Germany’s foreign minister. Schrödermeier

Date: 21/06/06

A foreign minister under pressure to account for the past

SOMETIMES a rising star can quickly become a fall guy. Consider Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's new foreign minister. Since it emerged that two German spies in Baghdad had helped the Americans to avoid collateral damage or even to pick bombing targets during the Iraq war, critics have been calling for him to resign. Leaders of his own Social Democratic Party have deemed it necessary to assure him of their support.

Mr Steinmeier has amply lived up to his reputation, earned as chief of staff to Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, for competence, efficiency and loyalty. He is as voracious a reader of briefs in the foreign ministry as he was in the federal chancellery. He managed to extract German hostages from Iraq and Yemen. And he allows Angela Merkel, his Christian Democrat boss, to set the pace in foreign policy.

Yet Mr Steinmeier has one big weakness: his past as Mr Schroder's grey eminence. Whenever something unpleasant related to Mr Schroder's chancellorship emerges, it falls straight into Mr Steinmeier's lap. In December, it was CIA shenanigans--the renditions of terrorist suspects via German airports, the kidnapping of Khaled al-Masri, a German citizen. Now the issue is exactly what information was passed to the Americans during the Iraq war.

Under Mr Schroder, Mr Steinmeier was responsible for co-ordinating Germany's intelligence services. He has confirmed that the federal intelligence service kept two agents in Baghdad who helped the Americans with co-ordinates for "non-targets" such as hospitals and embassies. But press reports suggest that more sensitive military information was passed on. Critics are arguing that Mr Schroder lied when he promised that Germany would not join the war.

Before and during the Iraq war, Mr Schroder faced a tricky balancing act. He had to come out against the invasion--but he had no interest in further upsetting Washington. Thus, he did what he could to help without losing credibility: allowing American military planes to fly over German territory, getting German soldiers to protect American military installations--and exchanging intelligence.

Could two agents be enough to turn Germany into a member of the "coalition of the willing"? Mr Steinmeier has said that "alleged witnesses in dark rooms" should not be allowed to "rewrite history". Another question is why the story was leaked now. If the source was the Pentagon, as many in Berlin believe, it may be that the motive was revenge on Mr Schroder. Or perhaps the hard-pressed CIA wanted to show that the Europeans are not clean, either.

Mr Steinmeier may survive for a while, even though the opposition is demanding a parliamentary inquiry. He will surely have tried to keep his erstwhile boss (and himself) out of trouble. But he has conceded that "yes, they do exist, the less glitzy sides of power beyond media events and talk shows."