The government of Angela Merkel is turning up the heat on the Obama administration. They are making a diplomatic expulsion of the top US intelligence official in Germany.
Germany asks top US intelligence official to leave country over spy row
The German government has asked the top representative of America's secret services in Germany to leave the country. Members of the government's supervisory panel announced the measure at a press conference in Berlin this afternoon.
Clemens Binninger, a member of Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats, who chairs the committee that oversees the intelligence services, explained that the move came in response to America's "failure to cooperate on resolving various allegations, starting with the NSA and up to the latest incidents".
Merkel's spokesperson, Steffen Seibert, confirmed the decision in an official statement, which said: "The government takes these activities very seriously. It is essential and in the interest of the security of its citizens and its forces abroad for Germany to collaborate closely and trustfully with its western partners, especially the US.
"But mutual trust and openness is necessary. The government is still prepared to do so and expects the same of its closest partners."
Burkhard Lischka of the Social Democratic party said: "For over a year we have been asking questions and failed to get a response." As a result, Lischka said, "cracks" had started to appear in Germany's relationship with America.
Clearly the German government is not amused. This kind of diplomatic conflict is what one would expect between nations that are enemies. The US and Germany are supposed to be friends. Perhaps the problem is that the US doesn't really have friends as in equal partners, just vassals.