Spies protest over move to Berlin

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(London): The Times correspondent in Berlin Roger Boyes says that:

GERMANY’S secret agents are up in arms against their spymasters because the intelligence headquarters are being moved from Munich to a site close to the political decision-makers in Berlin. Many in the German intelligence community fear that their work will be used increasingly in political in-fighting.

Addressing a recent garden party for agents and their families, August Hanning, the secret service head, was interrupted by catcalls, boos and whistles. Ernst Uhrlau, national security adviser for Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor, fresh from negotiations for a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah, suffered a similar fate. Admiral Hanning has held three full staff meetings with his home-based agents to persuade them of the need to move to Berlin; he, too, was greeted with open scepticism.

Discontent stems partly from a reluctance to uproot families: Munich schools are, on the whole, better than those in Berlin, the quality of life is better, with ski slopes a short drive away. But there is, too, a deep suspicion that the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) could find itself in the political spotlight along with the British and US agencies.

Admiral Hanning estimates — according to an internal report leaked yesterday — that a third of the BND’s 6,000 employees are against moving, while another third are too cautious to express their views openly.

source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,171-844922,00.html