CIA Didn't Bother Informing Obama About Blown Cover Of German Double Agent Before His Call With Merkel

from the finding-out-from-the-papers-again dept

We've pointed out before how bizarre it is that President Obama seems to gleefully admit that he's almost totally in the dark about what the intelligence community is doing. Last year, he admitted that he keeps finding out what the NSA is doing from the press reports on the Snowden documents and then he goes to ask what the NSA has been up to. It appears this "keep him in the dark" status is reaching new and ridiculous heights. As you probably heard, over the weekend the Germans arrested an employee of the German BND, who had apparently been spying for the Americans (via the CIA), and who had been tasked with keeping tabs on the German investigation into the Snowden leaks. This morning, there are reports about a second spy as well. Reports suggest that the first guy was a bit of a bumbling buffoon who was caught because he sent via email classified documents to the Russians, offering to spy for them as well (leading to an investigation that turned up his existing spying activities for the CIA), but it's still a diplomatic black eye for the US.

However, the craziest bit about this is that no one bothered to inform the President that the cover of a CIA plant had been blown in Germany -- even though President Obama was scheduled to talk to Angela Merkel a day after the arrest. While that call went off without a hitch, and the spy wasn't brought up, the fact that President Obama was apparently unaware of the situation, once again, raises serious questions about the rogue nature of the intelligence community. No one expects the President to know specifically about CIA plants, but once one is blown -- especially concerning a big ally where previous revelations already made a bit of a diplomatic mess -- you'd think that someone inside the intelligence community would think to brief the President.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: angela merkel, barak cobama, bnd, cia, ed snownde, germany, nsa, surveillance


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:10pm

    So much for information sharing. Oh well, I guess the Commander and Chief of the United States doesn't need to be kept apprized of the current situation. He'd only need to be kept apprized if he was actually the one calling the shots.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:36pm

      Re:

      He could be calling the shots... if he had a damn spine.

      I guess the dems love their weak simpleton leaders!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        That One Guy (profile), 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:47pm

        Re: Re:

        I guess the dems love their weak simpleton leaders!

        G.W. Bush anyone? It's not just one party that loves a charismatic but stupid(willful or not) figurehead, they both do.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 10 Jul 2014 @ 3:17pm

          Re: Re: Re:

          What a puppet indeed. That deer in the highway look in that Florida classroom on that forsaken day...will never be forgotten.

          Clinton had balls, but he moved the Democratic party to the right completing the absolutely-no-difference between the 2 parties an axiom.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:36pm

      Re:

      That position is subordinate to the cabal, don't you know.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Manok, 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:15pm

    Pfff, the fact that Merkel didn't dare to bring it up shows already why Obama doesn't need to be up to speed. And if only he had a nice ranch like Bush, he wouldn't need to come to the office so much.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      David, 9 Jul 2014 @ 1:07pm

      Re:

      Well, read this article if you can understand German.

      In a nutshell, the German government has decided to extend the duration of their resentment from three to five days. A five-day period of resentment is considered the strongest diplomatic retaliation that Germany can bestow on the U.S.

      Something like that.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 10 Jul 2014 @ 9:39am

        Re: Re:

        You know, that "Der Postillon" is satire, right? Something like "The Onion". If you understand German, that should become clear from all the other articles on that page. And if you don't get it, it's mentioned in the FAQ.

        Apart from that, it's really horrible to see how the German government kowtows before the USA. Instead of strongly condemning the actions, evicting all intelligence officers with a diplomatic pass and stopping certain negotiations and other programs (SWIFT data transfer, TTIP, etc.), the actual action taken strongly resembles that the satire news magazine "Der Postillon" describes.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:16pm

    It's called plausible deniability for a reason people

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:28pm

      Re:

      its not plausible if the person in question is willfully ignorant.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:36pm

        Re: Re:

        Correct, this would be considered 'criminal negligence' in an actual court of law!

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Michael, 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:16pm

    That's where you have to give Bill Clinton credit. He was the first to know when anything was blown.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    MM_Dandy (profile), 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:31pm

    I see nothing!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:36pm

    Another Bit of Solid Evidence that Obama is a Muppet

    The only remaining question is whose?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That One Guy (profile), 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:44pm

    No need

    He didn't get informed about it because he didn't need to be. Germany has already shown that they're just fine dancing to the USG's tune, and will not do anything that would annoy/anger the USG too much, so of course having a spy or two outed like this wouldn't be discussed or even brought up, making briefing him on it beforehand a waste of time.

