Berlin
The Federal Public Prosecutor has had a BND employee arrested for possible espionage. There is a suspicion of treason.
This gear is Bruno Kahl difficult. No intelligence chief likes and willingly talks about a mole in his own ranks. About betrayal. Then abysses open up. also read: BND – Why the Ukraine war is the “hour of the spies”.
But on Thursday the President of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) to flee to the front and go public. Because the day before, the federal prosecutor’s office had arrested an employee of the German foreign intelligence service. The man is now in custody. Suspicion: treason. Spying for Russia. The federal prosecutor’s office left open whether he had been disclosing information for a long time or only started after the start of the Ukraine war.
The tip for exposure came from another intelligence service. Carsten L. has apparently been suspected and shadowed for weeks. The investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice already had one on December 16, 2022 arrest warrant enacted Since then, according to information from Karlsruhe, “the apartment and the workplace of the accused and another person have been searched”. “If the suspicion is confirmed, here is an important strike against Russian espionage succeeded,” said Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) on Twitter. “It shows how vigilant we have to be.”
BND staff arrested on suspicion of spying on Russia
Carsten L. was arrested in Berlin. This raises the suspicion that it is not one Wiretapping experts from Pullach or elsewhere, but an analyst from the BND headquarters. An insider with access to the top of the house? According to “Focus”, it should even be a senior employee of the top-secret technical foreign reconnaissance.
In this capacity he would have access to information western partner services had. As a specialist in evaluation, he was obviously responsible for analyzing all the processes and information that the BND gained through worldwide wiretapping operations, it is said. That the home of a contact person was searched, also gives an idea of the greatest concern of the investigators: did Carsten L. act alone or did he have accomplices?
Such investigations are only conceivable in close coordination between the police, the public prosecutor’s office, the BND and the authority responsible for counterintelligence in Germany: the Cologne Federal Office for defense of Constitution. The authorities, however, remain silent.
The exposure is in the federal government as “severe security incident” classified. The BND traditionally has very good contacts with Russia, not least because it benefited from the collapse of the GDR. At the same time, he has access to many sources of his western partners, especially the USA. Also read: Russia connection? Out for chief of the cyber security office
Espionage by Russia: Internal investigations at the BND
For Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, access to the confidential knowledge of the government of Olaf Scholz (SPD) would be of great value; also indirectly, because you can use a spy to spread disinformation in the ranks of a secret service that is known from its western partner services precisely because of its excellent analytical skills and its Russia knowledge was appreciated.
Kahl assures that after his service became aware of “a possible case of treason” in his own ranks, “extensive internal investigations initiated”. When the suspicion was confirmed, “the federal prosecutor general was called in immediately,” said the BND president. Also read: Suspicious drone flights – is Putin targeting Germany?
“With Russia we are dealing with an actor on the opposite side, with his ruthlessness and willingness to use violencet we have to reckon with,” said Kahl in Berlin. The BND blocked inquiries. “Restraint and discretion”, says Kahl, “are very important in this special case”. Every detail that is made public “means an advantage for the opponent.”
Reactions from politics: “espionage as a central weapon”
German politicians expressed concern after the arrest of the BND employee. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) called the case to RTL “particularly questionable”. The defense policy spokeswoman for the FDP in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, said on Bavarian radio: “This is a wake-up call to everyone that Russia is no exception to spying on us, too, in order to destabilize our system, the Federal Republic. “
CDU defense expert Henning Otte emphasized to this editorial office that the case shows “that Russia’s hybrid warfare is a very current threat for Germany too”. Espionage is a central weapon in this military strategy.
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