The running controversies over US government espionage activities against the German government keep getting messier. It all started with the revelation that Angela Merkel's cell phone had been bugged. Just a few days ago Germany arrested a staff member of their intelligence agency who has reportedly confessed to being a double agent for the CIA. Now comes the news of another such investigation.
Second German government worker suspected of spying for US
German authorities are investigating the second case of a government employee suspected of spying on confidential government affairs for US secret services within a week.
Public prosecutors confirmed that the home and office of a defence ministry employee in the greater Berlin area had been searched on Wednesday morning.
They told the Guardian that a search had been conducted "under suspicion of secret agent activity" and that evidence – including computers and several data storage devices – had been seized for analysis. The federal prosecutor's office confirmed that no arrest had yet been made.
According to Die Welt newspaper, the staffer being investigated is a soldier who had caught the attention of the German military counter-intelligence service after establishing regular contact with people thought to be working for a US secret agency.
The official line from the White House seems to be that President Obama was unaware that this was blowing up before it hit the press.
Spying Case Left Obama in Dark, U.S. Officials Say
At the White House, senior officials have expressed concern that the latest allegations could set back relations with Germany just as Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel are struggling to move past the distrust generated by the Snowden disclosures, including the revelation that the N.S.A. had tapped Ms. Merkel’s cellphone.
What is particularly baffling to these officials is that the C.I.A. did not inform the White House that its agent — a 31-year-old employee of Germany’s federal intelligence service, the BND — had been compromised, given his arrest the day before the two leaders spoke. According to German news media reports, the agency may have been aware three weeks before the arrest that the German authorities were monitoring the man.
Just what is the German government doing that poses a threat to the national security of the US? The Obama administration is in need of a supportive alliance with Merkel and her government on several fronts. So far she has tried to straddle the fence on the range of issues about the US intrusion into both the German government and the lives of German citizens, but she if faced with sharp rise in public opinion that is hostile to the US. The image of a US intelligence establishment that is beyond government control does not speak well for Obama's management control.