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Whoa. Retired head of the German BND (the country's lead intelligence agency) arrested for allegedly selling classified information to an unspecified foreign government. It appears have been quite the enterprise, involving his purchasing documents from a former underling.
Apparently he was found out because he was in some way caught up in an unrelated kidnapping scheme. Wild.
@mattblaze You'd hope a top spy would be better at, well, spying.
@mattblaze Whoa, that is the most German-looking man I've ever seen, and I'm saying that as a German.
@mattblaze make your bet...to Israel or the USA??? Or Both???
@Argyle13 there’s nowhere near enough information to have guess at this point.
@mattblaze kidnapping children (for raping them?) and spying? That does ring a b3ll. Someon3 called Epstein and his best friend Trump...
I'm curious about which country it was. The fact that he was charged with "treasonous espionage" might be telling,. Under US law, treason generally requires collaborating with a national adversary, but I have no idea what the elements of treason are under German law.
@mattblaze German selling secrets to an unspecified country?
There’s only one country the Germans bend backwards to support, fund, and shield from any war crimes or genocide they are doing.
So it’s probably that
@mattblaze According to the German press, the country in question is said to be Azerbaijan. That makes sense; there have already been many corruption scandals in which MPs from the leading conservative party, the CDU, have accepted funds from that regime.
@mattblaze I’m also curious, but I reckon Russia or a proxy.
@mattblaze It should be at least two different countries. Roughly translated: "In one case, the accused Hanning used classified information provided by Manfred D. to create an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence security apparatus. It has not yet been possible to determine whether the product reached the recipient. In addition, the accused Hanning was in intensive contact with a member of another state intelligence service." https://www.generalbundesanwalt.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2026/Pressemitteilung-vom-06-10-2026.html
@mattblaze It should be at least two different countries. Roughly translated: "In one case, the accused Hanning used classified information provided by Manfred D. to create an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence security apparatus. It has not yet been possible to determine whether the product reached the recipient. In addition, the accused Hanning was in intensive contact with a member of another state intelligence service." https://www.generalbundesanwalt.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/DE/2026/Pressemitteilung-vom-06-10-2026.html
@mattblaze
[DE here]
You wrote about the wild unrelated kidnapping scheme: But in this scheme Mossad was related.
The best contact was with Israel too but he did repeatedly visit Russia.
What scares me is that he was deeply in debt.
What makes me even more worrying are his contacts and friendships with the right wing extremists. He is a friend of Maaßen and friends of Austrian fascists …
Update:
Reports that one of the countries was the former sowjet republic #AZ #Azerbaijan #Aserbaidschán - today an authoritarian regime of corrupt criminals.
@sl007 @mattblaze The famous U.S. double agent cases tends to have two things in common, Russia and them just straight up paying them to commit treason.
Look up Aldrich Ames for an example. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is quite similar.
@mattblaze Don't do crime! But if you do crime, do one crime at a time.
@DavidJBianco And don't co-mingle your incriminating espionage evidence with your incriminating kidnapping evidence.
*furiously taking notes on how to engage in a criminal conspiracy*
@DaveMWilburn @DavidJBianco Rule 1 is watch The Wire first.
@mattblaze this whole story, especially the plot to kidnapp childred, sounds like a 3rd-rate, cheap movie plot. But obviously reality has actors that love soap- & trash stories.
@energisch_ Right? If it were a script, it would get tossed in the trash by the assistant and never shown to anyone.
@mattblaze exactly my thought
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@mattblaze
That's normal for German spooks, the history of German intelligence agencies and their heads is a story of treason and crime. The fact that this German top spook was also on the supervisory board of a foreign bank as a Beamter shows a certain ... has a certain ... well ...
Never look too closely. The U.S. is chaos, Europeans in general are just a little more discreet, but it isn't better, it just looks more dignified.