china, but it is really important in the context of the challenge of china, for the cia. china s what intelligence collectors call a hard target. it is really opaque, tough to get into, you really need officers who have this kind of deep can cultural and regional expertise to kind of get after the problem. and you need to be able to send them where they re needed. you need to send them to, say, west africa, where china has a lot of investment and united states wants to be able to see what they re up to. so bottom line, jim, in a lot of ways this is a return to a really traditional way of thinking about espionage, that s a little bit different from how the cia might have been focusing on the counterterrorism problem which had a little bit more of a paramilitary element to it over the last 20 years. it also comes at a moment in which human spying, traditional human intelligence gathering is getting more difficult for everybody, not just the united states. take a listen to what cia direct
Wenn Kanzlerin Merkel und Russlands Präsident Putin an diesem Freitag zusammentreffen, dürfte es um Afghanistan gehen, um die Ukraine, Nord Stream 2 und vielleicht auch um Nawalny. Ein weiteres Thema bleibt typischerweise im Verborgenen.
with our british friends. so what do we know about the suspect? he s been named simply as david s, his second name withheld under german privacy laws. he s a 57 year old briton. he was employed locally by the embassy as a contractor, so not as a diplomat. and it s alleged he was working with the russians since at least november of last year. the arrest came after what i understand was an intelligence led operation, runjointly by german and british authorities, including the security service, mi5 here and metropolitan police. once they felt they had enough evidence a germanjudge issued an arrest warrant. cold war berlin was the spy capital of the world. the glienicke bridge there was known as the bridge of spies because of the exchanges that took place between east and west. spying has changed since then. secrets can be stolen remotely over cyberspace, but that does not mean that old fashioned human spying, as seemingly witnessed
the glienicke bridge there was known as the bridge of spies because of the exchanges that took place between east and west. spying has changed since then. secrets can be stolen remotely over cyberspace, but that does not mean that old fashioned human spying, as seemingly witnessed in today s case, has gone away. it s unusual but it s not surprising. it would be more surprising if russia were not doing this. it s no surprise that they are conducting espionage against a country that they consider to be their adversary, the uk, and it s also not surprising that they get caught in the process, which is quite reassuring. so far this potential security breach at the embassy does not look to be too serious. but it does serve as a reminder that beneath the surface of a city like berlin spies are still plying their trade. gordon corera, bbc news. now, skateboarding has become very popular injapan after its teenage athletes
and it s alleged he was working with the russians since at least november of last year. the arrest came after what i understand was an intelligence led operation run jointly by german and british authorities, including the security service m15 here and metropolitan police. once they felt they had enough evidence, a germanjudge issued an arrest warrant. cold war berlin was the espionage capital of the world. the glienicke bridge in the city was known as the bridge of spies because of the exchanges that took place here. spying has changed since then secrets are often stolen remotely over cyberspace but that does not mean that old fashioned human spying has gone away. in this latest case, the british contractor has now appeared in a closed court hearing, with more details expected to emerge of the allegations against him in the coming days. gordon corera, bbc news.