GERMANY: Is Merkel a CIA Asset?

Is Merkel a CIA Asset? 17:54 30.04.2015 (updated 18:22 30.04.2015) Finian Cunningham The claims that Merkel’s government knew about German state intelligence spying on behalf of the Americans against the country's own industrial interests raise disturbing questions about the integrity of German government leaders. The apparent betrayal of German national interests by Chancellor Angela Merkel is not only evident over the recent industrial spying scandal on behalf of America. The slavish pursuit by Merkel of Washington's anti-Russian policy over Ukraine — in contradistinction to her country's national interests — also cogently suggests that the chancellor is serving a foreign master. Recent reports that German state intelligence was spying on behalf of the Americans against the country's own industrial interests are bad enough. But then added to that are claims that the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel knew about the espionage — and turned a blind eye. This raises disturbing questions about the integrity of German government leaders, and primarily Angela Merkel. Is Merkel an asset for American intelligence, serving the geopolitical interests of Washington rather than the good of her own nation, or the wider good of Europe? The news story in question refers to reports in the German media last week of how Germany's Federal Intelligence (BND) collaborated with the US National Security Agency (NSA) in spying on multinational European defence companies, including EADS and Eurocopter. The specific eavesdropping on these firms — in which Germany has major national economic interests — reportedly dates back to 2008. It is inconceivable that the highest levels of German government, including Chancellor Merkel — did not know about the industrial espionage. Yet Merkel appears to have countenanced the illegal activity, even though such activity would have vitiated German national interests, affording advantage to American competitors. First of all, the idea that German state intelligence is thoroughly penetrated by American secret agencies is not an outlandish theory. Far from it. The functioning of the BND as part of the American intelligence apparatus has been going on for decades, since the US oversaw the postwar rehabilitation of defeated Nazi Germany. The Americans and the British wove German intelligence — much of it inherited from the Nazi war machine — into their European-wide operations. German historian Josef Foschepoth and expert on postwar allied intelligence operations says that the West German government signed a secret pact with Washington and London, in 1968, known as the NATO Status of Forces Agreement. That pact mandates "intensive collaboration" and continues to this day — more than two decades since the reunification of Germany. In essence, the American secret services like the NSA and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), have a free hand to carry out massive surveillance in Germany against whomever they want, whether private citizens or industrial companies. And all with the help of German state intelligence and the federal government. The tip of this iceberg in espionage and snooping was further revealed with the disclosures in 2013 by former American NSA operative Edward Snowden. Among the trove of revelations made by Snowden was the finding that American intelligence had been tapping the personal communications of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The eavesdropping dated back to 2002 — three years before the leader of the Christian Democrat Union first became chancellor. The telling thing is how puny and pusillanimous was the reaction from the German authorities to this disclosure of illicit spying by Washington. Apart from an initial bout of handwringing by Merkel and other Berlin figures, the whole scandal was quickly swept under the carpet as if it never happened. That suggests that the German government was already well aware of its compromised, subservient relation to Washington, as manifested by intrusive access to communications at the highest level. As noted above such a master-servant relationship between the US and Germany was a fundamental tenet of the postwar American reconstitution of that country, and the predominant role devolved to NATO by Washington over European security affairs. The German government was apprised of, indeed was a willing party to, its subservient role to American intelligence and the free hand given to the latter. So, when the rest of the world learnt of American government spying on Merkel back in 2013 from the Edward Snowden's leaks, perhaps the least surprised person would have been Merkel and her administration. Hence the meek response from Berlin towards Washington and, to any objective observer, its shockingly invasive conduct against German "allies". Further explosive testimony on the systematic penetration of American intelligence of German institutions came in recent months from former senior newspaper editor, Udo Ulfkotte. In several media interviews and in a best-selling book, Ulfkotte tells how German journalists and politicians are routinely recruited as CIA assets to spin stories or promulgate policies that are aimed at serving the geopolitical interests of Washington, not the interests of the German people. The former editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung — one of Germany's best-known newspapers — confessed that he was one of the CIA's assets for many years, publishing stories that he knew to be false and which were damaging to international relations, and in particular antagonistic towards Russia. [  .  .  .  ] EXTRACT ONLY - FULL AT SOURCE - here COMMENT pusillanimous = timid Lengthy article.  Rest of it is at link provided. Thought this was cool.  Haven't caught up with the German industrial spying scandal.  Must have been too lazy to check links. Germany, Nazis and CIA / USA links go all the way back to the Gehlen Organisation - established 1946 by the US occupational forces.  So, basically, German intelligence is an offshoot of Nazi intelligence under the control of the CIA/USA 'Daddy'. "The American secret service works closely with the BND. The BND founder's Nazi background did not disturb the CIA. Reinhard Gehlen, a high-ranking intelligence officer in Hitler's Wehrmacht, brought extensive files about the Russian military with him.  The BND has recently been attracting more public attention than ever before, not because of its anniversary but because of revelations that its agents in Iraq have been working with American intelligence. Such collaboration has caused a huge stir in Ger­many's parliament, the Bundestag, where opposition to America's war in Iraq remains strong.  Close working relations between German and American spy services are anything but new. Cooperation began as far back as 1946, before the Federal Republic even existed. Indeed, it constituted the first institutional relationship between the two countries after World War II." "As Richard Helms, former head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who was in the early postwar period responsible for Central and Eastern Europe, makes clear in his memoirs, Gehlen's deal with first the U.S. Army and later the CIA did not foresee his spy organization working for the Americans but in a joint operation with them.  At first, the army funded the organization by selling gasoline, cigarettes and other American goodies on the black market. Soon after the German currency reform in 1948, the CIA assumed funding. The CIA sponsored the Gehlen organization until April 1956, when it was taken over by the German government in Bonn, becoming the Bundesnachrichtendienst [BND]". [Source - 2006 - here]  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Iraq stands out. All this sneaky intelligence stuff keeps surprising me, but it shouldn't be surprising.  It's not really sneaky; it's just how it is.  The front end is a lie.  The back end is the truth. It doesn't matter who appears to be in government or what kind of opposition there is to anything; what appears at the front end is fake.  Those that hold the real power behind the scenes do what they want. I'd wager that's the rule rather than the exception. Don't understand why the Germans would undermine their own interests, unless there's a bigger prize for German interests ... or German interest are no longer 'German interests' because Germany is owned by foreign interests?