AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Germany's former foreign intelligence agency chief August Hanning has been arrested on suspicion of treason. A former high-ranking aide is also in custody. Hanning is suspected of having sold state secrets to a foreign power. For more, we're joined now by Esme Nicholson, who's in Berlin, Hi, Esme.
ESME NICHOLSON, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: So can you just tell us more about who Hanning is? And what exactly are the charges that he's facing now?
NICHOLSON: Well, August Hanning served as the head of Germany's CIA equivalent, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, or BND for short, between 1998 and 2005. He is now 80. And as you say, he was arrested by federal police officers this morning and is facing charges that include espionage and attempted treason. More specifically, he is suspected of passing on state secrets to a foreign power in at least one instance. But in many other instances, he is alleged to have passed on classified information as part of his private consultancy business.
CHANG: And how did he allegedly get hold of this classified information after leaving office?
NICHOLSON: Well, this is where the second arrest comes in. Federal prosecutors have also charged a man they've named only as Manfred D. for allegedly aiding and abetting, attempted treason and treasonous espionage. Prosecutors say Manfred D. is August Hanning's former chief of staff and was still a serving intelligence official until earlier this year and a high ranking one at that.
CHANG: And what's Manfred D.'s alleged role in all of this?
NICHOLSON: Well, he's alleged to have passed on more than 2,000 documents to his former boss for more than a decade. Federal prosecutors suspect that Hanning used some of this classified intelligence to brief a foreign intelligence service. They also believe that Hanning was in close contact with somebody from a different foreign intelligence service and that he passed on political information based in part on material provided by Manfred D. I spoke to Constanze Stelzenmüller from the Brookings Institution this morning.
CONSTANZE STELZENMÜLLER: Besides the obvious scandal of the venality of a former head of the External Intelligence Service and a chief of staff who, after serving the man arrested this morning, served three more heads of the German Federal External Intelligence Service, the question is, why was this only detected now?
CHANG: Yeah.
NICHOLSON: I mean, Stelzenmüller adds that it's important to consider the current political context. Russia is waging what the agency's current head calls a shadow war in Germany, which includes sabotage, cyberwarfare and disinformation campaigns. And all this comes as Germany's foreign intelligence agency is seeking more powers to counter these threats.
CHANG: What do we know about who they were supposedly selling all of this intelligence to?
NICHOLSON: The prosecutor's office has not disclosed which foreign intelligence service or services they believe might have benefited from stolen intelligence, and it's not clear exactly what information was passed on. I mean, it is classified. But prosecutors say it comes from internal briefings and also those meant only for Germany's chancellor. But even without these details, this alleged breach is particularly high profile, and lawmakers are already demanding a probe into how it happened and how it happened for so long. But it follows a number of security breaches and scandals. A few years ago, the BND's head of Russian counter intelligence was arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia, and that case is still ongoing. And all this raises concerns about the credibility of Germany's intelligence agencies.
CHANG: That is Esme Nicholson in Berlin. Thank you, Esme.
NICHOLSON: Thank you, Ailsa.
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