Free Republic

August Hanning, the man who once led Germany's spy service, is now under investigation for passing on state secrets. Police have arrested the former head of Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency, August Hanning, on suspicion of espionage, the federal prosecutor's office announced Tuesday. Hanning served as the agency's chief from December 1998 to November 2005 before moving to the Federal Interior Ministry, where he worked as state secretary until November 2009. According to a statement from the prosecutor's office, the 80-year-old faces charges including espionage, disclosure of state secrets, attempted treason and working as a secret service agent. It did...

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of Germany's foreign intelligence agency was quoted on Wednesday as saying al Qaeda was regrouping and still posed a threat. August Hanning, head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), also told the Muenchner Merkur newspaper he believed that both ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden were still alive. Hanning said German intelligence believed bin Laden was hiding in the border region between Afghanistan (news - web sites) and Pakistan and his al Qaeda network, which Washington blames for the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, was preparing for...