The CIA and European intelligence agencies question the secrets of the West that were revealed to Moscow by an infiltrator working for Russia within the newly arrested German intelligence service.
A writer for the French magazine "L'Obs" describes in a report what happened as one of the most unique and most dangerous espionage stories in recent years.
Vincent Joffier says that this case has caused a sensation in Germany and within the Western intelligence services, as American, British and French spies fear that many of their secrets have been revealed to Moscow in light of the current war in Ukraine by one of their counterparts in the "strong spy service in the Federal Republic of Germany ( BND)" (Bundesnachrichtendienst).
The case began in September 2022, when a Western intelligence agency discovered several top secret documents from the German Federal Intelligence Service with a Russian officer that only a high-ranking spy could obtain.
And after 3 months, that is, on December 21, 2022, Jover says, "The German counter-espionage unit arrested the named Carsten Linke, a 52-year-old officer who is not a simple employee but rather took command of the unit responsible for electronic interception operations, in other words All wiretapping.
According to Juffair, quoting the New York Times, Linke specifically handed over the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service "FSB" - which was the successor to the "KGB" and was previously headed by the president to a Russian Current Vladimir Putin - Important information about mobile interception units deployed in Ukraine that track spy ships in the Baltic Sea, as well as technical data about the capabilities of the NSA and other allied services, particularly the French.
The writer adds that the French are very concerned, given that the “French General Directorate of External Security” (DGSE) and the “strong spy agency in the Federal Republic of Germany” signed an agreement in the early 1990s regarding electronic interception, and even the two services became jointly managed in several listening stations in Different continents, and there is a real fear that Linke has revealed some of the most secret secrets of the technical department of the French Directorate-General for External Security.
And the most dangerous of all, according to the writer, is that this spy, just before his arrest, was appointed head of the service responsible for evaluating new recruits, so this infiltrator was able to provide accurate information about the agents of the "strong spy agency in the Federal Republic of Germany", which made He allowed the Russians to identify and blackmail them.
Logo of the German Intelligence Service (Reuters)
But why did he betray this German colonel?
This is what the Washington Post answers by saying that investigators discovered that his liaison agent with the FSB is a person named Arthur Eller, who was arrested a month after Linke's arrest, after he had handed him 110,000 cash. Dollars in cash, but money does not seem to have been the only motive for the betrayal, as both men, according to Juffair, have ties to the Alternative for Germany (AFD), the powerful far-right party close to the Kremlin, and are excessive admirers of Vladimir Putin.
What worries Western intelligence services is that this Link cannot in any way be the only infiltrator in the German intelligence service, and investigators expect to discover more, which the New York Times commented on by saying, "The deeper we dig, the more complex the case becomes."