On Monday's PBS News Hour several people were being interviewed by Gwen Ifill concerning the recent revelations of spying on Angela Merkel' cell phone. What interested me was the comment of John McLaughlin, former Director of the CIA.
From the manuscript:
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN: And countries, they do this. So we don't know precisely what the NSA was collecting on Angela Merkel.
Let's assume that they were -- let's assume it was call lists. And let's assume that they saw that she was in touch with someone we are interested in, a leader in Iran or in Russia or somewhere. It may be the other end of her call that someone is interested in. And so it's important for us to specify here,we don't know whether the content of her calls...
So the former head of the CIA is suggesting that the head of our most important alley in Germany might be dealing with and enemy of the United States and, if so, would not share important information with the U.S. gleaned from such a conversation. So, he is arguing, we can't trust Angela Merkel and must spy on her.
The other guest, a wooly headed wuss from the foreign policy establishment, whose name is not important did not challenge McLaughlin's statements or, more importantly their implications. Neither did Gwen Ifill. There was no suggestion that the former CIA chief is a paranoid.
--Keith Shirey
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