Affairs). Even though his trial for wartime treason in the communist
People’s Court resulted in an acquittal, rumors circulated that he had
conveyed information about Soviet military movements to MI6 via
a clandestine radio, and he was rearrested two months later. British
intelligence, working with a senior Egyptian official, assisted in his
escape from prison and eventual return to Cairo. Hardly had King
Farouk named him the director of the new Cairo Desert Institute than
his fragile health took a decided turn for the worse. Treatment at a
hospital in Salzburg, Austria, was to no avail, and he died there on
22 March 1951.ALTEN, JÜRGEN VON (1923– ). A senior official in the Bundesnach-
richtendienst (BND) suspected of an Eastern bloc affiliation, Jür-
gen von Alten was a legation counselor in the Foreign Office of the
Federal Republic of Germany before embarking on an intelligence
career (code name Cäsar). With his appointment in 1974 as head
of collection came knowledge of many different aspects of BND
operations, including training procedures, radio surveillance, and
joint endeavors with other services. When the suspicion arose that
he could be a double agent, his superiors feared a disaster of the
magnitude of the Heinz Felfe case, and he was suspended in May
- Yet the feeble basis for this action proved to be merely a
confusion of names, and he was rehabilitated in January 1977. Still
deemed a potential risk and barred from further employment at the
BND, Alten was transferred to a lesser but well-remunerated gov-
ernment position.
AMT FÜR NATIONALE SICHERHEIT (AfNS). The short-lived
successor organization to the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit
(MfS), the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit (Office of National Security)
was established by the reform government of Hans Modrow on 17
November 1989. Headed by Wolfgang Schwanitz, a former deputy
of Erich Mielke, it attempted to preserve the essential structure of
the MfS by making minimal concessions in the face of mounting
public protest. The main changes included the reduction of the full-
time staff by half, primarily on the county level, and the divestment
of auxiliary functions such as passport control. Despite assurances
that the AfNS would operate according to “constitutional principles,”
10 • ALTEN, JÜRGEN VON