IS IT ALL MOVING A LITTLE TOO FAST FOR OUR PRESIDENT AND HIS CURRENT CAST OF ADVISORS ? — WHITE HOUSE ON ITS BACK FOOT WHEN IT COMES TO CIA’S ROLE IN THE GERMAN SPY SCANDAL — OBAMA HASN’T EVEN VOTED ‘PRESENT’ YET ON THIS GROWING CRISIS
CIA DIRECTOR ASKS TO TELL KEY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT
Does everybody get the feeling that sometime soon, or not so soon, President Obama is going to come out in front of a bank of microphones and say, "I learned about this CIA-German Spy thing the same time everybody else did when I read about it in the newspaper." So far, the Obama Administration isn’t even admitting that there is a problem, but Germany is already taking counter-measures. Meanwhile, the CIA maintains its public silence over the alleged recruitment of a German intelligence official, but John Brennan has asked for a meeting to whisper some sweet nothings into a few congressmen's ears.
According to a detailed report in The Guardian, “The White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said he could not comment on the arrest of a suspected US spy because it did not want to interfere in ‘a pending German law enforcement investigation” and because “it obviously goes to, purportedly, a direct intelligence matter as relates to the United States.’ *** But Earnest appeared to acknowledge that the suspicion alone may have already caused damage to its relationship with Berlin and sought to reassure its ally about the longer term relationship between the two countries. *** ‘The relationship the US has with Germany is incredibly important,” said Earnest, insisting it was a partnership “built on respect” and “decades of cooperation and shared values.... All those things are high priorities not just of this administration but of this country, so we are going to work with the Germans to resolve this situation appropriately,’ he said during the White House's daily briefing with reporters.... (See “White House on the back foot over CIA role in German spying scandal” by Dan Roberts, Spencer Ackerman and Philip Oltermann, 7/7/14, The Guardian [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/07/white-house-response-german-spying-scandal]).
Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity with Reuters, told that news agency the CIA was involved in the alleged recruitment of a German official, a 31-year-old employee of that country’s intelligence agency, the BND. That German official was arrested in Germany on Wednesday on suspicion of having sold secret documents to a contact at the CIA (See “Exclusive: CIA had role in Germany spy affair” by Mark Hosenball, 7/7/14, Reuters/ Washington [http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/07/us-germany-usa-spying-cia-idUSKBN0FC21920140707]).
According to the Reuters report, “The Central Intelligence Agency was involved in a spying operation against Germany that led to the alleged recruitment of a German intelligence official and has prompted renewed outrage in Berlin, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said on Monday. *** CIA Director John Brennan has asked to brief key members of the U.S. Congress on the matter, which threatens a new rupture between Washington and a close European ally, one of the officials said. *** It was unclear if and when Brennan's briefing to U.S. lawmakers would take place. The CIA declined any comment on the matter.”
Things are pretty bad when you get more foreign policy pronouncements from the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who is shilling her own book, than you do from whole rest of the Obama Administration that she left behind.
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UPDATE: MAJOR PROBLEMS WITH GERMANY PERSIST OVER U.S. SPYING
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION AND U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT CONTINUE TO DOWNPLAY WHOLE THING
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY OPENLY EXPRESSES ANNOYANCE AT QUESTIONS ABOUT “SPY SCANDAL” — SAYS GERMANY WAS PROBABLY WRONG TO HAVE BROUGHT IT UP IN SUCH A PUBLIC MANNER
According to a report on Reuters news service, “German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that new allegations of U.S. spying showed Berlin and Washington were completely at odds over how they viewed the role of intelligence, and she hoped German action would persuade the United States not to spy on partners. *** Her comments to German broadcaster ZDF came just days after her government told the CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country, in a dramatic display of anger after German officials unearthed two suspected spies.”
(See “Amid new spy scandal, Kerry calls U.S. and Germany 'great friends'”, by Rueters [Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Fredrik Dahl, writing by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Mark Trevelyanand], 7/13/14 [http://news.yahoo.com/amid-spy-scandal-kerry-calls-u-germany-great-151502775.html]). As one can tell from the title of the news report, the highest levels of the Obama administration and the U.S. State Department have yet come to grips with problem and prefer speaking in cliches.
Here’s what one major think tank journal commented late last week, “... [I]t’s increasingly clear that the Obama administration is either oblivious to the dangers it’s running in antagonizing Berlin or it’s unable to control the intelligence agencies who are running amok--Merkel demanded the expulsion of the CIA station chief at the America embassy on Thursday, a move that she had to take to placate mounting outrage among the German public. *** Either way, President Obama has a crisis on his hands. But it’s one he does not appear to be addressing. Instead, the administration and CIA director John Brennan are stonewalling both Congress and Germany....” (See “Downfall: Obama's Reckless German Spy Scandal” by Jacob Heilbrunn, July 11, 2014, The National Interest [http://nationalinterest.org/feature/downfall-obamas-reckless-german-spy-scandal-10855]).
In what is becoming a typical response from the Obama White House, on Friday Press Secretary Joshua Earnest showed annoyance with the whole German “Spy Scandal” flap (See “US irritated by German response to spying scandal” 7/11/14, DW/ [German-American] Bilateral Relations [http://www.dw.de/us-irritated-by-german-response-to-spying-scandal/a-17780705]). According to that report, “Up until now, there has been precious little official reaction from Washington to the latest allegations of US spying in Germany. However, while he again declined to go into detail about the allegations, White House spokesman Josh Earnest (pictured above) on Friday appeared to indicate that the US was annoyed by Germany's response to the spying row.
"Allies with sophisticated intelligence agencies like the United States and Germany understand with some degree of detail exactly what those intelligence relationships and activities entail," Earnest told a White House briefing on Friday. *** "Any differences that we have are most effectively resolved through established private channels, not through the media," he added.
Asked whether his statement should be understood as criticism of Germany's response, Earnest said he would leave this up to reporters to interpret his comments....”
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