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| Europe |
| Spies'R'Us |
| 2004-09-27 |
| Reads like a bad spy novel from 60's A former German spy has claimed that a traitor in MI6, Britain's overseas intelligence agency, leaked sensitive secrets to Russian agents throughout the 1990s. Norbert Juretzko, once an officer in Germany's BND intelligence agency, says information about MI6 field agents and their handlers was passed to the Russians for nearly a decade. According to Juretzko, German intelligence discovered the leak — and learnt about the names and movements of British agents — but did not tell its British allies for several years because it feared British action might compromise one of its own spies operating in Russia. Juretzko, who worked as a BND officer for more than 20 years, has revealed the existence of the mole to The Sunday Times. "Almost every time I met my source, who was our top spy inside Russian intelligence, he passed me microfilm which also contained sensitive information leaking out of MI6," he said. Well, there seems to be a fairly established tradition with MI6's spying for Russia, it would be actually a surprise if that was not the case at any point in time. "The highly classified material could have been obtained only by somebody in a senior position, as it revealed the identities of MI6 personnel and their activities. It also appeared to reveal the cover names and travel arrangements of British handlers." The Germans finally informed the British about the leaks in 1998 and a joint operation was initiated between MI6 and Germany's Militaerischer Abschirmdienst, which is responsible for counter-espionage. It is not known whether the mole was caught. The operation was overseen in Germany by Colonel Joachim Zoeller, head of counter-espionage, and Richard Wandel, another military intelligence officer, according to a source in the BND who corroborated aspects of Juretzko's story. |
| Posted by:Memesis |
| #2 SH, and who sez it ain't so? Still, some people have a spine and adhere to their loyalties. [snort..] |
| Posted by: Memesis 2004-09-27 7:01:21 PM |
| #1 Once the Russians were no longer the Soviets, you would expect that the leftist symps would do the right thing ... spy for the Chinese. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-09-27 6:45:44 PM |