Uhrlau, a mediator with vast experience

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JPOST CORRESPONDENT IN BERLIN
High-ranking domestic and foreign intelligence officials in Germany tend to be attorneys. But Ernst Uhrlau, the head of Germany's Foreign Intelligence Service (BND), is a political scientist who has a long history in German law enforcement.
According to media reports, Uhrlau last week bounced around the Middle East like a ping-pong ball to mediate efforts among Israeli, Egyptian, and Syrian diplomats over the release of captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit.
Uhrlau took the reins of the BND in 2005. He has mediated some of the most dramatic prisoner swaps to have taken place between Israel and Hizbullah. Uhrlau assigned one of his top agents - whose real name is not known but he is referred to as Gerhard Konrad - last year to mediate the exchange of IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, who were murdered by Hizbullah in 2006, for convicted murderer Samir Kuntar as well as Hizbullah fighters.
The swap went through, but raised criticisms of Israel's willingness to grant deep concessions to Hizbullah.
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