US-German Relations Undermined by CIA Flights

Fresh allegations about the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of US military airports in Germany to ferry detained suspected terrorists threaten to derail an attempted reconciliation between the two countries.

The reports are in advance of the arrival of Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, in Berlin tomorrow, where she will meet Angela Merkel, the new German chancellor, as part of her effort to mend a relationship damaged by her predecessor’s outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq in 2002.

A chancellery spokesman told the Financial Times on Sunday that the government, following a parliamentary query by the neo-Communist Left party, had drawn up a list of flights that might have been used by the CIA.

Reports of 437 such flights since 2002 – far more than previously reported – could not be confirmed, however, as the list, to be put to parliament on Thursday, showed only the names of private companies chartered by the agency, the spokesman said.

The latest twist in the CIA flights controversy comes at the worst possible time for Ms Merkel, who was looking forward to a swift transatlantic rapprochement.

Early last week, she had dispatched Frank-Walter Steinmeier, her new foreign minister, to Washington for talks. One day after his return, Robert Zoellick, the US deputy secretary of state, was in Berlin. Following Ms Rice’s visit, Ms Merkel is expected at the White House on January 11.

The chancellor’s bridge-mending, however, is being threatened by German public opinion, where distrust of President George W. Bush is now being fanned again by the affair and the first kidnapping of a German national in Iraq last week.

The CIA allegations also threaten Berlin with collateral damage. If the former government were found to have known that Germany was being used as transit point for captives on their way to being tortured, it might be found to have breached international law.

The spokesman said it was “likely” that the country’s intelligence services would have known of the CIA’s activities on German territory. So might Mr Steinmeier, whose previous job as chancellery chief of staff included the co-ordination of intelligence services.

And if the controversy were to escalate, Berlin could even find itself having to defend the large US military presence in the country. The Left party, in particular, has campaigned for the withdrawal of all US troops. Since the huge US military airport at Ramstein is an important asset in the war in Iraq, the party argues, that makes Germany a member of Mr Bush’s “coalition of the willing”.

If the issue had not become public, a rapid reconciliation between the two countries could have been expected. Washington sees Ms Merkel as an economic liberal, an atlanticist and an honest broker in the mould of Helmut Kohl, her mentor.

Her call to “let us dare more freedom” in her first speech to parliament last week was music to American ears. Recent exchanges have also allowed Washington to gauge Ms Merkel’s margin of manoeuvre as head of an awkward left-right “grand coalition”.

“Before the election, the Americans thought they would have Margaret Thatcher sitting in the chancellery,” says Karsten Voigt, co-ordinator for the German-US relationship in the Foreign Ministry.

Washington has drawn a blueprint for a realistic, forward-looking partnership. “The issue is not repair,” Daniel Fried, assistant secretary for European affairs, says. “The issue is what we do now to put that US-German relationship to work in common purpose.”

Gone are the hopes that Berlin could dispatch reconstruction personnel to Iraq – let alone troops. At the top of the US list is the wish that Berlin resume its mediating role in Europe, loosening its ties to Jacques Chirac’s fading reign in France, repairing bridges with Tony Blair’s Britain, and lending its ears to America’s friends in central and eastern Europe.

The US also has hopes Germany’s economy can be fixed, giving it the means for a more active, less defensive, and less mercantile foreign policy and dragging it out of self-absorption.

But without a visible effort by the US to fix its image problem, these plans may be in jeopardy, says Mr Voigt.

“As a youngster, I marched against the Vietnam war, but there was no doubt in my mind that the US was the better place to be. . . when it came to civil rights and the rule of law. This image is being altered, and the US must help us correct this.”