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Germany investigates second possible spy as tension with the US grows

Germany investigates second possible spy as tension with the US grows

By Adrianne Jeffries

Source The New York Times

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Zoetnot (Flickr)

Germany has just begun to peel back the layers of an arguably gratuitous spying campaign by its supposed ally, the United States.

Today German police raided the Berlin-area apartment and office of a man suspected of spying for the US, the second case in less than a week. The investigation is ongoing, but German authorities are taking it "very seriously," a spokesperson told reporters.

Last week, a German intelligence officer was arrested for working as a double agent and feeding documents back to Washington. The 31-year-old intelligence officer, which The Daily Beast has dubbed "Herr Wannabe," apparently volunteered to work for the CIA. He got caught when he tried to spy for Russia as well.

All this comes, of course, after revelations that the US had been tapping German chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone since 2002.

Why does the US want to spy on Germany?

Germany tried to use this embarrassing fact to negotiate a non-spying agreement similar to the ones the US has with the UK, Canada, and other countries. However, the US has resisted out of fear that more countries will want the same thing.

It's unclear exactly what the US hopes to gain by spying on Germany, other than the sense that it's good business to just be spying on everybody all the time. The US may want to rethink that strategy, however, at a time when Europe is universally annoyed about the level of surveillance being conducted by the National Security Agency as revealed by former contractor-turned-leaker Edward Snowden. "There is nothing more sensitive than spying on a friendly country," a retired CIA employee told the Beast.

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