It may not counterbalance all the things for which we could be critical of Germany, but it’s always good to have one less U.S. citizen spying for China (“Germany arrests U.S. citizen suspected of offering military intel to China,” Reuters, November 7, 2024).
We don’t know much yet, not even the spy’s name—apparently safeguarded as a matter of German law.
Germany has arrested a U.S. citizen suspected of offering intelligence on the U.S. military to China that he had acquired while working for troops stationed in Germany, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Thursday.
The man, identified only as Martin D. under German privacy law, is accused of having declared himself ready to work as an agent for a foreign intelligence agency, the statement said.
The accused had worked for U.S. armed forces in Germany until recently, according to prosecutors.
In 2024, he is said to have contacted Chinese state positions and offered to share with them sensitive information to pass on to Chinese intelligence. He had gathered the information through his work for the military, prosecutors said.
He was arrested on November 7. Presumably, the point of the “German privacy law” is to protect persons falsely accused, in which case maybe we’ll get to know the name after he is convicted.
The Associated Press adds that according a German news agency, “it appeared the suspect had not managed to transfer any data to Chinese authorities before the arrest.” The Reuters report seems to indicate this as well, but not explicitly.
A CBS News report adds that Martin D. “is a 37-year-old former civilian contractor employed by the U.S. military….”
I suspect that at least one currently unreported detail about Mr. D. will prove to by very interesting and relevant.
