German became CIA spy ‘for kicks’
A MUNICH court yesterday handed down an eight-year prison sentence to a German former intelligence agent who spied for both the CIA and the Russian secret service because he wanted to “experience something exciting”.
Markus Reichel admitted to handing over “scores of documents and internal information” to the CIA, including names and addresses of agents for the Federal Intelligence Service or BND, in exchange for ß95 000 (about R7-million).
Some 200 of those documents sent to the CIA were deemed very sensitive, and even included the BND’s counter-espionage strategies.
The 32-year-old also delivered three classified documents to the Russian secret ser vice.
Reichel’s case emerged during a furore over revelations of widespread US spying in documents released by former CIA intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, which had also plunged its partner service the BND into an unprecedented crisis.
Partially disabled after a botched childhood vaccination, Reichel, who speaks haltingly, admitted that he had spied for foreign services out of dissatisfaction with his job at the BND.
“No one trusted me with anything at the BND. At the CIA it was different,” he told the court at the opening of his trial in November.
Not only did the CIA offer “adventure”, the Americans al- so gave him what he craved -recognition.
“I would be lying if I said that I didn’t like that,” he told the court. “I wanted something new, to experience something exciting.”
In 2014, he itched to “experience something new” again and decided this time to offer his services to the Russian consulate in Munich.
But his e-mail was uncovered by the German agency, and led to his arrest on July 2 that year. – AFP