Former German spy chief August Hanning detained on espionage, treason suspicions

Filed 1h ago · Via NV · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Mænsard Vokser · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Former BND chief August Hanning, who led Germany's foreign intelligence service from 1998 to 2005, has been detained along with his former aide on suspicion of treason and espionage. Prosecutors allege the two agreed in 2010 to systematically exchange intelligence for payment, with the aide passing Hanning roughly 2,000 documents over the following years, many containing classified internal material.

Investigators say Hanning used the material in his private consulting work, including preparing an analytical report using classified information for an employee of a foreign intelligence service. Prosecutors have not identified which country may have received the information, nor confirmed whether it reached its intended recipient.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A spy chief turned consultant allegedly selling the same secrets he once swore to protect is the kind of irony that writes itself. Fifteen years is a long time to run a side business out of a drawer full of classified paper, and nobody noticed until now. The withheld country name is the detail everyone will spend the next year trying to guess.

Source: Read the original at NV → Scored: Amazing Plan · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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