General Wieker, the head of the German military, told lawmakers that the influence of al-Qaeda linked forces within the Syrian opposition was becoming stronger and stronger. A German newspaper claimed that a German spy ship intercepted calls in recent months from Syrian commanders asking the Assad regime for permission to use chemical weapons but that the permission was repeatedly denied. Another German news report said that German intelligence and the CIA jointly tracked German Islamists from 2005 until 2010, when the cooperation ended.
