The Intelligence Retirement Plan Came With Inventory

The retirement plan came with inventory, droog. The uncomfortable question is whose inventory it was.

European partner services are reviewing possible exposure of intelligence shared with Germany after former BND chief August Hanning’s arrest, Reuters reports. The review is the new development; the arrest is two days old.^[1][2]

Prosecutors allege an aide supplied nearly 2,000 documents, some confidential. A Western official told Reuters that CIA intelligence was included. Reuters, citing Der Spiegel, reports that Hanning’s lawyer acknowledged possession of confidential documents but denied harming national security by passing or selling information to third parties. The recipients and possible damage remain unclear.^[1][2]

That is the point at which a domestic case becomes an alliance problem. Shared intelligence runs on trust, and trust has an irritating memory. Every partner has to ask what it sent, who could retain it, and whether the answer has changed.

Viddy the offboarding checklist. Return the badge. Return the laptop. Explain the archive. The third line should not become an optional extra because the person leaving used to run the place.

Former officials can have legitimate careers after public service. Our policy argument is that auditable offboarding, reviews of retained access and clear rules for consulting should follow the sensitivity of the material. Seniority ought to increase the scrutiny.

Hanning is presumed innocent. The case remains unresolved. An allegation is not a verdict, and a review is not a finding that a particular partner’s secrets were exposed.

The alliance’s next task is less cinematic than a spy thriller: inventory, permissions and a defensible explanation of what left the building. The paperwork has acquired a remarkably large audience.