PU 57: The Hanning Affair

Who is August Hanning and what is he accused of and then how does this tie in with this whole steakhouse situation? So August Hanning, born in Nordwalde, North Rhine-Westphalia, which is right around the corner here pretty much, pretty close, was president of the German Exterior Intelligence Service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND, or BND, from 1998 to 2005.

when he then moved on to become state secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, overseeing all police matters and all of the federal intelligence services.

Hanning, who is 80 now, was arrested last Tuesday on suspicion of, quote, aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage.

This is from the press release by the prosecutor.

Hanning, after being pensioned in 2009, created his own security consulting business called Hanning Consult and also joined the board of the Swiss security company System 360, which specializes in the prevention of white-collar crime.

And he also joined the board of its parent company, Plutius AG.

According to the indictment leading to his arrest, Hanning, in his capacity as a private businessman, kept in contact with his former chief of staff at the BND, which is only named as Manfred D., who continued to work for Hanning's successors in the role of heads of the agency.

So he was running, um, hunting's office and then he left.

It's quite usual to change this post every, you know, every few years.

Um, and, but this, this Mr.

D was, whoops, you know, was more, hunting was more a political appointee as the people who run these agencies are.

Um, and this guy was like a, you know, he was like the down to earth intelligence guy.

He was like, you know, staying at the agency and just basically kept doing his job.

And this Mr.

D was working with the current president of the BND, which was also named in this report a guy called Martin Jäger.

And he was working in the same capacity, I think, still running that office of the current president of the BND until he was pensioned in March.

So that was earlier this year.

Mr.

D is alleged to have abused his role as a high-ranking BND official to gain access to highly classified information, which he subsequently handed to Hanning in exchange for payment.

Over the years since Hanning's departure, Mr.

D provided approximately 2,000 documents to Hanning.

And a lot of that was classified, apparently starting in 2010.

Many of these included classified information and were intended for exclusive use by BND personnel for internal purposes only.

Much of this material was apparently intended for executive intelligence briefings within the BND community.

And for the weekly secret situation briefing at the office of the chancellor.

Who is August Hanning and what is he accused of and then how does this tie in with this whole steakhouse situation? So August Hanning, born in Nordwalde, North Rhine-Westphalia, which is right around the corner here pretty much, pretty close, was president of the German Exterior Intelligence Service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND, or BND, from 1998 to 2005.

when he then moved on to become state secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, overseeing all police matters and all of the federal intelligence services.

Hanning, who is 80 now, was arrested last Tuesday on suspicion of, quote, aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage.

This is from the press release by the prosecutor.

Hanning, after being pensioned in 2009, created his own security consulting business called Hanning Consult and also joined the board of the Swiss security company System 360, which specializes in the prevention of white-collar crime.

And he also joined the board of its parent company, Plutius AG.

According to the indictment leading to his arrest, Hanning, in his capacity as a private businessman, kept in contact with his former chief of staff at the BND, which is only named as Manfred D., who continued to work for Hanning's successors in the role of heads of the agency.

So he was running, um, hunting's office and then he left.

It's quite usual to change this post every, you know, every few years.

Um, and, but this, this Mr.

D was, whoops, you know, was more, hunting was more a political appointee as the people who run these agencies are.

Um, and this guy was like a, you know, he was like the down to earth intelligence guy.

He was like, you know, staying at the agency and just basically kept doing his job.

And this Mr.

D was working with the current president of the BND, which was also named in this report a guy called Martin Jäger.

And he was working in the same capacity, I think, still running that office of the current president of the BND until he was pensioned in March.

So that was earlier this year.

Mr.

D is alleged to have abused his role as a high-ranking BND official to gain access to highly classified information, which he subsequently handed to Hanning in exchange for payment.

Over the years since Hanning's departure, Mr.

D provided approximately 2,000 documents to Hanning.

And a lot of that was classified, apparently starting in 2010.

Many of these included classified information and were intended for exclusive use by BND personnel for internal purposes only.

Much of this material was apparently intended for executive intelligence briefings within the BND community.

And for the weekly secret situation briefing at the office of the chancellor.