At the end of the war, by presenting false papers in the name of Al-
ois Schmaldienst, Brunner managed to elude capture and eventually
settled in Essen. In 1954, while a French court issued a death sen-
tence in absentia, he decided to flee via Egypt to Syria and adopt yet
another name, Georg Fischer. Not only was a relationship established
with the Syrian service—particularly regarding the procurement of
foreign arms—but the Bundesnachrichtendienst later appointed
him its resident in Damascus. Members of the Israeli Mossad kept
their sights firmly set on Brunner but only succeeded in inflicting
bodily injury—the loss of one eye in 1960 and four fingers through
a 1981 letter bomb.BUNDESAMT FÜR SICHERHEIT IN DER INFORMATION-
STECHNIK (BSI). A government agency charged with ensuring the
inviolability of high-technology information systems, the Bundesamt
für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (Federal Bureau for Secu-
rity in Information Technology) was established on 17 December
1990 and placed under the direction of the German Ministry of In-
ternal Affairs. Its main functions had been previously performed by
the Zentralstelle für das Chiffrierwesen (ZfCh), a branch of the
Bundesnachrichtendienst. Located in the Bad Godesberg section
of Bonn, and staffed with about 300 people, the BSI was initially
headed by Otto Leiberich, the former director of the ZfCh who had
been named the BND’s top mathematician in 1962. The BSI was also
directed to help evaluate information legally obtained by other Ger-
man security organs. Critics accused the government of attempting
to create a version of the U.S. National Security Agency, albeit on
a far smaller scale, while its defenders stressed that eavesdropping
operations lay outside the BSI’s stated mandate.BUNDESAMT FÜR VERFASSUNGSSCHUTZ (BfV). The prin-
cipal agency charged with investigating subversive activities in the
Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), the Bundesamt für Verfas-
sungsschutz (Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution)
was specifically authorized by the Grundgesetz (Basic Law) of 1949.
Fearful of creating a Gestapo-like organization, legislators observed
the Trennungsgebot, the order separating intelligence and police
functions, prohibiting the new agency from making arrests, conduct-
BUNDESAMT FÜR VERFASSUNGSSCHUTZ • 55