MOSCOW, July 11 (RIA Novosti) – The German Chancellery limited the cooperation of the country’s intelligence service, the BND, and the Defense Ministry with its US counterparts over the recent spy scandal, Bild reported, citing the sources in security agencies.
According to the newspaper, the Chancellery ordered intelligence services to limit their cooperation with their US partners to the bare minimum. The decision came following a spy scandal that broke out early July. Last week, the first suspect, a BND employee, was detained over alleged cooperation with US intelligence services. The second suspect, a defense ministry employee, has not been arrested.
Earlier Thursday, the German government announced that it ordered the US’ top intelligence official in Berlin to leave the country. Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, clearly stated that this move came in the context of the ongoing investigations of the general prosecutor into the activities of US intelligence services in Germany.
A 31-year-old employee of the BND was arrested last week and confessed to having leaked information about the government’s special committee investigation into US intelligence activities in Germany to the NSA. The employee allegedly sold at least 300 top-secret documents from the BND’s computer system to the United States. Last Friday, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office summoned the US ambassador to Berlin to swiftly clarify the case.
Washington did not give detailed comments on the issue, saying it “would put at risk US assets, US personnel and the United States’ national security.” White House Spokesperson Josh Earnest, however, stated that this incident does not correspond to the high level of cooperation between the two partner countries.
