Germany’s ex-spy chief August Hanning has been arrested on suspicion of treason.
He allegedly spent 16 YEARS taking thousands of classified documents and selling some of the information to a foreign power.
CHANCELLOR MERZ = ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.
— @steve_hanke Oct 7, 2026
Author: wawiimuy
God bless the European Union 🇪🇺😁
— @jkr_on_the_web Oct 7, 2026
A gold statue of President Donald Trump fully naked can now be seen in the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France.
“The sculpture is a satirical out-cry against Trump and the U.S. assault on the green transition and the rule-based world order,” said Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt.
📸: Johannes Simon, Getty Images
— @USATODAY Oct 7, 2026
California Governor Gavin Newsom called for Trump to be removed from office after his comment about Iran bombing San Diego and LA. newsweek.com/25th-amendment-…
— @Newsweek Oct 7, 2026
The arrest of August #Hanning, #BND president from 1998 to 2005, has sharpened long-standing doubts in #London about sharing secrets with #Germany’s foreign intelligence service.
– Investigators believe Hanning spent 16 years after leaving office collecting highly sensitive material—situation assessments, partner-agency documents, and papers on the Iranian nuclear programme and the Russian military—and selling some of it to an undisclosed foreign power.
– British agencies are said to be checking whether their own material or personnel were compromised.
– US agencies are reportedly reviewing what they shared with European partners over the same period.
– This is the latest symptom of a deeper problem:
– After the Cold War, Berlin took a deep “peace dividend.” Defense spending fell from about 3.9 % of government outlays in 1991 to roughly 1.1 % of GDP by 2014.
– The BND was left underfunded and tightly constrained; until reforms this summer, officers could not fire service weapons, sabotage abroad, or spread disinformation. A later chief compared the service to Gulliver “tied up with a thousand threads.”
– Post-Gestapo and post-Stasi politics produced heavy oversight. After Snowden, a 2016 law restricted sharing with the #UK and #US, and a 2020 court ruling made foreign interception much harder.
– Failures reinforced the “weak link” label: the BND missed the 2022 invasion; officer Carsten Linke was arrested in late 2022 for allegedly passing #Ukraine secrets to Moscow; a 2024 air-force call leaked on Russian television exposed British personnel in Ukraine.
– Merz has raised the BND budget by about a quarter to €1.51 billion and granted limited sabotage and weapons powers.
– Is it late?
– I think it is, but better late than later.
– Is it enough?
– Probably not.
– Germany has to meet the foriegn end of #Russia’s hybrid campaign, Chinese collection, #Iran‘s plots against dissidents and Jewish targets, #ISIS infiltrations and #Hamas attack planning at the same time, and none of those threats is shrinking. Intelligence is slow, highly specialized, labour-intensive work. You cannot recruit, clear and train a service on demand, or rebuild source networks and technical capacity that were run down for decades.
– Funding is only half the problem. The other half is people like Hanning: a former chief now accused of collecting and selling secrets long after he left office, on top of a serving officer already charged with passing Ukraine material to Moscow. Extra money and new powers do not restore a service partners already treat as porous.
– This is a cautionary tale for much of #Europe: a starved service is a liability, and a penetrated one is worse.
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2…— @Shtuni Oct 7, 2026
Ex-BND-Chef Hanning pflegte lange Jahre Kontakte nach Aserbaidschan. Dortigen Medienberichten zufolge reiste er bereits als BND-Chef dorthin und hielt als Pensionär die Verbindungen aufrecht. correctiv.org/aktuelles/inte…
— @tavisupleba Oct 7, 2026
#CIA CIA #FBI FBI #Mossad Mossad
August Hanning’s communications implicate both Israel and Russia in the hypothetical origins of 9/11 – Google Search google.com/search?q=August+H…
The order of importance:
Putin – FSB – Russia – Israel – Germany, each of whom had their own goals
The miserable Arab “culprits” are just the patsies and the SCAPEGOATS!
The blame for MISINVESTIGATION of 9/11 is on Bush administration, FBI at that time, and Robert Mueller.
REINVESTIGATE THE 9/11!
Kash Patel, please add it to your list of the FBI historical mistakes, on the number 1 slot.— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Oct 7, 2026
#CIA CIA #FBI FBI #Mossad Mossad
August Hanning’s communications implicate both Israel and Russia in the hypothetical origins of 9/11 – Google Search google.com/search?q=August+H…
The order of importance:
Putin – FSB – Russia – Israel – Germany, eachof whom had their own goals
The miserable Arab “culprits” are just the patsies and the SCAPEGOATS!
The blame for MISINVESTIGATION of 9/11 is on Bush administration, FBI at that time, and Robert Mueller.
REINVESTIGATE THE 9/11!
Kash Patel, please add it to your list of the FBI historical mistakes, on number 1 slot.— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Oct 7, 2026
#CIA CIA #FBI FBI #Mossad Mossad
August Hanning’s communications implicate both Israel and Russia in the hypothetical origins of 9/11 – Google Search google.com/search?q=August+H…
The order of importance:
Putin – FSB – Russia – Israel – Germany.
The miserable Arab “culprits” are just the patsies and the SCAPEGOATS!— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) Oct 7, 2026
#Germany: Update on #Hanning case.
– An investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe issued a pre-trial detention order against ex- #BND chief August Hanning. So, no bail for him.
– Prosecutors accuse him of intelligence agent activity, treasonous spying, reconnoitering state secrets, and attempted treason.
– His former office manager at the BND, Manfred D., was also placed in pre-trial detention on Tuesday for aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous spying.
– The two worked side by side for more than two decades after meeting at the BND. D. later followed Hanning to the Interior Ministry.
– @derspiegel reported that investigators were examining Hanning’s contacts with an intelligence operative in #Azerbaijan and noted his documented role on the board of the German-Azerbaijani Forum.
– Azerbaijan, as expected, has rejected reports linking it to the case, calling them disinformation.
– The public denial came from a state media regulator, not from a minister or the presidency. A statement from the Foreign Ministry or the presidency would have been more notable; none has appeared.
– Separately, APA, citing diplomatic sources, reported that Baku lodged a protest through special-services and diplomatic channels, addressed to the German Chancellor’s Office and the German Foreign Ministry.
– For an espionage case in which Germany has not officially accused Azerbaijan, a regulator’s denial plus a private diplomatic protest is consistent with how Baku usually handles contested foreign reporting. It is not a sign that the government stayed silent.
– Azerbaijani outlet AnewZ, citing informed sources, said German intelligence had told Baku the probe is not connected to Azerbaijan and centers on other countries, and that the classified material itself was not passed to third parties. German authorities have not publicly confirmed that account.
– To make things more complicated, according to @Reuters, it is considered possible that the former BND chief may have passed confidential documents to countries such as #Israel.
– Looks like much more is still to come. Buckle up. generalbundesanwalt.de/Share…— @Shtuni Oct 7, 2026