The CIA has undertaken an unprecedentedly long stand-down on friendly Western European allies following the recent furor in the aftermath of an exposed German agent and accumulated impacts from the Snowden revelations in order to re-examine its strategy, according to current and former US officials, which if true would prove an unfortunate timing for the United States given its concerns about Europe’s response to Russian aggression and monitoring of European extremists in Syria.
The so-called pause means CIA officers based in Europe have to withdraw covert clandestine meetings to gather intelligence from their well-placed sources, or roping in new recruits for that matter, though they are not barred from meeting their counterparts in the host country and conduct joint operations with host country services, according to the Associated Press.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper reportedly said Thursday that the US is assuming more risks given its pullback from spying on “specific targets”.
The stand-down was part of the fallout from the July 2 arrest of a 31-year old employee of the German intelligence service who later confessed he worked for the CIA. The CIA station chief in Berlin was (unprecedentedly) forced out of Germany a few days later, which underscored the German stance on the US who have already been stung from earlier Snowden revelations that the NSA had been tapping on the mobile phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
While such halts are common after an operation was compromised they were “never this long or this deep”, which has been in effect for about 2 months now.
Now the question is, would a NSA stand-down follow? Bet not and probably never.
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