Thursday, December 1, 2016

The German Islamic "Spy"

So it's been a couple of days now that the Islamic "spy" within the German intelligence service was noted and arrested.

What can be said is that he was a recent hire (Apr 2016)...51 years old....given a security clearance...then was noted putting internal and classified info out in some Islamic chat room and suggesting a scenario that might endanger his office/agency.  The agency and the Berlin authorities are at a loss on explaining this.  

They say that there is a vetting process and he passed the normal review for a hiree who worked in a sensitive job.  The opposition political parties?  They are hyped up and now wondering if Nazis might have been hired over the decades within this same agency.

What really happened?  I doubt if the news people will really dig into this and find the screw-up.

My thoughts?  I think that you have a government agency....like several other such agencies in Germany, which was given a list of new jobs, and was venturing into fresh new territory because it's rare that jobs become open (usually when someone retires).

The HR group did what they are supposed to do....advertise.  When you look around....there's just not a wide array of people with unique skills for intelligence work.  You also take into consideration that most Germans don't really like moving.  So if this job was in Hamburg....I'm guessing that 95-percent of the applicants are from within fifty kilometers of Hamburg.

They might have had a hundred applicants for the job....but after you establish that a university degree is necessary and some past work experience is needed...you come down to five individuals for the interview.  People that come in 'polished', professionally dressed, and deliver a fine interview...get the extra points and get hired.  I'm guessing this guy knew how to dress....how to "act" his way through the interview....established a fine relationship with the HR people doing the interview.  It was not that hard for him to get the job.

The review of his background?  They probably looked at his credit background.....no issues.  They probably asked about travel and trips, and other than some trips across Europe, nothing special.  Family references?  If he was 51 years old....the parents are probably passed away.  Arrests?  A review would establish that he's probably never been detained.  End of the review....the guy is given some kind of security clearance.

It's a script for a decent movie, just waiting to be written.

The suggestion of more reviews and maybe that Nazis might also be in the intelligence service?  One might expect every single employee to be forced through some new process and a review of their social media business, and chat room activity.  The thing is....you could end up with 200 employees under some bit of suspicion because of their anti-government chat, their financial issues, or frequent trips to Bangkok.  If you had to fire those 200?  Well....then you'd put the HR guys back into a serious mess because they'd have to recruit/hire 200 fresh and new employees with potential problems.

On the positive side?  At least he didn't do a data dump of one million secret documents and hand it over to ISIS or WikiLeaks.  Well.....at least we hope he didn't.

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