Urs Tinner

Sunday July 30, 2006

Looking back, however, I wonder: How did I miss Tinner’s role?

The German press reported in early 2005 that Tinner was a CIA informant, after German authorities arrested him and the US government apparently intervened to stop the prosecution of Tinner. Der Spiegel, in particular, had several stories about Tinner that suggested he was a CIA informant . Centrist Newsweekly Munich Focus nailed the BBC China connection in early 2005:

Tinner’s case is explosive because the high-tech mercenary apparently provided not only Libya, but also its archenemy, the United States, with sensitive information: in confiscated files of Tinner, investigators found reports that—according to an insider—“only make sense if they were written for an intelligence service.”

Investigators believe that Tinner served as an informer for the US intelligence service CIA or the US military intelligence service DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency).