In 2011, Germany uncovered a far-right terrorist group named National Socialist Underground, which had been linked to series of murders, including the murder of a police officer. A report by Stern Magazine stated that German BfV and DIA officers had witnessed the murder of a policewoman during their surveillance of the „Sauerland“ group—an Islamist organization that planned attacks on U.S. military installations in Germany—but that neither of the agencies reported it, thus enabling subsequent violent acts by the same criminal entities. The magazine cited an alleged DIA report that confirmed the agency‘s officers were at the site of the incident.

The authenticity of the alleged DIA observation protocol, on which the Stern Magazine based its report was swiftly denied by the BfV, while DIA refused to comment. An unnamed U.S. „insider expert“ for intelligence matters told Der Spiegel he deemed it unlikely that DIA could be involved in that type of operation at all; the „expert“, however, erroneously described DIA as an analytic organization, when in fact the agency has been involved in clandestine operations for decades.