A Rogue By Any Other Name

Barack Obama apparently is one embarrassed, pissed-off dude. So the New York Times is again obligingly acting as the White House farm tool which spreads the manure of blame on anybody and everybody who is not Barack Obama:

When President Obama placed a call to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany last Thursday, he had a busy agenda: to consult with a close ally and to mobilize wavering Europeans to put more pressure on Russia to end its covert incursions in Ukraine.

What Mr. Obama did not know was that a day earlier, a young German intelligence operative had been arrested and had admitted that he had been passing secrets to the Central Intelligence Agency

Right off the bat, we are informed what a busy, busy important man our president is. Too busy to know all the minutiae of what his rogue agencies are up to. Right off the bat, the Times hastens to unquestioningly repeat the State Department line that Russia is covertly operating in Ukraine, as though the US is not also covertly operating in Ukraine.

The details of this spying case remain murky. Intelligence officials have declined to comment, and it is still not clear what the German operative has told the authorities.

But the episode sheds light on the tensions that arise from the colliding cultures of spycraft and statecraft — one driven by the need to vacuum as much secret material as possible; the other giving primacy to diplomatic objectives.

 While Ms. Merkel chose not to raise the issue during the call, the fact that the president was kept in the dark about the blown spying operation at a particularly delicate moment in American relations with Germany has led frustrated White House officials to question who in the C.I.A.’s chain of command was aware of the case — and why that information did not make it to the Oval Office before the call.

When unquestioningly spreading manure, make sure the newspaper uses such words as "dark" and "murky" to absolve the busy, frustrated CEO from responsibility.

But let's be truthful. When spycraft and statecraft collide, the result is manurecraft damage control. The artisan acrobat-in-chief can't be left flailing without the safety net perk he assumes he's entitled to. 

So the story will be that Barack Obama, the star attraction tightrope walker at the circus, had the lights turned off on him right in the middle of his act by operators he thought he could trust! He was thwarted in his own vaunted balanced approach of schmoozing with heads of state while simultaneously stalking them. Somebody had spilled the beans to the lady he was trying to woo and here he was, pretending to be the attentive lover. She just let him go on and on and on, letting him damn himself with every dulcet word. It made him look like such an asshole that he (or a flack) ran to the National Enquirer Times to plant his own feeble side of the story.

  Meanwhile, as CIA Chief John Brennan finds himself cast in the rare role of pretend-scapegoat, there is some mansplaining to do. Why didn't he warn his acolyte boss that Angela had caught yet another surrogate stalker in the act but still cruelly allowed Obama to act like his usual cloying self? Was Brennan too busy busy busy redacting the CIA report on torture and letting his own lady friend (Dianne Feinstein) get a sneak peak? The sound of testosterone pouring down the Oval Office drain must have been deafening.

But on to the realest, biggest scapegoat of all:

It also reinforces the problem that surfaced a year ago in the wake of revelations about National Security Agency surveillance practices from the rogue contractor Edward J. Snowden: whether the costs of spying on close allies outweigh the gains.

The Times once again parrots the canard that everybody hates the NSA simply because of mean old gossipy Ed Snowden and the Pulitzer-winning journalism he inspired. The canoodling Times even goes out of its way to call Snowden a "rogue contractor" instead of a whistleblower. 

 Rogue (noun):

1. a dishonest or unprincipled man.

   "you are a rogue and an embezzler"

   synonyms:

   scoundrel, villain, miscreant, reprobate, rascal, good-for-nothing, ne'er-do-well, wretch; More informalrat, dog, louse, crook; datedcad; archaicblackguard, picaroon, knave "a rogue without ethics"

   • a person whose behavior one disapproves of but who is nonetheless likable or attractive (often used as a playful term of reproof).

     "Cenzo, you old rogue!"

     synonyms:

     rascal, imp, devil, monkey; More informalscamp, scalawag, monster, horror, terror, hellion "your boy's a little rogue"

2. an elephant or other large wild animal driven away or living apart from the herd and having savage or destructive tendencies.

   "a rogue elephant" 

  (The Tightrope Walker-in-Chief doth protest too much, methinks. Also, there's that pesky cliched pot and kettle problem.)

At the White House, senior officials have expressed concern that the latest allegations could set back relations with Germany just as Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel are struggling to move past the distrust generated by the Snowden disclosures, including the revelation that the N.S.A. had tapped Ms. Merkel’s cellphone.

What is particularly baffling to these officials is that the C.I.A. did not inform the White House that its agent — a 31-year-old employee of Germany’s federal intelligence service, the BND — had been compromised, given his arrest the day before the two leaders spoke. According to German news media reports, the agency may have been aware three weeks before the arrest that the German authorities were monitoring the man.

This is pathetic, not to mention grotesque. Just when poor overworked Obama was trying to inveigle his way back into Angela's good graces, another wretched renegade messes up the make-up session by outing even more chicanery. So, dare we ask, why didn't the NSA pick up on the German authorities monitoring the alleged double agent? Or did the intel get mixed up with the gazillions of emails and phone records of innocent Americans? Did all that vacuuming-up create its own ironic vacuum?

For all his concerns, Mr. Obama does not plan any extraordinary outreach to Ms. Merkel, an official said, noting that some in the administration also feel that Germany should not overreact to the case or conflate it with the privacy issues raised by the N.S.A.’s surveillance.

Some experts say the recent tensions betray a lack of attention in Washington to its relationship with Berlin. “Bush and especially Obama have treated it as a ‘solved problem’ requiring no further American involvement,” said John C. Kornblum, a former American ambassador to Germany. “Recent events have demonstrated that just the opposite is the case. Germany is still deeply conflicted about itself and about the world around it.”

He will not stoop to another apology. He'll let Angela, like all NSA victims both at home and abroad, read his passive-aggressive excuses in the Times and then let her stew in her own betrayed juices. Like any abuser worth his salt, he will profess concern while casting doubt on the mental health of his angry victim ("overreacting" and "still deeply conflicted about itself".)

And like any abuser worth his salt, the likable attractive Obama will anonymously brag (via his Times stenographers)  about what a caring, romantic guy he is --  again blaming everyone but of himself and his team of dishonest unprincipled men:

For Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel, the N.S.A. disclosures poisoned what had been one of the president’s closest relationships with a foreign leader. At a Group of 8 meeting in Camp David in 2012, Mr. Obama invited Ms. Merkel to linger after the other leaders left. At a state dinner a year earlier, she was serenaded by James Taylor singing, “You’ve Got a Friend.”

Tender Murkies

Since Carly Simon's The Spy Who Loved Me is no longer such a big hit, maybe Angela can send Taylor's ex over to the next Group of 8, I mean 7, meeting to serenade Obama with You're So Vain.