Wolbert Klaus Smidt (11 April 1936 in Wilhelmshaven - 29 January 2016 in Hamburg) was a high-ranking German secret service official, diplomat and publicist. He was First Director () at the German Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst) and Embassy Counselor in Paris. Career Wolbert Klaus Smidt was a son of admiral Karl Smidt, the NATO commander of the West German navy fleet ("Flag Officer Germany"). After his studies of law at the universities of Mainz, Berlin, Munich and Kiel, Smidt joined the German Federal Intelligence Service in the 1960s in Pullach under their legendary founder Reinhard Gehlen. Among others, Smidt was responsible for intelligence on terrorism and international economic interconnections. Starting from the 1970s he was in charge of several special operations, about which details are not reported in the press. Starting from the 1980s he was the official representative of the German Federal Intelligence Service in Paris, simultaneously acting as a diplomat and as the director of the Intelligence Service's branch in France. From 1989 he was responsible for networking and consultation in the process of reform and re-foundation of secret services in eastern European countries. At the end of his career he was first director of the department for operative intelligence. Smidt had received high decorations such as the Bundesverdienstkreuz and Officier de l'Ordre national du Mérite of the French State. Public Engagement and Debates In 2003 he founded the Think Tank "Gesprächskreis Nachrichtendienste in Deutschland" (GKND, German Forum for the Discussion of Intelligence) in Berlin, together with other high-ranking former secret service officials, journalists and academics, such as Hans-Georg Wieck, in order to contribute to the public debate on the role of secret services in the world. He was the association's president until 2012, and then acted as its honorary president. „The association was founded in order to contribute to a better informed debate about the role of secret services and provide 'intelligence about intelligence' He organized numerous academic conferences in cooperation with influential German institutions, held numerous lectures and was considered a key-informant for the German press and political think tanks in questions of international terrorism and democratic control of secret services in modern democracies. He was one of the first high-ranking German government representatives who publicly denounced the alleged US American proofs for weapons of mass destruction in the Iraq as evident falsifications, easily recognizable as such by any professional secret service. In diverse publications and