    As to the 'bizarre' bit about how he only learns about what the NSA is doing from the press... yeah, nothing 'bizarre' about that, it's called 'willful ignorance', or 'plausible deniability'. He doesn't know what they're doing because he doesn't want to know.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 1:07pm

      Re: No need

      I would consider plausible deniability criminal negiligence in several cases regardless. Plausible deniability is exactly created to avoid putting the president in the same situation as Richard Nixon when Watergate broke.

      It is to a large extend either criminal negligence from the president or the agencies when plausible deniability is used in this context. As important core functions of a government, a president has as much of a duty to keep informed and act if the government bureaucracys actions seem inappropriate as passing laws. That duty cannot be fulfilled when plausible deniability is used.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 1:16pm

        Re: Re: No need

        Ten dollars says that the US ambassador to Germany also found out about it from the Germans (and not from the spy's handler who probably works in the embassy).

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Padpaw (profile), 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:47pm

    of course we should believe the president known far and wide for lying every time he opens his mouth.

    From sergeant Schultz to President Obama, I know nothing, I see nothing.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ag4nkSh7Q

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Stuart (profile), 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:50pm

    Nahh

    He has the word out. No one is allowed to let him know about anything he might want to lie about.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:52pm

    Oh please! People are behaving as if Obama is the most powerful or important person in the U.S.
    He's just the most powerful puppet and can't know anything important, unless his masters tell him to.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    DannyB (profile), 9 Jul 2014 @ 12:56pm

    This seems like very poor management

    Good managers make sure their underlings have the information needed to do their job properly.

    In this case, it seems like the intelligence community is not giving proper oversight to the president. The intelligence community seem to be poor managers of the elected officials. Both of the president and the senate intelligence committee.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 1:36pm

      Re: This seems like very poor management

      "Well, you see Mr. President, we have so much intel, we sometimes have a hard time to know which bits to give you." said the National Security Adviser when asked.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Jake, 9 Jul 2014 @ 3:25pm

        Re: Re: This seems like very poor management

        And you can just bet that if he told them to give him all of it, he'd get his wish and regret it. This was the plot of an episode of Yes, Minister, I believe.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 1:21pm

    Maybe they are really that dumb.
    They love to call themselves the "intelligence community" but apperantly they are completly retarded

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 10 Jul 2014 @ 3:23pm

      Re:

      Even Dave Mustaine (who's by his own admission is not very smart) wrote that military intelligence are 2 words that together don't make sense.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Jul 2014 @ 1:55pm

    It's becoming increasingly clear that Obama is just an NSA/CIA puppet.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    JOY, 9 Jul 2014 @ 8:14pm

    Odd that no one seems curious about WHO??

    Made the decision to not to inform the COMMANDER IN CHIEF?? It reminds me of the chilling message President Eisenhower left:
    https://archive.org/details/DwightD.Eisenhower-FarewellAddressmilitary-industrialComplexSpeech

    L inks to parts 2 & 3 below part 1

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 10 Jul 2014 @ 4:36am

    That's the way their existence is. (our glorious leaders)

    They can't think for themselves and are always doing what they are told to do. They only get information when it is given to them and they don't have time to validate anything. It's the nature of how they exist, too busy doing stuff and making sure they don't do/say something stupid while having to say this and that.

    Obama, like almost all other leaders is a machine that is always on. No time to think... be here for breakfast, there for meeting, then here for a lunch, go there for another meeting, then here for a press statement, go there for dinner etc...

    It's why they age so much. They don't even get a lunch break and even going out to dinner is a job that requires hours of saying this and not saying that.

    Until that is fixed... stories like the "ill informed" leader will always be occurring.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    GEMont (profile), 11 Jul 2014 @ 1:50pm

    Its just a job... but the pay is awesome!

    "...you'd think that someone inside the intelligence community would think to brief the President."

    You'd think that if you still believed the President was anything more than a hired gun for Wall Street Billionaires.

    On the other hand, if you realized that Obama was just an employee of the men running the USA these days, you would understand that what Obama knows is exactly what he needs to know when he's about to lay down another lie on the US Public.

    He already had his German meeting script memorized, so there was no need to confuse the con with stuff that was immaterial to that meeting.

    Now that he might need to spin some BS to the public about this "bumbling minion", he will be briefed and handed his new script by the same folks who wrote his German meeting script.

    I can barely wait to hear this one. :)

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.