Is the German chancellor an agent of Russia?

By Cliff Kincaid

In the wake of the shoot-down of the Malaysian Airlines plane over Ukraine, various pundits continue to say it is unlikely that Europe will do much about it. But why? It is just a lack of will? Or something else?

The evidence is being ignored by most of the media, but it continues to indicate that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is an agent, or at least a stooge, of Russia's Vladimir Putin.

In an extraordinary development, the office of the President of Russia reports that Putin said on Wednesday that the German Chancellor is "a reputable European leader under whose leadership Germany has made great progress in the social, economic and political spheres."

The message noted "the high level of cooperation that Russia and Germany have reached," and reported that Putin told Merkel "that the further development of bilateral ties regardless of the political situation serves the interests of both nations."

The comments were included in the context of greetings on Merkel's 60th birthday.

The Kyiv Post reports that the people of Ukraine, who are involved in that "political situation" alluded to by Putin, are not amused.

Kyiv Post website editor Oksana Torhan reports that "tens of thousands of Ukrainians and their supporters worldwide began taunting Merkel immediately after photographs of her laughing with Putin [during the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro on July 13] were made public."

Some comments or posts depicted Putin and Merkel kissing.

Despite the close relationship, David Wise, a writer for Reuters, the worldwide news service, said recently that it is "mind-boggling" that the National Security Agency had wiretapped Merkel's cell phone and that the CIA is monitoring the German government.

At the same time, he admitted that German industry "has strong ties to both Russia and Iran" and this fact "may offer a clue."

Later in the piece, Wise gets to the heart of the matter in a strange way, saying, "Germans are particularly sensitive to surveillance and spying, given the legacy of the Nazi Gestapo and, more recently, the years of domestic surveillance by the Stasi spy service in Communist East Germany – where Merkel grew up."

Yes, Merkel grew up in East Germany. But Wise neglects to mention that she was a propagandist for a communist youth group, a fact that alarms those who think she has been a loyal U.S. ally while catering to Russia.

He said some of this spying on Germany "would have been justified during the Cold War if, for example, it uncovered information about the Soviet nuclear arsenal – knowledge that in a war could conceivably save the lives of millions of Americans. But the Cold War is long over."

This is almost laughable. Isn't Putin a former KGB spy? And hasn't Putin been on a tour of Latin America, solidifying his relations with such figures as the Castro brothers in Cuba?

Amy Davidson of The New Yorker wrote that Merkel's own life in East Germany "gives her some perspective on spying," as if she had some hostility toward the East German spy agency or the East German regime. The German book The First Life of Angela M suggests the opposite, noting she was a propagandist for an East Germany youth group, but concealed that part of her background during her rise to political power.

Eli Lake of The Daily Beast had a much better analysis, noting that "the CIA has sent agents into Germany without Berlin's knowledge – in part, out of concerns that the German security state was penetrated by its Russian neighbors."

Later, he notes, "Vladimir Putin famously ran agents for the KGB from 1985 to 1990 out of Dresden, which was then in communist East Germany."

But even Lake failed to note the blockbuster book, The First Life of Angela M, about Merkel's work in the communist youth group.

So how high do the moles go in Germany? This is the big question that remains off-limits for most reporters.

The London Daily Telegraph noted the charge against Merkel, while reporting her cover story that she was a "cultural official" with the communist youth movement and not a propagandist. Then, curiously, she was quoted as saying other facts may emerge about her past "because no one has ever asked me about them."

More damaging information about Germany's help for Russia under Merkel continues to emerge.

In our column "The Return of Armand Hammer," we noted a Washington Post story had reported evidence that European countries were selling arms to Russia while sounding tough about its invasion of Ukraine. One of the allegations was that the Germans had built Russia a high-tech military training facility.

It turns out that Josh Rogin, senior correspondent for national security and politics for The Daily Beast, had gone into detail about this, noting that while the German facility in Russia wasn't officially scheduled to be completed until later this year, "U.S. officials believe that Germany has been training Russian forces for years." His story was headlined, "Germany Helped Prep Russia for War, U.S. Sources Say."

He added, "Western and NATO countries believed they could tie Russia into greater military cooperation through engagement, but now have realized that Russia was probably never really interested in that."

This confirms the point made by Air Force General Philip M. Breedlove, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe and commander of the U.S. European Command, who recently told a Pentagon news conference, "For the last 12 to 14 years, we've been looking at Russia as a partner. We've been making decisions about force structure, basing investments, et cetera, et cetera, looking to Russia as a partner."

The truth is that Russia deceived the U.S., and Germany was in on the deception. The real partners are Russia and Germany.

© Cliff Kincaid