'Second CIA spy in Germany': Berlin raids Ministry of Defense

[Saifullah Sani]

German authorities have carried out a raid on the residence of a defense ministry official suspected of passing secrets to the US, just one week after the arrest of a German intelligence officer who worked as a double agent.

Officials from the Federal Prosecutor's Office said Wednesday that residential and office premises of the staff of the Federal Ministry of Defense in Berlin were searched on “initial suspicion of activity for an intelligence agency.”

According to the German newspaper Die Welt, a soldier of the Bundeswehr is suspected of committing espionage. The individual was said to have made “intensive contacts” with alleged US intelligence officials and was under the surveillance of the Military Intelligence (MAD) some time ago.

"When sufficient evidence existed, the case was handed over to the federal prosecutor," security sources told the paper.

The news comes just one week after a 31-year-old German intelligence official was arrested on suspicion of spying for a “foreign power” since 2012. German media reported the double agent, who has not been identified, worked on behalf of the CIA..

Meanwhile, the United States has not denied allegations that the German intelligence officer arrested earlier was passing secret files to the US National Security Agency (NSA).

U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Reuters)



German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke on Monday following the initial spy investigations, declaring,"It would be a clear contradiction of what I consider to be trusting co-operation" with the United States.

Americans admit to recruiting German spy

Relations between Berlin and Washington, representatives of NATO’s two largest members, were already strained after NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden last year released documents showing that the NSA was conducting wide-scale surveillance on German citizens’ communications – up to and including Chancellor Angela Merkel's personal cellphone.

US Ambassador to Germany John B. Emerson was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Friday following news of the first case. A German official who spoke on condition of anonymity told AP that Emerson was at the ministry again on Wednesday, although the reason for the latest meeting was not publicly announced.

'Second CIA spy in Germany': Berlin raids Ministry of Defense — RT News

 

[Owl of Abott]

america,s treats it,s european vassals in the same way as it treats it,s non-european vassals.it is a myth that EU and USA are the best of friends.

 

[senheiser]

america,s treats it,s european vassals in the same way as it treats it,s non-european vassals.it is a myth that EU and USA are the best of friends.

they seem also have no fear to sanction european banks unlike russias so far. They think it okay to beat serfs because they dont hit back

 

[senheiser]

 

[Owl of Abott]

they seem also have no fear to sanction european banks unlike russias so far. They think it okay to beat serfs because they dont hit back

not to mention the french bank they sanctioned because of doing business with iran.

 

[Schutz]

What big country doesent have spies?

 

[F-22Raptor]

What big country doesent have spies?

No kidding...we already know the French, and Germans(on a lighter scale) conduct espionage operations against the US. The fact is the majority of European intelligence agencies work with their US counterparts. Even a politically "neutral" country in Sweden was revealed to be spying on Russia and sharing that information with US agencies.

 

[GDan]

I figure Americans should be angry about this, too. After all, wouldn't they want their tax money to be spent on spies that aren't so careless as to be caught?

 

[ZYXW]

LMFAO Obama's face!!! haha

 

[Saifullah Sani]

Germany probing second case of alleged US spying

The second case within days of alleged US spying in Germany on Wednesday threatened to further strain transatlantic ties already frayed by the NSA surveillance scandal.

German authorities said police had searched the Berlin-area home and office of a man who, local media reported, is a German military employee accused of passing secrets to the United States.

The case follows Friday's news that a 31-year-old German BND intelligence service operative had been arrested, suspected of having sold over 200 documents to the CIA.

The documents reportedly included papers on a German parliamentary panel probing the activities of the US National Security Agency (NSA), whose targets have included the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel's government has refused to comment on the specifics of the two cases while investigations continue, but has made clear its anger and sense of betrayal to its decades-old strategic ally the US.

"Espionage is a very serious accusation," said Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert, while also highlighting the "profound disagreement" between Berlin and Washington on the balance between civil rights and security.

