CIA halts spying in Europe

[+OverSword]

From the article:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The CIA has curbed spying on friendly governments in Western Europe in response to the furor over a German caught selling secrets to the United States and the Edward Snowden revelations of classified information held by the National Security Agency, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The pause in decades of espionage, which remains partially in effect, was designed to give CIA officers time to examine whether they were being careful enough and to evaluate whether spying on allies is worth running the risk of discovery, said a U.S. official who has been briefed on the situation.

Under the stand-down order, case officers in Europe largely have been forbidden from undertaking "unilateral operations" such as meeting with sources they have recruited within allied governments. Such clandestine meetings are the bedrock of spying.

CIA officers are still allowed to meet with their counterparts in the host country's intelligence service, conduct joint operations with host country services and conduct operations with the approval of the host government. Recently, unilateral operations targeting third country nationals — Russians in France, for example —were restarted. But most meetings with sources who are host nationals remain on hold, as do new recruitments.

The CIA declined to comment.

James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said during a public event Thursday that the U.S. is assuming more risk because it has stopped spying on "specific targets," though he didn't spell out details.

Spying stand-downs are common after an operation is compromised, but "never this long or this deep," said a former CIA official, who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity because it's illegal to discuss classified material or activities. The pause, which has been in effect for about two months, was ordered by senior CIA officials through secret cables.

The current stand-down was part of the fallout from the July 2 arrest of a 31-year-old employee of the German intelligence service. Suspected of spying for Russia, he told authorities he passed 218 German intelligence documents to the CIA.

In a second case, authorities searched the home and office of a German defense official suspected of spying for the U.S., but he denied doing so, and no charges have been filed against him.

A few days later, Germany asked the CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country, an unprecedented demand from a U.S. ally. The move demonstrated how seriously the Germans were taking the situation, having already been stung by revelations made by Snowden, a former NSA systems administrator, that the agency had tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

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[quiXilver]

um... yea... sure... we've stopped spying on you...

trust us.

[Babe Ruth]

With Brennan, Clapper and numerous others lying through their teeth to Congress, how can an intelligent person believe this nonsense? They are telling us what we want to believe.

If they would repeal the Patriot Act and restore Habeas Corpus, that would mean something. This story is but lip service.

[FLOMBIE]

Maybe the CIA stopped spying - and one of the other 279 US intelligence agencies took over the job.

[dr no]

Does anybody believe a word of this?

[RavenHawk]

Does anybody believe a word of this?

If you know how to read it - yes. This is deception at many levels.

[Jeremiah65]

Well...that makes me feel so much better for our Euro brothers and sisters...

But my instinct says...

.....riiight...

because I think if you actually believe that...well...