Germany arrests US double agent tied to NSA monitoring and leaking information
German authorities have arrested a German man in the BND, the country’s intelligence agency on suspicions of leaking information and spying for the US. Reuters noted in their July 4 article that two lawmakers have confirmed the arrest of the 31-year-old man.
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The suspect has reportedly confessed to leaking special German parliamentary committee details surrounding the revelations made by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, the politicians said. These meetings are confidential and is crucial to German intelligence.
Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and the broadcasters WDR and NDR reported that the alleged spy was first detained on suspicion of contacting Russian intelligence agents. He then admitted he had worked with Americans.
Bild newspaper said in an advance copy of an article to be published on Saturday that the man had worked for two years as a double agent and had stolen 218 confidential documents.
He sold the documents, three of which related to the work of the committee in the Bundestag, for 25,000 euros ($34,100), Bild said, citing security sources.
The case risks further straining ties with Washington, which were damaged by revelations last year of mass surveillance of German citizens by the U.S. National Security Agency, including the monitoring of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.
The German Federal Prosecutor’s office confirmed the arrest on Friday in a statement, but offered no further details.
“This was a man who had no direct contact with the investigative committee… He was not a top agent,” said one of the politicians, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The suspect had offered his services to the United States voluntarily, the source said.
Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said: “We don’t take the matter of spying for foreign intelligence agencies lightly.”
When asked whether Merkel had discussed the issue with President Obama during a phone conversation on Thursday night, he merely said they had talked about foreign affairs.
The United States embassy in Berlin, the State Department in Washington and the White House all declined to comment.
Hans-Christian Ströbele, a member of Parliament from the Green Party who sits on both the intelligence oversight body and the N.S.A. inquiry panel, said he had “no reason to deny” the published reports he had seen on Friday about the spy case.
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