EU intel

Germany’s 'Mr. Hezbollah' to coordinate EU intelligence council

The 61-year-old Konrad will oversee the EU Intelligence Analysis and Situation Center (EU INTCEN) in Brussel. INTCEN has a staff of 70 agents.

The EU’s policy chief Federica Mogherini appointed Konrad to the coordinator position. The EU does not have its own intelligence agency. The fragmented nature of Europe’s intelligence system is believed to have played a role in not detecting terrorist attacks on the continent.

Konrad earned the moniker “Mr. Hezbollah” within German intelligence circles because of his talks to secure prisoner swaps with the Lebanese-based terrorist group. Some accused Konrad of shedding his meditator’s neutrality in 2009 when he sealed a deal gaining the release of the bodies of two IDF reservists, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, for the freedom of five terrorists, including the child-murderer Samir Kuntar.