143
submitted 1 week ago by lavenie@lemmy.zip to c/world@lemmy.world
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] tal@lemmy.today 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

goes searching

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/former-german-spy-chief-detained-suspicion-espionage-treason-bild-reports-2026-10-06/

According to information obtained by the SZ newspaper, the case does not involve Russia.

Obviously, not the strongest source, but it's a data point.

I'd assume that more information will be released by Germany soon.

EDIT: I wonder if it might be us in the US. According to this, apparently the material involved stuff on Iran's nuclear program and the Russian military, which I imagine is probably both things that American intelligence would be wanting to know about:

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/former-german-spy-chief-arrested-on-suspicion-of-treason-espionage-prosecutors/4079382

Public broadcasters WDR and NDR and the daily Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that the service in contact with Hanning was not Russian, though the files he allegedly received included material on the Russian army and other classified subjects.

The outlets said the cache also included material on Iran’s nuclear program and documents from foreign partner services. Security officials said a leak of that kind would be a worst-case breach, because allied services could lose confidence in the BND and cut it off from information.

EDIT2: Israeli intelligence would be very interested in the Iranian nuclear program, but I assume not be terribly interested in the Russian military. I guess maybe Turkey would be interested in both. Maybe the UK?

[-] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 3 points 1 week ago

Ok, maybe i spoke to soon. Why do i always forget about Mossad? They are doing something right there if they slip my mind so often.

[-] tal@lemmy.today 6 points 1 week ago

It might not be one service that is interested in both Iran's nuclear program and the Russian military. According to the latest update on this article, Hanning was apparently in contact with multiple foreign intelligence services:

https://aa.com.tr/en/europe/former-german-spy-chief-arrested-on-suspicion-of-treason-espionage-prosecutors/4079382

On one occasion, Hanning used classified intelligence from Manfred D. to draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service, prosecutors said. It has not been established whether the material reached the intended recipient.

He was also in close contact for several years with a representative of another foreign intelligence service, and passed that person political information, some of it based on material from Manfred D., the office said. Prosecutors did not name either service.

If that's accurate, I'd say that that broadens the field a good deal, since there are a lot of countries that might be interested in just one or the other of the Iranian nuclear program and the Russian military.

[-] Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Oh, not even a double agent, but a multi-agent, available for the highest bidder. Great morals from that guy, really. May he burn in hell.

Germany (and Austria too) has been far to blue-eyed in the last decades. I fucking hate that Europe is forced to ramp up military production, but if we don't defend our values, they will be taken from us, if we want that or not.

this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2026
143 points (99.3% liked)

World News

58461 readers
1493 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world

Ask Historians !askhistorians@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS