Wired for War: The German spymaster caught in Mossad-s web

Wired for War: The German spymaster caught in Mossad-s web

August Hanning is accused of working with a foreign intelligence agency, and all the evidence points one way
It took a bungled kidnapping for Germany’s former spymaster to be charged with espionage and treason, but August Hanning’s ties to Israeli spies and criminals should have set alarm bells ringing in Berlin long ago.
Hanning, who led Germany’s Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) from 1998 to 2005, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with espionage, the disclosure of state secrets, and treason. 
Prosecutors have alleged that Hanning bought state secrets from his former BND aide – identified as ‘Manfred D’, who remained in the agency after Hanning’s departure and served several of his successors. They claim Hanning acquired nearly 2,000 BND documents between 2010 and 2022, which he then leveraged in his work as a private security consultant at-large to the rich and powerful.
Hanning, part of the woodwork on the security conference circuit, used this material to prepare a report for an employee of a foreign intelligence service, and maintained close contact with a representative of another foreign intelligence service, to whom he passed information obtained by Manfred D for several years.
Prosecutors haven’t identified which foreign services Hanning collaborated with, though media reporting suggests one is believed to be the Foreign Intelligence Service of Azerbaijan, a country Hanning has openly lobbied for since the mid-2010s. As for the other, Hanning’s involvement in a bizarre kidnapping plot suggests one obvious culprit.
The Israeli kidnapping plotGerman investigators picked up Hanning’s trail last September, when Hamburg police searched his apartment as part of an investigation involving multi-millionaire Christina Block, whose father built Germany’s most popular steakhouse chain, as well as a burger franchise, boutique hotels and gastro-resorts.  
Christina Block (R), and her attorney Ingo Bott attend Block's trial in Hamburg, Germany, June 29, 2026 ©  Getty Images;  Markus Scholz Ms. Block has been in a custody dispute with her ex-husband, Danish banker Stefan Hansel, since 2021. She is currently on trial for ordering the kidnapping of her two youngest children from their father’s care in Denmark. According to prosecutors, Block hired Hanning’s consulting firm, System 360, to carry out the abduction in 2022, but Danish police intervened before the System 360 team could snatch the children. 
Hanning apparently gave up on the direct approach and decided to outsource the job to his contacts from the world of intelligence. These contacts were Yaakov Perry, the former chief of Israel’s Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency, and Danny Yatom, the former head of Mossad.
Yaakov Perry (L) and Danny Yatom ©  Getty Images;  Rainer Jensen;  Dan Porges Block’s trial is ongoing and details are murky, but the allegations are as follows: Hanning hired Perry and his private intelligence firm, CGI Group, to assemble an eight-man team to kidnap the children; the German spymaster requested that Yatom be involved; Perry brought in David Barkay, a former member of the IDF’s Unit 504 intelligence wing and alleged Mossad agent; Barkay led the team that carried out the kidnapping on New Year’s Eve, 2023.
Barkay’s team assaulted Hansel and dragged the children – a ten-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl – across the German border on foot, taping their mouths shut and threatening to kill them if they screamed for help. 
An alleged member of David Barkay's kidnapping team enters a courtroom in Hamburg, Germany, April 27, 2026 ©  Getty Images;  Christian Charisius Hanning denies any role in the kidnapping, as does Yaakov. Barkay has confessed to orchestrating and carrying out the operation, but has not implicated Hanning or Yaakov. Yatom has told Israeli