Betrayal of secrets by the secret service: Is the BND reform in good hands?

It is a complete catastrophe for the BND: Central internal information from the secret service has been leaked out over the years, situation reports, briefings for the Chancellery, almost 2,000 documents. Not from a frustrated backbencher, but apparently from a senior employee, the office manager of several presidents. The whole thing went to the former BND President August Hanning - who is said to have passed some of the information on to an employee of an opposing secret service (which one is unclear).

And as if all of that wasn't crazy enough, it only came out by chance, through investigations into the kidnapping case of steak house heiress Christina Block's children - in which Hanning's security company is also involved.

Now the former intelligence president has been arrested. When have you experienced something like that? At least not in this country.

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This betrayal of secrets comes at the worst possible time for the BND. He had recently painstakingly polished his image after accusations that he had noticed crucial developments in world politics too late: for example the advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan or the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

And the last secret betrayal wasn't long ago either: a former department head who is said to have delivered BND internals to Russia in the middle of the Ukraine war is currently on trial. In addition, Hanning is not the only high-ranking ex-secret service agent who attracts attention with ominous consulting activities - a practice that should have been curbed long ago.

Above all, the Hanning affair comes at a time when the BND is being challenged more than ever in the face of Russia's hybrid war or the USA's rightward drift. It was only a day ago that BND President Martin Jäger drastically warned of Putin's shadow war against Germany. And the affair comes at a time when the federal government has just launched a major reform for the BND, which aims to grant it significantly more operational powers and make it a “real secret service”.

But when it becomes known how easily and permanently internal information gets leaked to the outside world, it brutally destroys trust. Not only in terms of whether all the new data that the BND will be allowed to collect in the future is safe there - but also whether this reform itself is in good hands.

Not only the BND's partner services are likely to be alarmed about the Hanning affair - the German population should be too.