SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 10.6.2026
The blogger has read many spy novels. Particularly those written by John LeCarre. Therefore it comes as a shock only in the sense that Life can be stranger than fiction.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 10.6.2026
Michaela Kufner, Chief Political Editor of Deutsche Welle was unsparing in her critical comments.
“A movie will be made out of this.”
“There’s never a good time to discover that your former chief of intelligence might have sold the country (Germany) out.”
“This is not only a loss of face. It’s a loss of credibility for the German foreign intelligence BND both externally, but also internally.”
“Huge damage done in real time.”
The former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, has been accused of spying for a foreign country. Never before has a German official of August Hanning’s stature been accused of treason.
The Federal Intelligence Service (German: Bundesnachrichtendienst, pronounced [ˌbʊndəsˈnaːχʁɪçtnˌdiːnst] ⓘ; BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinate to the Chancellor’s Office.[3] The BND headquarters is located in central Berlin. The BND has 300 locations in Germany and foreign countries. In 2016, it employed around 6,500 people; 10% of them are military personnel who are formally employed by the Office for Military Sciences. The BND is the largest agency of the German Intelligence Community. Federal Intelligence Service – Wikipedia
If the allegations are confirmed, it would be an espionage case of historic proportions for Germany: August Hanning, former head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), has been arrested, with the federal prosecutor accusing him of espionage, treason and attempted treason.
August Hanning, now 80, headed the BND from 1998 to 2005. But even before then, he had enjoyed a meteoric rise within the security apparatus. After leaving the BND, he served as state secretary in the Federal Interior Ministry, then moved into the private sector and worked as a security consultant.
According to the federal prosecutor’s office, his informant was his former chief-of-staff, named in the statement only as Manfred D.*, who went on to hold this position under Hanning’s successors from March 2012 to March 2026. D. thus had access to a great deal of classified information.
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-shaken-by-espionage-and-treason-allegations/a-79566578
