Hanning espionage case: US secret services asked the BND a vote of confidence

August Hanning has already put the Federal Intelligence Service in serious trouble.

Back in 1999, an Iraqi asylum seeker told the BND about supposedly top-secret, mobile bioweapons laboratories run by Saddam Hussein's regime.

The German foreign service passed on these tips from its source, dubbed “Curveball,” to the US secret services.

Ominous for the BND: In February 2003, the US government used the “curveball” information before the UN Security Council to legitimize an attack on Iraq.

But the source's information turned out to be false, and the Iraqi later admitted that he had lied.