for that purpose and are ill-equipped to carry it out.