Officials involved in the latest case consider it "more serious" than that of the alleged BND mole, according to a report by the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and two public broadcasters.

The federal prosecutors office confirmed only that "police officers have since this morning searched the residential and office premises of an accused in the Berlin area due to preliminary suspicion of intelligence activities".

The defence ministry said that an internal "investigation is ongoing".

'Oil on the fire'

Merkel's intelligence services coordinator late on Tuesday spoke by phone with CIA chief John Brennan, the chancellor confirmed, and a senior foreign ministry official on Wednesday met for a second time in five days with US ambassador John B Emerson.

While both sides stressed that the US envoy had initiated the latest meeting, the foreign ministry said it had "made vividly clear how important it is in our view that the US government actively and constructively participates in clearing up the accusations".

A foreign ministry spokesman also said that the distraction of the spying accusations came at a time when "the international community faces a whole series of problems", from the Ukraine crisis to Iran nuclear talks and the Mideast conflict.

Merkel said early this week that the BND double agent case, if true, would be "a clear contradiction as to what I consider to be trusting cooperation between agencies and partners".

And foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told a newspaper that "it would be most disturbing if the spying merrily continued while we're looking at the NSA wiretapping activities and have set up a committee in parliament".

Politicians across party lines have voiced similar sentiments, while a Greens opposition lawmaker reiterated a call for Germany to grant safe haven to Snowden, who has been in hiding in Russia.

Emerson acknowledged in a speech on Tuesday that "we must acknowledge that the German-American relationship is now undergoing a difficult challenge".

News of the alleged BND mole has "poured more oil on to public fires... already burning over the revelations by Edward Snowden about US surveillance in Germany", wrote Jackson Janes of the American Institute of Contemporary German Studies.

He noted that in the German public discussion "references to the experience of the Nazis as well as the East German secret police are pervasive".

He said the US had since the 9/11 attacks reactivated and expanded its Cold War-era "surveillance infrastructures" in Germany, and that "those resources were also shared with the German intelligence services on many occasions".

"Right now, the ball is in the US court to respond to both allegations and concerns in Germany," Janes wrote. "While Germans cannot wish away the causes and needs for tools for intelligence, the United States cannot ignore the outrage and resentment currently pulsing through the German public."

- See more at: Germany probing second case of alleged US spying - Hindustan Times

 

[pakdefender]

its interesting to note that whenever a spy gets busted , people turn around and say oh well what's the big deal such things happen and interestingly the same people are are fore front of 'you you making conspiracy theory you' when it is pointed out that hidden elements from US are involved in subversive activity around the globe , especially true in Pakistan's case

 

[Schutz]

its interesting to note that whenever a spy gets busted , people turn around and say oh well what's the big deal such things happen and interestingly the same people are are fore front of 'you you making conspiracy theory you' when it is pointed out that hidden elements from US are involved in subversive activity around the globe , especially true in Pakistan's case

I agree with you but in this fucked up world why trust anyone, even your closest neighbours because lets face it historically every country has hated everyone else at some point, trust is the issue here.

 

[kadamba-warrior]

Germany probing second case of alleged US spying

A foreign ministry spokesman also said that the distraction of the spying accusations came at a time when "the international community faces a whole series of problems", from the Ukraine crisis to Iran nuclear talks and the Mideast conflict.

This is exactly I had said when they were found spying on a hapless Indian Political Party, BJP. It is not as if BJP were suspected of harboring the use of WMD's!

But in the process, NSA is losing sight of far more important events unfolding elsewhere. Can't help but get a sense of misplaced priorities on NSA's part!

 

[Oldman1]

The only reason the intelligence officer got caught because he was also going to the Russians besides working for the U.S.. Ironic ain't it?

 

[MarkusS]

The only reason the intelligence officer got caught because he was also going to the Russians besides working for the U.S.. Ironic ain't it?

Its not ironic. It is because germany trusted USA and did not check them. Only as he contacted russia he got busted. This changes now.