German politicians are calling for the dismissal of the U.S. ambassador in Berlin, after his embassy made a series of unflattering observations about German leaders in cables published by WikiLeaks.
The demands come just a day after the whistle-blowing site claimed its first political scalp with the sacking of the German foreign minister's chief aide, who was discovered to have covertly passed information on government negotiations to the U.S. Embassy.
Imago / ZumaPress.com
German politicians have demanded the dismissal of U.S. Ambassador Philip Murphy.
In a September 2009 cable, U.S. Ambassador Philip Murphy described German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle -- also the leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), the junior party in the ruling coalition -- as "arrogant," "fixated on maintaining his 'cult of personality'" and "skeptical about the U.S. and its foreign policy objectives."
Chancellor Angela Merkel was dubbed "risk averse and rarely creative" in another dispatch sent earlier that year by John Koenig, the U.S. charge d'affaires in Berlin.
Murphy's refusal to apologize for those comments today led FDP parliamentarian Hans-Michael Goldmann to call for the diplomat's removal.
"Mr. Murphy's behavior is unseemly," he told German daily Bild. "Such an ambassador should be called home."
Another FDP deputy, Bijan Djir-Sarai, supported that statement: "It is more than doubtful whether Mr. Murphy can still be a trustworthy interlocutor."
However, Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said she would continue to work with the ambassador. "The government is most certainly not calling for the ambassador to be recalled," he said, the BBC reported. "German-US ties are robust."
Some of Murphy's views on German politicians were formed through confidential briefings with an FDP insider -- "a fly on the wall, a young, up-and-coming party loyalist," he wrote in an October 2009 cable -- who sat in on last year's secret negotiations to form Merkel's new coalition government. The dispatch notes that the unnamed source was "happy to share his observations and insights" on the talks, and even turned up at the embassy with a folder full of documents used during the negotiations.
At the beginning of the week, Westerwelle dismissed claims of a mole and said the reports were false. But on Thursday the foreign minister's chief of staff Helmut Metzner was booted from his job after admitting he was the source of the U.S. intelligence.
"The staff member of the FDP's federal headquarters, who has admitted his contacts with the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, has been relieved of his duties as chief of staff for the FDP chairman by mutual agreement," party spokesman Wulf Oehme said in a brief statement, reported Deutsche Welle.
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