BND President Kahl testified as a witness in the court case against BND agent Carsten L. and his accomplices. A traitor in one’s own house is a “catastrophe.”
“An insider as a traitor is one of the worst things that can happen to a secret service.” This is how BND President Bruno Kahl described before the Berlin Court of Appeal the damage that the accused BND employee Carsten L. and his accomplice allegedly caused. According to the indictment, they are said to have passed on documents and information from the BND to the Russian domestic secret service FSB.
The 6th Criminal Senate with the presiding judge Detlef Schmidt used an interview with the Tagesspiegel from July 2023 as an opportunity to summon Kahl as a witness. In the interview, the head of the foreign secret service, in consultation with the Federal Chancellery, had already spoken about the damage to the reputation of the BND and to the relationship with the partner secret services.
Because the defendant Carsten L. felt his personal rights were restricted by some statements, the Tagesspiegel, after publication, removed or changed some sentences from the interview at the request of the BND, for example in which the word “perpetrator” appeared.
Traitor in his own house
Kahl’s testimony will play a role in determining the defendant’s sentence if convicted. At the same time, Kahl was obviously trying to describe the damage to the BND as limited.
Kahl explained his description in the Tagesspiegel interview that they had been “lucky in misfortune” in this case: “No misfortune is so great that it cannot become even greater.” Not all the possible damage occurred. The case can be classified somewhat like a plane accident in which 80 of 100 passengers die and 20 survive.
From the BND’s point of view, a “suspected internal perpetrator” – a traitor in his own house – is a “catastrophe”. In this case, the duration as well as the scope and depth of the information leaked was manageable. The BND also solved the suspected case of treason itself after a tip from another secret service.
Nevertheless, the “damage is immense”: We communicated with international partners for six months about how the case could have come about and what was improved in order to regain their trust. The BND suffered “great damage to its reputation” in public.
Soldier with leadership qualities
Kahl stated that he did not know Carsten L. personally. When the suspected case arose, he was told about Carsten L’s personal and professional frustration. According to reports, Carsten L. voluntarily moved from the location in Pullach, Bavaria, to Berlin.
The fact that Carsten L. moved from head of technical intelligence to the personnel security department could have something to do with the fact that the restructuring of the analysis department as part of the structural reform in the BND was controversial and could have led to uncertainty.
In general, Carsten L. had a good standing in the BND, was recognized professionally and as a manager and had a good relationship with his employees. As a soldier in the Bundeswehr, he learned how to lead.
Excluding the public
Kahl limited his answers with reference to the limited permission to make statements that had been granted to him by the Federal Chancellery. He only wanted to describe details, especially about the exchange with the partner services, if the public – media representatives and spectators in the room – were excluded from the negotiation.
Kahl did not answer other questions from the defense, such as possible trips to Russia and Belarus after Russia’s major attack on Ukraine. The defenders tried to get answers from the BND president in one place or another in front of the audience. Carsten L’s lawyer Johannes Eisenberg asked about research that his client was supposed to have carried out about a BND employee at the German embassy in Moscow.
In the afternoon, the judges finally decided to exclude the public for reasons of state security. Kahl was then supposed to testify behind closed doors in more detail about the damage caused by the alleged case of treason, what rule violations Carsten L. allegedly committed, exactly what information and documents were leaked to the FSB and from which partner service the tip-off came.