The German government ordered the CIA representative in Berlin leave their country due to the escalation of the conflict by the U.S. intelligence.
The move means that Germany is really upset about the alleged CIA operations discovered by German researchers in recent weeks, as public outrage over exposure last year of widespread U.S. surveillance programs, whose objectives include the Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Steffen Seibert, German government spokesman, confirmed the expulsion of the head of the CIA station in a statement that made it clear that the U.S. espionage efforts will result in a breach of trust.
"He has asked the representative of the U.S. intelligence services in the U.S. Embassy out of Germany," Seibert said. "The federal government is prepared for this and I expect the same from its closest partners".
The decision means that the U.S. must remove the officer that oversees U.S. intelligence programs in Germany, but also marks the main point of contact with German intelligence services, ranging from the exchange of information on topics such as terrorist plans to Iran's nuclear ambitions.
When ordering the CIA chief to leave the country, Germany took certain measures used occasionally as adversaries spy-EU and Russia-but rarely used against any of its allies.
"I can not remember the last time I drove a friendly service to anyone," said John Rizzo, who spent more than three decades in the CIA and was its general counsel. "Germans should feel compelled to do so for political reasons, because there are certainly ways of conveying a distaste without taking such measures."
Former officials described the station chief of the CIA field as a veteran of the agency, a German who has held a number of positions and assignments abroad at the headquarters of the European division of the agency.
Before carrying out this mandate, Germany "had to make an estimate of what was going to lose, receiving a substantial amount of information from us," said a former senior U.S. intelligence official who worked closely with Berlin and spoke with the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Former U.S. officials said that the agency canceled certain espionage operations last year due to concerns over the impact of information leakage Edward Snowden. At the same time, former officials indicate that Germany has increased its defenses and efforts to eradicate the American spies.
Former U.S. officials reported that the friction of spying for Germany hurt diplomatic relations with the United States.
U.S. officials in the White House, the CIA and the U.S. Embassy in Berlin refused to make comments on the expulsion and the recent U.S. allegations of spying for Germany.
The decision to request the head of the CIA station leave the country came a day after German authorities carried out raids in an apartment and office in Berlin as part of an investigation of a person who is accused of working for U.S. intelligence.
Seibert said the decision to expel the CIA was made "in the context of the ongoing investigations of the federal attorney general, as well as the outstanding issues on the activities of U.S. intelligence services in Germany."
0 comments:
Post a Comment