German counter-intel will improve quality following Israel map omission

Deletion of Israel ‘should not have happened to the military counter-intelligence service that fights antisemitism and extremism’

BERLIN – The head of Germany’s elite military counterintelligence service has issued an extraordinary statement of apology for the deletion of the State of Israel on a map.

“I intensively exchanged views on this mistake in a personal conversation with the responsible employees,” Dr. Christof Gramm, the president of the Military Counterintelligence Service wrote in an email to The Jerusalem Post. “I deeply regret this incident and expressly apologize. That should not have happened to the military counter-intelligence service that fights antisemitism and extremism. We will improve our quality management for publications.”

The Post was the first news organization to report on Wednesday that the counter-intelligence service omitted Israel from a map of the Middle East region.

Peter Weier, a spokesman for the Military Counterintelligence Service, told the Post that “in the first version of the ‘MAD Report,’ a mistake was made on the map ‘Bundeswehr operational areas with MAD participation.’ When graphically editing the Jordan area of operation, Israel was also accidentally colored and subsequently covered.”

MAD is the German abbreviation for the Military Counterintelligence Service and Bundeswehr is the German word for armed services.

Weier added that “After the first tip, we immediately corrected this error and checked how it could have happened. Inadequate care and inadequate quality control have led to this error. There are currently no indications of deliberate action or a political background.”

Germany’s defense ministry tweeted on Wednesday that the error was a product of a “software” problem. Critics cast doubt on the defense ministry explanation.

Author Caroline Glick tweeted to her more than 25,000 followers, “Geez, Germany... You suck! I mean, are you kidding me? It was a software problem? You’re GERMANY for crying out loud! You’re not even trying.”