today it's about the question of why a BND official becomes a double agent, about the new government in Israel and its questionable plans, an impressive mayor and a searching ex-mayor.
Enigmatic Spy
An official who works in what is perhaps the most important department of the Federal Intelligence Service, the technical reconnaissance service, which taps phones around the world, reads e-mails and is also highly regarded by foreign partners.
He is married, has children, a house near Munich, an apartment in Berlin, and he doesn't earn bad money as a department head.
Why is he risking his job, his career, his free life?
Much is still unclear
in the case of Carsten L.
, who allegedly spied on his own employer for Russia - the German foreign intelligence service.
Also, whether all allegations against him apply at all.
According to sources familiar with the investigation, he may have been frustrated with his job.
But is that enough to become a traitor?
It's a bit clearer
how the man got caught
.
Not from their own efforts, as the first reports from the BND on the case suggested.
A friend of mine,
while spying on the Russians
, discovered a record that could be traced back to the BND.
The service informed friends in Berlin that Carsten L. was being targeted, and he was monitored for many weeks before he was arrested shortly before Christmas Eve.
It could be said that it is part of spies' good business to get
to the heart of their enemies' machines
.
Western secret services try nothing else.
And it's part of their risk that every
now and then one of them gets caught
.
For the BND, however, the case means
considerable damage to
its image .
In the months and weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the German foreign intelligence service did not exactly shine with wise foresight, but its view of Russia was considered all too mild by some partner services, at least in the past.
Now the BND has to explain to its partners how a Russian spy was able to get into the heart of the service
.
"We urgently need a turning point in the field of intelligence services, too," said Konstantin von Notz, MP for the Greens and chairman of the parliamentary control committee for monitoring intelligence services.
»The threats and hostilities against our democracy are currently massive.
Illegitimate influence, propaganda and espionage are relevant and urgent areas in which our security authorities have to position themselves much better, more resiliently and more sharply.«
You can read
our research into what is
perhaps the biggest espionage scandal in the recent history of the BND in the new issue of SPIEGEL and today on our website.
Also the SPIEGEL editorial by my colleague Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt: War, espionage, catastrophes - Germany must become more defensive
You can find more news and background information on the war in Ukraine here:
New wave of attacks with kamikaze drones, Lavrov wants to stop the supply of weapons:
President Zelenskyj appeals to his people's humanity.
Russia launches more attacks - and reiterates demands for recognition of the occupied territories.
The most important developments.
Western intelligence service helped unmask BND agent:
According to SPIEGEL information, a tip from a partner service led the Germans to the suspected Russian spy.
Investigations are also ongoing against a second person in the ranks of the BND.
"Hug your family more often":
The Ukrainian President Zelenskyj has addressed his compatriots with an unusually apolitical video message.
He also appealed to the cohesion of the Ukrainians.
Federal government takes a relaxed view of Russian oil export ban:
Russia wants to respond to the oil price cap with an export ban - but the federal government sees "no practical significance" in this: Germany can get by without Russian oil.
New Israel
If a new government is expected to be sworn in today at 10 a.m. in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, it will likely be a
historic turning point for the country
.
The well-known and soon-to-be-new Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
will henceforth lead "probably the most right-wing and religious government in the history of Israel," as my colleague Richard C. Schneider from Tel Aviv writes.
For example ,
Itamar Ben Gvir
, who has already been convicted of inciting and supporting a Jewish terrorist organization, sits in the cabinet.
Or
Arye Deri,
the leader of the orthodox
Shas party
.
He is also set to become a minister, something the law previously banned because Deri had been sentenced to probation for tax evasion.
That is why the Knesset changed the law in an urgent procedure.
It
's not just the dubious personal
details that cast a bad light on Israel's future government.
Under pressure from his ultra-right coalition partners, Netanyahu wants to restructure the judicial system and further restrict its independence.
"The plans of the new government give reason to fear that troubled times are coming for Israel," writes Richard C. Schneider.
Starting today, Israel will be a different, new country.
Next Netanyahu government: Israel is facing a massive democratic restructuring
Abused Justice
In the daily forecast of the dpa news agency, which is partly the basis of this morning situation,
two court dates in Istanbul
are announced today.
Şebnem Korur Fincancı is accused of propaganda for the banned Kurdish Workers' Party PKK.
She is said to have spoken about an alleged use of chemical weapons by the Turkish military.
Students at Istanbul's Boğaziçi University are on trial for a demonstration in March 2021.
The protests at the university broke out after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan decreed a rector at the renowned university, whose post had previously been occupied by the university itself.
Twice it is about people who made their opinion known or wanted to gather.
The judiciary is abused
twice
for political purposes .
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu
is one of those who has just experienced this
.
