上周二上午9点前不久，警方蜂拥而至，包围了位于诺德瓦尔德的一栋红砖房，该地靠近荷兰边境，在德国西部。现场宛如反恐行动，蒙面警官大批涌入房内。
Just before 9am last Tuesday morning, police swarmed a red brick house in Nordwalde, close to the Dutch border in western Germany. It looked like a terror operation, with masked officers entering the property en masse.
但当他们带着嫌疑人出来时，他甚至没有被戴上手铐。或许是因为他的年龄，又或许是因为他的名声。因为这位被带走的白发80岁老人是奥古斯特·哈宁，德国情报机构联邦情报局（BND）的前局长。
But when they emerged with their suspect, he wasn’t even handcuffed. Perhaps it was his age. Or maybe his reputation. Because the white-haired 80-year-old being taken into custody was August Hanning, the former head of Germany’s spy agency, the BND.
这次逮捕虽显温和，但他被指控的罪行却难以更严重：间谍活动、叛国罪、向外国势力出售数千份机密文件。
The arrest may have been genteel but his alleged crimes could barely be more serious: espionage, treason, selling thousands of classified documents to foreign powers.
《卫报》柏林记者凯特·康诺利与全德国一起目睹了这场戏剧性事件的展开。“影响相当巨大，”她解释道。“尤其是发生在当前全球事务压力巨大、俄罗斯对德国实施破坏袭击的时刻，更增加了事态的分量和严重性。”哈宁否认所有指控。但海伦·皮德问道，这样一桩高关注度的丑闻将给情报机构的声誉带来何种损害？
The Guardian’s Berlin correspondent, Kate Connolly, watched with the rest of Germany as the drama unfolded. “It was pretty seismic,” she explains. “And coming as it does – at a time of massive pressure in global affairs, sabotage attacks by Russia on Germany – adds to the weight and the seriousness.”Hanning denies all the allegations. But what, asks Helen Pidd, will be damage to the reputation of the intelligence agencies of such a high-profile scandal?