Hacker News Reader

Comment by nikcub | Hacker News Reader

Important additional info from the original Der Spiegel report[0]

The suspect initially offered his services to Russian intelligence for financial gain. Apparently this is what alerted him to German counterintel. There was then an offer made to a representative of the USA.

But most important, Spiegel reports that it hasn't been confirmed yet that this USA representative was actually American or acting in the capacity of the government, suggesting that it may have been a counterintelligence operation.

[0] http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/bnd-mitarbeiter-so...

View on HN

The guy got arrested because it was thought that he had been spying for the Russians. That explains the arrest then an American spy would never get arrested in Germany, Americans – even American spies – are considered 'friends' after all.

That is probably why Chancellor Merkel had to call President Obama: To explain why the Germans caused such embarrassment by arresting an American spy …

Sadly, you're probably mostly right -- but let's not forget the story of Robert Seldon Lady in Italy. On occasion European states do the right thing, despite being in bed with the US on most things, international law be dammed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/07/18...

American spy != spying for America.

It seems that the various Spiegel articles contradict each other: In the article I read it was stated that he already spied for the US and wanted to spy for the Russians too[0]. Both versions seem possible, will be interesting to see which one is true in the end.

[0] http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/bnd-mitarbeiter-un...

>The suspect initially offered his services to Russian intelligence for financial gain. Apparently this is what alerted him to German counterintel. There was then an offer made to a representative of the USA.

The article you link does not corroborate this. Actually it reads like he approach the Americans first, got money for it, went to the Russians and was caught then. (And this makes more sense too, if him contacting the Russians alerted German counterintelligence why would they not have apprehended him immediately, given that the material he offered is related to ongoing affairs?)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com