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German spy charged with treason for aiding CIA and Russia
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By Yahoo News and Information Clearing House.
The CIA & Nazi War Criminals
A German spy who allegedly acted as a double agent for the United States and Russia has been charged with treason, breach of official secrecy and taking bribes, Germany's federal prosecutors' office said Thursday.
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The
32-year-old, identified only as Markus R. due to privacy rules, is
accused of offering his services to the CIA in early 2008 while working
for Germany's foreign intelligence agency BND. Documents he gave the
U.S. spy agency would have revealed details of the BND's work and
personnel abroad, officials said.
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"In doing so the accused caused
serious danger to Germany's external security," prosecutors said in a
statement. "In return the accused received sums amounting to at least
95,000 euros ($104,900) from the CIA.".
Shortly before his arrest in July 2014, Markus R. also offered to work for Russian intelligence and provided them with three documents, again harming Germany's national security, prosecutors said.
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The
discovery that the CIA had allegedly been spying on its German
counterpart caused anger in Berlin, adding to diplomatic tension between
Germany and the United States over reports about U.S. surveillance of
Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone.
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Following the arrest, the German government demanded the removal of the CIA station chief in Berlin. .
Prosecutors said Markus R. would have had access to sensitive documents because his job involved handling mail and classified documents for the BND's foreign operations department.
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German
weekly Der Spiegel reported that the 218 documents Markus R. allegedly
passed to the CIA included a list of all BND agents abroad, a summary of
an eavesdropped phone call between former U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, as
well as a draft counter-espionage strategy. A spokeswoman for the
federal prosecutors' office declined to comment on the report.
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If convicted, Markus R. could face between one and 15 years in prison.
