Andreas von Bülow (born 17 July 1937) is a German politician of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) and writer. He wasMinister for Research and Technology from 1980 to 1982. Von Bülow has authored books aboutintelligence agencies, includingIn the Name of the State. CIA, BND and the criminal machinations of secret services. (German:Im Namen des Staates. CIA, BND und die kriminellen Machenschaften der Geheimdienste.) andThe CIA and 11 September (Die CIA und der 11. September). He holds adoctorate degree inJurisprudence.[1]
Bülow, a member of theBülow family, served as secretary of state in theGermanFederal Ministry of Defence (1976–1980) andMinister for Research and Technology (1980–1982), both during theChancellorHelmut Schmidt administration, and was regarded as a "rising star" of German politics at the time.[1] He served for 25 years as anSPD member of theGerman parliament (1969–1994). In the late eighties and early nineties, he served on the parliamentary committee on intelligence services ("Parlamentarischer Kontrollausschuss").[1] This committee supervises German intelligence agencies and has access to classified information. In the early nineties, Bülow also served as SPD ranking member of theSchalck-Golodkowski investigation committee, a task that first led him to inquire into white collar crime in connection with Eastern intelligence services, and later also into what he labels "criminal activities" of Western intelligence services.[2] His first major publication dealing with this realm,In the Name of the State (German:Im Namen des Staates) is a heavily referenced and extensive study focusing mostly on the CIA. Since leaving the Bundestag, he has largely left the SPD's political loop.[2]
Planning the attacks was a master deed, in technical and organizational terms. To hijack four big airliners within a few minutes and fly them into targets within a single hour and doing so on complicated flight routes! That is unthinkable, without backing from the secret apparatuses of state and industry.Tagesspiegel, 13. Jan. 2002[1]
At his home inBonn, he told an interviewer forThe Daily Telegraph : "If what I say is right, the wholeUS government should end up behind bars" and '"They have hidden behind a veil of secrecy and destroyed the evidence – that they invented the story of19 Muslims working withinOsama bin Laden'sal-Qa'eda – in order to hide the truth of their owncovert operation."[2].
^abTagesspiegel, 13 January 2002, contained an interview in which Bülow was asked whether he still kept in contact with old SPD companions like Egon Bahr and Helmut Schmidt, and replied "There are no close contacts anymore. I wanted to go to the last SPD party congress, but I was sick."
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