Berlin, Tel Aviv. The suspicion of espionage against former BND President August Hanning also concerns Germany's secret service partners. According to a report in the Telegraph, British and American services are checking whether their own information or sources have been compromised.
He told the Telegraph that what findings had been shared with the BND would be closely examined. When exchanging secret information, there are usually “automatic control and security mechanisms”. This includes cleaning up information about sources before passing it on.
Hanning is in custody. An investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe executed the arrest warrant against the 80-year-old, as a spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor's Office announced.
Ex-MI6 officer Dunn does not expect a break with his German partner. He would be “very surprised” if the case affected MI6’s relations with the BND. He assumes that both services are working together to investigate.
A former top man in the Israeli Mossad made similar comments. “As their friends, we trust them and are convinced that they will emerge stronger from this,” he told Handelsblatt, referring to the BND. There are also difficulties with other services. “In every organization there are occasional breakdowns, as well as difficult days and periods.”
In German security circles, however, the alleged betrayal of secrets is referred to as a “catastrophe”. With a view to possible reactions from foreign services, the case is “very, very serious,” the Reuters news agency learned from sources.
Hanning's former office manager, Manfred D., who is also in custody, is said to have provided his boss with confidential BND information for years. According to information from security circles, there are around 2,000 documents involved. As office manager, D. had access to all documents.
The investigators suspect that both agreed in 2010 to continually provide Hanning with valuable BND intelligence in exchange for payment. The former president is said to have used this information profitably for his consulting work. It is also being examined whether in one case he used findings for an analysis for a foreign intelligence service.
Hanning's defense attorney Leon Kruse confirmed possession of confidential documents, but rejected the accusation that they had been passed on to the detriment of Germany or for payment. “My client is being unfairly persecuted,” explained the lawyer. Further investigations would show this.
There are different assessments of the extent of the data leak. The chairman of the intelligence control committee in the Bundestag, Marc Henrichmann (CDU), pointed out on Deutschlandfunk that, according to current knowledge, the handover of internal documents would end in 2022.
When asked about a comparison with the Günter Guillaume espionage case under Chancellor Willy Brandt, he said: "I would now rule out the possibility that an office manager is in a position to be able to extract such broad information in today's times, even under today's secrecy regulations."
However, D. remained office manager until 2025. Apparently, investigators have so far only found evidence of confidential documents being passed on until 2022. It remains unclear which findings were affected and whether this included information from foreign partner services.
The deputy chairman of the intelligence committee, Konstantin von Notz, sees “definitely structural problems”. He accuses the Federal Ministry of the Interior, headed by department head Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), of incorrectly assessing the dimensions of the case. “From our point of view, the Federal Interior Minister’s current non-position is highly problematic,” the Green politician told Reuters.
After his time at the BND, Hanning was State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior for years. "For that reason alone, the house should have a great deal of vested interest in getting to the bottom of things. Alexander Dobrindt must definitely do his part to clarify things," said von Notz. Henrichmann announced a review of the control rules: “We will have to look at everything completely again.”
