美国间谍活动再一次惹火德国

    德国官员周一就美国在德国从事间谍活动的最新指控表现出的反应给人以不祥之感。他们表示，这起事件可能将导致德美关系再无可能回归“一切如常”的轨道。

    上周末，一位供职于德国联邦情报局(BND)的雇员因为涉嫌向美国中央情报局(CIA)传递情报以获取现金报酬而被捕。消息一经披露，德国上下一片哗然，群情激奋。

    相关报道援引政治和外交消息源称，这位雇员是从一个议会委员会向中情局传递情报的，而德国去年成立这个委员会正是为了审查美国国家安全局(NSA)前分析师爱德华•斯诺登曝光的美国间谍活动。

    据德国《图片报》(Bild-Zeitung)报道，就在这名男子试图向俄罗斯出售情报那一刻，他被执法官员一举捕获。但他在被捕后承认，“我一直在向美国人出卖情报，已经两年了！”

    斯诺登此前披露称，美国曾经窃听德国总理默克尔的手机。这些指控引发的怒火从未真正平息过。

    目前正在中国进行国事访问的默克尔在一个记者招待会上表示，如果得到证实，这些“严重”指控“显然跟我所认为的两国机构的互信合作关系背道而驰。”

    路透社(Reuters)报道称，德国外交部长弗兰克-瓦尔特•施泰因迈尔也发表了自己的看法。他说，如果证实美国情报机构参与了这起事件，“它将成为一个政治问题，我们根本无法重建正常关系。”

    低级别官员就没这么克制了，一部分联邦议院的资深议员甚至呼吁德国政府将这位BND雇员的美国联络人驱逐出境。

    《图片报》同时报道称，内政部长托马斯•德迈齐埃告知同事，他们应该做好万全准备，让自己获得“一个360度的视角”，对美英法等德国西方盟友进行反刺探。

    内政部没有立即回应记者的置评请求，但任何此类动作都将成为德国战后政策一道颇具戏剧性的分水岭。德意志联邦共和国一直对纳粹时期的盖世太保和东德秘密警察的猖獗活动十分敏感，一直假装自己没必要从事间谍活动——特别是，如果德国搞这一套，外界对德国在大西洋联盟中的支柱作用产生怀疑。

    默克尔去年曾试图与美国签署“互不刺探”协定，但遭到华盛顿拒绝。

    斯诺登曝光的间谍活动已经鼓励一些德国官员阻止欧盟和美国签订新的自由贸易协定——跨大西洋贸易与投资伙伴协议(Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership，简称TTIP)。美国互联网和数字巨头将是这些贸易谈判的最大受益者之一。

    社会民主党（默克尔执政联盟伙伴）副党魁拉尔夫•斯特格纳对德国《商报》(Handelsblatt)说：“自由贸易和间谍活动不可调和。”（财富中文网）

    译者：叶寒

    German officials reacted ominously Monday to the latest allegations of U.S. spying, saying that the affair threatened to make a return to ‘business as usual’ impossible.

    The air over Germany has been thick with moral outrage over the weekend after revelations that an employee of Germany’s secret service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst or BND, had been arrested on suspicion of passing information to the CIA in return for cash payments.

    Reports citing political and diplomatic sources said the employee had passed information to the CIA from the very parliamentary committee that Germany set up last year to look into allegations made by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden.

    According to the newspaper Bild-Zeitung, officials swooped when the man tried to sell information to Russia. But as they made the arrest, he admitted “I’ve been selling to the Americans for two years already!”

    The furore over Snowden’s disclosures–including accusations that the U.S. had tapped the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel–has never really died down.

    Currently on an official visit to China, Merkel told a press conference that, if confirmed, the “serious” allegations “would be for me a clear contradiction of what I consider to be trusting cooperation between agencies and partners.”

    Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also weighed in, saying that if it’s confirmed that U.S. services are involved, “it will become a political issue and we can’t just get back to business as usual,” Reuters reported.

    Lower-ranking officials have been less restrained, with senior Bundestag members calling for the expulsion of the BND agent’s U.S. handlers from Germany.

    The newspaper Bild-Zeitung, meanwhile, reported Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere as telling colleagues that they should be prepared to get themselves “a 360-degree view” by spying back on Germany’s western allies such as U.S., U.K. and France.

    The Interior Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, but any such step would represent a dramatic watershed in post-war German policy. Acutely conscious of the excesses of the Nazi-era Gestapo and the communist East German Stasi, spying is something the Federal Republic would still rather pretend it didn’t have to do–especially if by doing so it casts doubt on its anchoring in the Atlantic alliance.

    Attempts by Merkel to agree a mutual “no spying” arrangement with the U.S. were rejected by Washington last year.

    Snowden’s disclosures have already encouraged some in Germany to hold back in the new free trade initiative between the E.U. and the U.S., known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP. U.S. internet and digital giants are set to be among the biggest beneficiaries of those talks.

    “Free trade and spying don’t mix,” said Ralf Stegner, a deputy head of the Social Democratic Party (Merkel’s coalition partners), told the newspaper Handelsblatt.