Arrest of former German spy chief alarms US and British agencies: Report
Authorities concerned classified information shared by Western allies may have leaked to foreign intelligence services, according to Die Welt
The arrest of a former German spy chief has exposed a possible leak of classified files to foreign intelligence services, alarming US and British agencies, Die Welt newspaper reported on Wednesday.
August Hanning, who led the Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, from 1998 to 2005, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of espionage and treason. Prosecutors say he obtained classified information from a former colleague over several years and used it in reports and exchanges with foreign intelligence contacts.
German security circles told Die Welt that some of the classified information the two men handled came from foreign partner services. “That means British and American intelligence information may also have been compromised,” the newspaper reported.
Hanning’s former office director, identified as Manfred D., was arrested the same day. Federal prosecutors say Manfred D. passed Hanning about 2,000 documents between 2010 and 2022 – many of them classified for internal BND use – in return for payment.
Die Welt reported that US services, along with Britain’s MI6 and its signals agency GCHQ, are checking whether information shared with European allies, and even their own sources, may have been put at risk by the suspected leak. German authorities warned partners of the potential compromise before the arrests, the newspaper said.
An investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe on Wednesday ordered Hanning to be held in pretrial detention, putting the arrest warrant against the 80-year-old into effect, a spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said.
Authorities say they have established that Hanning used the confidential information at least once to prepare a security report as part of his consultancy work, and that he also had exchanges with a foreign intelligence official. They have not named any country.
Public broadcasters WDR and NDR, along with the daily Suddeutsche Zeitung, reported that the service in contact with Hanning was not Russian, although the files he allegedly received included material on the Russian army and other classified subjects, including Iran’s nuclear program.
news_share_description subscription_contact