Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution as an Instrument for Character Assassination
OUT OF BOUNDS IN SWITZERLAND
THE SPY WHO TRESPASSED ON FOREIGN SOIL
“In April, officials in Baden-Wuerttemberg posted bail and apologized to Swiss authorities when one of their police investigators gathering information on Scientology's activities in Baden-Wuerttemberg was arrested by Swiss police after interviewing a contact in Basel. The investigator was charged with espionage and violating Swiss neutrality.”
– U.S. State Department Annual Human Rights Report on Germany for 1998
The arrest by Swiss authorities on spying charges of Peter Goebel of the Baden-Wuerttemberg OPC was described by the British Broadcasting Corporation as "an embarrassing setback for the German government." But it was more than a setback, and it was worse than the farce it appeared to be. It illustrates what can happen when the OPC's powers are directed against individuals, not because of anything they have done, but because of what they believe.
The Baden-Wuerttemberg Office for the Protection of the Constitution was caught organizing a cloak and dagger operation against members of a religion. And not even in Germany, but in a foreign country!