The top US
spy in Germany has departed the country. Authorities in Berlin had requested he
leave amid a mounting controversy over American spying operations inside
Germany.
Deutsche Welle, 17 July 2014
The Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Thursday left Germany reportedly from Frankfurt
airport.
"We
are confirming that the individual who was asked to leave the country last week
is no longer in Germany," said a US embassy spokesman. The news was also
confirmed by a German foreign ministry spokesman.
Germany's
Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and DPA news agency reported the Berlin station
chief had boarded a US-bound flight at Frankfurt airport.
German
authorities had last week ordered the agent to leave the country in the midst
of a high-profile spying scandal. Federal prosecutors are currently investing
two German nationals - one working for the BND intelligence agency, the other a
defense ministry employee - who are suspected of passing on secrets to the US.
It is the
most high-profile diplomatic row between the two close NATO allies since the
2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, which Germany opposed.
Relations
between Berlin and Washington have been especially tense over the past year
amid the NSA spying scandal, which revealed the far-reaching extent to which
the US has been monitoring communications inside of Germany, including tapping
Merkel's mobile phone.
Increasing
transatlantic tensions
Merkel and
US President Barack Obama spoke by telephone on Tuesday for the first time
since Germany issued the CIA agent's expulsion order.
A White
House account of the conversation said only that the two leaders had
"exchanged views on US-German intelligence cooperation, and the President
said he'd remain in close communication on ways to improve cooperation going
forward."
Merkel's
spokesman Steffan Seibert declined to comment on what he called a
"confidential" conversation, but emphasized that Germany saw
"deep differences of opinion on the issue of the activities of the US
intelligence services."
Kerry:
still 'great friends'
In an
interview over the weekend, Merkel said the breakdown in US-Germany trust had
returned the two to the thinking of the "Cold War era where everyone is
suspicious of everyone."
However, US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted after a meeting with his German
counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier last Sunday in Vienna that the two
countries remain "great friends."
It is
unclear what, if any, contact the CIA station chief had had with the two German
nationals currently under investigation. Had he not obeyed Germany's order to
leave the country, he would have had his diplomatic accreditation stripped,
forcing him to leave.
dr/ipj (AFP, dpa, Reuters)
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