He was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison.
The reason for this was a petitesse.
Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu from the ruling AKP party called Imamoğlu, a member of the Republican People's Party, an idiot in 2019.
Imamoğlu then said that those who canceled the mayoral elections in Istanbul were idiots.
He was then charged with insulting the members of the High Electoral Council
.
For observers, it is a clear case:
the judiciary is being abused to eliminate a possible competitor of Erdoğan.
Imamoğlu is considered a possible joint candidate for six opposition parties in next year's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Assuming his appeal against the verdict succeeds.
Shortly after the verdict was announced, Imamoğlu gave a written interview to my colleagues Şebnem Arsu and Özlem Topçu.
I was impressed
by the optimism with which the politician looks to the future despite the constant harassment
.
"It's an expression of the great trauma of having lost Istanbul in two elections," he said, explaining the pressure his opponents are putting on him.
“You haven't digested this for three and a half years.
Now they are politicizing the judiciary.
But they will not reach their goal.«
One could already sense his positive attitude when Imamoğlu was
campaigning as a candidate for mayor
.
The motto of his campaign was:
»Everything will be very nice.«
Convicted mayor of Istanbul: "Erdoğan is trying to get rid of his competitors"
Second Life
He was once the mayor of the most important city in the republic, today he sits in the Bundestag and is considered a backbencher.
Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin for seven years and now MP for the SPD, said
goodbye a year ago and started something new
.
He gave up a lot of power and gained a little.
How is it for a member of parliament who is walking
through a city for which he was responsible until a year ago
?
"You have to imagine it as if a homeowner were to sell his slightly neglected apartment building, stay there as tenants, but continue to be asked about the mold in the basement in the hallway, because most of the neighbors didn't notice the change of ownership.
Is it even possible to let go?” writes my colleague Christoph Hickmann, who accompanied Müller for 14 months.
I can only recommend
his wonderful
portrait in the new SPIEGEL .
Here is the current quiz of the day
The starting question today: Where is the world's first repository for highly radioactive nuclear waste?
Loser of the day...
…are those on
this year's Simon Wiesenthal Center list
, which will be announced today.
The Los Angeles-based non-governmental organization, named after the Holocaust survivor, architect and publicist who died in 2005, publishes the »Top Ten Anti-Semitic/Anti-Israel Slurs«, the
ten worst
anti-Semitic and anti-Israel slurs, once a year .
The quoters mentioned are thus
branded worldwide as anti-Semites
.
This may be justified in many cases, for example when the regime in Tehran is mentioned, which is known to deny the Holocaust.
In the past, however, there were also strange mentions.
In 2019, for example, Christoph Heusgen ended up on the list, once Angela Merkel's adviser
and now head of the Munich Security Conference.
As the permanent representative of the Federal Republic of Germany at the United Nations, he voted anti-Israeli 25 times in the Security Council and equated Israeli bulldozers with Hamas rockets.
The federal government protested sharply at the time.
When the
anti-Semitism commissioner of the state of Baden-Württemberg, Michael Blume,
made it onto the top ten list of global anti-Semitism last year because he allegedly “liked” anti-Israeli Facebook posts, even Israeli religious communities criticized the decision made by Los Angeles.
Let's see who it hits today.
Controversial report: German anti-Semitism commissioner on global »anti-Semite list«
The latest news from the night
The USA is also obliging travelers from China to carry out corona tests:
Because the corona virus is spreading in China, the USA is introducing new restrictions for travelers from the People's Republic.
The US epidemic authority also justifies the measure with China's information policy.
US energy company Exxon is suing the EU:
The tax undermines investor confidence: Exxon is taking legal action against the EU's temporary random profit tax for energy companies - and is threatening further action.
Turkey abolishes the minimum age for retirement:
Apparently more than two million Turks can retire immediately.
Previously, women had to be at least 58 and men 60 years old.
But another condition remains.
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
Hundreds of thousands of young people are starting to smoke:
In the past year, the proportion of smokers among 14 to 17 year olds has almost doubled, according to a new study.
Minister of Health Lauterbach is appalled.
Who shoots the bird:
Rich, successful and respected: Elon Musk started this year at the peak of his success.
But since the Twitter takeover, the paint has come off, Musk seems radicalized – and Tesla investors are rumbling.
»I asked myself whether I was still a real man«:
If the desire to have children does not work out, many men feel insecure or even guilty.
Two photographers sensitively show how those affected deal with the supposed flaw.
Why do I always exaggerate at Christmas?
As for many parents, December is my month of horror.
With seeing eyes we fall into every known stress trap.
This urgently needs to stop.
Next year .
I wish you a good start into the day and an eventful Thursday.
Yours, Martin Knobbe
